عوامل کلیدی رضایت مشتری در فروشگاه های مواد غذایی اسپانیا : مدارک و شواهد از هایپرمارکت ها و سوپر مارکت ها

The marketing literature has shown how certain attributes of the store are key for grocery retailers to differentiate themselves in the final markets. From this preliminary consideration the present work proposes a step forward by ascertaining the main factors that underlie the attributes of the store which have already been identified in the literature. All of this is taken into account with the object to examine which of these factors presents a greater influence on customer satisfaction. To test the proposed analysis, a sample of 358 Spanish customers that had carried out their purchase in different types of grocery stores (in particular, hypermarkets and supermarkets) has been analyzed considering a key variable of retail patronage behavior: the store format in which the purchase had been carried out. This study has enabled us to obtain interesting conclusions about the variables that have the most influence on customer satisfaction, providing useful managerial recommendations for decision-making in grocery retailing.

Nowadays grocery retailers are conscious of the importance of customer satisfaction on the success of their commercial strategies (e.g., Gómez et al., 2004 and Betancourt et al., 2007). In fact, several studies have shown the existence of a positive relation between store attribute perceptions and customer satisfaction (e.g., Bernhardt et al., 2000 and Szymanski and Henard, 2001). For this reason, the grocery retail manager has to try to know as far as possible: (1) which are the elements and factors that can indicate a difference with respect to the competitors; (2) how their clients perceive and value these elements and (3) what relationship exists between store attribute perceptions and customer satisfaction. Only like this can the grocery retailer design suitable commercial strategies that allow achieving the competitiveness and survival in the long term. The marketing literature has identified diverse attributes that contribute to differentiate the store from the rest of the competing stores. In this respect, several studies have shown a positive influence on client satisfaction from the valuation the client makes of them. However, it is not usual neither the identification of attributes nor the analysis of its influence on the achieved degree of satisfaction, considering different aspects key to retail patronage behavior. This line of investigation is of great interest to the management of retail stores considering that a large number of previous works have detected the existence of relationships between the perception of some of the variables of the establishment (i.e., store attribute perceptions) and the choice of the store (e.g., Woodside and Trappey, 1992 and Finn and Louviere, 1996; Baker et al., 2002; Grewal et al., 2003) or the choice of commercial format (Baker et al., 1994, Donovan et al., 1994, Sparks, 1995 and Arnold, 1997). Several key attributes of the establishment identified in the literature are relevant so that food retailers manage to differentiate themselves from their competitors in the final markets. With reference to this, this work aims to identify what are the underlying factors to these attributes; analyzing the relationship that exists between the perception of the consumer on the previous factors and his/her satisfaction after shopping. In Section 2, characteristic attributes of grocery stores identified in the relevant literature are revised. In Section 3, we look at data obtained from a sample of 358 customers gathered in retail grocery stores operating under the self-service regime (in particular, hypermarkets and supermarkets) in a Spanish city whose size is representative of most Spanish cities (La Caixa, 2008). Factors underlying these attributes are established – factors that are similar to those previously found in past works. This has enabled us to raise a series of hypotheses relative to the influence of these factors on customer satisfaction with the purchase experience. With the objective to test the proposed hypotheses, in Section 4 a regression analysis is carried out, which allows knowing which of the identified factors present greater influence on customer satisfaction. However, considering that numerous previous studies have identified the remarkable influence that the perception of some of these factors exerts on diverse elements that conform to the concept of retail patronage behavior; the empirical analysis has been made taking into account the format of the chosen store. In this way, aside from formulating a general model on the effects of the diverse variables on customer satisfaction (Model 1), also an alternative model has considered different sub-samples from consumers based on a key element of retail patronage such as the choice of the commercial format (Model 2). The accomplishment of this study has allowed us to obtain interesting conclusions and recommendations relative to the commercial management of this type of establishment (Section 5), mainly in relation to the factors of the store that customer's value to a greater extent, the same underlying factors and the sources of differentiation of these distributors. In the following section, a revision of the establishment's attributes will be carried out that the relevant literature contemplates as influences on consumer satisfaction.

In practice, it has been possible to observe how a good part of the competitive capacity of the grocery retailer is conditioned by its degree of knowledge on the client. Without doubt, to know and to manage adequately the existing information on the consumers is of vital importance. This enables retailers to know the elements of the establishment that are susceptible of being valued by the clients; that is to identify the underlying factors to these elements and to determine which of these display a greater degree of relationship with satisfaction. All of this is with the aim to design and implement commercial strategies that strengthen them in order to be able to differentiate from the competitors and therefore, to better satisfy the needs of the clients. With our aim of determining what the factors are that consumers value in relationship to the differentiating attributes offered by retail grocery stores, as well as their relationship to satisfaction, a descriptive investigation of conclusive character has been carried out. Precisely, key attributes have been identified previously as relevant to the establishment that the literature has identified so that grocery retailers manage to differentiate themselves in the final markets. From this identification, the present work has obtained the main factors that underlie these aspects through a factorial analysis of main components. And all this, with the object to analyze which of these factors display a greater influence on consumer satisfaction. With the aim to test the proposed analysis, one has to analyze a sample of 358 buyers that had carried out their purchase in different types of self-service grocery establishments that operate in a Spanish city whose size is representative of the majority of Spanish cities. The analysis has been carried out considering a key variable of retail patronage behavior that until now, previous studies made in this line of investigation had not considered: the store format. The results obtained have confirmed how, for the total sample of consumers, the perception of the services and the convenience of the grocery retailer along with the perception of the quality image exerts a positive and significant influence, in this order, on customer satisfaction. Furthermore, it is possible to emphasize the existence of significant differences in as far as the results obtained, based on the sub-sample of customers considered attentive to the previously mentioned retail patronage behavior variable. Thus, considering different sub-samples of buyers based on the store format in which the purchase is made (in particular, hypermarkets and supermarkets) the obtained findings have shown how the perceptions of both the quality image and the economic value offered by the grocery retailer exert solely a positive and significant influence on the purchases made in hypermarkets. On the other hand, the services and the convenience that the store offers exert a positive and significant influence on the satisfaction with the purchases made in hypermarkets and supermarkets. Without a doubt, the accomplishment of this study has enabled us to obtain interesting conclusions regarding the management of grocery establishments in the self-service regime. In the first place, it has enabled to identify which are the factors of the retail establishment that consumers value in greater measure. And it is these particular factors that facilitate professionals in the world of retail commercial distribution to have a reference on some of the strong/weak points which have to be watched over to maintain or improve a competitive position in the market. Likewise, the subsequent detection of a group of underlying factors to the valuation made by the consumer from the previous elements, and the overall detection of the influence that each one of these factors has on client satisfaction facilitates the design and sets into motion marketing strategies that allow the integral and efficient management of aspects relative to the amplitude and supply range of products and brands, services and convenience offered, the quality image of the establishment or the monetary value of the purchase. On the other hand, it is possible to indicate that the study was carried out as much as for the total sample of consumers, as for different sub-samples of consumers based on one of the most important key variables of retail patronage behavior such as the type of establishment where the purchase has been made. It is for that reason that this study offers an additional value considering the identification of elements in which to construct sustainable competitive advantages in differentiation, and the subsequent design of marketing integral strategies directed to increase clients’ satisfaction allowing measuring each type of establishment, and profile of the buyer. These findings provide useful managerial guidelines for decision-making in grocery retailing. In particular, this study emphasizes the key role of the services and convenience benefits offered by the grocery retailer, which are critical to keep customers satisfied. Therefore, it is important that retail managers in the industry properly develop and communicate value propositions that mean adding value-added services like higher product assortment, increased distribution intensity, high quality customer attention programs, additional services, enhanced store atmosphere and increased number of opening hours. Not in vain, it has been long recognized that: large assortments benefits consumers by providing many choices; increasing the availability of physical stores, creating or reinforcing the use of Internet as a purchase channel is most consistent with the distribution of fast moving consumer goods, and can stimulate sales by fostering wider consumer recognition and impulse buying; the creation of an effective customer satisfaction management program, as part of the customer relationship management (CRM) strategy, can facilitate that employees work in a positive, fair environment and are motivated to take care of customers; additional services such as advice, home delivery or free car park outside the shop can increase store attraction and finally, a positive atmosphere can lead to more pleasing shopping experiences. To end, we did not want to forget that there still remains open a great number of questions in relationship to the questions dealt with. Hence, between the lines of future work we considered it necessary to analyze the impact that the detected factors exert on the degree of loyalty of the clients towards certain commercial formats and specific establishments. Likewise, it is interesting to know how the identified factors can influence in the degree of selection of certain product categories, particularly considering its frequency of purchase. And also, given the relatively low variance explained by the models, further analysis incorporating other potential explanatory variables, such as speed of checkout, accuracy of scanning prices at checkout, availability of everyday fresh food, etc. are of great relevance in the assessment of customer satisfaction.