The influence of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of experience store on satisfaction and loyalty

체험매장의 지각된 용이성과 유용성이 만족과 충성도에 미치는 영향

One of the new roles of modern retail stores is to supply consumers with a memorable experience. In Korea, enhancing a store's environment so that customers remember a unique shopping experience is recognized as a sound strategy for strengthening the store's competitiveness. Motivated by this incentive, awareness of the experience-store concept is starting to increase in various categories of the retail industry. However, many experience stores, except in a few cases, have yet to derive a significant profit, explaining why Korean consumers are somewhat unfamiliar with, yet fascinated by, the experience stores that now exist in the country. Consumer satisfaction directly, and indirectly, affects a company's future profit and potential financial gain; customer satisfaction also affects loyalty. Therefore, knowing the significant factors that increase satisfaction and loyalty is essential for any company, in any field, to be able to effectively differentiate itself from the competition. Intrigued by increased competition opportunities, most Korean companies have adopted experience-store marketing strategies. When establishing the most effective processes for increasing sales and achieving a sustainable competitive advantage of a new concept, companies should consider certain factors that influence consumers' ability to accept new concepts and ideas. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is a theory that models how people accept new concepts. TAM proposes the following two factors that influence a person's decisions about how, and when, he or she will use a new product: "perceived usefulness" and "perceived ease of use." Much of the existing research has suggested that a person's character also affects the process for accepting new ideas. Such personal character attributes as individual preferences, self-confidence, and a person's values, traits, and/or skills affect the process for willingly consenting to try something new. It will be meaningful to establish how the TAM theory's components, as well as personal character, affect individuals accepting the experience-store concept. To that end, as it pertains to an experience store, the first goal of the study is to examine the influence of innovative factors (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) on satisfaction and loyalty. The second objective is to define the moderate effect of consumers' personal characteristics on the model. The proposed model was tested on 149 respondents who were engaged in leisure sports activities and bought sports outdoor garments and equipment. According to the study's findings, the satisfaction and loyalty of an experience store can be explained by perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, with the study's results demonstrating the stronger of the two factors being "perceived ease of use." The study failed to explain the effects of a person's character on the model. In conclusion, when the companies that operate the experience stores execute their marketing and promotion strategies, they should stress the stores' "ease of use" product components. Additionally, it can be extrapolated from the study data that since the experience-store idea is still relatively unfamiliar to Korean consumers, most customers are not yet able to evaluate, nor take a position regarding, their respective attitudes toward experience stores.

본 연구에서는 전통적 유통과 차별되는 체험매장의 혁신적 속성에 대한 지각 (지각된 유용성, 지각된 용이성)이 소비자의 만족과 충성도에 어떠한 영향을 미치는가를 살펴보고, 이에 대한 소비자 특성의 조절효과를 살펴보았다. 그 결과, 지각된 유용성과 용이성은 소비자의 만족과 충성도에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 지각된 용이성과 유용성 중 만족에 더 강한 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 요인은 용이성인 것으로 나타났다. 그러므로 체험매장의 마케팅과 프로모션에는 이 매장을 이용함으로써 더욱 빠르고 쉽게 원하는 제품을 구입할 수 있다는 편리함을 강조하는 것이 유리할 것이라 판단된다. 그리고 혁신적 속성에 대한 소비자 특성(월평균 스포츠 용품/의류 구입 금액, 스포츠 용품/의류를 구입하는 유통을 선택할 때 직접 제품을 체험해보는 것을 중요하게 생각하는 정도)의 조절효과는 검증되지 않았다. 이는 아직까지 우리나라에 체험매장 자체가 생소한 개념이므로 그에 대한 만족, 충성도 형성과정이 소비자의 특성에 따라 조절될 만큼 충분하게 경험되어지지 않았기 때문이라 풀이된다.