• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.25-56
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• 2011

A shifting of marketing paradigms from transaction to relationship has shown in many studies. Although there are many researches about relationship marketing, few of them focuses on relationship marketing combined with retail mix. This study define and measure customer relationship, and find the antecedents and consequences of the customer relationship. For the research, data were collected from 540 persons who are currently customers of five branches of E-mart and Homeplus in Seoul, Korea. Data analysis was performed under the AMOS 6.0. The results are summarized as following; Firstly, the relationship among elements of retail marketing mix and the relationship quality appears significant except communication program. This finding means that communication effect decreases at some point when communication program is excessive. Secondly, the relationship of customer relationship and three factors (frequent shopping intention, up-buying intention and recommend intention) are significant. Thus, this result supports the reasoning why discount stores make an effort to improve customer relationship. Thirdly, the relationship between share of wallet and two factors (frequent shopping intention and recommend intention) appears insignificant. Fourthly, the relationship between share of wallet and up-buying intention is significant. This result implies that up-buying intention is an important factor for discount stores, because up-buying intention is directly linked to financial performance of discount stores. Finally, the direct path between customer relationship and share of wallet is significant relation. For this reason, customer relationship should be managed consistently by discount stores.