• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.209-237
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• 2012

1. Research Purpose Consumers rely on various clues to evaluate their decision to patronize a retail store, and store brand is one of them (Dodds 1991; Grewal et al. 1998). As consumers find ever increasing variety of contact points connecting them to specific store, the value of experiential shopping as a means of increasing store's brand equity warrants greater attention from scholars of retail management. Retail shopping values are credited for creating not only cognitive experiences like brand knowledge but also emotional experiences such as shopping pleasure and pride (Schmitt 1999). This may be because today's consumers place emphasis on emotional values associated with shopping pleasure, lifestyle brought to life, brand relationship, and store atmosphere more than utilitarian values such as product quality and price. Many previous literature found this to be true (Ahn and Lee 2011; Mathwick et al. 2001). This brings forth important research issues and questions regarding the roles of shopping experiential values and brand equity with regard to consumer's retail patronage choice. However, despite this importance, research on this area remains quite inadequate (Hwang 2010). For this reason, this study aims to verify the relationships among experiential shopping values, retail store brand equity and tries to link that with customer loyalty by surveying large-scale discount store shoppers in Korea and China. 2. Research Contents In order to carry out the research objective, this study conducted comprehensive literature survey on previous literature by discussing major findings and implications with regard to shopping values and retail brand equity and store loyalty. For data collection, researcher employed survey-based research method where data were collected in two major cities of Korea (Seoul) and China (Bejing) and sampling frame was based on patrons of large discount stores in both countries. Specific research questions raised in this study are as follows; RQ1: How do Korean and Chinese consumers differently perceive of shopping values regarding shopping at large-sclae discount stores? RQ2: Are there differences in consumers' emotional consumption propensities? RQ3: Do Korean and Chinese consumers display different perceptions of brand equity towards large-scale discount stores? RQ4: Are there differences in relationships between shopping values and brand equity for Korean and Chinese consumers? For statistical analysis, SPSS17.0, AMOS17.0 and SmartPLS were employed. 3. Research Results The data collected through face-to-face survey conducted in Seoul and Bejing revealed appropriate data validity and reliability as a result of exploratory/confirmatory factor analysis and reliability tests, andh SEM model yielding satisfactory model fitness. The result of the study may be summarized by three main points. First, as a result of testing differences in consumption dispositions, Chinese consumers showed higher scores in aesthetic and symbolic dispositions, whereas Korean consumers scored higher in hedonic disposition. Second, testing on perceptions toward brand equity of large discount stores showed that Korean consumers exhibited more positive perceptions of brand awareness and brand image than Chinese counterparts. Third, the result of exploratory factor analysis on the experiential shopping values revealed different factors for each country. On Korean side, consumer interest value, aesthetic value, and hedonic value were prominent, whereas on Chinese side, hedonic value, aesthetic value, consumer interest value, and service excellence value were found salient. 4. Research Implications While many previous studies on inter-country differences in retailing area mainly focused on cultural dispositions or orientations to explain the differences, this study sets itself apart by specifically targeting individual consumer's shopping values from an experiential viewpoint. The study result provides important theoretical as well as practical implications for large-scale discount store, especially the impotance of fully exploring the linkage between shopping values and brand equity, which has significant influence on loyalty. Therefore, the specific implications deriving from the result shed some important insights upon the consumption values based on shopping experiences and brand equity. The differences found in store shoppers between the two countries may also provide useful insights for Korean and Chinese retailers who plan to expand their operations globally. Related strategic implications derived from this study is the importance of localizing retail strategy which is based on the differences found in experiential shopping values between the two country groups. Especially the finding that Chinese consumers value consumer interest and service excellence, whereas Koreans place importance on hedonic or aesthetic values indicates the need to differentiate the consumer's psychographical profiles when it comes to expanding retail operations globally. Particularly important will be to pursue price-orienated strategy in China in consideration of the high emphasis on consumer interests and service excellence, but to emphasize the symbolic aspects of brand equity in Korea by maximizing the brand equity associated with aesthetic values and hedonic orientations. 5. Recommendations This study focused on generic retail branded discount stores in both countries, thus making it difficult to tease out store-specific strategies based on specific retail brands. Future studies may benefit fro employing actual brand names in survey questionnaire to verify relationship between shopping values and brand-based store strategy. As with other studies of this nature, this study needs to strengthen the result's generalizability by selecting respondents from a wider spectrum of respondents.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.5-24
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• 2009

In the retail management, store location has an important influence like business skills. The reason for failure to selecting location is that the market analysis model is not popular in business field. It gets worse in supermarket industry. Currently, store developers are relying on simple statistics and the sixth sense as market analysis techniques. lt proves that the market analysis model is not distributed well in the field. This market analysis model can apply to medium and small business market using an existing market analysis model, broad market model. And its study outcome can be theorized as a result. Converse's new retail model can be used as to analyze junction market. Pareto_Huff model can also be used to compute shopping probability. To do so, this study can be divided into walking distance market and driving distance market as a model market. Also it examines industry type such as SM and SSM. By taking consumer survey, condition of consumers to select store will be counted in shopping probability so that it improves the objectivity and reliability. Through this process, derived study outcome can be a new estimated revenue model for practical application of selecting store location in large and medium-sized supermarket.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.37-44
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• 2012

In this paper, we investigate several factors that affect the locational decision of discount stores by using previous studies on the marketing area and the location of commercial facilities. We selected 21 primary variables that are expected to influence the decision of store location and, by factor analysis, grouped them into five underlying factors. Among these, the demographic factor, which shows the potential purchasing power level, had the greatest impact on the locational decision for the store. However, we found individual stores positioned according to unique locational characteristics in addition to the demographic factor. It means that we have to additionally consider if the vicinity of the market is based on any physical properties. Many previous studies proposed four decision factors for store location: the economic factor, the demographic factor, the land utilization factor, and traffic factor. However, the fivefold factors-our distinctive contribution-are more concrete and persuasive according to Korean reality. We show that location preference is based on the following criteria: (1) the area is densely populated, (2) houses stand close together, (3) residents have a high income level, (4) road traffic is developed and easy to access, and (5) public transportation is well developed. The demographic factor has the greatest impact on the location of a discount store. The number of households has a greater relevance to the demographic factor than does the individual consumer. Second, discount stores relatively prefer places where houses are located close together because such places offer easy access to the market. Third, a place whose residents have a high income level will be preferred, with its large cars and excellent traffic conditions. Fourth, a location would be highly rated if the roads around commercial facilities are well developed and their accessibility is good. Finally, discount stores must be located close to bus stops because female consumers, including housewives-the most important customers-evaluate stores based on distance. In this research, the variable of consumer attitude and preference was excluded, and the location factors of discount stores were analyzed according to a microscopic view through physical spatial data. In the future, the opening of new discount stores based on the five factors indicated above will require a comparatively shorter time from the first project feasibility analysis. In addition, the result of our study can be applied to the field of public policy for constructing and attracting large-scale distribution facilities.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.113-132
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to derive the factors for the general consumers to choose the store to buy seafood. Survey on 414 general consumers by questionnaires was conducted to find out the factors for them to choose the stores in the traditional market and large supermarket, and through the analysis on the results the factors for general consumers to choose large supermarkets were derived when they buy seafood and at the same time the degree of its importance was analyzed. The results of the survey showed that the general consumers chose large supermarkets to buy seafood despite the fact that they recognized the seafood prices are lower in the traditional markets than in the large supermarkets. Particularly, the results of analyzing the sixteen criteria for choosing the store in which to buy seafood were grouped into four: the 'assortment of goods and high quality', 'service', 'price and promotion' and 'convenient accessibility.' The results of examining the order of priority based on the four factors showed that the 'assortment of diverse seafood and high quality' was found to be given the first priority, followed by 'convenient accessibility' and 'prices and promotion factors', with 'service' being statistically insignificant. Based on these results, Monroe (1975)'s consumers' store choice process is summarized as follows. Before buying seafood, the consumers who use large supermarkets have the desire for buying seafood and then judge the properties of the store which they will use. In this process, consumers were satisfying their needs in large supermarkets in the criteria of 'assortment of diverse seafood and high quality', convenient accessibility', and 'prices and promotion factors' which were found to be statistically significant in this research. Accordingly, the general consumers choose to buy seafood in large supermarkets rather than in the traditional markets. The general consumers were more satisfied with using large supermarkets than using traditional markets, so after they have initially bought seafood in the large supermarkets, they habitually buy seafood in the large supermarkets without going through Monroe (1975)'s 'eight stage process for the store choice.' When such habitual store choice behavior continues for a long time, it results in becoming structural.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.143-156
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• 2004

This case intorduced E-mart's business philosophy and vision, analyzed E-mart's outline of marketing strategy, and discussed its performance and future task. E-mart took the role of market pioneer by developing discount store market in Korea. It's mission was to provide substantial benefits to the customers by selling quality products at the lowest price in the market. For this purpose, E-mart has conducted a slogan of 'everyday low price discount store-E-mart'. Objective of E-mart's brand strategy was to be No. 1 discount store in Korea or to be a representative brand in the discount store market. To achieve this objective, E-mart has conducted various efforts such as construction of national network, realization of the lowest price, formation of the most reliable discount store image, establishment of competitive edge and so on. E-mart settled a new model for discount store in Korea and took the lead in expanding market potential. With these efforts, E-mart has maintained secure position as a leading company in the discount store market.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.1-25
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• 2008

Ⅰ. Introduction Retailers in the 21st century are being told that future retailers are those who can execute seamless multi-channel access. The reason is that retailers should be where shoppers want them, when they want them anytime, anywhere and in multiple formats. Multi-channel access is considered one of the top 10 trends of all business in the next decade (Patricia T. Warrington, et al., 2007) And most firms use both direct and indirect channels in their markets. Given this trend, we need to evaluate a channel equity more systematically than before as this issue is expected to get more attention to consumers as well as to brand managers. Consumers are becoming very much confused concerning the choice of place where they shop for durable goods as there are at least 6-7 retail options. On the other hand, manufacturers have to deal with category killers, their dealers network, Internet shopping malls, and other avenue of distribution channels and they hope their retail channel behave like extensions of their own companies. They would like their products to be foremost in the retailer's mind-the first to be proposed and effectively communicated to potential customers. To enable this hope to come reality, they should know each channel's advantages and disadvantages from consumer perspectives. In addition, customer satisfaction is the key determinant of retail customer loyalty. However, there are only a few researches regarding the effects of shopping satisfaction and perceptions on consumers' channel choices and channels. The purpose of this study was to assess Korean consumers' channel choice and satisfaction towards channels they prefer to use in the case of electronic goods shopping. Korean electronic goods retail market is one of good example of multi-channel shopping environments. As the Korea retail market has been undergoing significant structural changes since it had opened to global retailers in 1996, new formats such as hypermarkets, Internet shopping malls and category killers have arrived for the last decade. Korean electronic goods shoppers have seven major channels : (1)category killers (2) hypermarket (3) manufacturer dealer shop (4) Internet shopping malls (5) department store (6) TV home-shopping (7) speciality shopping arcade. Korean retail sector has been modernized with amazing speed for the last decade. Overall summary of major retail channels is as follows: Hypermarket has been number 1 retailer type in sales volume from 2003 ; non-store retailing has been number 2 from 2007 ; department store is now number 3 ; small scale category killers are growing rapidly in the area of electronics and office products in particular. We try to evaluate each channel's equity using a consumer survey. The survey was done by telephone interview with 1000 housewife who lives nationwide. Sampling was done according to 2005 national census and average interview time was 10 to 15 minutes. Ⅱ. Research Summary We have found that seven major retail channels compete with each other within Korean consumers' minds in terms of price and service. Each channel seem to have its unique selling points. Department stores were perceived as the best electronic goods shopping destinations due to after service. Internet shopping malls were perceived as the convenient channel owing to price checking. Category killers and hypermarkets were more attractive in both price merits and location conveniences. On the other hand, manufacturers dealer networks were pulling customers mainly by location and after service. Category killers and hypermarkets were most beloved retail channel for Korean consumers. However category killers compete mainly with department stores and shopping arcades while hypermarkets tend to compete with Internet and TV home shopping channels. Regarding channel satisfaction, the top 3 channels were service-driven retailers: department stores (4.27); dealer shop (4.21); and Internet shopping malls (4.21). Speciality shopping arcade(3.98) were the least satisfied channels among Korean consumers. Ⅲ. Implications We try to identify the whole picture of multi-channel retail shopping environments and its implications in the context of Korean electronic goods. From manufacturers' perspectives, multi-channel may cause channel conflicts. Furthermore, inter-channel competition draws much more attention as hypermarkets and category killers have grown rapidly in recent years. At the same time, from consumers' perspectives, 'buy where' is becoming an important buying decision as it would decide the level of shopping satisfaction. We need to develop the concept of 'channel equity' to manage multi-channel distribution effectively. Firms should measure and monitor their prime channel equity in regular basis to maximize their channel potentials. Prototype channel equity positioning map has been developed as follows. We expect more studies to develop the concept of 'channel equity' in the future.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.5-20
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• 2006

Retail is called location business because it is one of the most important factors to estimate management of stores for retailers who are going to sell products directly to customers. Retailers' management achievements are shown in sale in general. Therefore, retailers tend to focus on ways to increase the numbers of customers in order to raise sales. First of all, in this research, I am going to examine the most fundamental models such as Reilly's retail gravitation, converse model, huff probability model and multiful losit model in selecting stores. Secondly, I am going to provide the process and analyzing ways to predict estimated sales amount with the previous theory model. Also I am going to predict estimated sales amount of the department store L which is located in D metorpolitan city. Lastly, I am going to argue about the problem of this research and the next research subject. Our main goal is to provide ways to complement and inspect sales estimation models, which can be used in fields after taking characters of high class structure of Korea into consideration on the base of previous researches. According to the result of the research, my conclusion is that if the process of analysis and changing factors are complemented, revise model, which can reflect reality of Korea, will be provided. Therefore, in the future study, we have to build up theory models to suit for our retail market through critic reviews about the existing high class structure of Korea.