- Email: [email protected]
New trends in retailing and services
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jretconser
Editorial
New trends in retailing and services A R T I C LE I N FO
A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Social media Mobile marketing Technology Emotions Omnichannel
This special issue of the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services contains a set of 12 articles that were selected after several rounds of evaluations. Some of these papers are from an international conference on retailing and service experience that took place in Marrakech, Morocco, on April 24–26, 2017. The articles primarily cover topics related to new developments in online retailing, in-store mobile advertising, mobile applications, social media platform use, and psychophysiological applications in both offline and online retailing.
1. Introduction The development of the Internet and related technology has led to a tremendous increase in e-commerce and m-commerce. The contemporary retail setting is characterized by the extensive use of mobile technologies, high connectivity, and contactless technologies (Pantano and Priporas, 2016). This environment pushes retailers to redefine their practices and enables consumers to experience shopping differently (Pantano and Priporas, 2016; Rose et al., 2012). In today's multichannel environment, consumers have access to multiple alternatives arising from the integration of technology into their daily lives. There are shopper segments that prefer to use mobile applications to purchase products but also prefer to collect them at a brick-and-mortar store. Others use digital channels for their search process but go to brick-andmortar stores to make their actual purchase (Nakano and Kondo, 2018). Hence, one of the most important challenges for retailers is how to integrate digital and mobile technologies and services into both online and offline operations (Chou et al., 2016). This special issue explores research in four major areas: social media platform use and applications, digital retailing and advertising, emotions in retailing, and service performance measurement and outcomes. The first two themes predominate, with eight papers focusing on technology-related issues and reflecting the extensive use of social platforms and mobile devices. Despite the focus on technology development and adoption in retailing, traditional areas of research on retailing still attract academic attention. This special issue also features four conceptual and empirical papers on the role and measurement of emotional reactions in retailing and service consumption, store attachment and connection, service performance outcomes, and measurement invariance in cross-cultural studies. 2. Social media platforms In 2017, 2.48 billion people worldwide (one in three) used a social network (eMarketer, 2018). Facebook is the top social network, with an average of more than 2.20 billion monthly active users and 1.45 billion https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2018.07.023
0969-6989/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
daily active users worldwide as of March 2018 (Facebook, 2018). The expansion of social media platforms and the global distribution of users create new opportunities and challenges for online marketers (Pantano and Priporas, 2016). Social media features facilitate interactivity and customer-to-customer online recommendations (Chou et al., 2016). They accelerate the dissemination of information about new products and services and help retailers develop brand attitude, manage brandconsumer relationships, and create value. Three of the contributions to this special issue delve into the increased role and use of social media. First, Baum, Spann, Füller and Thürridl investigate the impact of social media campaigns on the success of new product launches. They argue that social media plays an important role in facilitating social interaction and online word-of-mouth, broadening the reach and accelerating the dissemination of information about new products. They conclude that members of online communities, through their activities, provide support that may play a role in successful new product launches. Second, by applying Service Dominant Logic and consumption value theory, Carlson, Wyllie, Rahman and Voola assess the role of customer participation as a potential source of value creation and brand relationship development in a retailer's social media platform. Results show that customer participation has a significant influence on functional value, emotional value, relational value, and entitativity value. Consequently, these value-creating efforts contribute to brand building for retailers. Importantly, the novelty in this study lies in the idea that retail brands should strive to understand the specific forms of value they can co-create in their social media brand communities, as well as their relative influence with consumers. Third, Ladhari, Rioux, Souiden and Chiadmi investigate consumer motives for visiting the Facebook page of a food chain retailer. The ultimate objective of their research is to help food retailers use their Facebook pages more efficiently. Results show that respondents’ main motives are to obtain information on discounted items, consult recommended recipes, enter contests, and learn about new products available in-store. The authors add that informative, dynamism, and enjoyment values are the most important motives that influence attitudes toward the food retail chain's Facebook page.
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
Editorial
3. Online-mobile retailing and advertising
relationships between digital product presentation modes (size of visual and concreteness of verbal) and types of information processing (imagery vs. discursive) in apparel e-retailing contexts. For this purpose, the author uses the Stimulus-Organism-Response Model and Dual Coding Theory as theoretical frameworks. The study findings show that large visual stimuli (product picture) and concrete verbal stimuli (product descriptions in text) led to greater imagery and discursive information processing than small visual stimuli and abstract verbal stimuli respectively. Furthermore, verbal stimuli were more effective in evoking both imagery and discursive processing than visual stimuli. Between discursive and imagery processing, only imagery information processing was found to be positively associated with behavioral intent and need for cognition was found to play a significant moderating role. The author suggests that companies need to pay more attention to the concreteness of verbal descriptions used for digital product presentation on their websites, and should optimize them to further facilitate imagery information processing in apparel e-retailing. Fifth, in a business-to-business market context where a manufacturer opens an online channel to compete with a traditional offline retailer, Yan and Pei propose an online-to-offline (O2O) competition model to investigate how competitive return policies can be employed to coordinate O2O distributions and influence the performance of supply chain players in the manufacturer–traditional retailer O2O supply chain. Their results show that by using revenue-sharing and profit-sharing mechanisms, the manufacturer and the offline retailer can employ different return policies for their respective channels to coordinate O2O distributions and achieve a Pareto solution for all parties in the supply chain. The value of the differential between return policies is likely to further increase for both the manufacturer and the offline retailer if the product is highly compatible with online sales.
Mobile retailing involves the use of mobiles devices such as tablets and smartphones as platforms for selling products and services. Retail practices and academic literature shed light on the extent to which retailing activities are shifting from in-store commerce to e-commerce and m-commerce. This multichannel environment increases the number of physical and digital touchpoints between retailers and customers. It increases retailers’ communication efficiency and helps them reach relevant buyers at lower cost (Grewal et al., 2017). For customers, the combination of both physical and digital channels allows for bettertailored and customized offers (Grewal et al., 2017; Hallikainen et al., this issue). The increase in digital touchpoints requires an understanding of consumer preferences for different platforms and applications (e.g., emails, websites, blogs, discussion forums, videos, search engines, mobile apps, Facebook, and Twitter). Hallikainen et al. (this issue) have identified sub-groups of consumers with different preferences for digital touchpoints. Indeed, in their purchase decisions, consumers express different preferences for offline and digital channels (e-commerce, m-commerce). The fast-growing mobile market has become very attractive to advertisers. Mobile advertising accounted for more than half of digital ad spending among US companies in 2015 (eMarketer, 2016a). Mobile coupons, mobile payments, push notifications, multimedia messaging services, click-to-call and click-to-SMS ads, and gamification are among the mobile tactics used by retailers to increase response rates to advertising and sales. US retail marketing and IT professionals reported that almost 57% of US companies used mobile coupons, 51% offered mobile payments, and 40% had loyalty applications (eMarketer, 2016b). Five papers cover this area of research. First, Högberg, Shams and Wästlund examine the effect of gamification on in-store mobile ads in a field experiment at a supermarket. More specifically, they investigate the effect of gamified mobile offers on customer decision-making at point of purchase. They find that gamification is beneficial for retailers only when consumers are engaged in a shopping task that is gamified. They conclude that gamifying is not always useful for increasing the likelihood that offers will be acted upon. Second, Chaouali and Souiden's study sheds light on the relationships between psychological and functional barriers and their effects on resistance behavior in the mobile banking sector. The authors contend that innovation resistance is determined by individuals’ perceptions of an innovation's functional barriers, which in turn are impacted by individuals’ psychological barriers. They assess the moderating role of cognitive age in influencing the relationships between functional barriers, psychological barriers, and mobile banking resistance. The results show that tradition and image barriers affect usage, value, and risk barriers. In turn, all barriers influence resistance behavior. Moreover, cognitive age was found to moderate these relationships. The study concludes that significant differences exist between cognitively young elders and cognitively old elders regarding their perceptions of mobile banking barriers. Third, Hallikainen, Alamäki, and Laukkanen focus on differences in individuals’ preferences for digital touchpoints such as websites, email, search engines, social networks, photo and video content communities, discussion forums, and blogs. Four distinct consumer groups are identified and profiled in terms of their digital channel preferences: antidigital, anti-social media, majority, and digital channel enthusiasts. The authors emphasize that the greatest difference across the segments lies in their overall technology readiness, but note that functional touchpoints (email, websites, and search engines) are the preferred digital touchpoints among all the segments. They conclude that this segmentation could help retailers to better understand consumers’ characteristics and use their resources to meet consumers’ needs. Fourth, in an experimental study designed to expand on the existing research on digital product presentation, Kim examines the
4. Emotions in retailing The role of emotions in psychology and marketing has received much research attention since the seminal work of Hirschman and Holbrook (1982). In the literature, emotions are conceptualized as the main drivers or moderators of satisfaction and loyalty (Ou and Verhoef, 2017). Consumer orientations toward retailing and service consumption are both utilitarian and hedonic (Ou and Verhoef, 2017). Therefore, to understand the consumer decision process, it is imperative to consider the antecedents and consequences of consumers’ emotional reactions to both physical stores (e.g., store atmospherics, product assortment, product packaging) and online stores (web store design, website ads). Two papers in this special issue focus on the role of emotions and store attachment in retailing and consumer services. First, in their conceptual paper, Lajante and Ladhari call for a peripheral psychophysiological investigation of emotion in retailing and consumer service research. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper in retailing and consumer services research that underlines the full potential of psychophysiology for investigating emotion. Based on an extensive literature review in both marketing and affective neuroscience, the authors demonstrate that peripheral psychophysiological methods are worth exploring as a means of better understanding emotional processes in retail stores—both online and offline. The authors attempt to answer three fundamental questions related to the importance of implicit emotional experiences: What is psychophysiology? How can a psychophysiological perspective advance research on emotions in retailing and consumer services? And when is psychophysiology relevant for studying emotions in retailing and consumer services? The authors go on to discuss the perils of missing important points when dealing with psychophysiology in this field of research. Second, Badrinarayanan and Becerra point out that little research has been done on the antecedents and consequences of shoppers’ attachment to retailers. They argue that it is imperative for brick-andmortar retailers to identify new customer relationship mechanisms that motivate patronage intentions. Drawing on the literature on 2
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
Editorial
consumer–brand relationships, the authors develop and test a store attachment–based theoretical framework for shoppers’ patronage intentions toward retailers. Store–self connection and store prominence are identified as two main dimensions of store attachment. The latter is found to be mainly determined by cognitive and emotional antecedents and to have a significant impact on store patronage intentions.
“Understanding customer experience and the customer journey over time is critical for firms. Customers now interact with firms through myriad touch points in multiple channels and media, and customer experiences are more social in nature.” Customer experience will be one of the most challenging research issues in the years ahead (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). Operational optimization of the service experience is complicated by the development of multichannels and the increase in customer touchpoints (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). Service experience involves cognitive, emotional, sensory, social, and behavioral responses to the retailer and retailing environment on the part of consumers/shoppers (Grewal et al., 2017; Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). For instance, social responses are increased by customer-to-customer interactions through a variety of social media platforms. Future research could examine the following questions: How are different dimensions of the service experience impacted by digital technology? How do consumer reactions to different touchpoints influence their holistic experience with the brand or the retailer? How can retailer omnichannel strategies enhance customer experience?
5. Service performance measurement and outcomes Despite the numerous studies reported since the 1980s, the measurement of perceived service performance and its relation to satisfaction, perceived value, and behavioral intentions remain the focus of much research in the retailing and services sector (Blut et al., 2018; Meesala and Paul, 2018). In this special issue, one empirical study examines the relationships between perceived service value and related outcomes in the hospitality industry, whereas a second empirical study focuses on both similarities and differences in airline service evaluation and behaviors across cultures First, in order to better assess the hospitality experience and its effect on guests’ behavioral outcomes in the hospitality sector, El-Adly investigates the multidimensionality of perceived hotel value and the effect of each dimension on consumer satisfaction and loyalty. Out of the seven identified dimensions, five were found to have a significant direct positive effect on consumer satisfaction and/or loyalty, namely the price, quality, transaction, hedonic, and self-gratification dimensions, were found to have a significant direct positive effect on consumer satisfaction and/or loyalty. Four dimensions (i.e., hedonic, price, quality, transaction) had a significant indirect positive effect on customer loyalty through customer satisfaction as a mediator. Two dimensions (i.e., aesthetics and prestige) were found to have no significant direct positive effect on either customer satisfaction or customer loyalty. Second, Brush contends that cross-cultural consumer segments regularly present significantly different expectations and perceptions of service performance. According to the author, prior instruments, particularly those developed in U.S. service contexts, fail to adequately measure service performance in other cultural settings. Using the international airline industry as an example, Brush proposes an industryspecific service performance instrument that is invariant across Western and Asian settings. The results present insightful findings on both similarities and differences in service evaluation and behaviors across cultures.
Acknowledgements We are very grateful to the editor in-chief, Professor Harry J.P. Timmermans, for his ongoing support in putting together this special issue. Our thanks also to all reviewers for their help in reviewing the many papers for the international conference in Marrakech and for this special issue of the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. References Ailawadi, K.L., Farris, P.W., 2017. Managing Multi- and Omni-Channel Distribution: Metrics and Research Directions. J. Retail. 93 (1), 120–135. Blut, M., Teller, C., Floh, A., 2018. Testing retail Marketing-mix effects on patronage: a meta-analysis. J. Retail. 94 (2), 113–135. Chou, Y.C., Chuang, H.H.C., Shao, B.B., 2016. The impact of e-retail characteristics on initiating mobile retail services: a modular innovation perspective. Inf. Manag. 53 (4), 481–492. eMarketer, 2016a. Emarketer roundup: Optimizing mobile advertising. 〈http:// lightreaction.com/media/uploads/original/eMarketer_Roundup_Optimizing_Mobile_ Advertising.pdf〉. eMarketer, 2016b. Most retailers offer mobile coupons, payments. 〈https://www. emarketer.com/Article/Most-Retailers-Offer-Mobile-Coupons-Payments/1014321〉. eMarketer, 2018. Worldwide Social Network UsersUpdate: eMarketer’s Estimates and Forecast for 2016–2021, with a Focus on Instagram. 〈https://www.emarketer.com/ Report/Worldwide-Social-Network-Users-Update-eMarketers-Estimates-Forecast20162021-with-Focus-on-Instagram/2002170〉. (Accessed 30 April 2018). Facebook, 2018. Statistics, 〈https://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/〉. (Accessed 5 May 2018). Grewal, D., Roggeveen, A.L., Nordfält, J., 2017. The Future of Retailing. J. Retail. 93 (1), 1–6. Hirschman, E.C., Holbrook, M.B., 1982. The experiential aspects of consumption: consumer fantasies, feelings, and fun. J. Consum. Res. 9 (2), 132–140. Lemon, K.N., Verhoef, P.C., 2016. Understanding Customer Experience throughout the Customer Journey. J. Mark. 80 (6), 69–96. Meesala, A., Paul, J., 2018. Service quality, consumer satisfaction and loyalty in hospitals: thinking for the future. J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 40, 261–269. Ou, Y.C., Verhoef, P.C., 2017. The impact of positive and negative emotions on loyalty intentions and their interactions with customer equity drivers. J. Bus. Res. 80, 106–115. Nakano, S., Kondo, F.N., 2018. Customer segmentation with purchase channels and media touchpoints using single source panel data. J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 41, 142–152. Pantano, E., Priporas, C.V., 2016. The effect of mobile retailing on consumers' purchasing experiences: a dynamic perspective. Comput. Hum. Behav. 61, 548–555. Rose, S., Clark, M., Samouel, P., Hair, N., 2012. Online customer experience in e-retailing: an empirical model of antecedents and outcomes. J. Retail. 88 (2), 308–322.
6. Conclusion Retailing is shifting from traditional in-store practices to multifaceted and omnichannel practices (Ailawadi and Farris, 2017; Grewal et al., 2017). The omnichannel business model involves the use of multichannels such as physical in-store locations, social media platforms, mobile web, mobile devices, mobile applications, chatbots, and virtual reality. In this multichannel environment, shoppers value the ability to establish and maintain contacts with companies through multiple offline (physical) and online (digital) channels. This new environment has made buying more convenient for consumers, but more complex and challenging for retailers, particularly in terms of merchandising management, the increase in touchpoints, and the complexity of shopper behaviors. This special issue testifies to the widespread interest in understanding the opportunities and challenges of Web 2.0 and mobile applications. For instance, four of the twelve papers report on the use of social media such as Facebook to support the introduction of new products and develop relationships with customers. Future research is needed to better understand the critical impact digitalization is having on transformation management in retailing and the future evolution of the industry. Recent developments in the retailing environment add to the complexity of managing customer experience. Lemon and Verhoef (2016, p. 69) argue that:
⁎
a
Nizar Souidena, , Riadh Ladharia Faculty of Business Administration, Research Centre on Retailing and Digital Marketing, Laval University, Quebec G1V 0A6, Canada E-mail address: [email protected]
b
3
Nour-EddineChiadmib La Rochelle Business School, La Rochelle, France
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jretconser
Editorial
New trends in retailing and services A R T I C LE I N FO
A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Social media Mobile marketing Technology Emotions Omnichannel
This special issue of the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services contains a set of 12 articles that were selected after several rounds of evaluations. Some of these papers are from an international conference on retailing and service experience that took place in Marrakech, Morocco, on April 24–26, 2017. The articles primarily cover topics related to new developments in online retailing, in-store mobile advertising, mobile applications, social media platform use, and psychophysiological applications in both offline and online retailing.
1. Introduction The development of the Internet and related technology has led to a tremendous increase in e-commerce and m-commerce. The contemporary retail setting is characterized by the extensive use of mobile technologies, high connectivity, and contactless technologies (Pantano and Priporas, 2016). This environment pushes retailers to redefine their practices and enables consumers to experience shopping differently (Pantano and Priporas, 2016; Rose et al., 2012). In today's multichannel environment, consumers have access to multiple alternatives arising from the integration of technology into their daily lives. There are shopper segments that prefer to use mobile applications to purchase products but also prefer to collect them at a brick-and-mortar store. Others use digital channels for their search process but go to brick-andmortar stores to make their actual purchase (Nakano and Kondo, 2018). Hence, one of the most important challenges for retailers is how to integrate digital and mobile technologies and services into both online and offline operations (Chou et al., 2016). This special issue explores research in four major areas: social media platform use and applications, digital retailing and advertising, emotions in retailing, and service performance measurement and outcomes. The first two themes predominate, with eight papers focusing on technology-related issues and reflecting the extensive use of social platforms and mobile devices. Despite the focus on technology development and adoption in retailing, traditional areas of research on retailing still attract academic attention. This special issue also features four conceptual and empirical papers on the role and measurement of emotional reactions in retailing and service consumption, store attachment and connection, service performance outcomes, and measurement invariance in cross-cultural studies. 2. Social media platforms In 2017, 2.48 billion people worldwide (one in three) used a social network (eMarketer, 2018). Facebook is the top social network, with an average of more than 2.20 billion monthly active users and 1.45 billion https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2018.07.023
0969-6989/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
daily active users worldwide as of March 2018 (Facebook, 2018). The expansion of social media platforms and the global distribution of users create new opportunities and challenges for online marketers (Pantano and Priporas, 2016). Social media features facilitate interactivity and customer-to-customer online recommendations (Chou et al., 2016). They accelerate the dissemination of information about new products and services and help retailers develop brand attitude, manage brandconsumer relationships, and create value. Three of the contributions to this special issue delve into the increased role and use of social media. First, Baum, Spann, Füller and Thürridl investigate the impact of social media campaigns on the success of new product launches. They argue that social media plays an important role in facilitating social interaction and online word-of-mouth, broadening the reach and accelerating the dissemination of information about new products. They conclude that members of online communities, through their activities, provide support that may play a role in successful new product launches. Second, by applying Service Dominant Logic and consumption value theory, Carlson, Wyllie, Rahman and Voola assess the role of customer participation as a potential source of value creation and brand relationship development in a retailer's social media platform. Results show that customer participation has a significant influence on functional value, emotional value, relational value, and entitativity value. Consequently, these value-creating efforts contribute to brand building for retailers. Importantly, the novelty in this study lies in the idea that retail brands should strive to understand the specific forms of value they can co-create in their social media brand communities, as well as their relative influence with consumers. Third, Ladhari, Rioux, Souiden and Chiadmi investigate consumer motives for visiting the Facebook page of a food chain retailer. The ultimate objective of their research is to help food retailers use their Facebook pages more efficiently. Results show that respondents’ main motives are to obtain information on discounted items, consult recommended recipes, enter contests, and learn about new products available in-store. The authors add that informative, dynamism, and enjoyment values are the most important motives that influence attitudes toward the food retail chain's Facebook page.
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
Editorial
3. Online-mobile retailing and advertising
relationships between digital product presentation modes (size of visual and concreteness of verbal) and types of information processing (imagery vs. discursive) in apparel e-retailing contexts. For this purpose, the author uses the Stimulus-Organism-Response Model and Dual Coding Theory as theoretical frameworks. The study findings show that large visual stimuli (product picture) and concrete verbal stimuli (product descriptions in text) led to greater imagery and discursive information processing than small visual stimuli and abstract verbal stimuli respectively. Furthermore, verbal stimuli were more effective in evoking both imagery and discursive processing than visual stimuli. Between discursive and imagery processing, only imagery information processing was found to be positively associated with behavioral intent and need for cognition was found to play a significant moderating role. The author suggests that companies need to pay more attention to the concreteness of verbal descriptions used for digital product presentation on their websites, and should optimize them to further facilitate imagery information processing in apparel e-retailing. Fifth, in a business-to-business market context where a manufacturer opens an online channel to compete with a traditional offline retailer, Yan and Pei propose an online-to-offline (O2O) competition model to investigate how competitive return policies can be employed to coordinate O2O distributions and influence the performance of supply chain players in the manufacturer–traditional retailer O2O supply chain. Their results show that by using revenue-sharing and profit-sharing mechanisms, the manufacturer and the offline retailer can employ different return policies for their respective channels to coordinate O2O distributions and achieve a Pareto solution for all parties in the supply chain. The value of the differential between return policies is likely to further increase for both the manufacturer and the offline retailer if the product is highly compatible with online sales.
Mobile retailing involves the use of mobiles devices such as tablets and smartphones as platforms for selling products and services. Retail practices and academic literature shed light on the extent to which retailing activities are shifting from in-store commerce to e-commerce and m-commerce. This multichannel environment increases the number of physical and digital touchpoints between retailers and customers. It increases retailers’ communication efficiency and helps them reach relevant buyers at lower cost (Grewal et al., 2017). For customers, the combination of both physical and digital channels allows for bettertailored and customized offers (Grewal et al., 2017; Hallikainen et al., this issue). The increase in digital touchpoints requires an understanding of consumer preferences for different platforms and applications (e.g., emails, websites, blogs, discussion forums, videos, search engines, mobile apps, Facebook, and Twitter). Hallikainen et al. (this issue) have identified sub-groups of consumers with different preferences for digital touchpoints. Indeed, in their purchase decisions, consumers express different preferences for offline and digital channels (e-commerce, m-commerce). The fast-growing mobile market has become very attractive to advertisers. Mobile advertising accounted for more than half of digital ad spending among US companies in 2015 (eMarketer, 2016a). Mobile coupons, mobile payments, push notifications, multimedia messaging services, click-to-call and click-to-SMS ads, and gamification are among the mobile tactics used by retailers to increase response rates to advertising and sales. US retail marketing and IT professionals reported that almost 57% of US companies used mobile coupons, 51% offered mobile payments, and 40% had loyalty applications (eMarketer, 2016b). Five papers cover this area of research. First, Högberg, Shams and Wästlund examine the effect of gamification on in-store mobile ads in a field experiment at a supermarket. More specifically, they investigate the effect of gamified mobile offers on customer decision-making at point of purchase. They find that gamification is beneficial for retailers only when consumers are engaged in a shopping task that is gamified. They conclude that gamifying is not always useful for increasing the likelihood that offers will be acted upon. Second, Chaouali and Souiden's study sheds light on the relationships between psychological and functional barriers and their effects on resistance behavior in the mobile banking sector. The authors contend that innovation resistance is determined by individuals’ perceptions of an innovation's functional barriers, which in turn are impacted by individuals’ psychological barriers. They assess the moderating role of cognitive age in influencing the relationships between functional barriers, psychological barriers, and mobile banking resistance. The results show that tradition and image barriers affect usage, value, and risk barriers. In turn, all barriers influence resistance behavior. Moreover, cognitive age was found to moderate these relationships. The study concludes that significant differences exist between cognitively young elders and cognitively old elders regarding their perceptions of mobile banking barriers. Third, Hallikainen, Alamäki, and Laukkanen focus on differences in individuals’ preferences for digital touchpoints such as websites, email, search engines, social networks, photo and video content communities, discussion forums, and blogs. Four distinct consumer groups are identified and profiled in terms of their digital channel preferences: antidigital, anti-social media, majority, and digital channel enthusiasts. The authors emphasize that the greatest difference across the segments lies in their overall technology readiness, but note that functional touchpoints (email, websites, and search engines) are the preferred digital touchpoints among all the segments. They conclude that this segmentation could help retailers to better understand consumers’ characteristics and use their resources to meet consumers’ needs. Fourth, in an experimental study designed to expand on the existing research on digital product presentation, Kim examines the
4. Emotions in retailing The role of emotions in psychology and marketing has received much research attention since the seminal work of Hirschman and Holbrook (1982). In the literature, emotions are conceptualized as the main drivers or moderators of satisfaction and loyalty (Ou and Verhoef, 2017). Consumer orientations toward retailing and service consumption are both utilitarian and hedonic (Ou and Verhoef, 2017). Therefore, to understand the consumer decision process, it is imperative to consider the antecedents and consequences of consumers’ emotional reactions to both physical stores (e.g., store atmospherics, product assortment, product packaging) and online stores (web store design, website ads). Two papers in this special issue focus on the role of emotions and store attachment in retailing and consumer services. First, in their conceptual paper, Lajante and Ladhari call for a peripheral psychophysiological investigation of emotion in retailing and consumer service research. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper in retailing and consumer services research that underlines the full potential of psychophysiology for investigating emotion. Based on an extensive literature review in both marketing and affective neuroscience, the authors demonstrate that peripheral psychophysiological methods are worth exploring as a means of better understanding emotional processes in retail stores—both online and offline. The authors attempt to answer three fundamental questions related to the importance of implicit emotional experiences: What is psychophysiology? How can a psychophysiological perspective advance research on emotions in retailing and consumer services? And when is psychophysiology relevant for studying emotions in retailing and consumer services? The authors go on to discuss the perils of missing important points when dealing with psychophysiology in this field of research. Second, Badrinarayanan and Becerra point out that little research has been done on the antecedents and consequences of shoppers’ attachment to retailers. They argue that it is imperative for brick-andmortar retailers to identify new customer relationship mechanisms that motivate patronage intentions. Drawing on the literature on 2
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
Editorial
consumer–brand relationships, the authors develop and test a store attachment–based theoretical framework for shoppers’ patronage intentions toward retailers. Store–self connection and store prominence are identified as two main dimensions of store attachment. The latter is found to be mainly determined by cognitive and emotional antecedents and to have a significant impact on store patronage intentions.
“Understanding customer experience and the customer journey over time is critical for firms. Customers now interact with firms through myriad touch points in multiple channels and media, and customer experiences are more social in nature.” Customer experience will be one of the most challenging research issues in the years ahead (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). Operational optimization of the service experience is complicated by the development of multichannels and the increase in customer touchpoints (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). Service experience involves cognitive, emotional, sensory, social, and behavioral responses to the retailer and retailing environment on the part of consumers/shoppers (Grewal et al., 2017; Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). For instance, social responses are increased by customer-to-customer interactions through a variety of social media platforms. Future research could examine the following questions: How are different dimensions of the service experience impacted by digital technology? How do consumer reactions to different touchpoints influence their holistic experience with the brand or the retailer? How can retailer omnichannel strategies enhance customer experience?
5. Service performance measurement and outcomes Despite the numerous studies reported since the 1980s, the measurement of perceived service performance and its relation to satisfaction, perceived value, and behavioral intentions remain the focus of much research in the retailing and services sector (Blut et al., 2018; Meesala and Paul, 2018). In this special issue, one empirical study examines the relationships between perceived service value and related outcomes in the hospitality industry, whereas a second empirical study focuses on both similarities and differences in airline service evaluation and behaviors across cultures First, in order to better assess the hospitality experience and its effect on guests’ behavioral outcomes in the hospitality sector, El-Adly investigates the multidimensionality of perceived hotel value and the effect of each dimension on consumer satisfaction and loyalty. Out of the seven identified dimensions, five were found to have a significant direct positive effect on consumer satisfaction and/or loyalty, namely the price, quality, transaction, hedonic, and self-gratification dimensions, were found to have a significant direct positive effect on consumer satisfaction and/or loyalty. Four dimensions (i.e., hedonic, price, quality, transaction) had a significant indirect positive effect on customer loyalty through customer satisfaction as a mediator. Two dimensions (i.e., aesthetics and prestige) were found to have no significant direct positive effect on either customer satisfaction or customer loyalty. Second, Brush contends that cross-cultural consumer segments regularly present significantly different expectations and perceptions of service performance. According to the author, prior instruments, particularly those developed in U.S. service contexts, fail to adequately measure service performance in other cultural settings. Using the international airline industry as an example, Brush proposes an industryspecific service performance instrument that is invariant across Western and Asian settings. The results present insightful findings on both similarities and differences in service evaluation and behaviors across cultures.
Acknowledgements We are very grateful to the editor in-chief, Professor Harry J.P. Timmermans, for his ongoing support in putting together this special issue. Our thanks also to all reviewers for their help in reviewing the many papers for the international conference in Marrakech and for this special issue of the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. References Ailawadi, K.L., Farris, P.W., 2017. Managing Multi- and Omni-Channel Distribution: Metrics and Research Directions. J. Retail. 93 (1), 120–135. Blut, M., Teller, C., Floh, A., 2018. Testing retail Marketing-mix effects on patronage: a meta-analysis. J. Retail. 94 (2), 113–135. Chou, Y.C., Chuang, H.H.C., Shao, B.B., 2016. The impact of e-retail characteristics on initiating mobile retail services: a modular innovation perspective. Inf. Manag. 53 (4), 481–492. eMarketer, 2016a. Emarketer roundup: Optimizing mobile advertising. 〈http:// lightreaction.com/media/uploads/original/eMarketer_Roundup_Optimizing_Mobile_ Advertising.pdf〉. eMarketer, 2016b. Most retailers offer mobile coupons, payments. 〈https://www. emarketer.com/Article/Most-Retailers-Offer-Mobile-Coupons-Payments/1014321〉. eMarketer, 2018. Worldwide Social Network UsersUpdate: eMarketer’s Estimates and Forecast for 2016–2021, with a Focus on Instagram. 〈https://www.emarketer.com/ Report/Worldwide-Social-Network-Users-Update-eMarketers-Estimates-Forecast20162021-with-Focus-on-Instagram/2002170〉. (Accessed 30 April 2018). Facebook, 2018. Statistics, 〈https://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/〉. (Accessed 5 May 2018). Grewal, D., Roggeveen, A.L., Nordfält, J., 2017. The Future of Retailing. J. Retail. 93 (1), 1–6. Hirschman, E.C., Holbrook, M.B., 1982. The experiential aspects of consumption: consumer fantasies, feelings, and fun. J. Consum. Res. 9 (2), 132–140. Lemon, K.N., Verhoef, P.C., 2016. Understanding Customer Experience throughout the Customer Journey. J. Mark. 80 (6), 69–96. Meesala, A., Paul, J., 2018. Service quality, consumer satisfaction and loyalty in hospitals: thinking for the future. J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 40, 261–269. Ou, Y.C., Verhoef, P.C., 2017. The impact of positive and negative emotions on loyalty intentions and their interactions with customer equity drivers. J. Bus. Res. 80, 106–115. Nakano, S., Kondo, F.N., 2018. Customer segmentation with purchase channels and media touchpoints using single source panel data. J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 41, 142–152. Pantano, E., Priporas, C.V., 2016. The effect of mobile retailing on consumers' purchasing experiences: a dynamic perspective. Comput. Hum. Behav. 61, 548–555. Rose, S., Clark, M., Samouel, P., Hair, N., 2012. Online customer experience in e-retailing: an empirical model of antecedents and outcomes. J. Retail. 88 (2), 308–322.
6. Conclusion Retailing is shifting from traditional in-store practices to multifaceted and omnichannel practices (Ailawadi and Farris, 2017; Grewal et al., 2017). The omnichannel business model involves the use of multichannels such as physical in-store locations, social media platforms, mobile web, mobile devices, mobile applications, chatbots, and virtual reality. In this multichannel environment, shoppers value the ability to establish and maintain contacts with companies through multiple offline (physical) and online (digital) channels. This new environment has made buying more convenient for consumers, but more complex and challenging for retailers, particularly in terms of merchandising management, the increase in touchpoints, and the complexity of shopper behaviors. This special issue testifies to the widespread interest in understanding the opportunities and challenges of Web 2.0 and mobile applications. For instance, four of the twelve papers report on the use of social media such as Facebook to support the introduction of new products and develop relationships with customers. Future research is needed to better understand the critical impact digitalization is having on transformation management in retailing and the future evolution of the industry. Recent developments in the retailing environment add to the complexity of managing customer experience. Lemon and Verhoef (2016, p. 69) argue that:
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Nizar Souidena, , Riadh Ladharia Faculty of Business Administration, Research Centre on Retailing and Digital Marketing, Laval University, Quebec G1V 0A6, Canada E-mail address: [email protected]
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Nour-EddineChiadmib La Rochelle Business School, La Rochelle, France