CHAPTER 3: POSITIONING AND THE ATTRIBUTES SOUGHT IN CLOTHING
3.3 Factors Influencing the Purchase Process and Retail Store Selection
3.3.2 Attributes influencing the Selection of Specific Retail Stores Types
36 store (Thang and Tan 2003: 197), was found to be the sixth most significant variable of a total of eight variables potentially impacting consumer store preference.
Gehrt and Yan (2004: 17) also identified a set of attributes affecting consumer store selection by conducting a factor analysis to determine the specific attributes with the highest importance ratings and, in so doing, found four factors to be the most salient in impacting consumers‟
selection of traditional stores, catalogues and websites. These four factors were: transaction service, merchandise, retailer personality and price. The factor of transaction service referred to attributes such as: easy to place an order, 24 hour accessibility, ability to touch or try merchandise, security and privacy policy, several options for payment, and reliable shipping (Gehrt and Yan 2004: 17). The factor of merchandise included attributes such as: easy to find merchandise, quality merchandise, unique merchandise, large selection of merchandise, and immediate availability of merchandise (Gehrt and Yan 2004: 17). Retailer personality represented attributes such as: shopping atmosphere, well-known national brands, familiarity with the retailer, and sales assistance or merchandise information (Gehrt and Yan 2004: 17).
Lastly, the price factor refers to low prices and the ease of price comparison as important attributes (Gehrt and Yan 2004: 17).
Finally, most recently Pan and Zinkhan (2006: 238) also investigated the determinants of retail patronage and found the attribute of wide selection of merchandise to have “the highest average correlation with store choice, followed by service, quality, store atmosphere, low price levels, convenient location, fast checkout, convenient opening hours, friendliness of salespeople, and convenient parking facilities” (Pan and Zinkhan 2006: 238). Overall, these authors found that wide selection, service and product quality are the most important for explaining retail choice (Pan and Zinkhan 2006: 240).
37 Table 3. 3 Top 10 Attributes identified by Hansen and Deutscher (1977: 69)
Top 10 Attributes
Department Store Grocery Store
1. Dependable products 1. Dependable products
2. Fair on adjustments 2. Store is clean
3. High value for money 3. Easy to find items you want
4. High quality products 4. Fast checkout
5. Easy to find items you want 5. High quality products
6. Fast checkout 6. High value for money
7. Helpful personnel 7. Fully stocked
8. Easy to return purchases 8. Helpful personnel
9. Easy to exchange purchases 9. Easy to move through store
10. Store is clean 10. Adequate number of store personnel
(Hansen and Deutscher 1977: 69).
Thus it was concluded that, in terms of which attributes are important in influencing store selection, “a number of similarities exist in what is important to shoppers in evaluating a store”
(Hansen and Deutscher 1977: 68).
Arnold, Oum and Tigert (1983: 156), however, chose to focus their efforts and research solely on the retail food industry and used the Multinomial Logit Model “to identify determinant attributes and to provide a relative ranking of these attributes across 15 consumer samples”
(Arnold et al. 1983: 149), which revealed “the finding that locational convenience and low prices are the top-ranked determinant attributes across most markets and cultures” (Arnold et al.
1983: 157). Tigert and Arnold (1981 cited in Arnold et al. 1983: 156), furthermore, conducted 14 different studies relating to the retail food sector in which “the important store characteristics were found to be locational convenience, low prices, assortment/variety, courteous helpful service, high quality merchandise, quality of fresh meat, fast checkout/fast service, cleanliness, and shopping environment” (Arnold et al. 1983: 156), with the attributes of locational convenience and low prices undoubtedly the most important of all the factors (Arnold et al.
1983: 156). These findings corroborate with what Arnold et al (1978: 665) discovered previously, but for one exception, namely the inclusion of special sales/coupons/weekly specials as one of the attributes most commonly mentioned by respondents when asked “what is the
38 single most important reason you shop at (___) for most of your food shopping?” (Arnold et al.
1978: 665).
A descriptive study conducted by Nguyen (2009: 114) investigating the attributes which influence supermarket selection in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, found that the attributes of price, locational convenience, store merchandise, store services, store personnel and reputation to be the most important and determinant in affecting grocery store selection (Nguyen 2009:
114). Redding (2009: 133), on the other hand, focused on the university student market, and thus aimed to indentify the main factors and attributes “that cause University of KwaZulu-Natal Pietermaritzburg students to choose their preferred supermarkets to buy their groceries from”.
The study found that, in order of importance, cleanliness, high quality products, value for money, selection of products offered, ease of access in store, convenient location and low prices were the most important when choosing a supermarket (Redding 2009: 134).
The following table serves as a summation of the previously mentioned attributes (from Sections 3.4.1 and 3.4.2) as potential factors influencing store choice:
Table 3. 4 Summary of Attributes
Price/Value Relationship Convenient Shopping Hours
Fashionable Merchandise Flexible Return Policies
Quality of Merchandise Availability of Credit Facilities Helpful Sales Personnel Availability of Delivery Convenient Store Location Uniqueness of Merchandise Assortment of Merchandise Well-known brands in the store
Low Prices Dependable Products
Style of Merchandise Clean Store
General Store Services Many brands available in the store Friendly Sales Personnel Store is known by friends
Store Atmosphere and Ambiance Store is recommended by Friends
Availability of Parking Company operates many stores
Low Parking Costs Advertising is Informative
Special Store Sales Advertising is Appealing
Short checkout Lanes Advertising is Believable
Reasonable Prices Time in operation
Short travel time to store Company owning the store is well-known Availability of Stock and Merchandise Store Layout
Easy to travel to store Ease of Movement through Store
Store Reputation Merchandise Displays
Attractive Store Decor Easy to find what I‟m looking for
In-store Service Store Specialisation
Each of the above-mentioned attributes has the potential to influence the selection of various retailers, whether clothing or grocery related or anything in between. The importance placed on
39 these attributes, however, may further be impacted by factors such as task definitions and the retail format.