Retail format selection in on-the-go shopping situations

Sabine Benoit, Heiner Evanschitzky, Christoph Teller

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Consumers patronize different store formats to purchase products. Prior literature describes store and format choices for big, multi-item shopping baskets, but limited insights determine consumers' unique shopping routines when they seek to buy just one or a few items while on the go. Such shopping situations might affect consumers' format selections for both search and experience goods. This study uses multi-attribute utility theory to develop a framework, tested with a scenario-based experiment. For search goods, a format's economic utility (price level, speed) is more important; its functional utility (quality, variety) and psychological utility (atmosphere, service) become less important considerations. Furthermore, the tolerable range of formats is larger for search goods. The level of on-the-go purchase and consumption frequency moderates these effects. Therefore, this research helps to clarify what drives consumers' format selections in on-the-go shopping situations, with useful managerial insights for how retailers can compete in the growing on-the-go market.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)268-278
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Business Research
Volume100
Early online date10 Apr 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2019

Bibliographical note

© 2019, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Keywords

  • Choice
  • Experiments
  • Food
  • On-the-go consumption
  • Retail format
  • Shopping situation

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