With the rapid growth and competitiveness in the South African apparel retail industry, retailers and marketers face numerous challenges to remain competitive. Contributing to the dynamic nature of this phenomenon is the impulsive nature and individual preferences of consumers when buying apparel, which necessitate retailers to be more responsive towards consumer needs and preferences in order to attract potential, and retain existing, customers. This can be done by formulating a retail strategy that will enrich consumers' total retail experience. When developing a total retail experience, all the elements that would encourage or inhibit the consumer to buy from the retailer should be considered, which among others include the store attributes applied within the store environment. This implies that apparel retailers, and especially those selling casual wear, should identify the importance attached to store attributes of their particular target market and how satisfied they are with the attributes offered. Since consumers use store attributes during store selection, it is essential for retailers and marketers to understand consumer behaviour, and more specifically the consumer decision-making process, since store attributes are used as evaluative criteria during this process. To satisfy consumer needs, retailers should meet consumer expectations in order to generate a positive attitude towards the store, which will increase the chances of repeat patronage. Consumer expectations form an essential part throughout the consumer decision-making process, which in the end will determine whether consumers experience post-purchase satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Since consumer expectations are formed by previous experiences, marketers should ensure that they offer the necessary store attributes consumers perceive as important when purchasing products, services or selecting a store. Evidently, this will influence both consumers' satisfaction towards a certain retail store, as well as future store selection. The primary objective of this study was to determine the importance of, and satisfaction with, store attributes to black Generation X consumers when choosing a store selling casual wear. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to survey 252 black respondents at a mall in Soweto. The questionnaire aimed to determine which store attributes are important to black Generation X consumers when selecting a store selling casual wear, and how satisfied they were with the store attributes offered by the store they most often buy casual wear from. Results identified 10 reliable Importance factors when determining which factors black Generation X consumers consider when selecting a store selling casual wear, namely service provided by salespeople; check-out points, dressing. rooms, store hours and proximity to store; display of casual wear and in-store advertising; store appearance, styles, sizes and quality of casual wear; physical facilities to enhance shopping convenience; offering cell phones and accessories; music played; price of casual wear; variety of brand names and credit card facilities; and the alteration of clothing and lay-buy services. It was also found that respondents were less satisfied with certain store attributes offered by the store they most often buy their casual wear from when compared to how important these factors were to them, including service provided by salespeople, check-out points, dressing rooms, store hours and proximity to the store. It is recommended that retailers who sell casual wear to black Generation X consumers should determine which attributes are considered as important to their target market and apply it in their retail and marketing strategies accordingly. It is also recommended that stores selling casual wear should conduct research to determine whether differences exist between their target markets' demographic profile with regard to the importance of store attributes as well as their satisfaction with those attributes offered by the store. Based on these results, marketers will be able to identify the attributes consumers are not satisfied with, which gives the opportunity for improving and amending strategies and gaining a competitive advantage. Future research can focus on the importance of store attributes to black Generation X consumers or other groups in other units of analysis, such as different retail formats and industries, as well as expanding the study to include more geographic areas. / Thesis (M.Com. (Marketing Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

With the rapid growth and competitiveness in the South African apparel retail industry, retailers and marketers face numerous challenges to remain competitive. Contributing to the dynamic nature of this phenomenon is the impulsive nature and individual preferences of consumers when buying apparel, which necessitate retailers to be more responsive towards consumer needs and preferences in order to attract potential, and retain existing, customers. This can be done by formulating a retail strategy that will enrich consumers' total retail experience. When developing a total retail experience, all the elements that would encourage or inhibit the consumer to buy from the retailer should be considered, which among others include the store attributes applied within the store environment. This implies that apparel retailers, and especially those selling casual wear, should identify the importance attached to store attributes of their particular target market and how satisfied they are with the attributes offered. Since consumers use store attributes during store selection, it is essential for retailers and marketers to understand consumer behaviour, and more specifically the consumer decision-making process, since store attributes are used as evaluative criteria during this process. To satisfy consumer needs, retailers should meet consumer expectations in order to generate a positive attitude towards the store, which will increase the chances of repeat patronage. Consumer expectations form an essential part throughout the consumer decision-making process, which in the end will determine whether consumers experience post-purchase satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Since consumer expectations are formed by previous experiences, marketers should ensure that they offer the necessary store attributes consumers perceive as important when purchasing products, services or selecting a store. Evidently, this will influence both consumers' satisfaction towards a certain retail store, as well as future store selection. The primary objective of this study was to determine the importance of, and satisfaction with, store attributes to black Generation X consumers when choosing a store selling casual wear. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to survey 252 black respondents at a mall in Soweto. The questionnaire aimed to determine which store attributes are important to black Generation X consumers when selecting a store selling casual wear, and how satisfied they were with the store attributes offered by the store they most often buy casual wear from. Results identified 10 reliable Importance factors when determining which factors black Generation X consumers consider when selecting a store selling casual wear, namely service provided by salespeople; check-out points, dressing. rooms, store hours and proximity to store; display of casual wear and in-store advertising; store appearance, styles, sizes and quality of casual wear; physical facilities to enhance shopping convenience; offering cell phones and accessories; music played; price of casual wear; variety of brand names and credit card facilities; and the alteration of clothing and lay-buy services. It was also found that respondents were less satisfied with certain store attributes offered by the store they most often buy their casual wear from when compared to how important these factors were to them, including service provided by salespeople, check-out points, dressing rooms, store hours and proximity to the store. It is recommended that retailers who sell casual wear to black Generation X consumers should determine which attributes are considered as important to their target market and apply it in their retail and marketing strategies accordingly. It is also recommended that stores selling casual wear should conduct research to determine whether differences exist between their target markets' demographic profile with regard to the importance of store attributes as well as their satisfaction with those attributes offered by the store. Based on these results, marketers will be able to identify the attributes consumers are not satisfied with, which gives the opportunity for improving and amending strategies and gaining a competitive advantage. Future research can focus on the importance of store attributes to black Generation X consumers or other groups in other units of analysis, such as different retail formats and industries, as well as expanding the study to include more geographic areas. / Thesis (M.Com. (Marketing Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

The culture of America is changing now more than ever. With the Hispanic American population growing, it is important for retailers to understand how to market to these changing demographics. This study compares white Americans to Hispanic Americans in regard to store selection influences. Information sources and store attributes are analyzed as factors that influence store selection. It was found that acculturation of Hispanic American teens has created many commonalities between the two cultures. Future research could become be more in depth as to why these things occur or their effect on actual purchases.

Maintaining and increasing customer loyalty has become a crucial strategic objective for businesses due to cross-shopping and intensified competition across many industries. In the realm of grocery retailing, the necessity for retailers to invest resources towards fostering customer loyalty has reached unprecedented levels, primarily due to the proliferation of shopping formats accessible to customers. Hard discounters are among those store formats. They are stores that offer basic goods and daily necessities at the lowest prices possible while maintaining high-quality standards. Due to the tough economic times, consumers are becoming more price-oriented which makes them switch some of their shopping to hard discounters and when they do, they learn that quality, assortment, and service are actually better than expected which leads to them remaining loyal to the store when good economic times return. However, to be able to achieve and maintain loyalty, stores must first create store satisfaction. And that store satisfaction is in turn based on other factors, such as store attributes and the store's physical environment. Nevertheless, existing marketing research offers limited assistance to retail managers when it comes to maintaining loyalty for hard discounters. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to analyze which store image attributes can create store loyalty in a store environment for hard discounters within the Swedish grocery market. This study intends to explore the relationship between store attributes, store image, store satisfaction, and store loyalty within hard discounters. Towards filling this gap, a conceptual model considering the effects of store image attributes on store satisfaction and store loyalty is proposed. Data was collected from a survey of 151 Swedish shoppers at hard discounters. The data was then analyzed using IBM SPSS. when analyzing the data, the results show that the store attributes atmosphere and price had the biggest impact on store satisfaction, followed by assortment and personnel which exerts a moderately positive impact on store satisfaction. However, service did not exert a positive influence on store satisfaction. Ultimately, store satisfaction exerts a strong positive effect on store loyalty to hard discounters. In conclusion, the results indicate that there is a relationship between store image attributes, store satisfaction, and store loyalty for hard discounters in the Swedish grocery market.

Although culture and subcultural norms have been subjected to increased scrutiny in recent years as explanatory constructs for various dimensions of consumer behaviours, religion as a subsystem of culture has received only slight attention in the marketing literature. The purpose of this study was to examine the religious influences on some selected aspects of consumer behaviour. Utilising consumer behaviour model of retail patronage as a framework, religious influences on the following aspects of consumer behaviour were examined: lifestyle, use of information source, shopping orientation, store attribute importance and store patronage. Consistent with previous research, religion was viewed from two different perspectives namely religious affiliation and religiosity. Religious affiliation is the adherence of individuals to a particular religious group while religiosity, or religious commitment, is the degree in which beliefs in specific religious values and ideals are espoused and practiced by an individual. Fieldwork for this study was carried out in Malaysia where the populace contains sizable percentages of adherents to four of the world’s leading religions, namely Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. The research data was collected by means of a survey through personal interviews with a structured questionnaire. Out of three hundred respondents targeted, two hundred and twenty-six questionnaires were deemed usable for statistical analysis. Statistical tests were calculated using statistical procedures of SPSS version 11.5. The main statistical techniques used include exploratory factor analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), multivariate ANOVA and multiple linear regression analysis. Findings indicated significant differences between religious affiliation groups in the areas of lifestyle, store attributes and store patronage. Significant differences between religiosity groups were also revealed in the areas of lifestyle, information source, shopping orientation and importance of store attributes. The usefulness of religious variables was further tested using multiple linear regression analysis with demographics and lifestyles were entered as extraneous variables. Results indicated that when the effect of other predictor variables were explicitly controlled (i.e. held constant) during the regression analysis, religious affiliation appeared to influence the perceived importance of store attributes. Intrapersonal religiosity, when controlling for the effect of other predictor variables, appeared to influence the use of information source, shopping orientation and perceived importance of store attributes. Similarly, interpersonal religiosity, when controlling for the effect of other predictor variables, was found to influence the use of information source, shopping orientation and importance of store attributes. Overall, findings indicated that consumer religiosity, as compared to religious affiliation, was more useful in predicting aspects of retail patronage activities. Thus it is suggested that religiosity variable should be given consideration in future patronage behaviour model building and research efforts. The implications of these results for theories of consumer behaviour along with the practical implications of the findings were discussed and opportunities for future research were provided.

Gamification is a concept that is gaining significant recognition in the field of business administration in general and marketing in particular. Gamification has been gaining the interest of researchers recently with mostof the studies being conducted during the last three years. Gamification presents an opportunity for businesses to gain consumers’ attention and engagement through different aspects and elements of it. Organizations such as Pinchos, the restaurant have utilized those gaming elements in order to grow their revenues and keep the customers engaged while ordering food. Despite the exponential growth of gamification in the business world, studies on its marketing effectiveness and the influence of its elementsare lacking.To fill this gapin the literature, this researchaims to gain a deeper understanding of gamification and its different elements, byfocusingon the utilization of gamification as a digital marketing tool to enhance customer loyalty and retention in retail store setting. Therefore, this researchaimsfirst to identify all the factorsaffecting store choice. Second, identify and examine the different factors affecting retail store loyalty. Finally, the differentelements of gamificationare identifiedand their effect on loyalty are studied.In order to fulfil thepurpose of the studywe have collaborated with ChildrensHouse, a retail toy store located in Umea, Sweden, in order to gain insights from current and potential customers. A quantitative study was conducted,and the sample population chosen was generation Y parents, due to their digital literacy. To add a degree of credibility to the research, a short interview with Simon, the owner of ChildrensHouse, was conducted in order to gain managerial insights as well.The main conclusions of this research include,the different factors affecting retail toy store choices which were: store attributes, product attributesand demographics; the factors influencing loyaltywhich were: interpersonal communications, impersonal communications, direct experience, distance, value for moneyand engagement in gamified applications. Finally, the research results indicate that gamification when utilized as an engagement application will enhance customer retention and store loyalty.