In‐store shopping experience in China and France: The impact of habituation in an emerging country

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the hypotheses about whether the effects of consumer enjoyment shopping experience, derived from seven aspects of recreational shopping (i.e. social aspects of retail environment, service quality, browsing, bargain hunting, social interaction, enduring involvement and brand experience) on consumer attitude towards stores channels are comparable between France and Chinese cosmetic shoppers.

Design/methodology/approach

To achieve this objective, a questionnaire of 500 French and 480 Chinese working females were conducted. Both the convergence and habituation theories were applied.

Findings

Results of the multiple regression analysis support the above assumptions and suggest that customer enjoyment shopping experience and its relation with consumer attitudes towards store channels in China tends to be more in line with those in developed countries.

Research limitations/implications

The findings presented are the views of women's in‐store enjoyment shopping experiences in two cities in French and Chinese cosmetic markets. To ensure the generalizability of the findings, other products, consumer groups and regions (i.e. Indian etc.) can be envisaged.

Practical implications

Multinational retailers and cosmetics vendors have to recognize these customer enjoyment shopping experiences in both retail settings. In particular in the Chinese retail market, to improve these experiences so as to achieve positive consumer attitude towards retail outlets and finally strike the deal in this numerous market.

Originality/value

This paper is the first to employ convergent and habituation theory to examine the stability or change of the aforesaid relation between China and France. Hence, it adds to international marketing theory concerning the usefulness of these growing important theories in explaining the comparability between developed countries and developing ones in relation between constructs.

Citation

Ling Xu‐Priour, D. and Cliquet, G. (2013), "In‐store shopping experience in China and France: The impact of habituation in an emerging country", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 41 No. 9, pp. 706-732. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-05-2013-0108