Consumers with vulnerabilities: in-store satisfaction of visually impaired and legally blind
ISSN: 0887-6045
Article publication date: 12 July 2021
Issue publication date: 6 October 2021
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper, focusing on the visually impaired and legally blind consumer, is to explore the relationship between the perceived consumer vulnerability on customer satisfaction and the effect of satisfaction on the intention of repurchase and recommendation as the determinants of store loyalty in an apparel store context.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted on 216 visually impaired and legally blind consumers in the province of Manisa, Turkey, concerning their apparel shopping store experiences to examine how the perceived vulnerability influences visually impaired and legally blind consumers’ satisfaction, recommendation and repurchase intentions. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results of the study revealed that as the visually impaired and legally blind consumers perceive themselves more vulnerable, they become more satisfied with the store, and that the more they are satisfied with the store, the more their intention to recommend that store and purchase intention from that store increases. However, the authors’ investigation showed no significant differences between the consumers who were born blind and who became blind later in their life.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the literature by extending the understanding of visually impaired and legally blind consumers’ perceived vulnerability in the brick-and-mortar stores and demonstrates how it is related to satisfaction as a major driver of post-purchase intentions like recommendation and repurchase. It also exhibits the fact that blind consumers – both congenitally blind and subsequently blind – cope with this vulnerability through their own solutions to go on their lives, and they do not perceive themselves as vulnerable, as it is perceived by the able-bodied.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for the cooperation and support of Manisa Six Point Society for the Blind in reaching the visually impaired consumers and gathering the data from its registered members.
Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Citation
Celik, A.A. and Yakut, E. (2021), "Consumers with vulnerabilities: in-store satisfaction of visually impaired and legally blind", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 35 No. 6, pp. 821-833. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-05-2020-0191
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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