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Received wisdom is that retail change starts in America and later spreads to major western European countries. This was certainly true until the early 1970s when France took the lead in innovation, blinding the retail world with its dazzling regional shopping centres and its massive hypermarkets. To this day the Americans have not succeeded in selling food and non‐food under the same roof with the same panache as the French. But in recent years the Americans have revived their capacity for innovation, especially in the development of speciality chains, some of them sharply focussed in marketing terms and closely supported by the latest in automated systems. Then again, in supermarkets there has been the development of different formats within specific store type categories, of which the food‐drug combination store and the “hybrid” warehouse store are two interesting examples. Lastly there have been significant technological developments in cable TV and viewdata systems, and a number of test teleshopping systems are already in operation. In this first of an irregular series of articles on American retailing, Dr David Rogers outlines these changes, some of which will be discussed in more detail in subsequent features.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Hispanic consumers' shopping orientations and their apparel retail store evaluation criteria and to examine age and gender differences in their shopping orientations and retail store evaluation criteria.

A structured questionnaire was developed to collect data on the variables in the study. The questionnaire was developed both in English and Spanish. Factor analysis was employed to identify Hispanic consumers' shopping orientations and their retail store evaluation criteria. Pillai's trace multivariate analyses of variance were used to examine the hypotheses.

Six shopping orientation constructs and three constructs of store evaluation criteria were identified. The results revealed that males and females have different shopping orientations and apparel retail store evaluation criteria. Shopping orientation and apparel retail store evaluation criteria also varied across the age groups.

This study has practical implications for apparel retailers regarding how to position their stores in targeting different groups of shoppers and how to allocate their resources and promote products. Additionally, the findings of the study will reveal how to provide an optimal shopping experience to Hispanic consumers so that apparel retailers can develop localized marketing strategies to target the areas with a large Hispanic population.

Despite the importance of understanding Hispanic consumers' apparel shopping behavior, little research has been conducted.

To examine the effect of utilitarian and hedonic shopping benefits on customer satisfaction, loyalty, and word of mouth communication in a retail branded context.

A sample of young adult consumers (N=276) was surveyed using a self‐administered questionnaire. Statistical techniques (confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling) were used to evaluate the data.

Statistical models indicate support for significant, positive relationships between utilitarian and hedonic shopping benefits, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and word of mouth communication.

Limitations of this study include the use of a college student sample and confinement to the specialty apparel retail branded purchasing context. The findings are useful because links between the delivery of shopping benefits (e.g. hedonic and utilitarian) and important outcome variables (e.g. customer satisfaction, loyalty, and word of mouth communication) are demonstrated.

In the increasingly competitive environment faced by today's retailers, the pursuit of customer loyalty is paramount. In order to be competitive, retailers must identify the key antecedents to customer loyalty and the relationships between the benefits delivered to the consumer and important outcomes (e.g. satisfaction, word of mouth communication). The findings of this study contribute to the development of an organizing framework for such relationships, which is exceptionally important for retailers.

This paper undertakes an empirical examination of the effect of shopping benefits on several outcome variables. The paper is unique because of the relative newness of the context in which the study was conducted (retail branded products).

The purpose of the study was to identify the apparel shopping styles of Ghanaian female young adults and to assess the applicability of the consumer styles inventory (CSI) within the Ghanaian context.

A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 405 Ghanaian female undergraduate students aged 18–25 years from the University of Ghana. The CSI was used to collect data and these were analyzed using principal component analysis.

The results showed that the subjects adopted multiple shopping styles when scouting for stores and selecting apparel for managing their appearance. Seven of the CSI dimensions were confirmed (perfectionism, brand consciousness, novelty-fashion consciousness, confused by over-choice, impulsive carelessness, recreational hedonism and habitual brand loyalty). A new shopping style, indifference shopping orientation was identified.

Market segmentation, product development and marketing strategies should be tailored to the shopping styles of female young consumers in Ghana.

This study, for the first time, uses the consumer characteristic approach and the CSI to identify the apparel decision-making styles of young adult female Ghanaians. This fulfils the need for the study of shopping styles, which is vital for producers and marketers to enable them to make informed decisions to meet specific needs and expectations of these cohorts of consumers.

Defines and discusses quick response (QR), with its relationship to vendor partnering, short‐cycle manufacturing, demand‐flow manufacturing, “virtual integration”, re‐engineering, just‐in‐time and efficient consumer response as an introduction to the results of a study on which firms are implementing QR and at what stage they are regarding their implementation strategy. The results of the study show that 73 per cent of the responding retailers claimed to be implementing some phase of QR. Implementation is slow, however, with only two of 15 QR components reported to be as much as half‐implemented among the retail respondents.

Sporting goods retailing is a significant sector within the sport industry with the total revenue of this sector reaching $52.2 billion in 2018. Beset with formidable competition, sporting goods stores are compelled to augment their merchandise with service and improve retail quality. The purpose of this study is to investigate retail quality of sporting goods stores (RQSGS).

Based on 27,793 online reviews of 1481 stores in the United States, this study used Leximancer 4.0, a text mining software, to identify critical retail quality dimensions associated with sporting goods stores, and further explored the most salient dimensions among different levels of ratings.

Customer service and store aspects are the two higher-order dimensions of RQSGS; holistic experience, manager and staff are three themes under customer service, and product, B&M store and online–offline integration are three themes under store aspects. Furthermore, extreme reviews focus more on customer service, whereas lukewarm reviews focus more on store aspects.

Knowledgeable staff, managers and online–offline integration are instrumental in creating superior retail quality. Sporting goods stores should enhance hedonic and social values for consumers in order to ward off online competitions.

This study explored retail quality dimensions that are pertinent to sporting goods retailing utilizing text mining methods. This study to certain extent cross-validated the existing retailing literature that is developed on alternative methods.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors affecting male fashion leadership behaviour. The study examined the effect of fashion consciousness, fashion knowledge, mood enhancement, decision-making confidence and brand switching as the psychological factors. It also included the influence of behavioural factors such as the information sources, attributes of purchasing fashion clothing and type of retailers on male fashion leadership.

The data were collected through a structured questionnaire distributed in the main shopping districts of Beirut, Lebanon, during March 2012.

The study uncovered that fashion consciousness, fashion knowledge, confidence in decision making and mood enhancement are to be the most important psychological factors influencing male fashion leadership behaviour. The study also found that frequency of reading fashion magazines is negatively and significantly affecting fashion leadership. Male fashion leaders use colleagues and friends as the main information sources for fashion. The effect of attractiveness, brand name, store image and quality of clothing is positive and significant whilst value for money negatively and significantly influences male fashion leadership. Male fashion leaders mainly shop from specialty shops, chain stores, department stores and the internet.

Although there are a handful of studies which examined female fashion leadership, the male fashion leadership concept has not been extensively addressed in the literature. In an attempt to at least partially address this, the study attempts to identify the factors affecting male fashion leadership behaviour in Lebanon.

This study investigated how Chinese retailers perceive their foreign brand apparel suppliers and explored the use of power theory for explaining these relationships. A survey of 150 apparel retailers operating in Beijing, China provided data for the study. Referent power positively influenced retailers' attitudes toward and non‐economic satisfaction with their suppliers. Greater referent power also reduced channel conflict and enhanced economic satisfaction with business performance. The importance of this source of power seems to be linked with the concept of guanxi in China, where respectful relationships are valued. Coercive threats to withhold necessary merchandise, service, or contracts increased channel conflict. Surprisingly, greater channel conflict was associated with increased economic satisfaction with business performance. This relationship is contemplated from a cultural perspective and recommendations are made to foreign brand apparel manufacturers wishing to access China's retail market.

To cope with the complexity of modern retail stores and personal time constraints, shoppers must be selective in processing information. During a typical shopping trip, they visit only a fraction of a store’s departments and categories, examine a small subset of the available products, and often make selections in just a few seconds. New research techniques can help marketers understand how customers allocate their attention and assess the impact of in-store factors on shopper behavior. This chapter summarizes studies using observational research, virtual reality simulations, and eye tracking to identify the drivers of shopper attention, product engagement, and purchase conversion. These include shopper goals; product assortment, package appearance, price, and merchandising; shelf space allocation, organization, and adjacencies; and salesperson interaction. The research reveals that small changes in a product’s appearance and presentation can have a powerful impact on consideration and choice.

In the ten years since its formulation, quick response has made only limited progress despite its well‐demonstrated benefits to the apparel pipeline. Explores the reasons for the delays in implementation and the current state of the art. Examines the steps necessary for further progress in light of likely developments in technology and consumer‐driven retail strategies.