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Small retail stores in the luxury market face significant challenges due to fluctuations in market demand. This task turns challenging as it requires effectively coordinating and translating customer needs into specific requirements that align with retail goals and available resources. However, limited empirical research exists investigating how managers can address service value and quality attributes in small retail stores. This article aims to bridge this gap by investigating the role of quality function deployment (QFD) in improving market and quality requirements management in small retail stores.

Based on the case study, a customer survey was initially conducted to gather information on critical characteristics valued in the luxury retail segment. QFD was used to assist the company in identifying and prioritizing key quality attributes to meet customer requirements effectively.

The findings demonstrate that implementing QFD in small luxury retail stores empowers managers to identify previously neglected product and service quality aspects. The article shows that QFD informs organizational adaptations that align with the demands of the retail market, leading to an improved ability to meet customer expectations and enhance customer value through the development of enhanced products and services. The study showcases the efficacy of the tested methodology in effectively capturing and prioritizing both tangible and intangible customer needs in retail.

Findings offer valuable insights to retail managers of small luxury stores, providing actionable market-oriented strategies. By implementing the recommended practices, managers can improve the store’s competitiveness and better cater to the customer base.

This study contributes to bridging persistent knowledge gaps by addressing the unique context of small luxury retail stores and introducing the application of QFD in this setting. The insights gained from this research are relevant to both retailing and quality management literature. Considering the growing prevalence of transformations in the retail industry, the study provides practical implications for retail managers in effectively navigating these changes.

This empirical research, adopting an international retailing perspective, aims to examine the parenting advantages offered by emerging market multinationals (EMNCs) in luxury fashion retail sector.

The researchers adopted a qualitative case study, and the qualitative data were collected through ten semi-structured interviews with senior managers.

It is a win–win situation for the EMNCs as parent groups of Western luxury fashion brands, as the EMNCs can access critical assets including advanced brand management expertise, retailing know-how, and the services skills needed for higher income consumers. Meanwhile, the subsidiary brands benefit from a high degree of autonomy, intra-group resource utilisation, a competitive brand portfolio and most importantly economies of scales in the value chain, particularly in production. The perceived risks of EMNCs ownership include potentially restricted autonomy and the uncertainty over corporate development activities in the future, as well as the risks of diluting brand image caused by the inconsistency between country of origin and country of ownership.

Very few EMNCs have moved into luxury fashion retailing to date, which means that the sampling frame was small. The findings were generated from China, which is perceived to be of considerable psychic distance in terms of culture and policies compared to other emerging markets that have been heavily influenced by colonialism.

This paper suggests that practitioners, particularly EMNCs, support their subsidiary luxury fashion brands through parenting advantages and develop their own high-end fashion brands through internationalisation.

This empirical study contributes to the current international retailing literature by offering in depth insights of parenting advantages offered by EMNCs in luxury fashion retailing. It also enriches the EMNC literature, which has mainly adopted an international business scope, by extending this understanding into luxury fashion retailing.

The study explores the influence of shopping channels on the hedonic shopping experience, contributing to subjective well-being (SWB) based on the purchased branded product. It also assesses the variations in these effects according to brand luxury. The purpose of the paper is to provide strategic suggestions for building luxury apparel distribution tactics that balance maintaining brand luxury with business growth through both physical stores and digital stores (e-retail).

Based on 418 samples collected in Japan, consumers' perceptions of hedonic shopping value and SWB are examined according to two channel factors, such as physical retail vs e-retail and mono-brand stores vs multi-brand stores. Additionally, the moderation effects of brand luxury are discussed.

Multi-group path analyses reveal that physical mono-brand stores contribute to hedonic shopping value. In addition, this experiential value is found to increase SWB, especially when the brand luxury level is high.

These findings suggest that managers should place a high level of importance on consumers' shopping experiences via physical direct retail especially in the case of a higher luxury level, even in today's highly developed digital environment.

The current study uniquely discusses the effects of shopping channels and experiences on SWB based on an acquired branded product, i.e., an evaluation of the outcome of shopping behavior and product acquisition. The study also reinforces the importance of physical stores suggested in previous luxury research.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the decision-making process used by luxury fashion retail buyers in Greece in order to assess the applicability of Sheth's (1981) model to the selection of brands and collections by retail buyers in luxury fashion resellers.

The study takes an interpretive approach, utilising participant observation and semi-structured interviews with retail buyers in five luxury fashion reseller companies in Greece, which boasts the world's highest proportion of luxury fashion consumers. Qualitative data were analysed thematically according to the theoretical constructs in Sheth's (1981) model of merchandise buyer behaviour.

Brand reputation, quality, appropriateness for the market and exclusive distribution were the most important criteria for supplier selection. For evaluating merchandise, the most important criteria were design, style, fashionability and quality. The most relevant influencer of decision making in supplier selection was the competitive structure in terms of the power balance between retailer and brand. For merchandise selection, the most relevant influencing factors were retailer size, management mentality, product positioning and type of decision (re-buy or new task).

Due to the exploratory nature of the study and its focus on the context of a particular geographical marketplace, the findings may not be generalised to other countries.

This paper provides an insight into the decision-making practice of retail buyers in Greek luxury fashion retailers, where the buying task involves balancing the retailer's commercial interests with a more cultural role in terms of shaping fashion trends and generating PR and publicity for the retailer. The task is further complicated by the power imbalance between retailer and brand, enabling brands to impose limitations on the buyer's decision. Additionally, the combined influence of shortening product life cycles, increasing product variety and the emergence of a new and younger luxury fashion consumer requires a shift from intuitive to scientific, data-driven decision making.

This empirical study aims to examine luxury fashion retailers' localised multiple channel distribution strategies in China.

Through case studies of 15 participating retailers, qualitative data were collected from 33 semi-structured interviews.

Strong impacts of internationalisation strategies, distribution strategies and channel length towards multiple channel retailing are revealed. Multi-channel retailing is widely employed by firms who have entered China and further developed their businesses through local partnerships and adopted a selective distribution strategy via relatively longer channels. Omni-channel retailing is only suitable for the few retailers using an exclusive distribution strategy through direct marketing and wholly owned customer relationship management. As a dynamic transformation from multi- to omni-channel retailing, cross-channel retailing is adopted by those who are withdrawing from local partnerships and shifting to wholly owned expansions and operations in host markets.

The results are potentially challenged by relatively small sample size.

Practitioners are suggested to adapt multiple channel retailing to their international expansion strategies, distribution strategies and channel length in the host markets.

This paper contributes to the literature in both multiple channel retailing and international retailing by offering insights into the motives, development patterns and suitability of multiple channel retailing in the international retail marketing context.

The aim of this study is to investigate the psychographic factors of shopping enjoyment, market mavenism and consumer innovativeness and their influence on hedonic and utilitarian values, attitudes and patronage intentions of the small concept luxury department (SCLD) store.

The researchers utilized a quantitative method. An online survey was created and distributed over a three-week period to a representative sample of US luxury consumers. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypothesized relationships among variables.

The theory of reasoned action (TRA) theoretical framework provided an effective model to investigate the perspectives and behaviors of luxury consumers within the SCLD. The findings of this study suggest the SCLD is an effective store format for consumers who are characterized as market mavens, are considered innovative and enjoy shopping.

The findings from this research are beneficial to luxury department store retailers looking to invest resources into a new experiential format to appeal to their consumer base.

The research extends the literature in a rapidly evolving area of retail formats and consumer perception by exploring psychographic factors, including shopping enjoyment, market mavenism and consumer innovativeness, and their impact on the beliefs regarding retail formats' hedonic and utilitarian value.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which luxury brand retailers use new technologies as a tool for corporate marketing communication.

The authors used a multiple-case study approach consisting of five information-rich cases, with the similar characteristics of large firms selling luxury brands which are aware of the importance of innovation. In each company, the authors interviewed the key person in charge of marketing innovation strategies and collected data from annual reports, press releases and direct observation of all the new technology categories used.

The findings of this paper reveal that this sector is considerably aware of the benefits of using new media as a marketing communication tool, while the effective use of these new media is still limited.

This paper provides an empirical contribution to the emerging topic of innovation and technology management in retailing, with the emphasis being placed on the luxury sector through an in-depth investigation of the usage of new technologies by the firms studied.

This paper is the first one investigating thoroughly the luxury sector usage of new technologies to improve corporate marketing communication.

Employing the qualitative method, this paper sets out to investigate the role and function of flagship stores as a market entry mechanism employed by luxury fashion retailers.

The paper employs an interpretive research position, utilising qualitative techniques in the form of semi‐structured interviews with élite informants. In total, 12 luxury fashion retailers form the empirical focus of the work.

The paper identifies the defining characteristics of luxury retailers' flagship stores. It finds that luxury flagship stores represent a strategic approach to market entry that is employed to support, enhance and develop distribution activities within a foreign market. The interdependence of flagship stores and the wholesaling method of distribution is highlighted. The importance of the flagship store in reinforcing and enhancing the retailer's luxury status and enhancing and maintaining relationships not only with customers but also with distribution partners and the fashion media is found to be significant.

The paper provides practical information to luxury retailers on the role and importance of flagship stores as a method of entering international markets.

Flagship stores are a pivotal aspect of any luxury fashion retailer's internationalisation strategy. For the first time in the literature, the paper provides insights into their form and function and an understanding of why they are crucial to the international development of luxury retailers despite their prohibitively high cost.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the strategic role of the flagship store geographic location in improving luxury brand positioning.

Drawing on the literature review on flagship store format, retail geography and place marketing, the study adopted a qualitative research design based on case studies of six luxury fashion retailers. A conceptual framework of flagship store location has been proposed, and the flagship store locations of these case studies have been examined in six worldwide capitals.

The presence and the geographical proximity of many flagship stores in the same particular urban area contribute to developing a “luxury sense of place” related to their brands. Thus, through a co-branding strategy inherent in the selection of the best site for their flagship stores, luxury firms improve their brands’ positioning by the generated “luxury sense of place”.

The principal limitation of the research is the scale of the case studies, but the findings show the feasibility of extending the research basis to a larger number of luxury retailers.

This study addresses an under-researched area in the retail literature, investigating the relationship between flagship store location and luxury branding. It is the only research to explore the social dimension of the geographic location of luxury flagship stores and the first one to examine cities in terms of flagship store density.