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The purpose of this paper is to address the following issue: “Does the products’ perceived quality influences the consumer behaviour in the specialty retailing setting?”

For this purpose, the authors propose and empirically test a conceptual model on the creation of consumer satisfaction and loyalty in specialty retailing, to examine the influence of products’ quality perception and its potential moderating role. Data were analysed through structural equation modelling on a sample of 592 consumers

The findings show that the store-based attributes have different influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty, according to the quality perception of products, and suggest the moderating role of products’ perceived quality.

Retailing managers may use the product’s perceived quality as a segmentation variable in the specialty food retailing context.

The major contribution of this paper is the empirical analysis of one subjective customer-based variable in the specialty retailing setting.

The purpose of this paper is to address the following question: “Does purchase frequency influence consumer behaviour in the specialty food retailing setting?”, since purchase frequency is a consumer-based undertaken variable. For this purpose, the authors provide and empirically test a conceptual model focussed on specialty food retailing.

Data were collected through a structured questionnaire in the USA, gathering 592 valid responses and analysis was developed through structural equation modelling.

Findings indicate that satisfaction and loyalty towards specialty food stores are strongly influenced by consumers’ purchase frequency of specialty food products. Additionally, the findings support the moderating role of purchase frequency on the relationship between store service and satisfaction, as well as on the link store environment satisfaction.

Specialty food retailers should carry out marketing strategies focussing on consumer behaviour and segmentation could be developed considering purchase frequency.

The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast customer perceptions related to satisfaction with conventional grocery stores as compared to specialty grocery stores. The study examines store attributes of product assortment, price, quality, and service in order to determine which attributes have the greatest impact on store satisfaction for each store format.

A mail survey was sent to a sample of specialty and conventional grocery store customers. The ten state sample was drawn from US households located in postal (ZIP) codes in areas where national specialty stores (e.g. whole foods) were located.

Perception of satisfaction were higher among specialty grocery store customers compared to conventional grocery store customers. For both store formats, store price, product assortment, service and quality positively influenced satisfaction. Stepwise regression indicated that each store attribute contributed differently to store satisfaction for conventional and specialty store formats.

The results demonstrate that price, product assortment, quality, and employee service influence store satisfaction regardless of store type (conventional stores or specialty stores). However, the degree of influence of these attributes varied by store type. The results imply that while specialty store shopper satisfaction characteristics are clearly delineated, conventional store shopper characteristics are more difficult to pinpoint. Research limitations include a sample that is more highly educated and has higher incomes than the average American household.

Despite the growth of new product categories and new industry players, few studies have investigated customer satisfaction within the retail food industry. Comparisons of specialty and conventional food stores are equally scarce.

Identifying the patterns of retail institutional change has piqued the interest of retail academics for nearly a century. The Big Middle hypothesis is one of the most recent and hybridized versions of similar theories. According to it, retailers seeking a dominant position in retailing can migrate into the Big Middle, the largest market segment, by specializing in a large market with a broad product assortment or by focusing on a specific product category and simultaneously catering for multiple segments at the same time. This study provides empirical evidence for the latter proposition by employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on the case of UNIQLO, a Japanese clothing specialist retailing giant.

The authors devised a survey to assess (1) consumers' perceptions of UNIQLO's store attributes and (2) their perceived distance between the UNIQLO and potential competitors. The authors used fsQCA procedures to identify multiple confluences of causal conditions that led to a high level of consumer patronage for UNIQLO from various market segments.

The findings show that UNIQLO's dominance in the Big Middle stems not only from capturing a sizable homogeneous market but from aggregating multiple heterogeneous market segments with disparities of various types. This finding explains how a specialty store retailer achieves its Big Middle position.

The findings gleaned from fsQCA are not statistically generalisable. It, therefore, is essential to ensure whether similar phenomena are observed under different spatiotemporal settings. Concerning the scope of the research, this study's finding is pertinent to only one part of the Big Middle hypothesis. Future studies are required to cover other dimensions of the Big Middle, including the generalist retailer's cases of the Big Middle.

The results of this study may present a valuable tool to deepen retailers' understandings on; (1) the multiple causal recipes of customer patronages to their retail offerings, (2) who the pure fans of their stores are, (3) who their principal rivals are in the mind space of the consumers, and (4) their overall market position upon aiming to realise the Big Middle. It will give retail managers an insight into how to design, implement, and churn an efficient and effective RBM.

The study's originality is in empirically scrutinizing and elaborating a part of the mechanism of retail change heralded by the Big Middle hypothesis.

Examines the differences between consumers′ expectations and perceptions of service quality they received when shopping apparel specialty stores. Also takes into account consumer demographic characteristics. Utilizes SERVQUAL scale and methodology developed by Parasuraman et al., (1991). Calculates gap scores by subtracting the expectation scores from the perception scores. Using a factor analysis procedure, four determinants of service quality emerged: (1) Personal Attention; (2) Reliability; (3) Tangibles; and (4) Convenience. Findings indicate greatest disparity between expectations and perceptions for the Personal Attention factor. Consumer demographic characteristics of race, marital status, and income provided significant differences between expectations and perceptions for Reliability and Convenience. Also considers the importance of service as a patronage criterion for apparel specialty store consumers. Indicates that service ranked third in importance behind merchandise assortment and price.

The purpose of this paper is to identify selected store attributes of activewear specialty retailers that impact consumers’ satisfaction, which in turn influence word-of-mouth (WOM) and retail patronage behavior.

Using an on-site store intercept, 150 responses were collected to answer hypothesized relationships. An exploratory factor analysis was first performed followed by a confirmatory factor analysis and a structural equation analysis.

Results revealed that sales employees and store atmosphere attributes of activewear specialty stores had a positive influence on consumer satisfaction, which in turn had a direct impact on WOM and repatronage intentions for activewear specialty stores. Therefore, in order to satisfy consumers, activewear specialty retailers need to ensure that they provide an attractive and pleasant shopping atmosphere. Furthermore, satisfied consumers are likely to spread positive WOM about the retailer and display their intention to revisit the store in the future. The authors conclude by discussing the results and suggest implications and future research directions.

The findings of this research shed light on the managerial implications for activewear specialty retailers with regards to marketing strategies and consumers’ attitudes.

The article attempts to synthesise major developments in global retailing and presents a scenario of important global trends since the 1960s. Implications are also offered for international retailers.

This exploratory study examines the relative importance of the evaluative criteria used by U.S. apparel specialty retailers in the selection of international markets. Specific competitive, cost, government and market factors that influence international expansion by U.S. apparel specialty retailers are identified. A purposive sample of U.S. apparel specialty retailers identified multiple cost and market criteria as important to international expansion decisionmaking, thus suggesting that real estate, construction, infrastructure, labor, and operation costs as well as age of population, household expenditures on clothing, total population, official language, and percentage of population living in urban areas all contribute to market selection. Patterns of international expansion among U.S. apparel specialty retailers and the role of cultural distance in retailers’ selection of countries for first international market entry were also explored. Findings provide insight into the importance of cultural similarity among retailers’ home country and countries of selection for entry, as well as into U.S. retailers' sense of social responsibility as it relates to their international expansion activities.

Online shopping is one of the most rapidly growing forms of shopping and provides a global shop window for producers who wish to sell and market their products. This paper seeks to investigate the internet as an alternative distribution channel for Irish producers of speciality food products.

Primary data collection involved consumer focus groups, a producer web audit, producer depth interviews and an e‐mailed online producer survey.

Consumers of speciality food appear to trade off the convenience and variety potentially available with online shopping for the sales experience associated with more traditional outlets, particularly speciality food outlets and direct sales channels. Nonetheless, the internet can be a significant sales channel for some speciality food producers with products of specific attributes, e.g. high value goods, and products with elaborate and gift‐oriented packaging and for those targeting consumers with previous purchase experience. For the majority of producers, the internet can complement other marketing channels and its role in managing information and relationships may be more important than online sales. Significant challenges exist for speciality food producers to use the internet as a significant sales channel.

The paper considers food as a category comprising a number of different types of products based on their search, credence and experience characteristics. It applies this categorisation to speciality food and examines the influence of these characteristics on the role of the internet as both a sales and marketing channel in Ireland. It uses both consumer and producer perspectives in the analysis.

The unconventional concept of leasing temporary retail space has taken the retailing world by storm in the past decade. In addition to permanent retail space (in‐line stores), many shopping centre management staff have leased temporary retail space as a form of maximizing the net lettable area of the shopping malls, thus hoping to reap better returns for the real estate investors. Using Singapore as the study area, this paper aims to investigate shoppers' perceptions of in‐line stores (permanent retail space) and comparing them to their perceptions of retail carts (temporary retail space) in shopping centres.

To examine shoppers' perceptions of in‐line stores and retail carts, the paper adopts a mixed method sequential design by way of qualitative/quantitative sequence.

In terms of image structures, in‐line stores and retail carts share three common image dimensions, namely, “atmosphere”, “variety of product” and “service quality”. In‐line stores recorded an additional factor, “value”. However, the shoppers displayed better perception ratings towards all retail space attributes and factors of in‐line stores relative to that of the retail carts. In addition, the data also revealed that age of the shoppers has a direct influence on shoppers' perceptions of retail carts and in‐line stores.

The findings not only add to the current retail literature, but will also aid retail industry players in improving their marketing and overall tenant‐mix structures for more successful leasing strategies. This will maximize the usage of retail real estate space that may in turn result in higher returns for real estate investors.