The influence of new trends in store atmospherics on customer experience in a convenience store environment in Portugal

• Autor(a) principal: Narendra, Dharmite Tushar
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/14609
• topic: Marketing; Estratégias de marketing; Lojas de conveniência; Comportamento do consumidor; Customer experience; Store atmosphere; Future trends; Convenience store

Delivering an enhanced customer experience is a growing concern in today’s marketing world. There is enough scientific evidence and not scientific, that the influence of customer experience depends on the efforts made by firms in several aspects, and one of the most influencing is the store atmosphere that affects customer’s buying decision, depending on the type of business or store format frequented. Therefore, the main purpose of this dissertation is to study the influence of future trends in store atmosphere on Portuguese population in a Gas Station Convenience Store (also known as c-store) context. To achieve the goal of this dissertation, an intensive literature and empirical research was conducted. Henceforward, a Focus Group and Virtual Reality based experiments were carried as exploratory and qualitative methods. Findings revealed that out of a bunch of new trends, some may result better than others in a C-Store. Trends like Front-line Employees-Customer Interaction created value for customers, Digital Signage captured attention, Hybrid Store could enhance visits to the store, Interactive Screens could be a high utility solution and Co-Creation enhanced satisfaction. Only New Payment Methods were not very well accepted due to the lack of trust on security issues. It was found that results are influenced by the number of visits or the amount of knowhow that customers hold about a certain store. A common pattern was found out to be consistent between the people that visited the store every day. Consequently, managers should understand not only which trends fits best their store/business according to their business mission (i.e. convenience stores are meant to be fast, convenient and efficient) but also how it affects each and every customer that visits their outlet. Findings also revealed that it doesn’t matter what strategies are used to manipulate the store ambiance if some main principles such as the price strategies and the products offered are not completely what customers are willing to pay for. As Adcock et al., (2001: 1) would say the customer wants “the right product, in the right place, at the right price and at the right time”.