Literature Review for Woolworths Research Essay - 1

Literature Review for Woolworths Research - Essay Example Marketing scholars and practitioners have long agreed that the factors which determine a customer’s decision to shop in a specific store are integral as it not only where customers choose to shop, but also what they shop and how much they buy. The key factors identified that influence customer’s store choice behavior include store price, store assortments, convenience in location, availability, and a variety of merchandise, value added store services, personal interaction, physical appearance and promotional activities in such stores. This factor comes third after location convenience and low prices. Assortment size may be in terms of a broad ray of products and the retail price formats which may be either promotional pricing format (Hi-Lo) where prices change with changing seasons, or it may be everyday price format (EDLP) where prices are lower than competitors. Indeed in their analysis of price formats on store patronage, Bell, Ho and Tang (1998) showed that customer s often traded off between lower prices and convenience where they would most likely visit a Hi-Lo store when they are purchasing less, and hence convenience beets price or they would most likely choose EDLP stores when they are purchasing more irrespective of the location of the store, hence low price beats convenience. Briesch, Chintagunta, and Fox (2009) affirm this by showing that customers would be willing to travel a considerable distance to stores that have a wide assortment of products and low price to make their purchases.