Ensuring satisfied, committed shoppers – store variety or entertainment?

Abstract

In the competitive retail environment, attracting and retaining shoppers is imperative for the success of shopping malls. Therefore, creating satisfi ed, committed shoppers is essential for mall survival. The study aims to determine the extent to which store variety and entertainment contribute to shopper satisfaction; to identify which variable most strongly predicts shopper commitment, as well as to investigate these variables in a gendered context. Two hundred shoppers completed selfadministered questionnaires during a mall intercept study. The results, using multiple regression and discriminate analysis, identifi ed store variety as the most important predictor of shopper satisfaction; while shopper satisfaction, in turn, was the most powerful discriminator of mall commitment. MANOVA testing revealed support for the blurred-gender role argument. Mall managers and developers should ensure a tenant mix that would provide variety, but also entertainment, regardless of the gender of their shoppers, to ensure shopper satisfaction that would ultimately lead to commitment.