Impact of Store Attributes on Customer Loyalty: Moderating Effects of Salespeople Support

Abstract

The purpose of this research paper is to examine the direct and moderating impact of store attributes on customer loyalty. Although several store attributes have been identified in the existing literature, this study focuses on three key attributes, which include store assortment, store environment, and price promotions. The existing literature on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty has helped hypothesize the role of salespeople support as a boundary condition for store attributes-customer loyalty relationship. Customer responses were collected from Punjab (the largest province of Pakistan) by using survey technique. For this purpose, an online questionnaire was distributed that resulted in 303 customer responses. Data were then analyzed through the software package of Smart PLS.The results indicate that eachstore assortment, store environment and price promotions have a positive impact on customer loyalty. Salespeople support has been found to moderate the impact of store assortment on customer loyalty. Studying the direct effects of store attributes on customer loyalty, particularly in the context of Pakistan, is a major contribution of this study. Another contribution is to hypothesize and test the effects of salespeople support as a boundary condition (moderator) for store attributes-customer loyalty relationship. Managerial implications of the research findings and opportunities for future researchers are discussed towards the end of the research paper.