An Analysis of Perceived Quality's Impact on Retail Customer Choices

This report delves into the significant influence of perceived quality on customer choices within the retail sector. It explores the dynamic shifts in consumer behavior, emphasizing the need for retailers to understand and predict purchasing patterns. The report reviews existing literature on service quality, store image, and consumer behavior, highlighting how these elements shape customer decisions, satisfaction, and loyalty. It examines the impact of factors such as reliability, tangibles, empathy, responsiveness, and assurance on the overall perception of service quality. Furthermore, the report discusses the importance of store image in influencing consumer choices and creating a competitive advantage. By analyzing these aspects, the report provides insights into how retailers can strategically position themselves to meet evolving customer needs and enhance their market presence. The report emphasizes the importance of customer-focused marketing strategies and the need for retailers to build long-term relationships with consumers in a competitive environment. The report is contributed by a student to be published on the website Desklib. Desklib is a platform which provides all the necessary AI based study tools for students.

RUNNING HEAD: PERCEIVED QUALITY AND ITS INFLUENCE ON CUSTOMERS
CHOICES IN RETAIL SECTOR 1
PERCEIVED QUALITY AND ITS INFLUENCE ON CUSTOMERS CHOICES IN RETAIL
SECTOR
Student Name
Institute Name

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Literature review..............................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
Reference.......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The present consumer behavior has transformed in very dramatic manner in last ten years which
further changes the needs of the consumers and the choices they make for the routine needs. In
the present dynamic as well as competitive business culture, retailers should also understand as
well as predict on how consumer should behave in purchasing many goods as well as services for
the overall usage (Orel & Kara, 2014). This is why, in order to create a competitive based
position in the retail industry and also strategizing themselves to grow in a unique manner in the
mind of the shoppers towards the store for maintaining a strong influence on the behavior. The
retail industry and their operations is presently going through a revolution which is radical
because of the many factors and new formats in the form of organized retail. Organized retail is
gaining a lot of significance in the present time. In addition, with the ever changing behavioral
elements, retailers also needs to get more concerned related to the overall lifestyle, demand and
preference of customers that plays a crucial role in changing purchasing opinions or perception
of the customers. Therefore, it is also crucial to note here that the overall perception of the
customers based on the image of the store that eventually impacts the customer choices along
with purchase based intention, satisfaction and loyalty (Ye et al, 2014). The report is based on
analyzing perceived level of the quality on the consumer’s choice in the present retail sector.
Literature review
In competitive world, retail sector is also changing since the service quality is also improving
along with high expectation of the customer and the lateral level of demand. At the time of
recession, there was a high level of success that will depend on the retailers who have the right
ability to develop loyalty by answering to the demand of the customer. Moreover, the needs of

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the consumers and the patterns associated with it are changing in a drastic manner. In order to
meet diverse needs, organization must adopt customer focused and differentiated marketing
strategies to gain an edge in competition in the market which ensures them to completely stand
out in the present competition. For improved level of association with the customers that can
help in leading to high level customer loyalty, profit level and retention. This is why, it is also
important to build a stable as well as long term association with the consumers in the present
competitive society (Subramanian et al, 2014). The consumers are presently more associated
with perceived service quality and it also provides value to the study with the impact on the
service based quality as per the loyalty of customer.
To improve service based quality, improvement in the quality of product is also required. As
discussed, a crucial number of managers also agree to the overall success that will depend on
organization that is willing to save the quality as well as the service as per the demand of
consumers. Quality is typically is a key strategic element of competitive advantages and this is
why improvement in the quality of the product has been a matter of concern as a priority for the
organizations. Quality of product cans also a better place to initiate providing high level of
satisfaction and generating desired loyalty (Verhoef et al, 2015). The positive points include
pioneering of the market with low cost proactive innovation and industry based redefinition. The
negative impact consists of the loss in varied market opportunities with loss in market leadership
and high cost based innovation and brand development. This is why product quality is worth all
the attention.
Retail service quality

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The service quality can be defined as the level of discrepancy that exists between the consumer’s
normative level of expectation for the services and the overall opinion of the service based
performance. To calculate any kind of discrepancy, SERVQUAL is devised and this can be
regarded as the most frequently used and comprehensive used tool for calculating the level of
service quality. The service items that are proposed are actually divided into five categories
which are reliability, tangibles, empathy, responsiveness and assurance. The opinion only
calculates the service quality which solely based on the performance and was later reintroduced
by Taylor and Cronin (Das, 2014). Systems like SERVPERF is also adopted since the previous
finding have further shown that it has completely outperformed SERVQUAL and can be
applicable for calculating the level of service quality. People are also asked to show the level
desired and the present level of the services and there is psychological based limitation in that
people tend to rate that is previously higher than the latter. Moreover, it was also found that
quality of the service as calculated in SERVQUAL most importantly relies on perception based
score than on the level of expectation score. The respondents sometimes also get irritated and
stuck with the divided expectation and the opinion version of this software like SERVQUAL that
can affect the quality of data in negative manner. The general perception around SERVQUAL
across different service based setting is unclear and cannot be tested in an empirical manner in
the present retail store culture. This is why, to get dimensions that are crucial for the retail
customers, different authors have combines the findings from three qualitative studies with retail
and service based quality literature. There are number of scales to measure it like The Retail
Services Quality Scales that which can be perceived as a general scale which is right for the
studies in the current retail business offering the mix of goods and services (Berg, 2014). The

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study also is used with a scale to measure the quality of the service with large chain of retail
store present in countries like Australia and UK.
Store image
Image of the store is based on overall perception that the customers have of a specific store and
of the overall experience of the shopping. In the present retail market which is highly
competitive and progressive by nature, there is a need to be clear about the image of the store in
the mind of the consumer and how this image can be compared with an expected or ideal image.
It is also important to compare it with the image of the competitors in the market. In order to
develop a powerful image, the retailers are provided with so many opportunities towards
properly differentiating and creating a specific kind of image. Studies have also shown that the
present literature review strongly based on the favorable kind of store image that helps the
retailer in developing as well as managing the present market position (Delgado-Ballester et al,
2014). It further helps in creating an edge to achieve competitive advantages in terms of product,
service and prices changes or differentiation that is not easy to replicate or duplicate by the
competition. At the same time, store image is also based on clear positioning of message for the
present target market found to have impacted the loyalty of the store. This is further done by
raising the level of transaction advantages for the retailers. Many years ago, authors have defined
the store image as an overall personality of the store with the help of shopper defined a store on
his or her mindset. On the basis of two categories, the overall concept of store image was
designed that are called as functional features and psychological features. Assortment of
products, convenience of the store, location and layout of store when combined with the latter
category along with psychological features represented the feeling of the shopper which is
constantly stimulated by the functional level features of the store (Kandampully et al, 2015). At

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the same time, explanation of the concept associated to store image is not very easy since the
authors have defined it with different store features to appreciate conjoint by creating the overall
image of the store. At the same time, with constant efforts for past many years there are different
kinds of academicians that have described the store image in terms of different features of the
store or features that are part of overall image towards the store.
Consumer Behavior
The foundation of consumer behavior before has been related with the field of varied marketing
based disciplines. At the time of development and importance to study the consumer behavior
has always focus by number of different kind of practitioners to gain the complete knowledge
from diverse theory based perspectives. It is important to note here that the previous emphasis
was mainly on marketing form of managerial based perspective that move toward the perception
on consumer behavior by being clear on how and why the consumer behave in a specific patter
as per the needs and priorities of the people. It is also important to understand that the consumer
behavior is a combination of acquiring the consumer, disposing the products with consumption
as well as services (Han & Hyun, 2015). The concept of consumer behavior can be defined as the
combination of emotional, mental and physical activities with which people select, use, purchase
and dispose product as well as service that can satisfy the overall desires and needs. The concept
of consumer behavior also shows the company consumer based decision making process with
number of physical function that people usually engages in while testing, getting, utilizing and
also disposing the goods and services in proper manner. With the emergence of different
concepts like consumer behavior which can be seen as a changed paradigm, the significance of
gaining better clarity about the consumer needs, attitude, perception and purchase based
intentions which have become an important for the successful execution of the marketer. The

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change was revolutionary and dramatic in past ten years which changes the needs of the
consumers along with choices on the routine needs of people (Chiu et al, 2014).
In the current competitive based business environment and dynamic changes, the retailer should
completely be clear as well as also predict on how any consumer must behave in buying many
kinds of goods and services for the overall usage. There is considerable amount of research and
literature that discusses the changing retail environment which is impacted by the behavior of the
customers. As per the recent studies and research, some kind of attentions should be given to
store culture since it impacts the base and sets the tone for the consumer behavior. Studies have
also shown that there is importance on varied store choices that impacts the behavior and choices
of the consumer. In addition, consumer based buying behavior, effective decision making
approach along with consumer repurchase attitude (Chiu et al, 2014). The behavior of consumer
usage along with different angles for maintaining the image of the store along with number of
experimental proofs has suggested that overall concept of store image was always very crucial.
After taking a lot of efforts by so many authors in this direction, have proved that the focus was
always on the angle of store image with the help of different store features that are part of bigger
picture for the store. Important store features that can be identified here are accessibility of the
location, suitability of the merchandise, right value for price, efforts through proper sales and in
the end store based services. It was also proposed that there around twelve stores that can be
featured and consist of price of quality, assortment, sales promotion, atmosphere of the store,
accessibility of the location, reputation based adjustments and other important factors associated
with accessibility.
It is also important to note that there is rise in the overall number of non-traditional outlets for
grocery and the increase is substantial in last few years where target is specific with high volume

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categories of grocery products, frozen products and other kinds of products like personal care
products and general merchandise (Chiu et al, 2014).
Low level in operating margins also provides some attractive level of less priced products along
with consumers that are making sure that there is high volume of supplier based shipments. With
some new kind of formats being widely introduced in present retail offering of the store in the
ever evolving market places is well studies across all the product categories. The current choice
of retail based format is enriching by nature with few consumer features that comes with so
many explanatory elements with focus on varied consumer demographic (Chiu et al, 2014).
There are number of studies which shows that there are frequent and some non-frequent shoppers
for the present departmental stores that have found constant consumer to be younger as well as
education with relatively high level of income.
Conclusion
As discussed, in last ten years have seen immense development specifically in international
economy and there is also the presence of high development rate in so many developed countries
and the current exponential development has also emerged as success in many developing
economies. The development is rapid and the main crucial factors are followed by rise in the
level of competition with emerging new retail formats in shaping the new situations in retail
stores. There is also an introduction new format in retailing that ensures that products are offered
in all kinds of formats with high competition that is becoming intense in term of direction. In
addition, consumers now take different factors while selecting a specific retail stores (Chiu et al,
2014). The customer are becoming very sensitive while selecting stores therefore it increases the
significance of retail store that are establishing the identities of the brand rather than just setting

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new retail stores. This is why, the study of how customers selects any retail stores and the factors
that drives the choice for store, will be vital for contribution in present retail store and it further
affiliates with changing demand of consumers and overall growth in retail sector. The current
retail sector is going through many structural kinds of transformations with some of the changes
being shown by choices of consumers associated with purchases. The retail sector has grown
substantially and becoming more focused with the entry of new stores and forms like super
centers and other hyper markets. Such new kind of options provides consumers with different
options that can raise the level of competition in future (Chiu et al, 2014).

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Reference
Berg, B. (2014). Introduction. In Retail Branding and Store Loyalty (pp. 1-26). Springer
Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Chiu, C. M., Wang, E. T., Fang, Y. H., & Huang, H. Y. (2014). Understanding customers' repeat
purchase intentions in B2C e‐commerce: the roles of utilitarian value, hedonic value and
perceived risk. Information Systems Journal, 24(1), 85-114.
Das, G. (2014). Linkages of retailer awareness, retailer association, retailer perceived quality and
retailer loyalty with purchase intention: a study of Indian food retail brands. Journal of
Retailing and Consumer Services, 21(3), 284-292.
Delgado-Ballester, E., Hernandez-Espallardo, M., & Rodriguez-Orejuela, A. (2014). Store image
influences in consumers’ perceptions of store brands: the moderating role of value
consciousness. European Journal of Marketing, 48(9/10), 1850-1869.
Han, H., & Hyun, S. S. (2015). Customer retention in the medical tourism industry: Impact of
quality, satisfaction, trust, and price reasonableness. Tourism Management, 46, 20-29.
Kandampully, J., Zhang, T., & Bilgihan, A. (2015). Customer loyalty: a review and future
directions with a special focus on the hospitality industry. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(3), 379-414.
Orel, F. D., & Kara, A. (2014). Supermarket self-checkout service quality, customer satisfaction,
and loyalty: Empirical evidence from an emerging market. Journal of Retailing and
Consumer Services, 21(2), 118-129.

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Subramanian, N., Gunasekaran, A., Yu, J., Cheng, J., & Ning, K. (2014). Customer satisfaction
and competitiveness in the Chinese E-retailing: Structural equation modeling (SEM)
approach to identify the role of quality factors. Expert Systems with Applications, 41(1),
69-80.
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retailing, 91(2), 174-181.
Ye, Q., Li, H., Wang, Z., & Law, R. (2014). The influence of hotel price on perceived service
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