Retailing Research
Overview

Retailing
What is research?
Using the facts
Researching the market
Methods of data collection

Primary V Secondary

Quantitative V Qualitative

Consumers expectations
Malcolm Kirkup’s theory
The Consumer Profile
Use to the retail manager
The Quiz and questions








Definition: Retailing

“Process of selling consumer goods directly to
consumers. Unlike the wholesaler, who sells
goods to other businesses for resale, the retailer
is the final agent through which products pass
on their way from manufacturer to user.”
(Bangs 1998)

The retailer has to anticipate the needs of its
present and even future consumers

Larger retail firms consist of:
Discount stores, chain stores, department
stores, and supermarkets.
Retailing also includes:





House-to-house
canvassing,
Mail-order selling,
Vending machines,
Petrol stations, and
Street stalls
What is Research?
“Research is not simply describing what
you find.” (Marshall, 1997)
 Making sense of what you find.
 “The more questions a specific area or
fact can answer – that is, the more
scope it has – the more useful it is to
science and society.” (Marshall, I BID)

Theories
Vital in the pre-determining of consumer
behaviour patterns.
 Strong Theories – Used for prediction
 Weak Theories – Only sufficient for explanation

PARADIGMS

Paradigms are
particular ways of
thinking about and
sharing information with
items of a similar
nature.

Assumptions
Conceptualisations
Values
Attitudes
Orientations
Beliefs





Advantage and Disadvantage
Of Paradigms
Advantage: They prevent analysts
wasting time on problems they are not
best equipped to solve.
 Disadvantage: They blinker
researchers to other valid ways of
looking at the issues.

Starting with the Facts?
Induction
 Deduction

Induction is the ordering of facts
 Deduction is the logical leap process, always
looking for the next stage past the theoretical
ideas.

The circular process of science
OBSERVATION
EMPIRICAL
GENERALISATION
HYPOTHESIS
FORMULATION
THEORY
DEVELOPMENT
Source: O’Brien, 1991
Researching the market

Retailers need to know who
is buying what, where and
when.
 Analysing till receipts is
useful, but can only give
retailer information on
what has happened and
not what is going to
happen.
Next



“Women who care about fashion
first and price second” (Ody 1998)
Associated with edited
retailing
Edited retailing: “The
involvement of offering
for sale a limited range
of coordinated products
for a specific client
group.” (O’Brien et al. 1988)
New Next lines:
Men,
Interiors,
Jewellery.
Methods of data collection

Primary research:
“This type of data must be gathered by observing
phenomena or surveying respondents.”
Dibb et al. 2000
Primary Research Techniques

Experimentation – “Data collection that involves
maintaining certain variables constant so that the effects of the
experimental variables can be measured”

Marketing experimentation – “A set of rules and
procedures by which data gathering is organised to analyse and
interpret key marketing variables.”

Sampling – “The selection of representative units from a total
population.”




RANDOM SAMPLING
STRATIFIED SAMPLING
AREA SAMPLING
QUOTA SAMPLING
Primary Research Techniques

Survey methods – “Interviews by mail and personal
interviews.”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
cont’d..
Mail surveys
Mail panels
Consumer purchase diaries
Telephone surveys
Computer assisted telephone interviewing
Primary Research Techniques
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
Personal interview surveys
Depth interviews
Shopping mall/pavement intercept interviews
On-site computer interviewing
Focus group interviews
Quali-depth interviews and
IN-home interviews.
cont’d..
Primary Research Techniques

Questionnaire construction
cont’d..
– “Base document for
research purposes, providing the questions and structure for an
interview or self-completion and providing space for
respondents’ answers.”

Observation methods – “Methods by which researchers
record respondents’ overt behaviour and take note of physical
conditions and events.”
Methods of data collection

Secondary research:
“Information compiled inside or outside the
organisation for some purpose other than the
current investigation.”
Dibb et al. I BID
Syndicated Data Services

BARB – Supply
television stations with
viewing estimates for
any specific time of day.

Nielsen AGB –
Provide data about
products primarily sold
in the retail industry;
such as product sales,
own brand sales and
competing brands.
Quantitative V Qualitative

Quantitative: Meaning
the research aimed at
producing statistical data to
be expressed numerically.

Qualitative: Information
too difficult or expensive to
quantify. Includes subjective
opinions and personal
judgements not accessible
using quantitative methods.
Consumer Expectations
Consumers expect more
 Improvements in quality and selection of
products within one retailer
 Lower prices, due to higher sales
 More choice at reasonable cost
 ASDA Wal-Mart use buying power to
lower costs at all levels of the supply
chain

Malcolm Kirkup’s theory

“A store is a ‘locus of social and
informational, as well as material
exchanges’, and therefore, methods are
needed to capture the social exchanges
within this arena”
(Kirkup, p3, 1998)
Kirkup’s theory continued.

If the environment is
right, the customers
will keep coming
back
 Every consumer
wants to feel special
 Retailer must stay in
touch with consumer
demands/needs
Building a consumer profile

EDI – Electronic Data Interchange

IOS – Inter-organisational information
systems

Allows the retailer to be constantly upto-date with the minimum amount of
human intervention
Other methods

Loyalty cards

Store cards

Credit card
transactions

Need to know the
consumer’s every
move
The result…
More specific promotional activities
 More consumer focussed
 Making the consumer feel special
 Increasing the sales volume of the
business
 Continually innovating techniques
 Making sure they will be there in the
future!

THE QUIZ!
Answers…
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Observation, Empirical Generalisation, Theory development,
Hypothesis Formulation.
Nielsen AGB
Random, stratified, area and quota sampling
Mail Surveys, Mail panels, Consumer purchase diaries,
Telephone surveys, Computer assisted telephone
interviewing, Personal interview surveys, Depth interviews,
Shopping mall/pavement intercept interviews, On-site
computer interviewing, Focus Group interviews, Quali-depth
interviews and IN-home interviews
Providing and understanding how to create the correct
purchasing environment, not just knowing WHAT they buy.
Electronic Data Interchange