Driving Forces of Consumer’s Trust and Loyalty: An Empirical
Investigation on Giant Supermarket in Malaysia
Muhammad Khalilur Rahman1
Abstract
This paper is the assessing and developing the customer’s trust and loyalty of retailing Giant supermarket in
Malaysia. The study tries to elaborate an instrument to measure the customer’s trust and loyalty in this context.
A survey of 190 participants is conducted and PLS based SEM technique is used to measure the convergent and
discriminant validity as well as testing the hypotheses. The findings revealed that service quality and brand
image have significant relationship with customer trust and loyalty, and overall customer trust has positive
impact on loyalty in supermarket. In addition, a customer benefit has the interaction effect on relationship
between service quality and trust, and brand image and trust in supermarket customer loyalty. The paper is
concluded with an importance performance analysis and a summary of the main results of the study.
Keywords: Service quality, Brand Image, customer trust and loyalty, Customer benefits, Supermarket, Malaysia
1. Introduction
Giant hypermarket is a major supermarket and retailer chain in Malaysia. It is a subsidiary of Dairy
Farm International Holdings (DFI). Its headquartered is in Shah Alam, Selangor. The study of consumer’s trust
and loyalty is an important issue for Giant retailing supermarket. In the modern marketing strategy, customer
loyalty is considered as a strategic tool in assessing and developing customer satisfaction and promoting
customer loyalty (Saili, 2012). Customer loyalty program has been increasingly concerned interests in both
marketing academics and practitioners (Leemheer, Heerde, Bijmolt, & Smidts, 2007). In 2006, the total
customer loyalty programs enrollments were increased 1.5 billion in the United States. Similarly, today
customer loyalty is increasing exponentially among Malaysian consumers in retail business. The development
speed of customer loyalty in retail business in developing countries is faster than that in developed countries due
to the rapid growing of the economy. Although, loyalty programs are widely used in retail all over the world,
and retailers have indeed invested a lot of money into loyalty programs, many loyalty programs do not bring
corporate managers their expected customer loyalty. Retailers in United Kingdom such as Safeway gave up
loyalty programs and save company $75 million per annum. At the same time, other retailers such as E. Leclerc
in France still invest millions of dollars per year to implement and promote customer loyalty programs.
Furthermore, there is still an academic debate about the effect of retail loyalty programs on customer loyalty.
Some of extant empirical study have proposed loyalty programs in retailing had positive impact on customer
purchasing behavior (Magi, 2003; Lewis, 2004; Taylor and Neslin, 2005; Meyer-Waarden, 2007; Ho et al.,
2009; Omar et al., 2011). Several investigators found that loyalty programs in retailing did not generate any
impact (Meyer-Waarden, 2006; Leenheer & Bijmolt, 2008). These two opposite conclusions hinder the proper
evaluation of loyalty programs; need to understand these programs.
Customer loyalty is a key factor for retailers to achieve long-lasting success and sustainable operation.
Currently, researchers have generally recognized customer loyalty including behavioral dimension and affective
dimension. However, most studies in retailing have analyzed the effects of loyalty programs on customer loyalty
only from behavioral dimension (Berger et al., 2002; Magi, 2003; Leenheer et al., 2007), and thus ignored the
emotional dimension of loyalty. Due to lack of this study, the paper is to explore the effect of loyalty programs
both on behavioral loyalty and affective loyalty. Previous studies on customer loyalty have empirically
1
Graduate School of Business, Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya, Malaysia, E-mail:
abd_khalil2@yahoo.com
confirmed that customer value was a precursor to loyalty in service sector (Woodall, 2003). From a customer
point of view, the prerequisite for them to participate in loyalty programs is that their expected benefits are
superior to their expected costs (Mauri, 2003). Hence, retailers aiming at improving customer loyalty through
loyalty programs should ensure that these programs could create and deliver superior customer value to their
customers. Due to the limited resource of firm and the high costs of creating customer value, it is crucial for
firms to investigate the effects of each dimension of customer value on loyalty and allocate resource
accordingly.
In addition, some related investigations have examined the positive relationship between perceived
value of loyalty programs and customer loyalty (Yi and Jeon, 2003; Li et al., 2003). Customer benefits, service
quality and brand image as relationship marketing approaches to customer loyalty that could improve customer
trust and succeed customer loyalty program (Chen, 2010). According to past study it found that service quality,
brand image and customer benefits affect the mediating role of customer trust in loyalty programs. Based on the
conceptual research model and previous study of Malaysian retail supermarket, this paper will examine the
mediating role of customer trust or customer commitment for loyalty programs and analyze the importance
degree of each dimension of customer trust in loyalty programs. This paper develops a conceptual research
model on the assessing and developing customer loyalty programs. Furthermore, it proposes the hypotheses
regarding the mediating variable of customer trust relationship with customer loyalty (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1: Conceptual Model
Consumer’s
Benifits
Service
Quality
H4
H1
Brand Image
Consumer’s
Trust
H3
Consumer’s
Loyalty
H2
H5
Giant is operating under the retail industry. Giant’s mission was always been to offer a wide variety of
products at the lowest possible price. There is a slogan “everyday low prices, big variety and great value”.
Although they have low price product but customers are not fully satisfied. They have so many management
problems which are unable to satisfy customers’ wants and needs. Cleanness and freshness of products and
service quality are very important but their products and services are not cleanness and freshness. Customers are
usually feeling comfort in their shopping. If customers are not feeling comfort they will not buy regularly but if
they feel comfort they will continue to shop in supermarkets. They do not have well organized pricing system to
enable their customers to easily locate product price. Therefore, service quality is essential for the customer
loyalty, if customers are found any difficulties they can move and shift to other shop. Customers usually come
and go out by the some moment to purchase something from the retail supermarkets. The pricing tag of product
is very important for customers; it is very confusing and problem to customer that there are some of the pricing
tags at the supermarket are not properly pasted on the storage rack and products. Some of the Giant Supermarket
outlets are not properly maintained. These outlets are quite dirty and disorganized. They have lack of
employees’ benefit and customers’ benefit and insufficient of customer service counter.
Objective of the study
Millions of people are interested to shop in supermarket. In Malaysia, many people have middle level
and lower income. They want to buy low cost price products and services. With their low income, they do not
afford to buy expensive products and services. The objective of this paper is:
(i) to scrutinize how service quality and brand image may achieve consumer’s trust and loyalty.
(ii) to ascertain the moderating effect of consumer’s benefit between consumers’ service quality and trust, as
well as consumer’ brand image and trust.
(iii) to recommend how service quality, brand image, customer benefit and trust may adopt pragmatic strategy
to ensure higher customer loyalty.
People of Malaysia are multicultural, most of the people are not wealthy, many people are poor, but
they are interested to shop in supermarket with lower price and good quality product and services. Today in
Malaysia has many hypermarket and supermarket. They offer lower price product and service but they are
unable to customer trust and loyalty due to inefficiency service quality. Recently Malaysian retail supermarket is
developing their service quality but still now they are not able to customer loyalty. Specially, Giant retail
supermarket should developing good service and lower pricing strategy in their business strategy. They also
should provide high efficiency and good quality service to poor customers for the customer trust and customer
loyalty. This research is very significant since a few people have done research on this topic to assessing and
developing customer loyalty program in retail supermarket business. This research will help us to test the
hypothesis that Giant retail supermarket provide maximum trust and loyalty to more customers. Finally, this
research will help us to determine whether actually service quality, brand image, customer benefit and customer
trust make more customers satisfied or not. This will be done by collecting primary data through questionnaires
as stated in the methodology of this research and the data will be collected only from the Malaysian customers.
Any strategy is adopted to improve the quality of service, it remains to be examined whether consumers are
satisfied or not. The areas and the factors that are contributing to the satisfaction or dissatisfaction in services are
also unclear, thus making it difficult to identify effective marketing strategies to maximize customer trust and
loyalty in all aspects.
Literature Review
Consumer Loyalty Program
Customer loyalty programs play an important role as a marketing strategy. It is conducted to the
customer satisfaction through repurchase buying behavior. In the retail marketing strategy, a loyalty program
offers the positive motivational influence and reward to its customers with the objective of assuring more loyal
customers to company (Lacey, 2003; Yi & Jeon, 2003; Leenheer et. al., 2007; Omar, Aziz, & Nazri, 2011; Saili,
Mingli, & Zhichao, 2012). It could association customers with a company and maintains a positive impact in the
relationships between customers and company by various incentives. In the past decade, loyalty programs have
been implemented almost beyond national boundaries. Retailing loyalty program have focused on analyzing the
impact of loyalty programs on the behavior of local customers from a company point of view. For example,
through an investigation of the Swedish customers in department industry, the study by Magi, (2003) found
loyalty programs only had partial impact on customer expenditure. In American retailing, some researchers have
found loyalty programs had positive impact on share of purchase, purchase amount, revenue and orders of
customers (Lewis, 2004; Taylor & Neslin, 2005). However, other scholars argued loyalty programs did not have
any impact on market share, repeat purchase rate, purchase volume, total purchase expenditure and purchase
timing (Meyer, 2007). This debate of empirical studies demands a thorough solution for the validity of loyalty
programs, that is, conforming whether loyalty programs could really engender and maintain customer loyalty.
Superior perceived effectiveness of loyalty programs is necessary for firms to develop customer loyalty. An
effective loyalty program should be viewed valuable by customers. Service quality and brand equity of customer
loyalty programs depended on forms of rewards, and the relativity between rewards and products or services.
According to study Saili et al., (2012) enriched their study by measuring perceived effectiveness of loyalty
programs through three dimensions: cash value of rewards, probability of getting rewards and desire for
rewards. The study Yi and Jeon (2003) stated that customers perceived effectiveness of loyalty programs to
assess and develop the effectiveness of loyalty programs comprehensively. Perceived effectiveness of loyalty
programs refers to tradeoff between interests that customers obtain from loyalty programs and costs that
customers pay for participating loyalty programs.
Many scholars have defined customer loyalty with different concept; most of them explored and
measured customer loyalty from two aspects: loyal behavior and loyal attitude (Saili, 2012, Abdullah et al.,
2012). Customer loyalty may measure from the actual purchasing behavior of customers. Attitude mainly
measures loyalty on the basis of customer preference to specific product. Purchase behavior is the main
component of loyalty which reflects the possibility of transacting with the same provider again (Jones et al.,
2003). Previous studies about customer loyalty have measured from proportion of purchase (Baloglu, 2002),
frequency of purchase and past activities of consumer (Ho et al., 2009). Actual loyalty between company and its
customers is built on the basis of long-term relationship and emotional connection between them. Customer will
pay a strong attention on retailers if their shopping experience meet their expectation and satisfy their
fundamental needs. Customer loyalty plays an important role in an organization’s success. Customer loyalty is
defined as a deeply commitment to repurchase the preferred products and services consistently in the future
(Bloemer & Odekerken, 2002). Li & Green (2011) stated that customer loyalty is challenging to achieve for
marketers and to explain by researchers. Customer loyalty is the result of successful marketing strategy that
creates competitive value for consumers (Oliver, 1995; Bloemer & Odekerken, 2002).
Service quality
Customers’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction, royalty and retention are conducted with the service quality
of the goods and services of the company (Li & Green, 2011). The customers’ purchase behavior is related to
the product service that is offered by the company to satisfy their valued customers. Price is not the primary
differentiating factor for consumers, rather they trust on quality services. Consumers are focused on quality
service and findings specialized items. Therefore, company should provide everyday discounts to the customers
for their purchase frequently. Customers’ evaluations of the service quality are quite difficult to be developed in
the retail marketing strategy. Service quality has a tangible link to customer’s trust, as in fact, the consumer’s
trust is represented by the service quality in one way or another. Service quality has a significant impact to the
customer’s trust which directly affects the customer’s loyalty in supermarket.
Brand Image
Brand image offers a significant perspective on the understanding of consumer decision making. The
study by Azevedo & Farhangmehr (2005) found that consumers can decide not to buy a product or not to shop
at a particular store if they feel that the actions are not consistent with their own perceptions of themselves. They
will always need symbols to help them sort out the complexities of daily life as they use products to express
their social identities. Consumers search for products which have images that are compatible with their
perceptions of self-brand image (Jamal & Goode, 2001). In the retail context, actual self-image congruity as the
degree of match between a shopper’s actual self-image and a store image, and the ideal self-image congruity is
the degree of match between a shopper’s ideal image and a store image. Self-image congruity affects the
consumer’s purchase motivation because people have a motive to behave consistently with their selfperceptions. They also prefer products with images that match their own self-image. The study by Azevedo &
Farhangmehr (2005) and Yang and Peterson (2004) argue that brand attitudes are the most abstract and highest
level of brand associations.
Customer’s Trust
Trust is the willingness to rely on an exchange partner (Prasarnphanich, 2007). Trust consists of two
distinct dimensions such as credibility and benevolence. Credibility refers to the extent to which the buyer or
supplier believes that the other party has the required expertise to perform the job effectively and reliably.
Benevolence refers to the extent to which the buyer is genuinely interested in the other partner’s welfare and
motives to seek joint gain. This benevolence dimension is consistent with the issue of privacy and security
concerns that vendors do their best efforts to protect customers’ personal information and prevent any personal
losses due to their interaction with the vendors. Trust can be defined as a willingness to depend on an exchange
party when someone has confident to that party. The study by Abdu et al. (2012) pointed out that trust refers to
an advantage received by consumers in long-term relational exchange with the organization. Many researchers
have suggested that trust acts as a mediating variables in the satisfaction-loyalty relationship. However, Taylor
et al. (2004) stated that trust acts as a basis of loyalty creation. Trust is a precursor to commitment which
eventually will lead to customer loyalty. Trust plays an important role in creating loyal customer. Customer
loyalty plays a significant role in many businesses. Therefore, if the company can sustain their customer well,
the customers will have less attention to switch to its competitors and keep being loyal to the company and
eventually lead to high profitability. Commitment is defined as an enduring desire to maintain a valued
relationship. It consists of three components such as instrumental component where one party takes some
actions to demonstrate commitment. Attitudinal component signifies an enduring intention by the parties to
develop and maintain the relationship. Finally, the temporal component suggests commitment in something only
over the long term and in a consistent manner.
Customer benefit
There are plenty of studies on the relationship between firms and customers. However, most of these
studies are investigated from the enterprises perspective. The marketing literature over the past decade has
begun to focus on the motivation and desire of establishing and maintaining long-lasting relationship between
customers and service providers. Customers should perceive the relationship valuable to stay in a long-term
relationship. Besides core benefits, such as product and service quality, firms should offer additional benefits to
their customers, including social, psychological, economic and other benefits. Many scholars have called these
benefits “relationship benefits” and defined this concept as interests’ customer perceived from long-term
relationship with service provider (Marzo-Navarro et al., 2004; Vazquez-Carrasco & Foxall, 2006). In this way,
benefits customer gaining from relationship with company has been separated from core service of firms. It
stresses the differentiation between interests provided by company and effectiveness perceived by customers.
In 1995, Berry and Bitner have first explored the dimensions of relationship benefits through
theoretical analysis in consumer service context. Berry suggested that relationship benefits should be composed
of customized service benefits, risk reduction benefits and social benefits; whereas, Bitner recognized that
besides social benefits, relationship benefits should include the benefits which could simplify personal life and
save switching cost for customers. The relationship between customers and individual sales could bring
convenience and better purchase decisions to customers. However, these studies analyzed only from the level of
theory that put forward the three dimensions of relationship benefits by empirical studies: confidence benefits,
social benefits and special treatment benefits. Confidence benefits refer to a series of psychological factors,
which are related to reduction of customer perceived anxiety and risk after transaction. This type of benefits
could not only make customers trust the service provider but also make providers maintain their commitment to
customers (Gronroos, 2007). Therefore, it has been viewed as a key factor of successful relationship. Social
benefits including sense of belonging, empathy, understanding, familiar, personal knowledge, social support and
even friendship are derived from long-term relationship between employees and customers, and associated with
interpersonal links between them. Special treatment benefits consist of economic interest customers obtaining
from the relationships with firms and the benefits of customized service, because saving money is the main
motive of customer to make relationship transaction.
Methodology
Data Collection
Data was collected of this study through self-administered questionnaires from Malaysian Giant
supermarket consumers in the Kuala Lumpur area of Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur area is the economic hub and a
large portion of population buys their preferred commodities from supermarkets. The study is concerned with
the customer trust enhances the development of customer loyalty in the Malaysian Giant supermarket context. In
this study, male and female customers were selected in both gender since the perception, customers’ belief,
customers’ attitudes and level of experience may differ in terms of customer trust and loyalty. Non-probability
sampling mechanism is used in this study since participant can be selected based on personal judgment
(Zikmund, Carr & Griffin, 2012).
Instrument
Partial Least Squares (PLS) based structural equation modeling technique is used to estimate the structural
model. PLS is well suited in this paper since the constructs are measured by a single item, and PLS provides
accurate estimates of interaction effects (Booker & Serenko, 2007). Data was collected between November 2013
and February 2014. In this study, 5-point likert scale is used to understand the level of satisfaction and
dissatisfaction of Malaysian supermarkets’ consumers.
Sampling and Response Rate
The original sample size of the study is 190 participants are considered to data analysis representing response
rate 52. 86%. The response rate was also considered acceptable compared to other similar studies. The study Ho
(2008) received 153 completed questionnaires out of 500 questionnaires which lead to response rate of 30.6%.
Therefore, the response rate of 56.57% obtained from this study is still considered acceptable.
Data Analysis
Demographic Information
The sample included 52% female and 48% male with 33% participants aged below 24 years, 57% of
the participants aged between 25 and 40 years, and 10% of participants aged above 40 years. The participants of
the current study were well educated, in that 46% completed secondary/Diploma degree while 34% attained
undergraduate degree and 20% university degree. In terms of respondents’ income level, 57% and 43% of the
respondents spend less than RM200 and RM201–RM400 respectively.
Measurement Model
The measurement model (Fig. 2) shows the first and second order constructs. The results R-square
value of customer trust is 0.287 proposing that 28.7% of the variance in customer’s trust can be explained by
service quality and brand image. Furthermore, the R-square value of customer loyalty is 0.471 proposing that
47.1% of the variance in customer loyalty can be explained by the service quality, brand image and customer’s
trust.
Fig. 2: Measurement Model
Footnote: SQ= Service Quality, BI= Brand Image, TRT= Trust, CL= Customer Loyalty
Table 1: Hypothesis Test
H1
H2
H3
H4
H5
Relationship
SQ -> TRT
BI -> TRT
TRT -> CL
SQ -> CL
BI -> CL
Original Sample
0.4150
0.1647
0.2937
0.7253
-0.1506
Standard Error
0.1332
0.0876
0.0922
0.1093
0.0889
T Statistics
3.1158**
1.8801*
2.8600*
6.6383**
1.6940*
Significant level *p<0.05, **p<0.01
Table 1shows that service quality has significant relationship on customer trust and customer loyalty,
therefore, H1 and h4 is highly accepted at p<0.01. The findings revealed that brand image has positive impact
on customer trust and loyalty whereas H2 and H5 is accepted. Overall, customer trust has significant
relationship with customer loyalty. Thus, H3 is accepted at p <0.05.
Table 2: Discriminant validity using AVE
Constructs
Brand Image (BI)
Customer Loyalty (CL)
Service Quality (SQ)
Trust (TRT)
BI
0.814739
0.3131
0.6394
0.4301
CL
0
0.825893
0.629
0.5221
SQ
0
0
0.781153
0.5203
TRT
0
0
0
0.787909
The above Table 2 presents the discriminant validity for the constructs. The findings revealed that
diagonals (in bold) represent square root of the AVE are higher than other indicators of the constructs that
indicate the discriminant validity of all constructs. Fornell and Larcker (1981) stated each construct’s square
root of AVE should exceed the intercorrelations of the construct with the other constructs.
Table 3:
BI_1
BI_2
BI_3
BI_4
BI_5
CL_1
CL_2
CL_3
CL_4
CL_5
SQ_1
SQ_2
SQ_3
SQ_4
SQ_5
TRT_1
TRT_2
TRT_3
TRT_4
BI
0.8854
0.8636
0.7567
0.7624
0.7972
0.2437
0.2883
0.1782
0.3192
0.2548
0.4841
0.5571
0.5343
0.5142
0.3949
0.3148
0.3781
0.348
0.3109
Cross loading
CL
0.2993
0.3137
0.1729
0.1640
0.2725
0.7676
0.8837
0.8300
0.8363
0.8075
0.5579
0.5092
0.5065
0.4644
0.4068
0.4453
0.4186
0.4191
0.3583
SQ
0.6055
0.5649
0.4625
0.4186
0.5130
0.5605
0.5651
0.4455
0.5119
0.4957
0.8218
0.8352
0.8180
0.7899
0.6204
0.3866
0.4574
0.4200
0.3711
TRT
0.4228
0.3834
0.2602
0.2670
0.3683
0.4497
0.4380
0.3939
0.4466
0.4188
0.3760
0.4286
0.4208
0.4367
0.3690
0.8272
0.8520
0.7743
0.6880
The above Table 3 shows the cross loading for each item. The analysis of the cross-loadings support
for the discriminant validity as such reflective indicator loads highest on the constructs. The findings illustrated
that all items showed sufficient convergent and discriminant validity as the loading of each item is greater than
all of its cross-loadings.
Table 4: Results of testing convergent validity and reliability
Constructs
Service Quality
SQ_1
SQ_2
Factor Loading
0.8218
0.8352
Cronbach’s Alpha
0.8365
AVE
0.6102
CR
0.8856
SQ_3
SQ_4
SQ_5
Brand Image
BI_1
BI_2
BI_3
BI_4
BI_5
Customer Trust
TRT_1
TRT_2
TRT_3
TRT_4
Customer Loyalty
CL_1
CL_2
CL_3
CL_4
CL_5
0.8180
0.7899
0.6204
0.8750
0.6638
0.9077
0.7935
0.6208
0.8668
0.8830
0.6821
0.9146
0.8854
0.8636
0.7567
0.7624
0.7972
0.8272
0.8520
0.7743
0.6880
0.7676
0.8837
0.8300
0.8363
0.8075
For convergent validity, the average variance extracted (AVE) needs to be examined. The above Table
7 shows all the AVE values were ranged from 0.7935 to 0.8830. The internal reliability was assessed through
composite reliability (CR) which is ranged from 0.8668 to 0.9146. The standardized factor loading of all items
are greater than 0.60 that is recommended by Hair et al. (2010). The cronbach’s alpha values are ranged between
0.7935 and 0.8830 that suggested a high level of internal consistency reliability (Hair et al., 2010). Finally it is
concluded that the all categories are achieved their recommended level that meet the higher the convergent
validity and reliability.
Table 5: Moderating Effect
Relationship
Sample
SQ * CB -> CT
0.2305
BI * CB -> CT
0.1956
Significant level *p<0.05, **p<0.01
Std. Error
0.0890
0.0947
t-statistic
2.5898*
2.0654*
Above Table 5 shows the moderating effects. On the basis of the results regarding the moderating
effects of customer benefits has significant relationship between service quality and customer trust in Malaysian
Giant supermarkets loyalty. Furthermore, the moderating effect of customer benefits has also significant
relationship between brand image and customer trust in Malaysian Giant supermarket loyalty.
Fig. 3: Moderating Effect of Customer Benefits between service quality and trust
5
Customer Trust
4.5
4
3.5
Moderator
Low Customer
Benefits
High Customer
Benefits
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
Low Service Quality
High Service Quality
The above Fig. 3 shows the moderating effect of customer benefits illustrated by graphical
presentation. The Interaction Effect of customer benefits on Relationship between service quality and customer
trust in Malaysian Giant supermarket loyalty. The supermarket with high level customer benefits was rated as
highly to present service quality. The low of their customer benefits appear to be less emphasizing on service
quality.
Fig. 3: Moderating Effect of Customer Benefits between brand image and customer trust
5
Customer Trust
4.5
4
3.5
Moderator
Low Customer
Benefits
High Customer
Benefits
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
Low Brand Image
High Brand Image
In this study, Fig. 4 shows the relationship between brand image and customer trust in Malaysian Giant
supermarket shows a difference slope in different level of customer benefits. The company with high level
customer benefits was rated as highly to present brand image. The company with low of their customer benefits
appears to be less emphasizing on brand image in customer trust in Malaysian Giant supermarket customer
loyalty.
Conclusion
Giant retail supermarket in Malaysia can acquire customer trust and loyalty. However, there might
have some factors which may contradict customer trust and loyalty in Giant retail supermarket, for example,
they may adopt deceitful strategy, such as they write online or in the advertisement the good service quality or
good private brand image of products, but customers might not be got good service and product quality in their
stores. Thus, customers can move to other supermarket. The findings of the research can provide the real
scenery of the Giant retail supermarket in assessing and developing relation to customer trust and customer
loyalty. Based on the literature and findings of this study, it is concluded that assessing and developing customer
loyalty program is very important. Although, customer trust and customer loyalty program does not guarantee
repurchase on the part of the customers but still it plays a very important part in ensuring customer trust and
loyalty. With regards to the challenges that managers or corporate level of the Giant retail supermarket in
Malaysia should find out the following research question which is: “What kind of benefits do customers seek
when they engage in relationships with retail supermarket and how relationships can strengthen Giant retail
supermarket customer trust and loyalty?” The review of relevant literature in the fields assessing and developing
of customer loyalty, relationship and service marketing, customer benefits will be determined as moderator that
has relationship between service quality and trust, and brand image and trust in Giant supermarket customer
loyalty in Malaysia. Giant retail supermarket can make trust their customers by providing social, psychological,
and functional benefits. Effective relationships can also lead to Giant retail supermarket customer loyalty
program. Especially, concrete management decision of good service quality, customers benefit, brand image and
consumer trust can improve customer loyalty.
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