Role of Retail Store Attributes on Store and Customer Engagement in Food Industry

Indian youth is emerging as a very powerful and significant consumer market. Food retailers have to adopt new strategies to win the hearts of the customers, especially youths of India. The present study has tried to understand the level of perception and consumption behaviour of the youth by examining the retail store attributes of the food outlets which are considered important in making the buying decision of food products from the local or franchise-based food outlets. Further, the study provides an empirical evidence for the relationships among the food quality and servicescapes as the retail store attributes and this attempt to bring strong store and customer engagement towards a particular food outlet. In this regard, the present study includes two important components of retail store attributes, i.e., food quality and servicescapes. The data was collected from registered Ph. D research scholars and final semester students of post-graduate courses enrolled in Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar for the session 2016-17 through self-modified and well-structured instrument. Selection of food outlets, specifically local food outlets and franchise-based food outlets is done because of fast changing trends in food and eating habits of consumers which have contributed largely to the growth and development of organised food retail formats in India. The statistical technique, such as reliability and validity, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), structural equation modelling (SEM) were used for data analysis. The study found that among the two dimensions of retail store attributes, food quality has a positive and significant impact on store engagement. However, the impact of servicescape on store engagement was found to be non-significant. When we analysed the direct impact of food quality and servicescape on customer engagement, we found that servicescape has a positive and significant impact on customer engagement. On the other hand, the impact of food quality on customer engagement is insignificant. Further, store engagement significantly leads to customer engagement in context to food retail outlets. Thus, the study reveals that the impact of food quality on customer engagement is significant through store engagement. In order to make maximum footfall in the food outlets substantive other insights must be brought into the retail store attributes like in atmospherics or ambience of the food outlet. The results of the study are helpful for future service providers, tourism businesses, tourism retailers, and other service sectors to plan better services and equip a wider range of service skills and this exaggerates more store patronage towards the particular food outlet.