Search Results (9)

Compared to multiple other European countries, Germany still lists among those countries restricting the operation of most retail activities on Sundays as well as public holidays. For a long time, the German populace backed this decision. The COVID-19 crisis had distinct effects on retail behavior, expectations, and perceptions among broad strata of German society. To quantify these changes, this study implements the results of two surveys from 2018 and 2025. Both samples were drawn from among the population of the fourth-largest German city of Cologne and visitors to the city. The results of t-tests and multiple multivariate regression analyses indicate that visitors still attend retail Sundays for hedonistic motives, i.e., related events, but in 2025 utilitarian motives have become more essential. While the amount of money spent during retail Sundays increased, this development is primarily driven by visitors not native to Cologne. However, city events continue to draw visitors and should be continued by city management. The financial potential for retailers by abolishing the German Shop Closing Act consequently remains limited, and its abolishment would only increase the ease of shoppers. Thus, legal changes to the act will have only limited potential for urban economic development. Full article

This study examines the collaborative impact of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) between shopping mall management and retailers on customer traffic. Through a multiple case study involving 30 interviews with managers from various traditional shopping malls and factory outlets, the research highlights how tailored CRM strategies, such as tenant mix, accessibility, and customer engagement, foster customer satisfaction and loyalty, ultimately affect performance. Mall management focuses on attracting visitors by building a strong mall image and creating partnerships, whereas retailers emphasize customer retention through loyalty programs and personalized services. The study finds that proactive, collaborative CRM efforts, such as setting shared objectives and aligning strategies, significantly enhance customer experience and mall performance. However, existing CRM measurement systems often overlook the integrated nature of mall and retailer relationships, limiting the assessment of CRM outcomes. This research proposes an integrated model to assess CRM effectiveness across multiple organizational levels, providing insights into optimizing CRM policies to drive customer satisfaction, retention, and mall success. Limitations include the study’s focus on physical malls, with future research suggested to explore CRM adaptations bridging physical retail and e-commerce environments. Full article

Background: The Chinese beverage industry is experiencing rapid growth, particularly in the popularity of non-sugar sweetened beverages (NSSs) and ready-to-drink beverages (RSBs). This study aimed to assess current consumption patterns and determinants of various beverage types among retail visitors. Methods: A total of 44 observation points, including 22 supermarkets and 22 convenience stores, were randomly selected across Shanghai. At each location, at least 100 individuals were recruited to participate. Data were collected using an electronic self-administered questionnaire. Results: The consumption rates of total beverages, sugar-sweetened beverages, NSSs, and RSBs were 57.70%, 56.94%, 19.60%, and 29.50%, respectively; the median consumption amounts among the drinking population were 162.57 mL/day, 137.98 mL/day, 32.85 mL/day, and 32.85 mL/day, respectively. The consumption proportions of NSSs and RSBs ranked 2nd and 3rd. The multifactorial analyses showed that people aged 6–18 years consumed more beverages (p < 0.05). Males were more likely to consume sugar-sweetened beverages and NSSs, but females were more likely to consume RSBs (p < 0.05). Higher educated people and bachelors were more likely to consume beverages (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The emerging beverage categories, NSSs and RSBs, warrant attention due to their significant consumption rates. Tailored intervention strategies should be considered for demographic groups varying by age, gender, and educational attainment. Full article

In multicentric and increasingly complex urban regions, a city centre reinvents itself. In the case of Porto, tourism was essential for its “Baixa” renaissance. A relevant increase in visitors meant also a dramatic increase in real estate prices and significant land-use change. In field interviews, retailers noticed a “new life” before COVID-19 arrived, remarking on the positive role of tourism on urban rehabilitation and the economic viability of companies, and the negative effects for residents and traditional shops, directed to the common resident. In this article, we present and discuss its main effects in this exceptional area in Portugal’s second city. We also discuss tourism dependency and the challenge of sustainability in a high-density context, defending public policies oriented for a “city with tourists” that replaces the current construction of a “city of tourists”. Full article

Urban forests have important functions to alleviate air pollution, adjust the regional climate, and promote visitors’ mental health and well-being. Humans’ perceptions towards both atmospheric particulate matter (PM) and meteorological factors can be a gauge for assessing the functional services of urban forests. The geographical locations of host cities experiencing urbanization could take part in effects on emotional states of forest visitors. In this study, a total of 6309 facial photos of urban forest visitors were obtained from social networks in 42 cities of mainland China. Happy, sad, and neutral emotions were rated as percent scores in 2020, when the same-day air pollutants, meteorological factors, and socioeconomic indicators were recorded. The positive emotional index (PEI) was calculated as the difference between happy scores and sad scores. The results reveal that severe air pollutants (jointly PM_2.5 > 75 μg/m³, PM₁₀ > 150 μg/m³, and AQI > 150) were more frequently found in cities in the northeastern and northern areas of China. The forest visitors in the northeastern cities showed higher happiness scores compared to the visitors in other regions. The Quasi-Poisson regression suggested that high scores of happiness were frequently disclosed in weathers with low PM₁₀. High scores of sadness were regressed on exposure to cities with a low GDP per capita and low total retail sales but with a high GDP at low-longitudinal and high-latitudinal locations with low levels of PM_2.5 pollution, relative humidity, and wind velocity and a high temperature. The happiness score and PEI showed high-value aggregations in mega-sized cities (population over 10 million), such as Beijing and Zhengzhou, and in a metro-sized city (population of 5–10 million in Langfang) from climate regions of China. Full article

Objective: Impulse buying is a recognized phenomenon as consumers have abundant shopping opportunities. We investigate whether orderly space encourages consumers to buy impulsively and whether this relationship is moderated by self-construal. Specifically, we hypothesize that consumers show greater impulse buying intentions when space is orderly than disorderly. We also hypothesize that when interdependent self-construal is primed, the effect of orderly space on consumers’ increased impulse buying intentions will be attenuated. Background: Our hypotheses are based on the research about emotions that consumers experience while they shop in a retail store. When the store is orderly, consumers experience pleasure. In contrast, disorganized shelves, unsorted merchandise, and messy clothing racks evoke negative emotions. A recent study shows consumers’ positive emotional responses to a retail environment result in heightened impulse buying. Methods: Two experiments were carried out to test the two hypotheses. Experiment 1 employed a 2 (space order: orderly vs. disorderly) between-subjects design. Participants randomly received one of the two store images and were asked to indicate their impulse-buying intentions. Experiment 2 employed a 2 (space order: orderly vs. disorderly) × 2 (self-construal: independent vs. interdependent) between-subjects design. Participants were randomly given one of the two store images and one of the two self-construal priming tasks to measure their impulse buying intentions. Results: As hypothesized, Experiment 1 demonstrated that participants exerted stronger impulse-buying intentions in an orderly space. Experiment 2 also showed that when participants were primed by interdependent self-construal, their impulse buying intentions did not differ, regardless of whether the space was orderly. Implications: Our findings provide insights for offline store managers. To nudge visitors to buy impulsively, managers should organize their spaces orderly. However, the effect of space order on consumers’ impulse buying will disappear when consumers’ interdependent self-construal is activated. Our findings contribute to the academic research into the factors that lead consumers to buy impulsively. Full article

The National Healthy Food and Drink Policy (NHFDP) was developed to promote healthy food environments for the New Zealand District Health Board (DHB) staff and visitors. The policy classifies food and drinks as red, amber, or green and sets benchmarks for the proportions of red, amber, and green foods that should be available on-site. The HYPE (Healthy Policy Evaluation) study is the first national evaluation of the implementation and impact of the NHFDP. We designed an electronic audit tool to collect detailed food and drink data across a range of food settings (vending machines and all food outlets) at New Zealand DHBs and some government agencies. The electronic audit tool collects all the information required to classify food and drinks under the NHFDP (photographs of foods and drinks, item weight/volume, energy and nutrient content, ingredient composition, and Health Star Rating). The web-based tool was created using Drupal (web content management framework) and pilot tested. The tool is now in use by the HYPE team in DHBs across New Zealand. Data collection commenced in March 2021 and has been completed for nine DHBs (5700 products) so far. Audit results detailing the proportion of red, amber, and green food items available at all participating institutions will be available in late 2022. Ongoing stakeholder feedback and requirements have been incorporated throughout the design process and used to improve the audit tool. This feedback has informed key lessons such as agreeing the tool’s aims and objectives collectively with stakeholders/potential end users, pilot testing the tool prior to use, and ensuring the tool is simple and accessible for all end-users. This new electronic food setting audit tool has successfully facilitated comprehensive and standardised data collection across a range of retail settings. Full article

The aim of this paper is to share innovations and some key lessons learned in the use of non-traditional data sources to improve data quality and enable more accurate and efficient data use in the field of tourism. Research on visitor traffic is based on classical statistical measures, but it may be worth expanding it with alternative data sources, such as databases based on online cash register (OCR) data. These data can be particularly useful for analysing tourism-related consumption habits in a given area. The study introduces the “invisible”, tourism-related, non-accommodation spending characteristics of transit traffic in Hungary, the possibilities of its analysis and spatial aspects, using online cash register data (includes all retail sales in Hungary, except for motorcycle purchases), and additionally, we identify the most affected municipalities which are invisible for traditional data sources. The results show that invisible tourism, linked to transit traffic, has significant economic potential. The analysis of this new type of database will provide a more accurate and faster picture of consumption associated with hidden tourism, which can be an important input for economic and marketing development. Full article

A museum’s core activities traditionally focus on such areas as collections’ care, exhibitions and scholarship. Income generation, including retail activities, is considered secondary. Academic research into museums’ merchandise, especially into the perceived value and purchase intentions, is limited. Drawing on literature embracing both core museum functions and marketing, this research, based on the Palace Museum in Beijing, China, explores the impact of the perceived value of a museum’s cultural and creative products on purchase intentions. Combining the results of in-depth interviews with museum visitors and experts, this study defines a construct composed of six perceived value dimensions, namely quality, social, price, innovation, educational, and experience values. A relationship model of perceived value and purchase intentions is proposed. Some 346 valid survey responses were obtained by distributing a questionnaire online and on-site at the Palace Museum, and hypotheses were tested by structural equation modelling. Results showed that innovation and experience values have a significant positive effect on purchase intentions, while quality, social, price, and educational values had no significant influence on purchase intentions. This research outlines feasible strategies and actions for the development of cultural and creative products at museums that have a strong tourism role. Full article