An Empirical Investigation of the Relationship between Store Attributes and Customer Satisfaction: A Retail Operations Perspective

The purpose of this study is to identify key retail store attributes that impact customer satisfaction. The conceptual model is developed with the help of extant literature and expert opinion. The study analyzes the relationship among the store attributes, customer satisfaction, advocacy, and repurchase intention to provide operational insights to retail store managers concerning key store attributes. In particular, jewellery stores in India are selected for this research investigation. The data from jewellery stores and customers located in the Gwalior district is collected using the convenience sampling. The partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method is used for model validation and data analysis. The results reveal that the store-related attributes, product-related attributes, and service quality-related attributes have a positive influence over customer satisfaction. In these three attribute categories, the most sought factors by consumers were store layout & ambience, product durability, and overall assistance, respectively. Further, the customer satisfaction is found to affect advocacy and repurchase intention. The study suggests that jewellery store managers should focus on managing the select store attributes identified in this study to improve customer satisfaction, advocacy, and repurchase intentions. Though the study is conducted in the context of Indian jewellery stores, the insights are equally useful and explorable in other retail stores situated at diverse locations.