The influence of personal selling on store loyalty in electronics appliance stores in Johannesburg

Abstract

Retailers consider store Loyalty to be crucial to their long-term survival, growth and profitability. In the South African retail sector, most store loyalty strategies are obvious, and the patterns are predictable. They are either mechanical or based on simplistic behaviour-to-reward programmes that are easily imitable. The indiscriminate application of similar store loyalty programmes amongst appliance electronics retailers appears to be diminishing in its effectiveness as a cause for store loyalty. This study explores the potential applicability of personal selling dimensions as a tool for developing store loyalty in electronics appliance stores. The purpose of the study is to examine the use of intangible marketing tools such as personal selling (person-to-person contact elements) to foster store loyalty in electronics retail stores in Johannesburg. The study approach was quantitative and the study population were shoppers and store managers of appliance retail stores in Johannesburg. A survey was undertaken using a self-developed questionnaire to collect primary data from respondents. The sample size for the study was five hundred shoppers and fifty store managers using the non-probability purposive sampling technique. The findings of the study indicated that customers did not consider personal selling as cause for theirstore loyalty in appliance stores. However, the study found there was significant relationship in the personal selling attributes that customers and managers considered as important. Both customers and managers shared similar views that Product knowledge and Trustworthiness were the two most important personal selling attributes in appliance stores. The study provides an insight into the human attributes which buyers and sellers consider crucial in appliance stores. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in sales force training and recruitment by highlighting buyer and seller perspectives of the pertinent personal selling attributes that if available could influence store loyalty. The main limitations of the study was that the study was cross-sectional and thus data was collected within a limited geographic area and time, therefore generalization from sample to population is limited. The study focused on electronics appliance stores and was limited to the Johannesburg.