Evolution of retail formats: Past, present, and future

In this paper, the authors review current literature on retail formats and propose a new customer-centric framework for retailers to focus on as they continue to innovate and evolve. Specifically, they review the literature on how formats compare in their attributes and compete with each other; the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of retailing 2021-03, Vol.97 (1), p.42-61
Main Authors: Gauri, Dinesh K., Jindal, Rupinder P., Ratchford, Brian, Fox, Edward, Bhatnagar, Amit, Pandey, Aashish, Navallo, Jonathan R., Fogarty, John, Carr, Stephen, Howerton, Eric
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
20th century
Advertising
Consumer behavior
Consumers
Convenience stores
Costs
Customer services
Drug stores
e-commerce
Grocery stores
Market shares
Mass merchandising
Omnichannel
Online retail
Prices
Product returns
Purchase intention
Retail formats
Retail stores
Retailing
Shopping
Supermarkets
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Summary:In this paper, the authors review current literature on retail formats and propose a new customer-centric framework for retailers to focus on as they continue to innovate and evolve. Specifically, they review the literature on how formats compare in their attributes and compete with each other; the role of customer behavior in format choice; and developments in multichannel and omnichannel retailing. They propose a framework for retail formats suggesting two paths – either reduce friction in the customer journey or enhance customer experience. They discuss the challenges faced by offline (physical store-first) and online (digital-first) retailers and elaborate on strategies each type of retailer is pursuing to address these challenges. Finally, they offer directions for future research in this domain. They conclude by calling for newer digital-first and physical-first players to continue coming up with different customer-centric formats, which they predict will slowly morph into integrated retailers, leaving space for newer players to enter the market and hence keep the wheel of retailing spinning.
ISSN:0022-4359
1873-3271
DOI:10.1016/j.jretai.2020.11.002