Packaging-free products: A lever of proximity and loyalty between consumers and grocery stores

Didier Louis, Cindy Lombart and Fabien Durif

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2021, vol. 60, issue C

Abstract: This research investigates the consequences for retailers and their stores of a new sustainable consumption trend—the purchase and consumption of bulk products. It examines the effects of offering packaging-free products on three subdimensions of perceived proximity (identity, process, and relational) and on transactional loyalty (satisfaction–loyalty) and relational loyalty (satisfaction–trust–loyalty). A total of 1407 buyers and consumers of bulk products at a convenience store (of a university cooperative style) filled out an online questionnaire. These consumers were then divided into three subgroups (convinced, pragmatic, and wary). This research empirically establishes that unpacked products are a strategic tool for retailers and their stores to create or strengthen the relationships established with their customers. Unpacked products and the proximity they create between a consumer and a store are the first link in the development or preservation of a relational chain between the consumer and the store. Moreover, the step reached by the consumer in his process of purchasing and consuming packaging-free products (from the discovery stage to the already well-established habit) has a direct impact on the relational chain built.

Keywords: Food waste; Plastic waste; Packaging-free products; Proximity; Satisfaction; Trust; Loyalty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joreco:v:60:y:2021:i:c:s0969698921000655

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2021.102499

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