Abstrakt
Economic transformation in the post-transition countries brought about the enormous expansion of the vending industry that included multi-national supermarket chains. With the saturation of the consumer demand, increase of the economic well-being, and the growth of competition in the field, vendors in Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) attempt to sustain their loyal customer base using various loyalty programs.
Our paper describes the results of the survey among shoppers in the six largest supermarket chains in the Czech Republic. We determine the main qualities that supermarkets may offer for the customers to stay loyal on the basis of 257 face-to-face interviews and the effect of socio-demographic factors on the importance of these factors.
Our results show that, as opposed to the literature that stresses the emotional relationship between the customer and the store, loyalty of Czech consumers is linked to such "traditional" factors like low prices, discount sales, accessibility, and quality of goods and gifts. On the other hand, factors such as assortment of goods or the level of services in stores did not come through as significant.
Our results are explained in the light of economic behavior of people in post-transition economies.