Chinese Customers Perceptions of Retail Space - Literature review Example

With a population of 1.2 billion and a growing middle class with greater spending power, obtaining a share of China’s consumer market is highly competitive (Alon, Toncar, and Lee, 2002). Niehm, Fiore, Jeong, and Kim (2007) conducted a study to determine the factors that predicted consumer concerns or acceptance of pop-up shops. The findings indicate that gender, age, community size, and geographic location are all predictors of consumer concerns and/or acceptance of pop-up shops. Since introducing its open-door policies and market reforms in 1978, China’s consumer market has expanded with Chinese consumers enjoying unprecedented spending power, although there are significant inequalities (Taylor, 2003). Samiee, Yip, and Luk (2004) argue that China’s consumer market is a large draw for foreign retailers and provides significant opportunities for foreign retailers, particularly since Chinese consumers are attracted to foreign goods.
According to Chevalier and Gutsatz (2012), the pop-up store is amenable to Chinese consumers as Chinese shoppers, particularly women spend a significant amount of time visiting shops each week. For example, Chinese female shoppers spend 9.3 hours a week shopping compared to 3.6 hours a week for American female shoppers and 3 hours a week for French female shoppers. Moreover, Chinese shoppers visit 4.6 shops a week compared to 3.1 in the US and 2.5 in France (Chevalier, and Gutsatz, 2012). This study conducts a review of the literature intending to identify Chinese consumers’ perceptions of retail space, with an emphasis on pop-up stores in creating the retail experience. Therefore, this literature review covers studies on pop-up stores, shopping experience specifically, the hedonic and utilitarian shopping values, the pop-up shopping experience, store design, retail branding, and characteristics of pop-up store consumers.
Pop-up stores are defined as ‘temporary stores’ (Zentezs, et al., 2011, p. 55). Pop-up stores are ‘very specific new store formats’ and its goal is to create a ‘limited edition type of retail atmosphere’ because they are only open for a fixed time ‘which can be interpreted as a scarcity strategy by retailers or a promotion gag’ (Zentes, et al., 2011, p. 55).