CRM in Fashion Retail

Abstract

Relational resources can help fashion retailers facing the increasing uncertainty which is characterizing their competitive arena by developing customers' store loyalty. This paper illustrates the results of a study aimed at developing and testing a model of store loyalty building in the fashion retail context. Hypothesis referring to loyalty antecedents have been derived from previous studies and are not only limited to the key relational variables already identified in the literature (trust, satisfaction and perceived value) but also to their antecedents among the retailing-mix levers to provide managerial directions to fashion retail managers. The developed model has been empirically tested. Data have been collected using a phone survey; the sample is composed of around 1,400 fashion retail customers. The most important result of the study are: the role of trust as a loyalty antecedent and the poor, and negative, role of salespeople within the model.