India’s lonely and isolated consumers shopping for an in-store social experience

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how social loneliness, emotional loneliness and social isolation relate to Indian consumers’ enjoyment of social interaction with an in-store salesperson. Design/methodology/approach Over 300 Indian respondents are surveyed about personal disposition, shopping experiences and other factors. The research model and hypotheses are evaluated utilizing partial least squares structural equation modeling. Findings As posited, Indian consumers dealing with loneliness and social isolation tend to enjoy in-store shopping experiences involving personal interactions with salespersons. Further, salespersons’ adaptive selling relates positively to consumers’ predisposition to comply with salesperson input and three outcomes (i.e. trust in salesperson, purchase intention and retail patronage). Originality/value This study fills a void in current marketing and retailing literature, providing one of the first known empirical investigations of consumers’ experiences with loneliness and social isolation. Overall, the study shows that store-based retailers within culturally collectivistic emerging markets can capitalize on their unique ability to attract and retain shoppers through in-store salesperson interactions.

Shopping value and patronage: when satisfaction and crowding count

“…Second, managers discern from the study that shoppers treat large retail stores as destinations of social outings, and not only for buying and fun. Furthermore, this study helps the store managers understand the collectivistic emerging markets, such as India, which value group belongingness and social identification (Smith et al, 2018). Therefore, Indian hypermarkets should work on satisfying the status and self-esteem needs of their consumers.…”

“…However, this mostly remained skewed towards the utilitarian value aspects of the consumer shopping experience, such as task-related and functional benefits, and hedonic aspects, such as fun, fantasy and enjoyment (Atulkar and Kesari, 2017). In a collectivist society, such as India, consumers consider shopping as an opportunity to socialise (Smith et al, 2018). However, surprisingly, social aspects of shopping value such as recognition, status and esteem (Rintamäki et al, 2006) have often been ignored.…”

Rise of ‘Lonely’ Consumers in the Post-COVID-19 Era: A Synthesised Review on Psychological, Commercial and Social Implications

“…The traditional communities, which are geographically-bound, are in decline in the fragmented modern society, whereas the brand communities are fast-growing on social media, which create social relatedness and ease loneliness [ 1 ]. In an offline setting, Smith, Rippé and Dubinsky [ 4 ] and Rippé, Smith and Dubinsky [ 5 ] investigated how the lonely consumers ‘befriend’ the in-store salespersons to cope with perceived deficiencies of social relationships.…”

“…Regardless of age and living environments, loneliness may be experienced by every consumer though in quite different manners. The recent advancement in communication technologies might come as a solution to the prevalent loneliness, yet constant connectivity via social media and personal mobile devices does not guarantee meaningful interactions [ 4 ]. Research has shown that people now have fewer quality social relationships, despite the increased quantity of online interactions [ 5 ].…”

“… Community; Gender Social implications Orth, Cornwell, Ohlhoff and Naber [ 68 ] Consumers’ loneliness and anthropomorphism tendency moderate their responses to brand visual, leading to brand liking Brand; Anthropomorphism; Persuasion Commercial implications Pieters [ 34 ] Loneliness contributes to materialism, and materialism reinforces consumers’ loneliness to a weaker extent depending on the subtypes of materialism. Materialism; Reciprocal effect of loneliness; Attachment to nonhuman Psychological implications Rippé, Smith and Dubinsky [ 5 ] Loneliness (social and emotional) contributes to consumers’ interaction with in-store salesperson, which leads to purchase intention and retail patronage In-store interaction; Marketplace relationships Social implications Smith, Rippé and Dubinsky [ 4 ] Loneliness (social, emotional and physical isolation) leads to enjoyment of in-store interaction with salespersons. In-store interaction; Marketplace relationships Social implications Snyder and Newman [ 57 ] Lonely consumers express a higher intention to join brand communities in seek for belongingness.…”