Outsourcing salespeople in building arousal towards retail buying

Abstract

The strategy of outsourcing salespeople (sales promoters) to prospect for customers through inter-personal communication and develop pre-purchase arousal for products and services is being increasingly employed by manufacturing and marketing fi rms. Sales promoters are deployed at strategic locations such as in front of malls, large self-service stores, departmental stores and traffi c islands in the city. This paper attempts to analyse behavioural drivers that infl uence consumers ' leisure shopping behaviour and measure customer value through empirical investigation in Mexico. The study reveals that sales promoters signifi cantly stimulate interest among customers towards buying products and trigger shopping arousal. Consumers are infl uenced in making buying decisions by the product attractiveness and pre-purchase arousal generated by the sales promoters.

Point-of-sales promotions and buying stimulation in retail stores

“…As higher stimulation or interactive learning provided by the sales promoters focuses on gaining an initial experience of the product, consumers tend to engage in higher arousing activities and adhere to the sale promotions offered by the retail stores. 3,38 It has been demonstrated in some researches using store-level data that shoppers in predominantly Hispanic communities actually buy fewer name brands and more store brands. 39 Marketers reinforce this perception between consumers and their stores by consistently offering them loyalty offers, as Hispanic consumers are more loyal than non-Hispanic consumers.…”

“…Self-service retail stores introduce electronic cash cards (ECCs), shopping advantage cards (SACs) and bulk purchase price (BPP) offers as point-of-sales promotions in order to acquire new customers and retain existing customers. 3,4 Retailing fi rms build most profi table strategies through services differentiation and competitive advantages, offering customers something new that they value and that other retail outlets do not have. Self-service retail stores differentiate at every point of customer service and customer relationship from the moment that customers express store loyalty.…”