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Introduction
Consumer demand for more convenient shopping experiences is making it difficult for firms to establish competitive advantages based only on merchandise assortment (Beitelspacher et al., 2011; Lloyd et al., 2014). In response, retailers are implementing innovative service strategies designed to enhance shopping convenience to better serve their customers’ needs (Grewal et al., 2020; Ruiz-Molina et al., 2017; Sarantopoulos et al., 2016). For example, many retailers are investing heavily in easy-to-use mobile apps aimed at creating more convenient online shopping experiences (Newman et al., 2018). Some now offer convenient “click and collect” services that allow consumers to buy online and pick up their purchases in-store (Jara et al., 2018). Other initiatives include voluntary nutrition labeling on food packages that help shoppers more easily and quickly identify healthy food items (Newman et al., 2016), as well as self-service technologies that expedite the check-out process for shoppers (White et al., 2012). Such retail services are significantly reshaping the provider–customer relationship.
In the present research, we focus on an increasingly popular, yet understudied, in-store service initiative: the “shopper solution” (Food Marketing Institute [FMI], 2012; Grocery Manufacturers’ Association [GMA], 2011; Shankar, 2014). We define a shopper solution here as an in-store promotional display that offers shoppers a set of two or more thematically related products, in a single convenient location, that is specifically designed to satisfy a particular shopper problem or need. Retailers use shopper insights to identify these existing problems, and then customize solutions accordingly for their customers (Deloitte, 2015; GMA, 2011). Thus, shopper solutions likely provide consumers with value primarily in the form of enhanced shopping convenience (i.e. by helping them more quickly and easily find the products they need to solve a particular problem).
For instance, a sporting goods retailer may learn through shopper insights that many of its customers are interested in undertaking recreational running to improve their health. It can gather a number of complementary products from around the store and offer them together in one centrally located “running fitness” solution (e.g. a display consisting of water bottles, running shoes, energy bars, shirts, Global Positioning System running watches, reflective safety gear, shorts, recovery drinks, etc.). These products collectively represent a valuable “solution” to shoppers’ running-related...