Children as actors of tomorrow’s hypermarket experience
Résumé
The purpose of this paper is to see how children aged 7–11 years can become the actors of tomorrow’s hypermarket experience by providing a review of past research on children as retail consumers, with a specific reference to their customer experience. The literature review will be organised by presenting a “child hypermarket customer experience” model. Finally, a conceptual and methodological critique of past research will be presented followed by the revised model and conclusions. It finds six independent variables presented in the model: customer satisfaction, in-store conflicts, buying intention, purchase basket value, loyalty and average time spent in store measure a positive hypermarket shopping experience for children. There are then six types of mediators presented in the updated model: type of product, product offering, pocket money amount, environment, technology (games, tablets) and experiential marketing that mediate the impact of these independent variables on children as the actors of tomorrow’s hypermarket experience.
The conceptual discussion shows that hypermarket managers can use technology such as games and tablets not only to reduce the conflicts between parents and children in hypermarkets but also positively impact on the average time spent in the store. Further, the discussion shows that hypermarket managers can offer children the experience they expect with the use of specific experiential stimuli adapted to children in “children’s aisles” such as toys, children’s clothing, children’s hi-tech and children’s books. They can also theme the experience for children using memorabilia and the engagement of senses. Managerial research should empirically validate this for children 7–11 years of age.