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The pace of retail evolution has increased dramatically, with the spread of the Internet and as consumers have become more empowered by mobile phones and smart devices. This article outlines significant retail innovations that reveal how retailers and retailing have evolved in the past several decades. In the same spirit, the authors discuss how the topics covered in retail education have shifted. This article further details the roles of current technologies, including social media and retailing analytics, and emerging areas, such as the Internet of things, machine learning, artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, and robotics, all of which are likely to change the retail landscape in the future. Educators thus should incorporate these technologies into their classroom discussions through various means, from experiential exercises to interactive discussions to the reviews of recent articles.

The importance of social media for marketing professionals has grown immensely as consumers turn to it to connect with products, brands, and brand communities. Yet limited research investigates the uses of social media to teach core marketing concepts. This article analyzes coursework in foundational marketing classes, with a specific focus on the effectiveness of social media for teaching core marketing concepts. Through the use of multiple social media platforms, the courses sought to engage students in active learning and provide a medium for the students to apply marketing concepts and market real companies to a public audience. Survey data provide insights into the effectiveness of social media as a tool for teaching core course concepts.

In realizing that consumers regularly straddle the work–life interface, some companies position their products according to their ability to address work and life needs together, then communicate this offering to consumers. Whether using a work–life positioning strategy is effective remains unclear , however. If this strategy signals work–life enrichment, it should increase consumers' interest, but only if the product demands few resources from consumers. If the product instead demands substantial resources, a work–life positioning might inadvertently trigger perceptions of work–life conflict and lower consumers' interest. To test these predictions, the authors partnered with three businesses to advertise their products, which impose varying resource demands, on social media using content that highlights the work–life interface or not. Analyses of ad click data support the predictions: Work–life ads are less effective than single-domain (work or life) ads if the advertising involves resource-demanding products, but they are more effective if it pertains to resource-undemanding products. Furthermore, the effects are stronger among consumer segments that experience more work–life conflict in general. With this initial application of work–life theory to a marketing context, this article offers relevant insights for both research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of their customer engagement (CE) marketing, firms use different platforms to interact with customers, in ways that go beyond purchases. Task-based CE strategies call for customers' participation in structured, often incentivized tasks; experiential CE initiatives instead aim to stimulate pleasurable experiences for customers. But the optimal uses of these two strategies, in terms of improving customer engagement to produce more positive marketing outcomes, are unclear. With a meta-analysis and data from 395 samples, pertaining to 434,233 customers, the present study develops and tests a unifying framework of how to optimize investments in both two engagement strategies across different engagement platforms. On average, task-based initiatives are more effective in driving customer engagement, but the effects depend on the platform. If platforms support continuous or lean interactions, task-based initiatives are more effective; on platforms that encourage spot interactions, experiential initiatives are preferable. Three customer engagement dimensions (cognitive, emotional, and behavioral) in turn lead to positive marketing outcomes, though in ways that depend on the platforms' interaction characteristics (intensity, richness, initiation) and differ across digital versus physical platforms. These results provide clear guidance for managers regarding how to plan their CE marketing activities to benefit both their firms and their customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines consumers’ general in-store mobile phone use and shopping behavior. Anecdotal evidence has suggested that mobile phone use decreases point-of-purchase sales, but the results of the current study indicate instead that it can increase purchases overall. Using eye-tracking technology in both a field study and a field experiment, matched with sales receipts and survey responses, the authors show that mobile phone use (vs. nonuse) and actual mobile phone use patterns both lead to increased purchases, because consumers divert from their conventional shopping loop, spend more time in the store, and spend more time examining products and prices on shelves. Building on attention capacity theories, this study proposes and demonstrates that the underlying mechanism for these effects is distraction. This article also provides some insights into boundary conditions of the mobile phone use effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how household members' personal characteristics and key marketing factors affect the healthfulness of food purchased for in-home consumption; it further considers how food intake changes following a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes in the household. Using a combination of grocery purchases over four years, survey data about health status, and the nutrition content of 13 of the largest packaged food categories, this study shows that households with higher education and nutrition interest consume fewer calories, sugar, and total carbohydrates, whereas those with higher self-control consume more, because they offset their lower intake of "unhealthy" categories (e.g., soft drinks) with higher intake of "healthy" categories (e.g., cereal). The consumption of sugar and carbohydrates decreases significantly in response to a diabetes diagnosis, whereas the intake of fat and sodium increases. Education, nutrition interest, and self-control are not associated with healthier changes in response to a diagnosis, but younger and higher-income households, as well as those in which the diabetes patient is female, make healthier changes. These findings have notable implications for marketers, consumers, consumer researchers, and public health professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors present an introduction to a special issue on technology and marketing. They mention topics including marketing in the field of health technology, the use of artificial intelligence and robotics in marketing, and the influence of the dark web and chatbots on marketing.

In the future, artificial intelligence (AI) is likely to substantially change both marketing strategies and customer behaviors. Building from not only extant research but also extensive interactions with practice, the authors propose a multidimensional framework for understanding the impact of AI involving intelligence levels, task types, and whether AI is embedded in a robot. Prior research typically addresses a subset of these dimensions; this paper integrates all three into a single framework. Next, the authors propose a research agenda that addresses not only how marketing strategies and customer behaviors will change in the future, but also highlights important policy questions relating to privacy, bias and ethics. Finally, the authors suggest AI will be more effective if it augments (rather than replaces) human managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have consistently found that most consumers undertake relatively little prepurchase search for durable goods and do even less price-comparison shopping despite the reported importance of price to consumers' purchase decisions. This article proposes and tests two possible explanations for why consumers' willingness to engage in price search does not increase concomitantly with the price variation of durable goods. The first potential explanation, that consumers simply underestimate the market price variation, was not supported. The second possible explanation, which builds upon Weber's law of psychophysics and Thaler's transaction utility theory, was supported. The data indicate that the psychological utility that a consumer derives from saving a fixed amount of money is inversely related to the price of the item. In this case, even if consumers believe that the price variation of more expensive items tends to be greater, their motivation to spend time in price-comparison shopping for these items may not increase as much as expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Store atmospherics affect consumer behavior. This message has created a revolution in sensory marketing techniques, such that across virtually every product category, retailers and manufacturers seek to influence the consumer's 'sensory experience.' The key question is how should a company design its multisensory atmospherics in store to ensure that the return on its investment is worthwhile? This paper reviews the scientific evidence related to visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory aspects of the store environment and their influence on the consumer's shopping behavior. The findings emphasize the need for further research to address how the multisensory retail environment shapes customer experience and shopping behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because co-creation allows customers to help shape or personalize the content of their experience, it can affect customer satisfaction with recovery efforts, as well as offer a more cost-effective alternative to compensation. This article identifies specific situations in which co-creation is and is not useful. Study 1 tests the impact of co-creation in comparison with compensation for enhancing satisfaction with the recovery process and demonstrates that co-creation offers a cost-efficient strategy for companies when customers must deal with severe delays. Study 2 extends these results by showing that the impact extends to repurchase intentions. Study 3 details conditions in which co-creation harms evaluations. Finally, Study 4 explores whether it is necessary for the company to meet the customer's requests when co-creating a recovery, as well as what happens when the company exceeds a customer's requests. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications, limitations, and research directions that emerge from the studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Price-Matching Guarantees (PMGs) are a mechanism by which retailers can reassure consumers of the competitive price of products they offer. While current research in marketing has studied consumers' pre-purchase perceptions of the retailer as a result of offering price- matching guarantees, research on the post-purchase impact of PMGs has been relatively limited. While price-matching guarantees are typically assumed to result in positive consumer perceptions of the retailer, no study to date has examined the potentially negative post-purchase impact of PMGs. This paper examines the potential negative effect of policy restrictions which may prevent the disbursement of a price-matching refund, on consumer perceptions. Two experiments (Experiment 1 n=120, Experiment 2 n=50) are utilized to dissect the impact of policy restrictions on consumers' perceptions of service quality, price, and loyalty. The paper concludes with a discussion of the managerial implications of the findings on price-matching guarantee policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines what drives customers' use of an online channel in a relational, multichannel environment. The authors propose a conceptual model of the determinants of online channel use and overall satisfaction with the service provider. They then conduct two large-scale studies in different service contexts to test the model. The results show that Web site design characteristics affect customer evaluations of online channel service quality and risk, which in turn drive online channel use. Customers' overall satisfaction with the service provider is determined by the service quality provided through both the online channel and the traditional channel. The results offer insights into the trade-offs that multichannel service providers face as they attempt to influence online channel use while maintaining or enhancing overall customer satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study reported here examines how combinations of specific elements in the retail store environment influence consumers' inferences about merchandise and service quality and discusses the extent to which these inferences mediate the influence of the store environment on store image. Results show that ambient and social elements in the store environment provide cues that consumers use for their quality inferences. In addition, store environment, merchandise quality, and service quality were posited to be antecedents of store image-with the latter two serving as mediators-rather than components of store image (as they are typically treated in the store image literature). Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed and future research directions are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]