This publication examines how the expectations of German customers towards food retailers and the fulfilment of these expectations changed over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. On this basis, it is shown how food retailers can improve their market performance.
Publication
Godbersen, H., Szabo, T. & Ruiz Fernández, S. (2023). Customer Expectations and Their Fulfilment in the German Food Retail Market Before and During the Covid-19 Pandemic - A Longitudinal Study with the Means-End Theory of Complex Cognitive Structures. In L. Rothe, J. Naskrent, M. Stumpf & J. Westphal (Eds..), Marketing & Innovation 2023: Future Shopping - Der Handel in der (Nach-)Coronazeit, pp. 173-198.
Abstract
The German food retail market is highly saturated and concentrated. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic led to some changes in eating and grocery shopping behaviours. In such conditions, food retailers need to understand the customers’ expectations and how best to fulfil them as well as respective changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, we examined the aforementioned aspects in two studies, which represent the German population by gender and age, in 2019 and 2022. The results reveal that the customers’ evaluation of several performance elements of food retailers have significantly but not substantially changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. These performance elements should be analysed in more detail and monitored closely. Essentially, food retailers are advised to primarily focus on securing the quality of their core business, such as their location appeal and product range, whilst improving the quality of “secondary” performance categories, like services and communication, to provide their customers with added value.