Introduction

The literature

Gap in the literature

Conceptual framework

Methodology

Results

Discussion

Theoretical contributions

Practical implications

Scope and future research agenda

References

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of a shopping companion on mall brand experience. Design/methodology/approach – The quantitative multi-group structural equation model study contrasts three shopper types: those shopping alone; those shopping with friends; and those shopping with family. Two categories are shoppers in a group. Nine hypotheses evaluate the impact of shopping with a companion.
Findings – The results show that companions enhance the emotional brand experience. Further, shoppers with family companions are most able to enhance brand evaluation from mall brand experience. Shopping companions help co-create the shopping brand experience.
Research limitations/implications – The findings are limited to Australian shoppers and contrast with Canadian studies, emphasizing friends. Alone shoppers place priority on price and only the alone shoppers are price-sensitive. The findings help address the gap in the literature, namely, understanding focal retail consumers in a group situation.
Practical implications – Retailers and mall managers in planned shopping centers could consider developing different retail strategies and brand experiences, which address the specific types of customer groups or alone shoppers.
Social implications – The paper is explicitly about social influences.
Originality/value – This original research contributes new perspectives to understanding the role of companion shoppers as co-creators of the focal shopper’s mall brand experience.

Introduction

Shopping malls dominate Australian retailing, with growth from refurbishments rather than building new malls. The largest malls have more than 300 tenants and cater for extensive shopping needs, including fashion, homewares and services. Malls have replaced department stores as “cathedrals of consumption” (Backes, 1997; Howard, 2015). Increasing attention focuses on a “total shopping experience” rather than merchandise alone. Management enables the mall experience by investing in interesting architecture, lighting, color, ambience and an appealing retail tenant mix. Greater attention on consumer experiences compared with merchandise transactions is consistent with the Marketing Science Institute (2014) research priorities, which signaled the need for more such research. This paper responds to that call by studying consumers’ mall brand experiences, and explicitly focusing on the social context of mall brand experiences by researching the companion shopper’s role. The social context is particularly relevant in the mall situation because conceivably the mall is a community hub bringing the community together. The study responds to broader calls (Bagozzi, 2000; Verhoef et al., 2009) for research into how the social environment influences the customer experience. Despite the apparent domination of mall shopping in several countries and the evident preponderance of companion shopping, few studies on the effects of companion shopping exist.