Systemic changes are transforming traditional brick-and-mortar retailing, with some venerable retailers closing some or all of their stores, others reinventing store layouts and shopper engagement tactics, and, interestingly, the migration of erstwhile online-only retailers to the physical retail landscape. Given these changes, it is imperative for brick-and-mortar retailers to identify newer customer relationship mechanisms that motivate patronage intentions. Drawing from research on consumer-brand relationships, this study introduces store attachment as a second-order relational construct comprising of store-self connection and store prominence. Subsequently, for store attachment, cognitive and emotional antecedents as well as consequent influence on store patronage intentions are hypothesized and tested. Based on the findings, implications are offered for retailing researchers and practitioners.

Introduction

In recent years, the retail environment has witnessed systemic changes that have irreversibly transformed the face of traditional, brick-and-mortar retail stores. In the US, in the recent few years alone, several retailers have either announced closure of poorly-performing store locations or exited the industry permanently. According to some estimates, more than 6000 stores were closed in 2017 and an additional 3600 closures are expected in 2018 (Business Insider, 2017; Fortune, 2017). Yet, the future of brick-and-mortar retailing is not entirely bleak. Traditional retailers like TJ Maxx, Target, and Nordstrom have announced new store openings, albeit with smaller footprints as compared to existing stores. Shopping malls, which have been in decline for years, are reinventing themselves by focusing on customer experience, entertainment, technology, and design (McKinsey, 2014, 2017). Meanwhile, erstwhile online-only retailers such as Amazon, Bonobos, and Wendy Parker have opened brick-and-mortar stores designed to focus on customer engagement and experiential value. In fact, Amazon, the online retailing giant, is making inroads into the offline realm by establishing pop-up stores, bookstores, delivery lockers embedded within stores, and most recently, a brick-and-mortar retail store called Amazon Go, where there are no cashiers or registers and shoppers can charge their purchases to their Amazon accounts as they shop (Business Insider, 2018). These developments point toward a distinctive retailing future, where brick-and-mortar retailers must battle for relevance by engendering customer engagement through outstanding customer experience, emotional connections, and shared identity (e.g., Grewal et al., 2009; Grewal et al., 2017a, 2017b).