Understanding Relevance In Retailing

Defining Relevance in Retailing

At its core, retailing involves the passage of goods or services from manufacturers or suppliers to consumers or end-users. While some may view retailing as limited to store-based activities, JR embraces a much broader perspective, encompassing all marketing-related phenomena and interactions along this path.

Conceptual and Methodological Perspectives

JR encourages submissions that draw from a wide range of conceptual backgrounds and methodological approaches. Theoretical backdrops can include behavioral, economic, management, sociological, or psychological research. Similarly, methodological diversity is embraced, including experiments, ethnographies, surveys, analytical models, empirical models, panel data, and secondary data, as long as they effectively address the research question.

Broad Scope of Retailing

Retailing, as seen through the lens of JR, touches on various strategic and tactical elements relevant to marketing. It is primarily focused on the demand side, considering how consumers and demand influence retail activities. The journal welcomes research focused on Business-to-Business (B2B), Business-to-Consumer (B2C), and Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) issues, examining interactions between manufacturers, resellers, agents, platforms, and consumers in both physical and virtual spaces.

Examples of Relevant Research Issues

Channel design and management, exploring manufacturers' and brands' go-to-market strategies.

The impact of pureplay platforms on the decision to open physical stores.

Brand manufacturers venture into game-based platforms or add rapid-delivery players to the mix.

Research on the tensions arising from divergent goals between actors and their impact on brand equity.

Examining consumer behavior influenced by marketing-mix elements during the customer journey.

Rethinking the role of location in omni-channel retailing and the virtual meta-verse.

Investigating pricing strategies, both offline and online, and their dynamic nature in the digitalized retail landscape.

Managing assortments and product lines tailored to different channels and formats, with a focus on customization and personalization.

Understanding the importance of trust in C2C transactions and its impact on purchase decisions.

The role of customer reviews as quality cues in C2C marketplaces and their impact on buyer behavior.

Impacts on Business and Society

JR encourages researchers to consider the broader implications of retailing on business and society. Topics like sustainability, pricing's impact on welfare, new technologies' effects on employees and consumers, and privacy implications of customer data collection should be explored.

Positioning Research as Relevant to Retailing

Authors are advised to focus on how their research contributes to retailing thought and practice. Even seemingly unrelated topics can be positioned as relevant to retailing, provided they examine retail-related aspects such as consumer behavior, marketing mix elements, or the impact of certain decisions on retailing.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the JR journal emphasizes the importance of relevance in retailing research. By showcasing the wide variety of topics and approaches that can be accommodated under the retailing umbrella, this technical report aims to inspire researchers to consider the broader implications of their work and its potential contributions to the retailing field. The editors look forward to reading submissions that add retailing-relevant knowledge for both scholars and practitioners.