An Information-Processing Approach for Evaluating In-Store Retail Operational Design Strategies

We develop a model to evaluate retail store operational design strategies using an information-processing perspective of organizational design. We propose that three model constructs pertaining to in-store shopper task uncertainty–the product mix complexity, the service production complexity, and the product mix changeover–create shopper encounter information requirements (IR). These requirements can be met using specific retail service operational design choices for managing shopper encounters, namely, designing layouts for self-service (SS) and providing employees with task empowerment (TE). The model is then operationalized using a two-stage approach to develop new multi-item, measurement scales. The psychometric properties and predictive validity of the scales and model are then confirmed by using structural equation modeling with survey data from 175 merchandise retail store managers. We find that our model can be generically applied across the retail industry to understand how shopper encounter IR motivate retailer store design choices and can be used to determine whether to design stores for SS or to provide store employees with TE. We then evaluate the efficacy of the studied store design choices on customer delivery satisfaction, and offer some suggestions for future research.