Customer loyalty to a grocery retailer: differences between urban and rural areas of Lithuania

ENGiven the intensive competition in almost all the business sectors, customer loyalty research is gaining its popularity among marketers as well as among scholars. The aim of this research was to determine the diferences in loyalty to grocery retailer between urban and rural consumers. In order to reveal the diferences, questionnaire research was provided and diferences between Lithuanian urban and rural customer loyalties were determined. The research results indicated the existence of statistically signifcant diferences between the loyalties of Lithuanian urban and rural regarding their mostly visited grocery retailers in terms of their attitudes and repeat patronage behaviour. Moreover, based on the neo-behaviouristic approach, considering attitudinal and behavioural measures, all kinds of loyalties were observed stronger in the urban areas of Lithuania. The assumption was made that there might be an efect of limited-choice condition. Afected by the latter condition, rural citizens tend to seek for variety more than the urban ones. Consequently, considering the rural citizens’ evaluations, it can be stated that their loyalty is undermanaged, resulting in a very low amounts of truly loyal customers. Therefore, for the grocery retailers it was recommended to revise their customer loyalty schemes based on the point of residence of their consumers. In such a way the higher possibility of meeting consumer needs might be achieved. Key words: attitudinal loyalty, behavioural loyalty, customer loyalty, grocery retailer, Lithuania. [From the publication]

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