LOYALTY OF CONSUMERS IN THE RETAIL MARKET OF WOMEN’S CLOTHING AND SHOES BASED ON SATISFACTION WITH QUALITATIVE ATTRIBUTES

FIDELIZAÇÃO DE CONSUMIDORAS NO VAREJO DE ROUPAS E CALÇADOS FEMININOS A PARTIR DA SATISFAÇÃO COM ATRIBUTOS QUALITATIVOS

ABSTRACT

Purpose:

There are few studies about satisfaction with qualitative attributes and their factors which women look for when shopping for clothes and female shoes in the Brazilian retail market, and that is the main objective of this study, which consists in identifying the qualitative attributes that promote the service quality factors perceived by consumers in the retail market of women’s clothing and shoes in order to obtain a higher satisfaction and fidelity for this segment.

Design:

The methodology used was subdivided into two stages: an exploratory qualitative stage and another stage using a descriptive qualitative research with 240 female consumers in the retail market of clothes and shoes.

Findings:

The results of this study show a positive correlation between satisfaction and the intention of repurchasing. Four main factors were identified using a Factorial Analysis: Attending, products, service and infrastructure.

Research limitations:

Study was limited to women in clothing and shoes retail in only one city.

Practical implications:

Based on the results it was possible to establish a competitive position of the retail sector for the target market and strategy actions for improvement and to increase loyalty among the female consumers to the stores.

Social implications:

Reduction of consumer dissatisfaction in the retail of women’s clothing and shoes.

Originality/value:

Academic contributions to broaden the understanding of women’s shopping behavior in the retail market of shoes and clothes based on the identification of important attributes and factors for service quality.

Keywords:
Retail; Qualitative Attributes; Satisfaction; Loyalty Strategy; Women

RESUMO

Finalidade:

São poucos os estudos envolvendo a satisfação com atributos e fatores qualitativos preconizado por mulheres no consumo de roupas e calçados femininos no varejo brasileiro, o que motivou o objetivo principal deste estudo, que consiste em identificar os atributos qualitativos que promovem os fatores de qualidade dos serviços na percepção das consumidoras do varejo de roupas e calçados femininos para uma maior satisfação e fidelização com o segmento.

Desenho:

A metodologia empregada subdivide-se em duas etapas: Uma etapa exploratória qualitativa e outra envolvendo uma pesquisa descritiva quantitativa com 240 consumidoras no varejo de roupas e calçados.

Constatações:

Os resultados da pesquisa apresentam uma correlação positiva entre satisfação e a intenção de recompra. A partir de uma Análise Fatorial Exploratória identificou-se quatro fatores preponderantes: Atendimento, produtos, serviços e infraestrutura.

Limitações:

O estudo foi limitado ao público feminino no varejo de roupas e sapatos em apenas uma cidade.

Implicações práticas:

Estabelecimento da posição competitiva do segmento para o público alvo e ações estratégicas de melhoria para fidelização a partir dos atributos qualitativos salientados pelas consumidoras.

Implicações sociais:

Redução das insatisfações dos consumidores no varejo de roupas e calçados femininos.

Originalidade /valor:

Ampliação do entendimento no comportamento de compra das mulheres no varejo de roupas e calçados a partir da identificação de atributos salientes e de fatores para qualidade do serviço.

Palavras-chave:
Varejo; Atributos Qualitativos; Satisfação; Fidelização; Mulheres

1 INTRODUCTION

Customer satisfaction is a very important subject for companies and it is of interest for empirical and academic research (Oliveira, Silva, Brandão, & Lopes, 2017). It is well known that monitoring customer satisfaction provides valuable information that allows the development of marketing strategies, which may increase long-term relationships (Hepp, 2008).

Measuring the levels of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction has become imperative for the success and survival of companies. Information about the levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction of customers is essential in the management of organizations, since its understanding can provide a performance evaluation under the customer’s perspective (Milan & Trez, 2005), mainly in a competitive sector as retail. Promoting differentiation of services has not been an easy task for retail companies, and one of the possible solutions for this problem is to invest in customer loyalty strategies (Godinho, Pereira, & Gosling, 2018). In this sense, maintaining and attracting the interest of customers is crucial for satisfaction and repurchase (Foroudi, Cuomo, & Foroudi, 2020).

All decisions made by marketing managers in the retail sector have not only to attract and get new customers, but also to increase productivity in the sales area. According to this logic, and considering the fierce competition, companies have to be updated and informed about market needs, looking for competitive advantages to stand out from its competitors, in order to get new customers and to retain the ones they already have (Parente & Barki, 2014).

Modern retail believes that satisfaction is a relevant factor in the achievement, success and sales performance (Tran & Le, 2020). The retail market for women is in this scenario, with customers demanding quality and shopping satisfaction when buying shoes and clothes. Women are also the ones who buy or influence 80% of all merchandise purchased by their families (Popcorn & Marigold, 2003). Furthermore, women show a higher perception if compared to men when evaluating the quality attributes of clothing (Castelo & Cabral, 2018).

Developing and maintaining long-term relationships with customers is widely accepted as desirable in marketing studies. However, the challenge is to identify and to understand the variables that influence them (Godinho et al; 2018). In fact, retailers achieve long-lasting and reliable relationships with customers by giving feedback (Paulssen, Brunneder, & Sommerfeld, 2019). These marketing studies have gaps related to attributes and their factors, which affect directly specific niches, such as the object of interest of this study involving consumers of clothing and shoes in the Brazilian retail market for women. These gaps exist because the studies are more preoccupied in establishing constructs relating antecedents and consequents, and, many times disregard qualitative variables and their inherent quality factors, which promote satisfaction related to the service niche, based on the perception of the end consumer that the marketing has to understand. These qualitative variables directly influence constructs such as the satisfaction and loyalty of the end consumer in specific market niches as it is the case of women’s apparel market. Godinho et al. (2018), highlight the need of marketing research to consider specific questionnaires for the public and subject researched, which allows an accurate evaluation. According to Alves (2017), adapted scales or ready-made scales end up not being completely adequate to measure the quality perceived in services because they do not consider characteristics and peculiarities of the target market and the segment investigated.

Based on this, the first hypothesis to emerge is to investigate if the scale made from the qualitative attributes, obtained with the critical incident technique, involving consumers of clothing and shoes, has and appropriate reliability. The second hypothesis to be investigated is if female consumers of women apparel in the retail market show a positive correlation between their general satisfaction with the services provided and the loyalty with clothes and shoes stores.

Therefore, the importance of this work is based on the need to identify which qualitative attributes, and their respective service quality factors, are considered more important by women when shopping for clothes and shoes. Having this information of economic, social and management importance, the retailers will be able to develop actions and strategies of customer loyalty connected to the needs and desires of their target market, with direct actions aiming to reduce dissatisfaction of consumers in order to obtain a higher loyalty from the target market in the researched area.

This study also provides academic contributions to broaden the understanding of women’s shopping behavior in the retail market of shoes and clothes based on the identification of important attributes and factors for service quality, thus also contributing to broaden the study of this subject in the country (Castelo & Cabral, 2018) and worldwide (Gitimu, Workman, & Robinson, 2013; Bezuidenhout & Sonnenberg, 2016). The few articles we found do not approach attributes and qualitative factors in the clothes and shoes sector according to women’s perception. They are many times restricted to clothing. It is important to highlight that the customers adopt psychological criteria for a critical evaluation of what makes the quality of service or product based on factors (Syduzzaman, Rahma, Islam, Habib, & Ahmed, 2014).

We, therefore, highlight that the main research problem is to identify these qualitative attributes requested by women and their related factors of higher importance for satisfaction and loyalty of women consumers in the retail market of clothes and shoes. Then, the main objective of this study consists in identifying the qualitative attributes that promote the quality factors of services according to women’s perception when shopping for clothes and shoes in the retail market in order to obtain a better satisfaction and customer loyalty in this sector.

This article is organized in five chapters: (1) Introduction, (2) Theoretical Reference, (3) Research Methodology, (4) Results Analysis, and, (5) Results and Discussion.

2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

For a better understanding of the subjects discussed in this article it is necessary a theoretical and conceptual review of them. Among those of higher importance, we highlight: (2.1) Marketing of services in the retail market for women. (2.2) Satisfaction with quality attributes, and (2.3) Strategies for customer loyalty.

2.1 Marketing of Services in Retail Market for Women

Despite the fact that the concept of services has been much studied, since the early days, by philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and scholars like Adam Smith, the development of this area of studies is considered a quite recent one, and the first essays were published in the 1950s (Lovelock & Gummesson, 2004). For Lovelock, Wirtz and Hemzo (2011), service is something that can be bought and sold. The author also defines services as economic activities that one part offers to another one, or economic activity between two parts in a market. In exchange for time, effort and money, consumers expect to receive goods, professional abilities, living and working spaces, labor, etc.

The word service has many meanings, changing whether it is a personal service or a product service. The service by itself is a complex thing, which presents distinct and unique aspects. It is as an activity of intangible nature that offers solutions to customer needs. Therefore, in the management of services, it is essential to understand that the consumer will see the service process as part of the purchase process and not only as a result of it, as it happens with physical goods (Gronroos, 2009).

Lovelock et al. (2011), highlight that, from the consumer point of view, the service is an experience. On the other hand, from the organizational point of view, service is a projection and a management of processes to deliver the expected experience to the consumer. When in contact with the service, the customer will start experiencing and using the service. In this sense, it is of importance the fact that the great majority of marketing in this phase will transform the physical environment and its interactions with the attending team, so that the service provided becomes an attractive experience for the customer, with the intention of making the customer to consider the service offered as of good quality. Marketing of services is then similar to an act, an action, a performance, which aims to charm the customer in search for satisfaction of his needs and desires for something that is possible to buy, but intangible. Customers identify a need when they feel that something is missing in their present or desired state. When this need is identified, their attention turn to information related to having this need attended.

Customers will look for information from personal, commercial and experimental sources. Through the analysis of this information, the customer tries to know the alternatives of supply and their characteristics. The evaluation of the distinct alternatives by the customer is done from a group of criteria that can vary according to the services.

Customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction are a consequence of the comparison made between the expectation created concerning the desired service and the real situation of the service provided (Lovelock & Wright, 2001; Zacharias, Figueiredo, & Almeida, 2008).

Customers face some difficulties when evaluating the alternatives to purchase a service, because of their degree of intangibility, whereas the tangibility present in consumer goods will make it easier to evaluate them if compared to services. What is noticed, in some cases, is that if the customer expectations are not fulfilled, there is dissatisfaction, and, consequently, a change of supplier (Lovelock et al; 2011). Because of the difficulty in evaluating quality, customers adopt psychological criteria for a critical evaluation of what makes the quality of a product or service, based in factors (Syduzzaman et al; 2014). This study also intends to identify these perception factors in women consumers in one service sector, which is the object of study in this research, which is the retail market of women’s clothing and shoes, where the perception of service quality is essential for the business survival in the retail market of clothing (Castelo & Cabral, 2018).

In order to describe the retail market in Brazil, it is worth mentioning a brief history described by Gimpel (1980), who points out that from its discovery until the early 1850s, the main characteristic of the retail market in Brazil was the peddler. As there was not a real market, the retail could not establish itself. These peddlers would sell several products, such as fabrics, food, jewelry and miscellaneous articles. Furthermore, according to the author, the first business stores and the first advertisings in newspapers began in the Second Empire. Following the example of European countries, Brazil started its retail market based on the successful experiences of foreign countries.

There were no retail stores in Brazil, until the first half of 19^th century. Commerce consisted of peddlers who transported products of consumer interest, with a limited number of options (Mattar, 2011).

The Brazilian retail became more specialized with time, and began searching for a better knowledge and experience in other countries. Only in the beginning of the 1950s, it started an innovation movement, with the beginning of self-service and the arrival of Sears store to the country. After 1990, retail turned its attention to customers and looked for competitive advantage, starting then, a market segmentation and several researches in this sector. At this time, the retail companies also started using this procedure in search of distinct customers in different sectors (Parente & Barki, 2014; Mattar, 2011).

A number of changes and the globalization of economy greatly transformed the retail activities in the first decade of the 21st century, with an impressive growth of sales numbers. The retailers faced the daily challenge of differentiating from their competitors, because the rhythm of market changes, competition, innovations, and an improvement of consumers view were increasing constantly (Predebon & Zogbi, 2008; Mattar, 2011; Parente & Barki, 2014).

According to Price Waterhouse Coopers [PWC] (2016), Brazil is an economy with a yearly GDP close to US$ 2.3 trillion, where the retail sector and consumption represent a market of US$ 600 billion, which corresponds to almost 30% of the country’s GDP. In order to grow, the retail will have to align its main competences to support strategy and focus in solutions to add value for clients, besides improving products and services in order to differentiate them, and thus, get a larger share in the market. Luxury market is also growing in Brazil, according to Araujo and Loureiro (2014), and it is the biggest in Latin America, which demands, from the brands of luxury clothes in the country, more attention to the customer purchasing process, making them feel more comfortable, secure and confident of their choices.

The retail market is divided into several sectors, which have the objective of attending and negotiating directly with the end consumer. Among the several existing sectors, there are, for example, the clothing and the shoes sector. In a historical context, the origins of retail were approached by Vieira, Maia and Silva (2010), and Godoy (2006), who mention the first records of retail presence in Athens, Alexandria and Rome in the past, and the origin of nowadays stores, in Paris, in 1852. In Brazil, according to Morgado and Gonçalves (2011), retail began growing after the second half of the 19^th century.

Until the end of the 18^th Century, there was not an organized and developed clothing retail in Brazil, and the sales were done in poor conditions, because the clothes were passed from generation to generation (Schmid, 2004). The Real plan was responsible for a revolution in the clothing retail in the country, bringing in new products, raw materials and brands. Only after 2000, the Brazilian clothing retail market developed its own dynamic, using raw material and patterns from several collections, trying to follow the tendencies of more experienced markets (Fukushima & Muller, 2008). Fashion, understood as a clothing product, meets the demand of individual consumers, which makes their purchasing to keep growing (Feghali & Dwyer, 2001).

According to the Brazilian Service of Support to Micro and Small Business [SEBRAE] (2015), the retail market in the country has sold as never before in the last ten years, and that made Brazil to climb to the fifth position in the rank of countries who most purchase clothes. Clothing retail goes through great changes from season to season, to follow the tendencies in fashion. Clothing purchase expresses a number of values, habits and preferences that define culture and characteristics of each gender. According to Underhill (2009), there are factors that differentiate the shopping behavior of men and women, and he states that the act of purchasing is considered as a female activity. To Popcorn and Marigold (2003), women purchase or influence the acquisition of 80% of all consumer goods.

Women represent a great deal in this sector. Studies made by Nielsen (2016), point out that after paying essential expenses, 28% of the remaining women income is used for shopping for new clothes. Many women like fashion, no matter the social class. This sector is always trendy in the media, and it directly affects women consumer behavior, who are always trying to be fashionable according to the new tendencies.

The analysis of the relation between consumer behavior and consumer gender has been frequent in marketing studies. From both, the biological perspective or the gender identity perspective, there is a narrow relation between the purchase of a certain product or service and the fact that the consumer is a man or a woman. The shopping behavior of women goes beyond the traditional way from the past, before they achieved financial independence, since they have nowadays a great influence power and a great shopping power as well (Lins, Weiler, Pereira, & Beck, 2018).

Studies support the idea that women consider important the attributes of quality in the decision making process when purchasing clothing (Castelo & Cabral, 2018). Therefore, it is up to the service provider in the women retailing to find out the women fashion tendencies and, how women evaluate the service based on a study in this sector, their behavior related to the main attributes and factors that influence their satisfaction and decision to purchase clothing and women shoes, in order to obtain a better consumer loyalty.

2.2 Satisfaction with Quality Attributes

In competitive markets, with a great offer of brands and retail stores, the search for a differential has been a constant task for companies (Filho, Júnior, & Chinelato, 2019). Traditional retail is centered on the product / service offered seeking, satisfaction, quality and valuable consumer experiences (Xue, Parker, & Hart, 2020). For Mesquita and Lara (2007), the solution in highly competitive environments is for any retailer to understand how much the consumer wants and values the several offered attributes. This practice prevent investments in attributes that are irrelevant for the consumer.

Qualitative attributes of a product or service are the main stimuli that influences the consumer in his or her decision-making, evaluating them according to their own values, beliefs, or experiences (Peter & Olson, 2007). When someone buys a product, the first motivation is not because of its physical attributes, but because of the benefits that these attributes offer (Czinkiota, Kotabe, & Mercer, 1997). Some examples of retail attributes are variety, product mix breadth and depth; layout, planogram and departmentalization as a way of retail presentation, time to pay, how to pay, product price, location and access to the store (Parente & Barki, 2014). A research with Brazilian consumers showed that women have a better perception than men related to the evaluation of quality attributes in women clothing and also in men clothing (Castelo & Cabral, 2018).

Besides the decisions involving attributes, another point that deserves attention is the determination and measurement of attributes. One of the obstacles faced in the researches of attributes is that the attributes identified by the researches may not represent attributes that are important in the decision-making process (Garten, 1989). Therefore, it is of utmost importance to make a critical analysis, and an evaluation of every attribute importance, before conducting a research. Even though many positive attributes may be present, the existence of just one negative attribute is capable of having a much stronger information importance in the consumer judgment (Herr, Kardes, & Kim, 1991).

The attributes are part of the quality dimensions of the service and it affects value for the consumer, having influence in his satisfaction (Angnes & Mello Moyano, 2013). Nevertheless, the way consumers evaluate their satisfaction with clothing is multidimensional and based on personal values (Castelo & Cabral, 2018).

The issue of customer satisfaction has been studied since the beginning of marketing, because it is an early aspect for consumer spending and sales. The concept of satisfaction has received numerous definitions along the time (Evrard, 1993). Customer satisfaction can be understood as an evaluation of a purchasing experience or consumption of a product or service. It is an emotional answer to consumer behavior (Oliver, 1981). Satisfaction is positively associated to a good commercial performance in almost all sectors (Oliver, 2010). As the relationship is built, customer satisfaction increases (Ruiz-Martínez, Frasquet, & Gil-Souza, 2019).

Satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, can be defined as the agreement or the contrast realized between previous expectations about performance and the evaluation post-consumption of the performance. The satisfaction level or dissatisfaction affects the intention of repurchasing. It can also result from a cognitive and affective reaction to a service incident, or the service relation in the long term (Chitty, Ward, & Chua, 2007).

When evaluating the performance of a product or service, the customer usually analyses its main attributes and, in this sense, measuring the customer level of satisfaction works as a way to measure the global performance related to the customer expectations (Muniz, Silva, & Maffezzolli, 2014). The use of attributes mentioned by customers in surveys also solves one of the problems mentioned by Alves (2017), who, when evaluating the quality noticed in services, realized that the use of scales of a third party (DINESERV, SERVQUAL) end up not being completely adequate to evaluate the quality of a public or an specific sector. From that, comes the first hypothesis to be researched: Verifying if the scale made using the qualitative attributes obtained with the critical incident technique involving women consumers of clothing and shoes presents an adequate reliability.

Several studies point out that satisfaction per se is just an antecedent that amplifies retention, which is a factor that the concentrated marketing attention for several years (Oliver, 1999), and it keeps being studied and confirmed that the level of satisfaction with the services provided increases customer loyalty (Angnes, Mello Moyano, & Lengler, 2015). Another study that supports this idea is one from Alves (2017), who identified results that associate, in a positive and significant way, the quality realized in services with a higher loyalty from consumers. Satisfaction was also another variable that contributes as mediator of this relation. After that, comes as second hypothesis; if women consumers in the retail market show a positive correlation between their general satisfaction with the services provided and their loyalty to clothing stores and women shoe stores.

Loyalty, in the context of services, is realized by the intention of following a diverse set of behavior that indicates motivation to keep a relationship with the service provider (Singh & Sirdeshmukh, 2000). Loyalty is a casual behavior that depends on some previous conditions in order to happen. Customers will be loyal as they have their wishes fulfilled (Brei & Rossi, 2002). Therefore, in order to satisfy customers and keep them loyal it is essential for the retail service provider to establish marketing strategies based on the constant monitoring of the target market perception of quality attributes that impact directly the satisfaction with the services provided at the store. Retail loyalty requires the intention of repurchase, obtaining satisfaction as a result. The repurchase or future preference is the need to purchase a product/service again (Garcia, Freire, Santos, & Andrade, 2020).

2.3 Customer Loyalty Strategy

Promoting a service differentiation has not being an easy task for retail companies, and they have tried to solve the problem by investing in customer loyalty strategies. Loyalty is not an isolated construct; it is connected with other variables of consumer behavior, such as, perceived value, satisfaction and trust. The challenge is to identify and understand the variables that influence developing and keeping long lasting relationships with customers, and one way to do this is to consider in the marketing research the sector and the specific target market (Godinho et al; 2018). Marketing professionals seek in customer loyalty to promote a long-term relationship with the customer (Menidjel, Benhabid, Bilgihan, & Madanoglu, 2020).

Mintzberg, Lampel, Quinn and Ghoshal (2006), say that strategies are directly related to the marketing department of the company, because they deal with the market extension and segmentation. There is also a common worry about customer satisfaction, considering the prices and quality of products. However, organizations carry out marketing activities in order to build, develop and maintain relationships (Kim, Kim, & Hwang, 2020).

There are several strategies to increase loyalty and customer retention. This study decided to adopt marketing strategies for customer retention based on Mello Moyano, Lengler, Angnes and Sampaio (2015), who suggest that to retain service customers it is necessary to develop an strategy based on the target market and the sector involved, starting with the identification of qualitative attributes that are of more relevance for the target market, and after that, to measure the satisfaction with these attributes using a significant good sample that includes consumers of the service being evaluated, so that it is possible to identify the strategic competitive position of the target market based on results. Four competitive positions were listed: crisis position, competitive disadvantage, competitive advantage and customer loyalty (Table 1).

Table 1:
Strategic competitive position

Competitive position	Point Criteria (For a 7 Points Scale)	State Level
Crisis (C) Competitive Disadvantage (CD)	Up to 3.00 Points From 3.10 to 5,50	Dissatisfaction
Competitive Advantage Customer Loyalty (CL)	From 5.51 to 6.50 Points From 6.51 to 7.00 Points	Satisfaction

• Source: Adapted from Mello Moyano et al. (2015).

After the identification of the strategic position, it is determined the loyalty strategies based on the obtained competitive position (Figure 1). There are four strategies for loyalty on Figure 1: sales stimulus, communication without interaction, communication with interaction and benefits for customers (Mello Moyano et al; 2015).

Figure 1:
Strategic Positioning versus loyalty strategy

Table 2 shows a list of marketing actions to obtain loyalty based on the loyalty strategy adopted. Thus, when evaluating the satisfaction of the target market, the researcher will have data to establish a competitive position of the sector in order to establish the best customer loyalty strategy based on the position found. Actions that are more specific can also be determined based on attributes of higher dissatisfaction found in the research.

Table 2:
Strategies for Customer Loyalty and e Marketing Actions

Customer Loyalty Strategies	Definition	Marketing Actions for Customer Loyalty
Sales (S)	The aim is to stimulate repurchase	Sponsoring, cross-selling and merchandising
Communication with no Interaction (CNI)	Their job is to keep consumers informed about what is new in the company and their products and so stimulate sales in an indirect way.	Newsletter, informative letter, internet list
Benefits (B)	They try to give customers a prize because of their relationship history with the company	Customers club, electronic couponing, gifts and loyalty card.
Communication with Interaction(CWI)	The aim is to establish a direct communication Chanel with customers for a correct use of products or services	Free telephone number, Facebook, trade marketing, ECR, push technology, customer attending service, internet website, customer attending and after sales service

• Source: Mello Moyano and Lengler (2012).

To reduce dissatisfaction levels, we have to adopt direct actions based on the premise that, to improve customer loyalty for services marketing, actions are necessary to reduce the attributes with higher customer dissatisfaction in order to promote a direct positive increase of satisfaction and its antecedents (dimensions, constructs, factors). This will create a virtuous circle that will improve the future level of customer satisfaction, and, consequently, will have a positive influence on future loyalty with the services provided (Angnes et al; 2015).

3 METHODOLOGY

To reach the desired objective, the methodology employed in the study is characterized as a qualitative exploratory research and a quantitative descriptive research. It consists of two stages: The first exploratory stage searched for a qualitative identification of attributes in services, obtained from a sample of 25 women customers when evaluating service in the retail of clothing and shoes by means of the Critical Incident Technique. This stage made possible the identification of the most expressive qualitative variables in services, giving support to the construction of the questionnaire of the next phase. The second stage is characterized as a descriptive one, and it was based on a questionnaire structured with variables from the previous stage to measure the satisfaction with attributes. It also permitted the identification of factors that impact service quality in women retail market of clothing and shoes, employing a sample of 240 women consumers. The obtained results made possible the use of a strategic analysis based on the evaluation of satisfaction with attributes and the factors that promote service quality in this sector, targeting women loyalty to the stores in this sector. Below, there is a detailed description of each one of these stages.

3.1 First Stage: Qualitative Exploratory Research

According to Malhotra (2019), an exploratory research tries to understand a research problem and to obtain additional data. It is a non-structured flexible research process, and its primary data are of qualitative nature.

Among the available techniques for exploratory studies, this study opted to use the critical incident technique. This technique has been used in several different studies, and its use in Marketing started in 1975, to identify attributes of products (Gremler, 2004). Hayes (2001), extended to Marketing the technical definition of critical incident. He said that it is a method that tries to capture customers’ needs by using positive experiences and negative ones experienced by them, thus, reducing the risk of not taking into consideration irrelevant aspects that customers do not value when the service is being delivered.

Collection of qualitative data using the critical incident technique was employed using a non-structured questionnaire to collect positive and negative incidents experienced by women consumers in clothing and shoe stores. Sampling in this qualitative phase consisted of 25 women consumers who purchased clothes or shoes in the last 30 days from women retail stores in a city of Rio Grande do Sul. This qualitative exploratory research reached a saturation point. Every surveyed women described up to five experiences with positive incidents and five negative experiences they had in the retail in that city. The results were typed into an electronic spreadsheet program where the most frequent incidents were analyzed, thus allowing the identification of the most frequent and the most important attributes for the women consumers, based on the criteria of repetition or similarity of words meaning (textual analysis) by two experts. For each group of similar incidents (words - noun/adjective), an attribute was obtained. The identified attributes provided the variables for the data collection instrument on the second stage of the research, which is described on the next section, avoiding then, the use of third-party scales.

3.2 Second Stage: Quantitative Descriptive Research

After the qualitative exploratory stage, the research went on with the descriptive stage of quantitative nature. Its base was a structured questionnaire developed with a semantic differential scale using the attributes identified in the exploratory research. The adoption of this procedure takes into consideration the suggestion of Godinho et al. (2018); that marketing researches need to consider having specific questionnaires that are target consumers oriented, and, target sector oriented. It also considered the claim of Alves (2017), who concluded that ready scales or adapted ones end up not being fully adequate to measure the perceived quality in services of specific sectors, as it is the case of this research aimed to women retail market of clothing and shoes. Therefore, the exploratory phase of this research was essential to identify the attributes that are part of the variables of the data collection instrument in the research descriptive stage in a way that it made possible to measure the level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the identified attributes and to categorize them as quality factors with services according to the perception of women consumers of clothing and shoes.

The descriptive research is a conclusive kind of research where the main objective is the description of something, usually market characteristics or functions (Malhotra, 2019). The procedure used in this phase was the use of a survey, using a structured questionnaire previously tested and with a semantic differential scale of seven points, where the scale extremes represented the opposite poles of the 19 variables selected by two experts (based on the most expressive attributes on the exploratory research): “1. Highly Dissatisfied - 2. Dissatisfied - 3. Partly Dissatisfied - 4. I don’t know - 5. Partly Satisfied - 6. Satisfied - 7. Very Satisfied”. Two other variables were also added; one to evaluate general/global satisfaction with services and another one to evaluate repurchase and store loyalty. After going through a pre-test with six women consumers that fit the sample profile, the questionnaire was approved and used to obtain a non-probability convenience sample with 240 women consumers who had purchased clothes or shoes in the retail stores of a city in Rio Grande do Sul, between March and June of 2016. The convenience sampling has the advantage of demanding less work and time. Nevertheless, it has many limitations. Among them is the fact that it is biased and not representative of the population (Malhotra, 2019).

Microsoft Excel® and SPSS® (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences), were used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics, correlation and exploratory factorial analysis were employed to analyze the collected data with the intention of measuring the satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the attributes identified in the exploratory phase, as well as to describe the main quality service factors in the perception of Women consumer in the retail of clothing and shoes.

The results of this stage of the research also permitted to support the applicability of this study to propose strategies for consumer loyalty in the women retail market. Based on the obtained results, it was possible to identify the competitive and strategic loyalty position for women retail based in Mello Moyano et al. (2015). Therefore, starting from an exploratory diagnose to identify attributes (Stage 1), we proceed to a measurement of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with these attributes among the target customers, and the identification of the most expressive quality factors when providing services in the retail market of clothing and shoes (Stage 2). These proceedings made possible the identification of the competitive position of this sector and consequently, the establishment of specific strategic actions for marketing loyalty considering the target consumers, which helps the improvement of services in order to increase women general satisfaction with consumption and repurchase experience in the retail of clothing and shoes (Figure 2).

Figure 2:
Representation of this research methodological procedure

Therefore, it is an strategy understanding that comes from the consumer needs, as found in Godinho, Pereira and Gosling (2018), who suggest that customer loyalty must consider the identification and understanding of the variables that influence their loyalty.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results are shown in three sections: (4.1) The first section deals with the analysis of the qualitative exploratory stage of the research. (4.2) The second section deals with the analysis of the quantitative descriptive stage. Lastly, (4.3) the use of strategies for improvement of loyalty in retail, based on the obtained results.

4.1. Qualitative Exploratory Stage Analysis (Attributes)

The sample used consisted of 25 women consumers with shopping experience in retail in a city in Rio Grande do Sul, during a time period of 30 days. Their ages ranged from 16 to 55 years of age, and the average was 31 years of age. The interviewed consumers had the option of attributing up to five positive incidents and five negative ones to their last shopping experience in the retail in their city. The interview obtained 125 positive incidents and 125 negative incidents listed, making a total of 250 incidents that were analyzed and grouped according similarities and words repetition, which resulted in a table of 34 attributes (micro dimensions). However, many of these attributes are similar in meaning and were classified in 12 theoretical categories by two experts (macro dimensions), described in Table 3, which made easier the statistical description and interpretation.

Table 3:
Qualitative attributes obtained with the critical incident technique

Micro Dimension Attributes	Macro Dimension Attributes	Absolute Frequency	Relative Frequency
Service time; helpfulness; attention; sense of humor.	Service	58	23.2%
Parking; location; shopping space.	Infrastructure	47	18.8%
Product variety; product quality; product warranty.	Products	45	18.0%
Service provided...	Services	37	14.8%
Good prices; low prices; price variety; fair price; payment.	Price	19	7.6%
Downtown location; easy access; well located.	Location	12	4.8%
Diversified promotions; few promotions; to have more promotions.	Promotions	11	4.4%
Pleasant ambience, cozy; hygienic; clean; air conditioned...	Ambience	10	4.0%
Flexible hours; differentiated; business hours.	Business hours	4	1.6%
Good quality clothing and shoes.	Quality	4	1.6%
The store differential; visible.	Shop windows	2	0.8%
To improve communication on social media.	Communication	1	0.4%
TOTAL	12	250	100%

• Source: Made by the authors based on the analyzed data.

The attribute (Macro dimension) which had the highest number of incidents, was attending, with a relative frequency of 23.3%, followed by infrastructure with 18.8%, product with 18%, service 14.8%, price 7.6%, location 4.8%, promotions 4.4%, ambience 4%, business hours 1.6%, quality 1.6%, shop windows 0.8% and communications 0.4% mentions. These were the most expressive attributes (macro dimensions) in the research in the qualitative stage.

On the other hand, the study of Castelo and Cabral (2018), identified in a more specific way only the intrinsic attributes of clothing. Not worrying about the scope of service at the shops in clothing retail, but in having only the quality of clothing evaluated by Brazilian consumers, highlighting the following attributes: style, price, elegance, color, fabric feeling, modeling, brand, if it wrinkles, time it will last, finishing and if the fabric will form pills.

Based on the results from the qualitative exploratory stage it was possible to make a structured questionnaire of the descriptive stage to evaluate the satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the identified qualitative attributes, with 19 selected variables (Table 4) from the attributes list (Table 3) by two experts and a pre-tested questionnaire. It was also included a variable to measure the general satisfaction and another variable to evaluate loyalty (repurchase), from a scale with a semantic differential of seven points.

We highlight that the semantic differential scale, constructed based on the attributes of the exploratory research, pointed out by the target consumers, ends up solving in part one of the problems mentioned by Alves (2017). He mentioned that when he was evaluating the quality perceived in services, employing an alternative scale (DINESERV) to solve SERVQUAL scale problems, he identified that both do not solve completely the situational problem of quality evaluation, inherent to the characteristics of each service and target consumers. That is why employing scales based on qualitative attributes, that consider the needs and real desires of the target consumers, end up not giving trustworthy answers to evaluate satisfaction with service quality. On the other hand, this scale cannot be used for all other cases, without being modified. The main results of this descriptive research, whose research instrument (questionnaire), was developed based on the exploratory study, are described next.

4.2 Quantitative Descriptive Stage Analysis (Evaluation of Satisfaction)

The sample consisted of consumers in the retail market of women’s clothing and shoes in a city in Rio Grande do Sul. Their ages ranged from 16 to 67 years and they had a shopping experience in a 30 days period in the women retail market of the city. A total of 240 consumers were interviewed between July and August of 2016 and had their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with attributes of clothing and shoe stores evaluated. The average age of the group was 33 years. Most of them were single (41.7%), with no children (52.1%) and had graduated at high school (40.8%).

Satisfaction and dissatisfaction of 19 variables were analyzed. The attributes that obtained the vest satisfaction evaluation (Table 4), were: Attending time (89% of satisfaction), general attending from clerks (88.8%), air conditioning (88.7%) and store location (87.5%). On the other hand, the attributes with the highest dissatisfaction, considering the 70% cut in the scale of satisfied consumers, were: Parking (only 25% of satisfaction), products price (only 62.4% of satisfaction) and promotions (64.2% of satisfaction). The scale reliability in statistics based on the Crombach Alfa test was 0.92, which is considered excellent.

An Exploratory Factorial Analysis was used in the identification of factors that promote quality in services. Its use suggested the grouping of the 19 variables of the questionnaire into four distinct factors, which provided a greater homogeneity among the variables within each group. The objective of using the Exploratory Factorial Analysis (AFE) is to group the variables that show a strong inter-relation, forming latent dimensions (Hair, William, Babin, & Anderson, 2009). The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test (KMO) - Measure of Sampling Adequacy (MSA), was used in the beginning of the study. It indicates if the sampling adequacy and if the variables chosen are able to support the use of AFE in a Satisfactory way. The result obtained was 0.892, which is above the 0.500 indicated as adequate. In order to confirm if AFE use is adequate, the results from the Bartlett’s test for sphericity were considered. It resulted in values with significance smaller than 0.100, which represents adequate data for the treatment using AFE.

On the other hand, the KMO Test resulted in a 0.892 value, which is considered adequate and marvelous (Hair et al; 2009). The identification of factors was made using the principal component analysis (PCA). The exploratory factorial analysis showed that the variable V7 (flexible business hours), V10 (product warranty), V11 (follows fashion tendency), V12 (promotions), V15 (price of products), V17 (parking), V18 (store location) and V19 (space for shopping) had a low factorial weight, and thus were removed. The other variables were satisfactory, with values above the lower limit of 0.600 cut point (Table 4).

Table 4:
Satisfaction with attributes and factorial grouping of variables

Measured Variables - Attributes (Identified on the exploratory stage of the research)	Average Satisfaction	Extraction Main Components	Components
			1	2	3	4
FACTOR 1: ATTENDDACE SERVICE			1
05 Related to being pleasant	82.4%	.867	.887	.228	.128	,.106
03 Related to being helpful	84.2%	.842	.859	.254	.081	.182
04 Related to being attentive	84.2%	.855	.848	.297	.141	.168
02 Related to time of being attended	89.0%	.789	.811	.253	.254	.050
06 Related to sense of humor	79.1%	.837	.805	.267	.202	.279
01 Related to the general attendance service	88.8%	.673	.745	.184	.282	.067
FACTOR 2: PRODUCTS				2
08 Related to the variety of clothing and shoes	78.7%	.679	.205	.778	.111	.137
09 Related to the quality of clothing and shoes	84.5%	.767	.421	.757	.128	.024
11 The store follows fashion tendencies	85.0%	.552	.234	.654	.133	.227
10 Related to the warranty of clothing and shoes	72.5%	.555	.266	.646	.128	.225
14* Related to air conditioning * (Removed).	88.7%	.619	.357	.558	.418	.072
FACTOR 3: SERVICES					3
16 Related to payment, amount and payment method	82.4%	.711	.044	.375	.749	.084
18 Related to store location	87.5%	.575	.181	.173	.712	.073
12 Related to promotions of clothing and shoes	64.2%	.577	.184	.363	.607	.207
13* Related to ambience* (Variable was Removed).	83.8%	.708	.337	.501	.557	.184
19* Related to space for shopping* (Removed).	84.1%	.571	.447	.295	.531	.038
FACTOR 4: INFRASTRUCTURE						4
17 The store offers parking space for customers	25.0%	.583	.050	.077	,.041	,.757
15* Price of products* (Variable was removed).	62.4%	.565	.115	.378	.352	.534
07* The store has flexible business hours* (Removed).	78.7%	.570	.293	.175	.469	.484
20 General satisfaction with the clothing and shoes store	83.3%	--	--	--	--	--
21 Intention of repurchasing in the store (loyalty)	85.4%	--	--	--	--	--

• Note. Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. a. Rotation converged in 6 iterations. * Variables excluded from the final group. Source: Made by the authors based on the analyzed data.

As a result, from the AFE made using all the considered factors (variables) and without forcing the grouping/reduction of them, it were kept 4 factors for analysis solution: those with eigenvalues bigger than 1, which explained more than 67.87 of total variance from the original 19 variables. In the non-rotated solution, the 1^st factor explains 45.84% of variance alone. In the analysis, the use of rotated solution (Varimax rotation), shows that the 1^st Factor (Attendance) explained 26.64% of total variance (instead of 45.84% from the original non rotated solution); the 2^nd Factor (Products) explains 18.57%; the 3^rd Factor (Service) 14.94% and the 4^th Factor (Infrastructure) 7.72% of the total variance. The nomination of each factor was made by two experts, considering the predominance of definitive variables for generic categorization of the four factors in each group.

In a complementary multiple regression analysis, question number 20 (general satisfaction) and question 21 (repurchase intention) were intentionally adopted as dependent variables, and, the four delimited factors with their respective variables were adopted as independent variables. One of the basic assumptions of the regression model is that there is no multicollinearity in the data, because the existence of such relation makes it difficult to estimate the coefficients of the regressors. Aiming to detect the presence of multicollinearity, the Variance Inflation Factor test (VIF) was made to analyze the independent variables. The obtained results were positive for all variables, so, it was not necessary to remove any variables because there was no sign of multicollinearity.

The results for multiple regression for the dependent variable number 20 (Satisfaction) suggest an adjusted coefficient of determination (R² adjusted = 0.592) from the developed regression model. It is possible to verify that 59.2% of the variations on general satisfaction of women consumers in retail are explained by the 4 factors obtained by factorial analysis and their respective variables. Analyzing the F statistics (p-value of 0.000), it was seen that the variation of general satisfaction of women consumers explained by the analysis is 85.17%, which together with the ANOVA Test (p-value of 0.000) indicates that the variations (of the dependent variable - What is your general satisfaction with the store?) explained by the model are not due just to chance. In the coefficient test of the regression equation, the four factors obtained a significant coefficient in relation to general satisfaction.

The same analysis of Multiple Regression, but now considering the Question of number 21 (Repurchase Intention), suggests an adjusted coefficient of determination (R² adjusted = 0.636) from the developed regression model. It is possible to verify that 63.6% of variations on repurchase intention are explained by the 4 factors obtained by factorial analysis and their respective variables. Analyzing the F statistics (p-value of 0.000), it was verified that the variation on repurchase intention is explained by the analysis: 100%, which, together with the ANOVA Test (p-value of 0.000) indicates that the variations (of the dependent variable -Intention of repurchasing at the store?) explained by the model is not due just to chance. In the coefficient test of the regression equation, only the number 4 factor did not obtain a significant coefficient in relation to repurchase intention.

The Spearman correlation test was made to identify the degree of correlation between variables. The result of the test for the 19 variables points to a low correlation between variables, which suggests that there is no correlation problem. On the other hand, the correlation test between the dependent variables: (20) General Satisfaction, and (21) Repurchase Intention, the result was positive (correlation coefficient = 0.643), which means that, when the General Satisfaction of women increases, the Repurchase Intention in the retail of clothing and shoes also increases. Therefore, the hypothesis that general satisfaction with the retail services is positively related to repurchase intention is true.

The analysis of multiple correlation also restates that general satisfaction and repurchase at the stores is explained largely by the factors and their attributes in this study. Thus, the better the satisfaction of women with the factors and their respective qualitative attributes, the higher the probability of general satisfaction and consequently, an increased loyalty of women consumers with clothing and shoes stores. Another way of making the numbers mentioned even better would be the use of strategies to improve services.

4.2.1 Strategies for Improvement and to Increase Loyalty with the Services Provided

Based on the results found, recommendations of strategic use regarding loyalty were recommended to retailers of women’s clothing and shoes. According to the results it was found that 59.2% of the variations on general satisfaction and 63.6% of variations of women’s repurchase intention in the retail are explained by the 4 factors obtained by factorial analysis (attendance service, products, services and infrastructure). These results are supported by the correlation analysis that resulted positive between satisfaction of consumers and the intention of repurchasing in the retail of women’s clothing and shoes. This is an indication that if there are loyalty strategies for the target consumers to increase satisfaction and to reduce the dissatisfactions found in the research, there will be a tendency of having higher repurchase in women’s retail. It is known that the monitoring of the variables that impact consumers have a tendency of providing valuable information that make possible the development of marketing strategies, which can increase long lasting relationships (Hepp, 2008).

The strategic analysis was developed under a consumer point of view, using the Competitive Positioning Matrix to frame the cases, and from that, the most appropriated loyalty strategy was designed considering the position found (Mello Moyano et al; 2015). The retail sector researched shows 85% of general satisfaction with women’s clothing and shoe stores, which has a positioning in the competitive advantage quadrant. Nevertheless, 16% of the cases are dissatisfied and positioned in the competitive disadvantage. For each one of these cases it is possible to adopt isolated or associated loyalty strategies: Stimulating communication with no interaction and with interaction, stimulating sales and providing more benefits to the consumers that are already satisfied with the intention of conducting the target consumers to the quadrant of Loyalty with the Local Retail (Table 5).

Table 5
Competitive position and loyalty strategies for women’s retail

Competitive Position of Interviewee	Cases	Percentage	State Level	Loyalty Strategy
Loyalty	0	0%	Satisfaction	Provide more Benefits.
Competitive Advantage	200	83%	Satisfaction	Keep up Communication With Interaction. Keep up sales. Keep up and provide Benefits.
Competitive Disadvantage	67	16%	Dissatisfaction	Stimulate Communication With No Interaction and, Communication With Interaction. Stimulate Sales.
Crisis	3	1%	Dissatisfaction	Increase Communication With No Interaction and, Communication With Interaction. Increase Sales.
Total	240	100%	--	--

• Source: Made by the authors based on ..

In the specific actions for service improvement, it is important to observe the results of higher dissatisfaction: Parking (only 25% of satisfaction), products price (62.4% of satisfaction) and promotions (64.2% of satisfaction). For these attributes, it is necessary that retailers pay more attention to the intention of providing more benefits to the private parking for customers; negotiation, reducing prices or giving a discount on the price of products; moreover, offering more benefits and increasing promotions to the target consumers.

5 DISCUSSION

The main objective of this study was to identify the qualitative attributes that promote quality factors of services perceived by consumers in the retail market of women’s clothing and shoes, in order to obtain a higher satisfaction and loyalty in this sector. The objective was fully achieved, based on the results found and the proposed actions that provided a significant contribution. The exploratory research made it possible the identification of 34 qualitative attributes categorized in 12 groups according to their similar terminology, giving a theoretical contribution to the work of Castelo and Cabral (2018), who used clothing attributes and evaluated the perception of clothing quality according to gender.

Attributes are part of the quality dimensions of service and impact directly the value for the customer, thus, influencing their satisfaction (Angnes & Mello Moyano, 2013). They represent relevant information for studies and researches that look for variables for their researches in the clothing and shoes retail sector.

Another phase of this research consisted on the description of satisfaction with attributes. 19 variables were selected from 34 attributes. These variables constituted the measuring instrument that made it possible to test the first hypothesis of this study and as true, after confirming that the semantic differential scale made from the qualitative attributes obtained with the critical incident technique involving women consumers of clothing and shoes had a reliability of 0.92 in the Crombach Alfa Test. The use of a specific research instrument, constructed based on the target consumer of the research, to evaluate satisfaction with attributes quality in services, ends up solving one of the problems mentioned by Alves (2017), in the use of ready-made scales for measuring the perceived quality in services. The instruments made, based in critical incidents from the target consumers, mitigate the situational inconsistency of ready-made scales used for generic evaluations of satisfaction with service quality. Ready-made scales do not consider peculiarities of the evaluated sector, nor the cultural and local characteristics of the target consumers. Hayes (2001) points out that the use of critical incident reduces the risk of irrelevant aspects that a customer does not value when the service is delivered. Therefore, another contribution of this study is the recommendation of using the critical incident technique or similar techniques in exploratory research to identify the primary variables in instruments of data collection for descriptive research, in order to evaluate satisfaction with the perceived quality in services and to identify factors based on the target consumers of a specific market sector. Godinho et al. (2018), also recommend that marketing researches consider the use of specific questionnaires aiming the public and sector studied, for a more accurate measurement contrasting with the use of variables from secondary and tertiary parties.

The general results from the evaluations of satisfaction of women consumers show that 83.3% of the women consulted are satisfied with the services form the local retail. This is supported by the average of individual evaluations of satisfactions with attributes and by the 85.4% repurchase intention in the stores. These values are considered positive ones. On the statistics correlation test employed using the data, the general satisfaction and the repurchase intention had a positive relation (Spearman correlation coefficient = 0.643). That is, when General Satisfaction increases, the Repurchase Intention also increases, which confirms the second hypothesis of this study, that women consumers in the retail market show a positive correlation between their general satisfactions with the services provided and their loyalty with clothing and shoe stores. This result corroborates other studies on consumer behavior where the satisfaction level have a positive influence on customer loyalty with services (Angnes et al; 2015; Alves, 2017).

Customers use psychological criteria for a critical evaluation of what constitutes quality based in factors (Syduzzaman et al; 2014). It is possible to identify these factors using Exploratory Factorial Analysis (AFE), which in this study suggested grouping the 19 variables from the questionnaire into four distinct factors, providing greater homogeneity among the variables within each predominant group in Women’s Retail of Clothing and Shoes: Service Attendance, Products, Services and Infrastructure. These factors along with their variables (attributes), are theoretical and academic contributions for the few studies found (Castelo & Cabral, 2018; Gitimu et al; 2013; Bezuidenhout & Sonnenberg, 2016) about the behavior of women consumers concerning attributes and quality factors that influence the satisfaction and loyalty of women in clothing and shoes stores.

The results with complementary tests underline that 59.2% of the variations on general satisfaction and 63.6% of the variations on the repurchase intention of women consumers in the retail are explained by the 4 factors obtained by factorial analysis (service attendance, products, services and infrastructure). Hepp (2008), points out that the monitoring of variables that impact consumer tend to propose valuable information that permit the development of marketing strategies and the increase in long lasting relationships.

The study also provides a management contribution and a practical one because it is possible to use the strategy recommendations for loyalty in women’s retail, based on the research results, and considering just the needs and desires of the target consumers for the researched sector. From the 19 variables evaluated, only three of them obtained a Competitive Disadvantage. That means that the consumers are dissatisfied with parking, price and promotions at the clothing and shoes stores. These attributes need more attention from the retailers who try to satisfy and deliver a higher value to their customers. It should be noticed that strategies made to reduce attributes of dissatisfaction corroborate in a more effective way for loyalty from the women consumers in the studied sector. It is important to remember that consumer satisfaction has been recognized as an important part of corporate strategy (Fornell, Mithas, Morgeson, & Krishnan, 2006), and an essential promoter of profitability and market value of the company in the long run (Gruca & Rego, 2005).

It stands out as one of the main limitations of this study, the impossibility of making generalizations. That was not possible because the research restricted itself to only one city with people stratification, considering only women consumers. Besides, the research had a non-probabilistic sample, which, also, does not permit definite conclusions. The research instrument used was made exclusively to attend to these limitations. Its use in other similar researches need to be previously evaluated by an expert, but that does not invalidate the use of the variables and its scale.

For similar and future researches, it is recommended a better detailing of the intrinsic attributes related to clothing and shoes mentioned by men and women consumers, and a comparison of differences according to gender, because this study identified extrinsic attributes considering the stores only with women. Finally, future studies could make a comparison of performance between ready-made scales or based on literature and marketing research instruments that were made based on exploratory researches employing the critical incident technique in the identification of attributes mentioned by the target customers and related to the market sector of the research.

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Contribution of authors.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  14 June 2021
• Date of issue
  Oct-Dec 2020

History

• Received
  14 Mar 2018
• Accepted
  27 May 2019