Consumer Preferences for Retail Format Choice: The Case of Polish Consumers

Paper discusses on the background of literature on retail format choice Polish consumers behaviour and preferences for retail channel and format choice. Main results include comparison of perception maps created using multidimensional scaling with data coming from study conducted in 2009 and current research from 2012, giving possibility to assess changes at the economic slowdown time. During this period perception of discount stores substantially changed – previously perceived as similar to marketplace, now are treated as close to (larger) convenience stores. The second important change is differentiation between classical specialist stores and so called “category killers”. Still virtual channel formats are perceived as separate cluster in comparison to many physical retail formats, but online stores are connected with positive emotions even when are not used so frequently as physical shops. Additional data are provided to compare declared shopping frequency for 15 formats from both channels (5 for virtual and 10 for physical) with emotional attitudes toward them. Also multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) to find connections with shopping frequency and demographic variables has been performed, leading to conclusion that demographic factors other than age are not explaining format usage patterns, and consumer attitudes probably are more important factor in this case.