Building customers’ store trust: a comprehensive model

Relational resources can help retailers facing the increasing uncertainty which is characterizing their competitive arena. Among the variables used in literature to address the overall strength of the retailer relationship with their customers, the more prominent are satisfaction, commitment and trust (Garbarino and Johnson 1999; Johnson and Selnes 2004; Morgan and Hunt 1994). This paper focuses on trust which has been addressed as one of the “most powerful relationship marketing tool” in service environment (Berry 1996, 42) like retailing. In particular, it illustrates the results of a study aimed at developing and testing a model of store trust building in the grocery context. Hypothesis referring to both trust antecedents and consequences have been derived from previous studies and the model has been empirically tested. Data have been collected using a phone survey; the sample is composed of 1,400 supermarket customers. The most important result of the study is the role of private labels as an important trust antecedent which rejects the initial hypothesis of customer’s perception regarding PL as a consequence of trust. This unexpected result has inspired a post-hoc analysis aimed at investigating differences in the customer’s perceptions due to the intensity of PL purchase. Differences between high and low PL purchaser are significant and infer some relevant managerial implications which will be discussed at the end of the paper.