The retail market is under pressure at the moment. The financial crisis and the rise of online retailing are two reasons why traditional brick-and-mortar retailers have to keep innovating in order to remain competitive (CBW-Mitex, 2010). An example of that innovation is the ‘shopping experience’, something for which there is a growing demand: consumers want personalized products and service, and retailers are responding to this demand (Klaver, 2016).
A shopping experience was traditionally provided by large department stores with a wide variety of products of a good quality and a high level of service. Department stores enabled hedonic shopping and provided consumers with a premium shopping experience. However, these are not characteristics of all department stores anymore. Because of the lack of experiential value and the absence of distinctive characteristics, department stores are struggling to keep competitive with other retailers (Bressers, 2011).
The main goal of this research is to find out what characteristics a department store in the Netherlands should have according to the consumers. In particular: what the preferences of consumers are regarding department store composition and what role experiential value has to play in the department store sector.