Racism has changed its form over the decades and has become more subtle and indirect than the blatant forms in the past (Gaertner & Dovidio, 2005; Sue et al., 2007; Sue, 2010; Tropp & Molina, 2012). As a result, it is becoming more difficult for minority groups to identify and call them out (Sue et al., 2007). Subtle racism can be detrimental to minority groups in that they can deteriorate performances and when accumulated, they can have negative consequences such as mental and physical health problems (Sue et al., 2007; Sue, 2010; Ong et al., 2013). Recognizing the issues regarding subtle racism, the research questions were the following: (1) Are there differences in the experience of indirect discrimination in a retail context between racial minorities and majorities?; (2) Do minorities use different strategies to solve these situations and why?; and (3) What are the consequences of subtle discrimination in the retail environment? To test the research questions, a total of 599 participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants were randomly assigned to read either a racial microaggression scenario or a control scenario (a scanner unable to read a discount coupon) and they were asked to select why the incident happened to them. Further, they were asked to answer how they felt after reading the scenario and then respond to the outcome variables repatronage intention, word of mouth, and complaint intention. The findings of the study showed that Asians tend to attribute their racial identity as to why retail employees maltreated them. While Caucasians would simply state that an employee was busy or would not put much thought as to why a service failure occurred, Asians were more burdened by the thought that their race was an issue. After an employee showed subtle discriminations, Asians experienced less positive emotions than Caucasians, which resulted in them deciding to avoid the retail store. This may be due to their belief that they have less control over the situation and would rather not confront the employee or a manager on the issue. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

The consumption landscape is currently moving, making it hard for marketers and managers to anticipate consumers‟ needs and behaviors. With the digitalization of their daily life, ways of selling/communicating/involving with consumers has been re-invented, shifting from a traditional brick-and-mortar environment to a click-and-mortar -if not purely digital- one. Besides, consumers themselves have evolved from postmodern values to hypermodern ones: they do not buy a product anymore for purely functional or hedonic values, but for a combination of both. The hypermodern consumer is in on ongoing quest of “meaning” (Lipovetsky, 2004): the products he buys and services he consumes need to „make sense‟ and help him give some meaning to his life. Such life meaning is then communicated to his network, via (among other media) digital tools, turning a traditionally small network (primary group) into a much larger one (take bloggers for instance (Maman Larraufie & Sommer, 2015)). Still, very few consumers switch towards a 100%-digital way of consuming. They tend to melt physical stores along with digital expectations. The store therefore needs to be a showcase of the brand values, aligned with consumers‟ values of consumption. Some studies have even showed that brand and consumer personalities needed to be aligned to create some store involvement and attachment (Wilson, Wagner, & Maman, 2015). Semiotics is a discipline that focuses on understanding how meaning is produced for consumers (analytic process) or can be produced for consumers (constructive process). Therefore, it can be used to design marketing tools to build some meaning for consumers that would be consistent with their consumption values (Harmon, 2005; Mick, 1986). This would enable turning the store/the communication/etc. into some device enabling the consumer to make sense of his life. As presented before, the store is the current point of tension, as the reconciling showcase between virtual and real brand environments. In this presentation, I will stress out how structural semiotics (Greimas, 1966) can pragmatically help brand managers or marketers reconcile the rational and emotional dimensions behind the so-called store experience, while allowing the consumer associate some inherent meaning to the product/service showcased in the store. I will present several positioning deriving from it, and based on the objective of communication associated with the store, using the Jakobson‟s functions of speech (Jakobson & Halle, 2002). I use visual examples from various sectors of activity, from fashion to hospitality including jewelry, etc.

As well as all other branches of trade, so retail trade itself undergoes various changes and trends with regard to the development of information and communication technologies which affect not only traders themselves but also their customers. It is the retail store environment itself which is one of the decisive aspects of purchase because more than 70% of consumer decisions take place directly at the point of sale. It is the last place which can reverse the purchasing decision. A final customers´ decision is influenced not only by price, quality but also by in-store communication and visual aspects of each store. That is the reason for continuous gathering of feedback on the effectiveness and efficiency of these means of communication in real environment. Besides traditional research techniques there are situations which require the involvement of relatively new research methods. Thanks to the innovative interdisciplinary approach with the use of neuromarketing, it is possible to create effective marketing strategies and thus stimulate the customer attention and emotions. By these emotions, it is possible to achieve better motivation toward purchase and an increase in the number of sales and subsequent raise in income. The paper deals with a complex, interdisciplinary examination of the in-store communication impact on customer visual attention, emotions and related spatial behaviour of customers in grocery stores. Research integrates measurements of mobile eye camera (Eye tracker), mobile electroencephalograph (EEG), face reading technology (FA) and internal position system in real conditions of retail store. The purpose of this research is to recognise the attention, emotional response and spatial customer preferences by means of selected in-store communication tools. At the end of the paper we explain how the neuromarketing methods can be used for better understanding of consumer behaviour at the point of sale.

Recently, the influence and importance of the IT industry has been increasing. Retailing has been focusing on the functional retail sale of product. However, the needs of companies are focusing on the retail sectors due to the development of digital technology, diverse types of trends, recent trends in consumption patterns, the globalization of the retail market and liberalization of the market. This study examined the effects of IT shopping service quality on consumer's customer loyalty and satisfaction.The purpose of this study is to examine fashion brand's ideal IT shopping service quality on consumer perception and to identify service quality attributes on IT shopping service environment. Therefore, this study will be unable to identify how to improve the quality of IT shopping service and future effects. The research methods are as follow. In the 1st stage, previous advanced studies on fashion brands are explored. Based on this, archival data related to fashion brand are implemented. In the second stage, the first of in-depth interviews method (FGI) and survey are conducted by targeting experts of the fashion industry and customers as a form of survey research. The survey results from 300 college students suggest three dimensions of IT service quality: interaction quality, environmental quality, and outcome quality do have significant impacts on off line customer’s perceived value and loyalty. Both utilitarian and hedonic values are positively related to customer loyalty, and satisfaction. This study concludes with discussions of managerial implications and directions for future research. There is limited research on the domestic fashion retailer IT based shopping service quality measurement. (IT-based services that are not widely spread in Korea). This research will guide the importance of IT shopping service activities and highly recognized variables to consumers, circumstance variables, individual variables Lastly, the study is expected to provide useful information on brand strategy information and management for corporate’s expecting performance.

This study rigorously investigates the multi-faceted factors influencing consumer purchasing behavior in the emerging retail landscape context and posits a suite of optimization strategies. The paper begins by delineating the current trajectory of the new retail industry, underscoring the pivotal role that big data and artificial intelligence play in the transformative processes of enterprises. The study then explores the salient impact of consumer interaction and brand sentiment on purchasing decisions. Consumers are transitioning from focusing solely on material gratification to a heightened emphasis on psychological and emotional fulfillment, particularly in the information age. Hence, retail businesses should initiate diversified interaction strategies rooted in authentic consumer needs and efficacious brand anthropomorphism to bolster emotional engagement and allure a broader consumer base. Conclusively, the paper offers targeted strategies designed to invigorate consumer purchasing behavior, serving as a substantive guide for optimizing marketing and sales tactics in the novel retail milieu.

Purpose: Omni-channel retailing is a new retail phenomenon. Consumers in the omni-channel environment do not rely on one channel but integrate different channels from the same retailers freely during a particular shopping journey. The purpose of this study is to better understand omni-channel shoppers in the fashion retailing context. The present study uses consumer characteristics -- fashion innovativeness, technology innovativeness, and fashion purchase involvement -- as determinants predicting consumers’ omni-channel shopping intentions for fashion products. Research design, data, and methodology: Data were collected from 403 U.S. consumers, and the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was performed to test proposed hypotheses. The survey for this research consisted of three parts. The first part measured consumer traits in terms of their innovativeness and purchase involvement. The second part was designed to measure consumers’ omni-channel shopping intentions, and the third part gathered consumer demographic information. Results: The findings confirmed that fashion innovativeness, technology innovativeness, and fashion purchase involvement positively affected consumers’ omni-channel shopping intentions. Conclusions: Fashion retailers should integrate various customer touchpoints and offer mobile-enabled technologies to boost consumer traffic to both online and offline stores. They also need to create a shopping environment that is optimized for customer engagement in various shopping processes and allow them to explore different shopping channel options for best purchase decisions.

Opening agricultural market expansion, reduced purchases through wholesale markets, expanding the influence large retailers of consumer's market such as changes in the distribution system to the farmer's market conditions are changing rapidly. Because of this, retailers of the scaled and chain-store operations was centered on distribution environmental changes of the consumer market place. In producing area due to changes in market conditions in the agricultural production of in producing area distribution organization and the size distribution can not be put off no longer challenge is imminent. If it do not raise forces banded together, the producer is bound to remain as the weak. To support the distribution of this production was introduced in 2000 enable the Activation Project of in producing area distribution. Recent in producing area Changes of Agricultural conditions in order to cope with the Small-scale farmers and small individual farmers are becoming Scaled and specialized. Also, is specific to each item and regional is showing aspects. Government support for Activation Project of in producing area distribution is greatly improved, but in terms of competitiveness on the market still is showing the limitations. The most common of these problems, the market response if in producing area producer's organization and scale of the problem. Equipped for the purpose of consumer market place responsiveness unreasonable propelled outward from the Painter-sized weakens the organizational power. also, Difficult to succeed organizational size is a dissolution or anything within a few years, farmers around the best producer organizations, such as deviation occurs is exposed to a variety of issues. In this study, previous studies refer to the recent changes in agricultural retail environment, background and needs of organization·scaled, Determine the status of the domestic in producing area organizations and derived Problems, look into Domestic and overseas of in producing area organization with best practices for enhancing the competitiveness of the proposed improvement are intended to. In the future, in producing area distribution policy would like to provide direction to the development. The results of the study showed the follwing : 1) enhance utilization and orrganized through the diversification of the agricultural Collection systems. 2) Scaled to achieve through Items of specialized a wide area marketing. 3) Management operating units, such as installation and operating that overseas the best practices " Comite Economique Agricole Regional 'Fruits et Legumes' de Bretagne". 4) To establish a support system that in producing area distribution organization model development for appropriate domestic. In particular, in case of domestic in producing area distribution organization, through the analysis of various case study that a successful organization and scaled. The process of the various challenges arising in organizational scaled and generalization, and by the way he goes about trying to overcome is required. At the end of the study's limitations and future research directions suggested.