Trends & Disruptions in Grocery Retailing
(A2025-125037)

AUTHORS

Joep van der Plas, TU Eindhoven; ELS BREUGELMANS, KU Leuven; Trang Bui, Tilburg University; Ka Wing Chan, University of New South Wales

ABSTRACT

The grocery retail landscape is constantly evolving due to emerging trends and disruptions, including individual-specific transitions (e.g., changes in someone’s personal economic status), chain-specific choices (e.g., offering more eco-friendly products or adding national brands by hard discounters) but also changes in the store’s environment (e.g., the availability of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations). In this special session, we aim to investigate how major trends and disruptions impact grocery retailing. The first two papers focus on consumer behavior by inspecting how consumers alter their grocery shopping as their economic situation changes (paper 1) or by investigating how consumers continue their eco-friendly purchases beyond first trials (paper 2). The latter two papers focus on firm performance and investigate how firm outcomes are affected by a national brand listing at a hard discounter (paper 3) or how the installation of an EV charging station affects retailer sales (paper 4). The first paper by Wu, Breugelmans, and Lamey is titled “The heterogeneous impact of personal economic status changes on consumers’ grocery shopping behavior.” When consumers experience a status change that significantly alters their economic conditions, they rethink and reallocate their habitual decision-making processes, which may lead to changes in grocery shopping. This study aims to investigate whether and how personal economic status changes (retirement and finding or losing a job) impact grocery shopping outcomes, and how characteristics of status changes play a moderating role. The second paper by Bùi, van Lin, and Deleersnyder is titled “The sustainability momentum: exploring consumer commitment and adoption of eco-friendly products.” Retailers and brand manufacturers increasingly offer eco-friendly products. While initial trials are encouraged by various marketing strategies, sustaining and expanding green purchasing remains challenging. This study investigates how initial trials of eco-friendly products can lead to ongoing commitment and broader adoption within and across grocery categories, and examines the role of buying an eco-friendly private label versus a national brand and the impact of marketing support on repeat purchases of these products. The third paper by van der Plas, Geyskens, and Dekimpe is titled “The brand-equity implications of selling through hard discounters.” The rising popularity of hard discounters, along with their increased eagerness to add national brands to their assortment, presents new opportunities for brand manufacturers. This study investigates the effect of hard discounters’ national-brand listings on brand equity. A rich contingency framework is tested and shows that the brand-equity impact is highly dependent on brand and category characteristics. For example, the effect is more favorable for brand leaders than follower brands. The last paper, by Chan, Wetzel, Pupovac, Dekimpe, and Loske is titled “Electric vehicle charging availability and grocery store performance”. Grocery store parking lots have been suggested as ideal locations for EV charging infrastructure. This study analyzes the impact of EV charging availability on grocery store performance and finds a 2% sales increase driven primarily by more transactions. The effect is stronger for high-impulse categories, during off-peak hours, for stores with no nearby competition, and in districts with higher apartment-to-house ratios.