Strategies Adopted by Major Shopping Malls to Enhance Customer Retention in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Abstract

When operating in a turbulent environment firms usually have difficulty in coming up with the appropriate strategy that will ensure success in their entry mode and operations. The emergence of shopping malls has changed the manner in which shoppers undertake their shopping activities and social interaction. The dynamic shoppers’ behaviour has brought about unpredictable purchase decisions and a very turbulent competitive environment. Managers are under pressure to modify the strategies they use to fit the ever changing market trends. The intense competition between shopping malls either in the same region or different regions influences the strategies used to stay to up to beat with the competition. Taking into consideration the preceding discussion and the subsequent benefits that can be obtained from customer retention, little research has been conducted to obtain a better understanding of strategies adopted to enhance customer retention. Thus the study aimed to answer the following research question; what are the strategies adopted by major shopping malls to enhance customer retention in Nairobi City County? This research problem was studied through the use of a descriptive research design. The research project focused on strategies adopted by major malls in Nairobi City County to enhance customer retention. The population of this study comprised of 12 major shopping malls in Nairobi City County, Kenya. Due to the small size of the population a census study was conducted. A census study is that which obtains data from every member of a population. This is unlike a survey sample where data is obtained from a subset of a population in order to estimate population attributes. Primary data for this study was quantitative and qualitative. Semi structured questionnaire was used in data collection from the respondents. Quantitative data collected was analyzed by the use of descriptive statistics that is percentages, means, standard deviations and frequencies. The information was displayed using frequency tables. Content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data or aspect of the data collected from the open ended questions. In addition, the study conducted a correlation analysis to establish the strength of relationship between the study variables. The study revealed that cost leadership strategy has been adopted by shopping malls in Kenya and it serves to protect them from new entrants. The study further revealed that shopping malls in Kenya have been able to meets their customers’ needs and satisfaction through the adoption of the differentiation strategy. The study draws further conclusions that focus strategy adopted by shopping malls in Kenya had enhanced customer retention since it enables the malls to stay close to its customers and monitor their needs. From the study findings, the study recommends that the shopping malls should be keen when adopting the cost leadership strategy since it is associated with the risk that competitors may leap from the technology, nullifying the malls’ accumulated cost reductions. Other competitors may imitate the technology leading to mall’s loss of its competitiveness. There is need for the shopping malls to differentiate their products so as to stand out from the crowd and remain competitive. This way, the malls will be able to offer unique products that are not being offered by their competitors. However, the malls should ensure that they acquire full market information in case where there is imitation from their competitors.