Trends of Current and Future Retail Formats Based on Customer Personas. Implications on the Example of the Premium Automotive Retail

Abstract

External factors are influencing the strategic orientation of today’s automotive retail. Innovative architecture, new job roles and digitalized processes are affecting the automotive dealerships and the whole industry. Furthermore, the current decision-making process in the retail industry is intricate due to the lack of available foresight regarding future investment opportunities. Consequently, retailers need to be able to anticipate which strategic direction could be future-oriented, which adjustments they need to anchor to create a sustainable environment and which shift is effectively needed to attract today’s and future customers. Therefore, the issue of the automotive retail is to be well prepared for upcoming trends, shifts and new competitors by setting up a distinct market position. Although many changes in today’s automotive retail are currently initiated, the uncertainty of the future-oriented retail format is omnipresent. New retail formats are developed and partly implemented in today’s retail sector to reach the customers and address their needs of buying a car. The following journal paper is facing the objective to map retail formats with persona types of automotive customers. Thus, retail industry leaders such as experts in automotive retailing are interviewed to get an impression of how to map automotive retail formats with distinct customer groups. Hypotheses can be derived as well as closing the current knowledge gap in scientific literature of customer needs and upcoming retail sales formats. At the same time widening and deepening the research in the fields of marketing, sales and strategic management while using and discussing rigorous research methods.