Effects of Customer Loyalty Schemes on Consumer Behavior in Supermarkets in Nairobi

Abstract

Purpose: This study sought to examine the effects of consumer behavior on customer loyalty schemes in selected supermarkets in Nairobi. The study also sought to find out how customer loyalty schemes affect consumers’ ability to purchase in Kenyan supermarkets, to establish how customer loyalty schemes affect consumer’s quality perception in Kenyan supermarkets, and also to examine how customer loyalty schemes influence product demand in Kenyan supermarkets. The study was guided by the following specific objectives: To examine the extent to which consumers’ ability to purchase affects customer loyalty schemes in Kenyan supermarkets; To assess the extent to which consumers’ quality perception affects customer loyalty schemes in Kenyan supermarkets; and To investigate the extent to which product demand affects customer loyalty schemes in Kenyan supermarkets.Methodology: The study was carried out in the city of Nairobi over a period of four months. A census survey was employed and primary data was collected using Semi structured questionnaires. The Data was analyzed by simple descriptive statistics with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 18.0 software so as to enable meaningful description of distribution of scores or measurements using statistics. Measures of central tendency specifically the mean and percentile were used to determine the summary of the statistics of variables studied. The measures of variability were also used in the analysis of the data. These measures included the standard deviation, and frequency distribution tables.Findings: Although customer ability to decide, quality perception, and product quality and demand affect customer loyalty schemes, negligence of any of them can cause a very diverse damage to the overall customer loyalty satisfaction in the organization. The findings showed that each of the variables is the core pillar in the efforts of promoting customer loyalty among respondents in the organization and thus solves the problem of promoting loyal supermarket customers. Despite the efforts to analyze the effects of consumer behavior on customer loyalty schemes, Kenyan supermarkets have not yet maximized the consideration of these variables at an extensive state to attain a distinct solution to the long time communicated consumer behavior problem on customer loyalty among supermarkets in Kenya.

Keywrds: Demand; Quality Perception; Ability to Decide; Reward; Loyalty Schemes; Customer; Loyalty; Customers