How Good A Shopper Am I? Conceptualizing Teenage Girls' Perceived Shopping Competence

Academy of Marketing Science Review,  2006  by Palan, Kay M

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face=+Bold; Figure 1Conceptual Model of Adolescent Shopping Competence in a Shopping Mall Context face=-Bold;

In keeping with the conceptualizations of competence and consumer expertise that emphasize achieving successful, context-specific outcomes, Figure 1 indicates that a competent shopper is seeking successful shopping outcomes that are achieved by using both environmental and knowledge-based resources. Competent shoppers have the self-confidence to ensure that they utilize resources effectively. Further, competent shoppers exert self-control to refrain from acting on undesired impulses and they regulate behavior in order to ensure a positive outcome. It is not sufficient to merely have knowledge of the shopping environment and shopping routines and to have environmental resources available. A competent shopper must actually use these resources in a manner that results in competence-related shopping behaviors. The Figure indicates that shopping outcomes are the result of performing shopping behaviors, which are made possible by specific environmental and individual resources; levels of self-confidence and self-control moderate the performance of behaviors. In other words, our conceptualization is based on how effectively the shopper utilizes environmental and individual knowledge resources to support shopping behaviors in order to achieve positive (or negative) shopping outcomes--these aspects of the model are similar to Alba and Hutchinson's (1987) conceptualization of consumer expertise. Where the model differs, however, is in its elucidation of self-confidence and self-control as critical elements in how consumer knowledge will be used to achieve positive shopping outcomes.

face=+Bold; How Competent Are They?face=-Bold; Our model, based on the interpretive findings, suggests that teenage girls perceive shopping competence as a multi-faceted construct composed of effectively utilizing environmental resources, having and using knowledge related to shopping, and possessing the degree of self-confidence and self-control necessary to utilize environmental and individual-based resources fully. The use of these resources manifests itself in behaviors that informants described as being hallmarks of competent shoppers. Data from our informants were clearly mixed in terms of how competent they perceive themselves to be as shoppers.

Specific results indicate that almost every informant revealed competency in some aspect of shopping, but then came up short in other aspects they themselves perceived as associated with shopping competence. Even with respect to utilizing environmental and individual knowledge-based resources, which might be considered as the basic building blocks to achieving shopping competence, many informants thought their abilities were less than what they themselves judged as competent. Many were not comfortable interacting with salespeople. Some informants reported avoiding certain stores because of how they perceived they were treated by salespeople. By avoiding certain stores, not only were informants not utilizing the salespeople in the store as a resource, they were not even using the store as a resource, which limits their ability to perform shopping-related tasks successfully, at least in a mall environment. Although the current data do not indicate this, it is possible that in their quest to avoid contact with salespeople, teenage girls are pursuing non-store alternatives; e.g., catalogue shopping and the internet. However, the present sample indicated they did very little shopping via catalogues or the Internet--they simply choose to avoid certain stores for various reasons, but this was not driving them totally out of traditional bricks and mortar establishments. In order to help teens overcome their reluctance to interact with salespeople, retailers may need to focus on techniques and/or special events that allow their salespeople to form relationships with teens, in the form of social ties that encourage exchange utility (Frenzen and Davis 1990).