Identification and Prioritization of Effective Dimensions on the Customer’s Experience in Retail Environments ‎‎(Case Study: Ofogh Koorosh Chain Stores)‎

Creating great customer experience is one of the main goals of today's retail environments and doing so can provide a sustainable competitive advantage for stores. Managing the experience a customer has in dealing with the store can play a significant role in the improvement of a longer and more valuable relationship. So far there has not been much research done on the concept of customers’ experience. Therefore, this research intended to identify and prioritize the effective dimensions on the customer’s experience in retail environments. In terms of purpose, this research was an applied one, and in terms of data collection, it was a descriptive and survey type. The statistical population of the research included a group of Ofogh Koorosh Chain Store customers in Mashahd city who have purchased from this store in June 2019. From this population, a sample of 400 individuals was selected using available sampling method. The validity of the questionnaire was measured by experts as well as construct validity, and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha. Exploratory factor analysis was used to analyze the research data and extract the dimensions. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to confirm and prioritize the identified dimensions, Shannon entropy was used in SPSS, LISREL and EXCEL statistical software respectively. The findings of the research showed that the effective factors on the customer’s experience in retail environments included 8 dimensions; in the view of the respondents, the experience of the time spent perceived was in the first rank in terms of importance.