A Comparative Analysis of Customer Satisfaction between a Renewed Traditional Retail Market and Big-box Discount Store

중소도시 현대화된 전통시장과 대형할인점과의 만족도 비교분석

Korean traditional retail markets have suffered from both domestic and international difficulties especially with the opening of the Korean retail market to foreigners in 1996. Believing that traditional markets are an important part of Korean culture and heritage, the Korean government has invested a substantial sum of money to revitalize these markets after 2002. However, there has been little research about the effects of this government investment in competitiveness to big-box discount stores. Thus we studied the revitalization of these markets after environmental and management improvements. This study aims to present a comparative analysis of customer satisfaction between a remodeled traditional retail market and big-box discount store. The results are as follows. First, the traditional retail markets get excellent marks in the areas of "Assurance","Empathy","Accessibility"and "Merchandise". On the other hand, the big-box discount store does well in the areas of "Tangibility","Responsiveness" and "Assurance". This is true even if improvement to the traditional retail market occurred nearly 10 years ago. Second, there is no significant difference between the traditional retail markets and big-box discount stores in customer satisfaction and return visits. Third, the important factors that affect customer satisfaction and return visits are "Tangibility","Empathy" and "Merchandise and Assurance". The next important factors are followed by "Reliability","Responsiveness" and "Accessibility". This study identified important factors that affect customer satisfaction and return visits. Going forward, this research will help us better understand these revitalization projects and find new ways to improve customer satisfaction and Return visits.