The Influence of Culture on Retail Sales Promotion Use in Chinese Supermarkets

Current challenges to supermarket retailers posed by the growing popularity of online retail, customer desensitisation to advertising, and globalisation of large grocery retail firms, has led to an increased reliance on sales promotion as a means of attracting and retaining customers. Retailers recognise the need to make the shopping experience more rewarding for the consumer (Keh and Teo 2001), and have a keen understanding of which supplementary activities are likely to achieve this in their market. The difficulty faced by manufacturers, therefore, is in assessing which sales promotion activities that support their own goals will be favoured by retailers in culturally diverse environments. In light of China’s attractiveness as an export destination for food products (Lo et al 2001), those wishing to do business effectively in China must understand specifically how sales promotion and culture are linked (Lee 2002). This exploratory study considers the use of, and preferences towards, different sales promotion methods in supermarkets in China and New Zealand, highlighting the potential impact of cultural influence on the application of particular tools.