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This study was motivated by the increased loss of competitive advantage facing South African fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) retailers due to increased competition from major FMCGs retailers (Hirt & Willmott, 2014, p. 4). South Africa has many FMCGs retailers, such as Checkers, Pick n Pay, Spar, Woolworths, Clicks and Dis-Chem (Prajapati, 2020, p. 264), and FMCGs is one of the largest industries worldwide. FMCGs retailer product offerings are often nearly identical, and that increases competition, and for this reason, retailers use marketing and other techniques to establish loyalty towards the retailer (KPMG, 2021, p. 8). Increased competition also leads to a decrease in market share, loss in sales and reduction in profits (Hirt & Willmott, 2014, p. 4). To avoid losing customers, retailers implement loyalty programmes to increase customer repurchasing decisions and to deter their customer base from defecting to their competitors (Zakaria et al., 2014, p. 23). Yusoff et al. (2015, p. 2) assure that easy access to products through the advancement of technology has put the marketing department of retailers under pressure to find more effective ways to attract and retain existing customers. Therefore, retailers must be aware of consumers’ attitudes towards the retailer and customers’ changing needs due to the change in the economic environment and its impact on customer purchasing decisions. Furthermore, it is important that loyalty programmes offer sustainable benefits that are of value to customers and provide a competitive advantage to enhance customer repurchasing decisions.
This study focused on examining customer attitudes towards FMCGs retailers that influence customer repurchasing decisions and provide sustainable loyalty programme benefits to attract and retain customers. An extensive review of the literature also indicated a gap in the body of knowledge related to the paucity of studies that link customer engagement, loyalty programme benefits, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty towards customer repurchasing decisions at South African FMCGs retailers. Therefore, this study aims to: i) examine customer attitudes towards FMCGs retailers and their effect on customer repurchasing decisions; ii) identify the benefits that customers expect in a loyalty programme and iii) measure the effect of loyalty programme benefits on customer repurchasing decisions.