The effectiveness of offering food samples to increase purchase involvement in supermarket settings

Sa？etak This study contributes to researching and strengthening the role of the concept of purchase decision involvement in the management decision processes. The results of the study provide information on how to boost sales innovation in supermarkets and which product categories to choose in order to encourage shopper involvement and improve customer loyalty. Products included in the survey are items usually found in the shopping basket of today’s consumers that have been assessed as important items of store promotions in several national retail markets in Europe. It is important to discuss how to accommodate the costs arising from new operations and how this would reflect on other operations and merchandise categories. The study examines consumer attitudes in the context of the Southeast European market. The paper suggests that offering food samples moderately affects the level of consumer purchase involvement. The results for all three categories of food included in the empirical study show that providing grocery store shoppers with an opportunity to taste food while they are shopping is an effective way to change their attitudes. The proposed hypotheses were confirmed