An empirical study on the positioning point of successful retail enterprises in China

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to study the positioning points of successful retail enterprises in China, and to try to conclude the general law for selecting the positioning points. Design/methodology/approach - By analyzing the evaluation data of countrywide samples and the impact factors of customer satisfaction, the authors select some successful retail enterprises in China to be the study samples. On the base of that, the performance concerning positioning points of the samples are discussed. Findings - The paper reaches five valuable conclusions: first, successful retail enterprises have definite positioning points; second, successful retail enterprises commonly have a main positioning point and a second best positioning point; third, successful retail enterprises could choose commodity, service, price or shopping environment as their positioning point; fourth, retail enterprises in the same retail format could have different positioning points; fifth, the non‐positioning points of successful retail enterprises are usually above the industry average level, while those of retail enterprises in successful tendency could hardly reach the industry average level. Research limitations/implications - The limitation of samples (only large‐scale supermarkets) might still make the practical applications on other retail formats limited. Meanwhile, the criteria for identifying the successful enterprises in this paper are mainly customer satisfaction and loyalty, without considering the financial performance. Practical implications - The conclusions in this paper have great significance for Chinese retail enterprises to establish a unique competitive advantage. Originality/value - The conclusion concerning positioning points of this paper might be the first to answer the key issues in Chinese retail enterprises' positioning strategies.