Sharia Retail Competitiveness and Consumers- Behavior: Should Sharia Retail Capitalize “Islam”?
M. Elfan Kaukab (a)*, Aksamawanti (b), Machfudz (b)
(a) Faculty of Economics
Universitas Sains Al-Quran Jawa Tengah
Wonosobo, Indonesia
*elfan[at]unsiq.ac.id
(b) Faculty of Sharia and Law
Universitas Sains Al-Quran Jawa Tengah
Wonosobo, Indonesia
Abstract
Financial profit is important for both conventional and sharia retails. Both kinds of retails are encouraged by limited resources and a competitive environment to relentlessly create effective marketing strategies. They want to win the consumers- hearts. Conventional retail, especially the one with a wide network, rely upon studies on consumers- behavior to produce various marketing strategies utilizing consumers- psychological vulnerability. On the other hand, sharia retails capitalize on religion as the major theme of marketing expecting a market share. This research aims to formulate the sharia retail marketing framework, focusing on minimarkets and supermarkets capitalizing Islam to sustainably compete with conventional retail. To reach the goal, literary reviews on neuromarketing and the Islamic perspective of consumerism were carried out. The result shows a framework consisting of two types of determinants. The first is neuromarketing determinants (color, light, sound, spatial arrangement, and aroma) and the second is social identity determinants (social justice, morality, ummah solidarity, faith, and Islamic products). Therefore, we propose strategical implications taken by sharia retail in reaching competitiveness by means of developing a sharia marketing that fulfills the neuromarketing as well as social identity requirements. This article should help sharia-based retail practitioners to better understand good marketing strategies and their relevance to Islamic teachings. They should be able to adopt the strategies and build successful and sustainable sharia retails.
Keywords: sharia retail, conventional retail, marketing strategy, Islam capitalization, consumers- behavior
Topic: Economics