Call for Papers

The retail sector is currently confronting a number of serious issues like continuing challenging economic conditions, new pure player dominance and powerful supplier brand selling concepts. This future trends context drives retailers to radically change their business models in the way of becoming omnichannel and deeply customers-oriented while reshaping their stores to demonstrate a greater sense of identity, more humanity and more merchant sale points. It raises the question of the place of the children in all these changes and in the development of cross channel strategy.

This research topic is of particular interest because kids and young people have an increasing buying power and power of influence in the retail sector. At the same time they are the first generation with the predominance of technologies in their daily life encouraging diversity, ubiquity, instantaneity, and multi-tasking. They also experiment new intergenerational entertainment as well as new roles in the purchases of the family due to the appropriation of technologies.  This specific context is interesting because, as children are tomorrow’s adults, the retail activity when reshaping itself is very concerned with understanding their characteristics and requirements from the marketplace from an earlier point in their lives.

CONTENT FOCUS

The objective of the call for papers is to provide insights into defining the subject area of Kids and Retailing. In order to achieve this aim, papers on all topics related to the research and practice for the child consumers and retailing processes are welcome. The topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Holistic approach to kids, retailing and beyond
• Future role of store and technology when selling products for children
• Impact of technology on the power of children in the family purchases
• Understanding young consumer behaviour in the retail process,
• Multiple channel retailing for young consumers
• Internet based retailing strategies when children are concerned
• Distribution management and channels to market for kids
• Ethical and societal issues throughout the retail supply process such as sexualisation of children or the purchase incentive
• Different country considerations for kids and retailing
• Kids preferences in different sales channels
• Experiential marketing applied to kids in a physical or digital commercial space
• Children and digital marketing channels: m-commerce (smartphones and tablets) f-commerce (social network) and y-commerce (YouTube)
• Children socialisation process throughout the retail environment
• Children's relationship to  the retailer  brand
• Understanding  children’ s mindset and motivations for retail activities