A cross-cultural comparison of expatriates’ shopping behavior

Explored is how shopping centre attributes can be adapted to culture-related shopping behaviour of expatriates. While awareness of consumer ethnicity and effectiveness of culture-based market segmentation are on-going and relevant topics in retailing, there is only limited information available on consumer behaviour of expats, as well as on the translation of market segmentation strategies to shopping environment. An online survey among British, Japanese, and American expatriates in the Amstelveen/Amsterdam region (the Netherlands) points out the importance of both lifestyle and ethnicity for the shopping behaviour. Managerial implications for retailers, shopping centre developers, and operators are also discussed