The supply chain management of shopper marketing as viewed through a service ecosystem lens

The purpose of this paper is to examine shopper marketing through service-dominant logic and service ecosystem lenses. In doing so, the authors reveal challenges and opportunities for supply chain management.

The work is conceptual, drawing on contemporary service-dominant logic thinking.

Examination of shopper marketing reveals that it is currently stuck in goods-dominant logic and micro-level ways of thinking. By taking a macro service ecosystem view, all actors, including shoppers, are seen as resource integrators seeking resource density. The macro view highlights a significant amount of goods and information flow and variance now being added throughout shopper marketing systems.

A guiding framework with appropriate terms defined offers new research directions and new ways practitioners can approach challenges in the industry. Research programs are suggested in the areas of facilitating resource density, examining the extent of ecosystems, measurement, mapping of resources, and creating shopper marketing innovations.

This study provides an alternative way of looking at problems that arise in supply chain management planning and execution of shopper marketing initiatives.

Few scholastic articles address shopper marketing even within marketing and essentially none do so in supply chain management despite it having significantly disrupted supply chains since 2004. This article offers an overview of shopper marketing and helps supply chain managers identify quickly how they can add value and supply chain management researchers begin to address the challenges.