Cross-cultural analysis of consumer shopping styles: the case of Spain and Finland

Cultural differences between consumer markets have continued to challenge international business actors for long. When managing own customers it is important to understand their differing decision-making styles, buying behaviors, and specific contextual factors, which all have a role in consumers’ preferences for certain products and store types over others. In this connection, the purpose of this article is to analyze cultural differences between Finnish and Spanish consumers with regard to their shopping styles. The objectives of this paper are first to conceptualize shopping style as a characteristic of consumption culture, second to analyze and compare the different dimensions of shopping styles between Finland and Spain and third to analyze the clusters of shoppers in these two countries in order to find out whether the expected differences are bigger within the countries than between the two countries. The data was obtained from an international survey carried out by the COnsumer BEhaviouR Erasmus Network (COBEREN) in Finland and Spain. The paper points out and discusses the cultural differences in shopping styles, providing relevant information for future researches and companies interested in the Finnish and Spanish market, enabling them to focus their efforts in a satisfactory way. Findings of this study will yield important insights into the retail sector that wish to better understand their consumer markets.