Customers need and want information to help in making choices about where to shop and what to buy. Retail marketers need and want to create customer incentives to patronize and to buy from them; these are created and nurtured by images, ideas, thoughts and feelings that customers have about themselves and about relevant competing retailers and their offerings. The purpose of this note is to discuss several key elements of information exchange between the retailer and the customer. It encompasses the many related activities retailers undertake to provide incentives to patronize and to buy, such as providing information about store location, hours, ease of parking, products carried, prices, and so on, and the ways customers respond to such information.
