Investigating the role of trust on customer loyalty to sports stores in Ardabil

Introduction: Customer loyalty helps to retain and maintain existing customers. This allows businesses to have more opportunities to interact with customers and provide better services or products based on their needs. Customer loyalty, as one of the key factors of store success, has a significant impact on customers' purchase intention. Loyal customers are likely to be more inclined to repurchase from the store and use its services frequently (Naghizadeh Baghi et al., ۲۰۲۴). A deeper understanding of how trust affects customer purchase behavior and loyalty in sports stores can lead to the development of more effective and tailored marketing strategies (Suriyanti and Wahyudi, ۲۰۲۳). The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of trust on customer loyalty visiting sports stores in Ardabil. Methodology: The paradigm of the present study is positivism and the study was descriptive and cross- sectional. The statistical population included all customers of sports stores in Ardabil who had purchased sports products and services within a six-month period. G Power software version ۳.۱.۹.۲ was used to determine the sample size. The sample size was ۳۰۱ people, considering statistical parameters including effect size of ۰.۰۵, test power of ۰.۹۰, and type I error level of ۰.۰۱. Cluster and simple random sampling method was used to select the sample units. Zhou et al.'s (۲۰۱۲) tool was used to measure the customer trust variable and Liu's (۲۰۰۸) tool was used to measure the customer loyalty variable. The content validity of the tools was confirmed using the opinions of experts in the field of sports management. Also, the reliability of the questionnaires was calculated through Cronbach's alpha coefficient, which was more than ۰.۷۰ for both variables, indicating acceptable reliability of the tools. Simple linear regression test was used to analyze the data using SPSS۲۶ software. Findings: The results showed that from the perspective of sports store customers, trust has a positive and significant effect on customer loyalty (ẞ=۰.۳۲۶ and p=۰.۰۰۱). That is, a one-unit positive change in customer satisfaction will cause a ۰.۳۲۶-unit change in their loyalty in a positive direction. Conclusions: Sports marketers and sporting goods sellers should pay attention to customer trust to increase customer loyalty.

کلیدواژه ها:

Trust ، loyalty ، Sports Stores ، Ardabil