The study of Firend and Qian (2018) had been prepared for exploring "the changing mechanism in the relationship between retailers and consumers whereby consumers face higher-prices due to inflation while their earnings, and thereby their disposal income, does not simultaneously increase" (p. 104). For doing so, a quantitative research approach had been used, which can be inferred from the use of the analytical tools for data analysis. However, the data seemed to have been collected both from the primary, as well as secondary sources. Considering the primary research, it has been found that the data had been gathered with the help of a survey conducted among those people operating in local grocery shops, as well as shopping malls both around Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. These respondents acted as the representatives of the ethnically diverse population of Southeast Asia. However, the secondary data were collected from the reports, articles, and research papers published within the last 3 years by the Malaysian Retail Association, especially the ones completed on the issues of sales conducted within the grocery and retail sectors therein.

The sampling procedure was customized as per the need of the researcher and this can be understood from the point that it had been restricted to the respondents located only within the Klang Valley. The customization of the sampling framework went to the extent of getting the sample population narrowed down to a selected list of retail stores, i.e. “AEON, Metrojaya, Isetan, Tesco and Sogo” based on the fact that they were known to be offering their customers/shoppers with loyalty card services (Firend, & Qian, 2018, p. 107). In making use of this sampling framework, the primary data had been collected, which encompassed questionnaires being distributed to a total of 250 respondents, and out of which only 223 could be collected back. However, 200 sets were selected for the final analysis.

The questions in the questionnaire had been framed on the variables of “past experience, relative advantage, privacy concerns, and questions gauging consumer attitudes towards the use of Loyalty Cards And Consumer Experience” using a 5-point Likert scale for measurement (Firend, & Qian, 2018, p. 107). The responses on the usage of these questions had been stored and analyzed in a Statistical Package for Social Science, i.e. SPSS v.21. The tools that had been used for conducting the quantitative analysis were descriptive analysis, which had been run on data sets, along with that of multiple regression, reliability tests, and Pearson correlation tests. These were done for effectively determining the statistical significance existing amidst the variables concerning the respective study parameters and for hypotheses testing as well. A reliability test had also been performed for measuring the level of consistency among the respondents by making use of Cronbach’s alpha.

With the proper use of the data collection and analysis procedures, this quantitative study worked on examining the use of loyalty cards in the retail sectors of Malaysia for determining whether it was possible to entice Asian consumers by offering loyalty programs as an attempt of saving money at the time of making their regular purchases. By the end of the research, it had been found that loyalty programs possess the potential to expand their offerings in the future and even for including others as well as based on the fact that popularity and momentum can be gained. It can further be inferred from the findings of the research analysis that the Malaysian consumers, similar to the majority of the Southeast Asian consumers, are price-adverse in nature, and for which opportunities can be availed to the consumers for saving money from every purchase made.