Purpose: This paper aims to analyse the importance of service quality and store design as critical variables to promote differentiation and make consumers feel satisfied and committed to a retail brand. Retailers usually undervalue the store design as an element of the strategic mix. However, it may be one of the critical elements to increase retailers’ competitive advantages.Design/methodology/approach: This exploratory study was based on 349 valid responses to a questionnaire online through a snowball sampling approach analysed with structural equation modelling.Findings: The results confirmed that customers’ service quality positively impacts their satisfaction and commitment to the retail brands. However, store design moderates the relationship between customer satisfaction and commitment. The consumers with a higher appreciation for store design presented a lower impact of satisfaction on their commitment to the retail brand. This result shows that a significant part of their satisfaction includes store design appreciation.Research limitations/implications: This exploratory study was restricted to the Portuguese market, and the sample resulted from a convenience snowball approach.Practical implications: The retailers should consider store design as an essential variable in their marketing plans to have satisfied and committed customers and be more competitive.Originality/value: Research on consumers’ behaviour in the retail sector, including the assessment of store design, presents a great potential within the framework of consumer–brand relationship theory, but it is still under-researched. The new model presented highlights the role of store design as a moderator variable.

Ecotourism's destination management has been focused on the place identity built by public authorities and centered on place promotion, marketing, and branding without a match between place identity and place image perceived by the place visitors and tourists and impact on their place satisfaction. This study uses the Melgaço council in the Portuguese Peneda-Gerês National Park to measure these relationships. We used two questionnaires for tourist operators and City Hall and external stakeholders (tourists and visitors). Results show that it is possible to measure place identity and place image with the same adapted items. Place quality and place branding have a positive impact on place satisfaction. Still, the effect of place promotion and marketing is negative, revealing that the gap between place identity and place image is negatively associated with perceived place satisfaction, moderated by psychological attraction, travelling experience, and visiting experience. There are presented several practical and theoretical implications.