Although customer retention is a pivotal issue in the operational management, most studies focus on this issue in terms of the view of relationship marketing rather than in terms of the view of strategic marketing. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the effect for the role of affective commitment on the relationship between customer orientation and customer retention. Using a sample of 356 customers of convenience stores, the results support that customer orientation not only have directly positive effect on the affective commitment and customer retention, but also have indirectly positive effect on customer retention through affective commitment.