Difference in Shoppers’ Learning Differentiate Shopping Satisfaction

Abstract

Gallons of studies have been conducted regarding the customers’ satisfaction and their underlying factors. But, if the same individual is the shopper of both the organized and un-organized retail stores, then how much his/her satisfaction differs from any one retail format to the other retail format is a matter of concern for the strategists or planners. Further, over the time period, what exactly case the above said difference in satisfaction, is unsolved in Indian scenario. In this context, the research problem is stated as “can the shoppers’ learning differentiate their satisfaction with respect to competing retail formats”? Keeping in view this research problem, the objectives of the study are (1) to extract the underlying factors of shoppers’ learning in shopping malls & un-organized family-run stores separately, (2) to examine the impact of shoppers’ learning on their satisfaction towards shopping-mall in comparison to family-run stores, and (3) to examine the relative importance of individual factors of learning for the shoppers’ satisfaction in both the competing retail formats. So far as research design and methodology of this study is concerned, the causative research design is followed and a self administered structured questionnaire is administered to a sample size of 307. The data is analyzed through SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 22.0. The data analysis techniques like explorative factor analysis and path diagram through structural equation modeling (SEM) is adopted. Major findings of this study refers that shoppers’ learning differentiates their satisfaction in the mall more positively in comparison to the satisfaction they get in family-run retail stores (Kirana stores). Originality or major contributions of this study justified with the difference in shoppers’ satisfaction between two competing retail formats and the shoppers’ learning proven as the major driving force of the above said difference in satisfaction.