EFFECT OF CUSTOMERS’ DEMOGRAPHICS ON RETAIL FORMAT CHOICE AND INTERACTION: A STUDY ON RETAIL SECTOR IN INDIA

Pankaj Kumar

doi:10.29121/granthaalayah.v5.i1.2017.1906

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to examine how often customers interact with different types of retail formats. A structured questionnaire was successfully distributed to 600 respondents, who had made purchases from sixty retail formats operated in Delhi and Gurugram belonging to the domain of Shopping Malls, Hypermarket, Supermarket, Department Stores, Discount stores and Category Killers through systematic stratified sampling for the collection of data. To segment the customer groups for each of the four retail formats (shopping mall, supermarket, department store, and category killer) based on demographic variables (gender, age, marital status, occupation, and income), a two-way ANOVA was used on the shopping frequency of the respondents. The Chi-square (χ2) test was also used to test the significant differences in shopping motives, companion during their visit, whether a planned or unplanned shopping trip, the staying time in a retail format of the respondents based on their gender and age. The study found that gender and age, gender and occupation, and gender and education are more or less equally important factors, whereas gender and marital status, and gender and income were not found important factors in affecting store visits. The study also found the behavioral aspect of retail customers in many ways. First, their visits to the stores were primarily driven by purchase needs, either window shopping or making actual purchases followed by eating. Second, more people prefer to visit these stores along with their friends or family; this result contributes to that being accompanied by others (Companion), shoppers more likely to buy food and less likely to buy non-food products.

Highlights

With an estimated population of 1.31 billion, India is the world’s second most populous country after the People’s Republic of China and represents almost 17.31 per cent of the world’s population, which means one out of six people on this planet lives in India
Favourable changes in the socio-economic and demographic arenas increase the growth of retail sector in India, and Indians’ disposable incomes are increasing, allowing them to spend more and try new products, brands, and categories while spending a lower proportion on food and customers prefer to shop at organized retail formats wherein they can get food & grocery, electronics items, apparel & footwear, fashion accessories, entertainment and all other things they want to shop under one roof, for the reason of saving their time, efforts and avoid expenses
After the reviewing of existing literature, it is found that most of the studies on retail sector are reported from developed countries and no studies were identified that evaluate the effect of customers’ demographics on their interaction with retail formats in India, so this study aims to fill in this gap and will help to understand that “who are the repeatedly customers of retail formats and their store choices pattern in Indian retailing context” and what are their motives of shopping towards in retail stores based on

Summary

Introduction

With an estimated population of 1.31 billion, India is the world’s second most populous country after the People’s Republic of China and represents almost 17.31 per cent of the world’s population, which means one out of six people on this planet lives in India. Organized retailing is witnessing a wave of players entering in the retail industry These players are experimenting with various retail formats ranging from beauty and health stores, supermarkets, hypermarket, self-service music stores, to new age book stores, ordinary low price stores, computers and peripherals stores, office equipment stores and home/building construction stores. After the reviewing of existing literature, it is found that most of the studies on retail sector are reported from developed countries and no studies were identified that evaluate the effect of customers’ demographics on their interaction with retail formats in India, so this study aims to fill in this gap and will help to understand that “who are the repeatedly customers of retail formats and their store choices pattern in Indian retailing context” and what are their motives of shopping towards in retail stores based on (gender and age)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion