UNDERSTANDING CO-SHOPPERS� INFLUENCE ON PURCHASE DECISION IN RETAIL ENVIRONMENT: AN EXPLORATION INTO CONSUMER DURABLES STORES

Abstract

ABSTRACT Shopper marketing as a discipline is focusing on shopper behavior at the store. This area is also catching attention of researchers. Family’s influence, spouses’ influence and children’s influence has been widely studied in consumer behavior studies, but few of them focus on influence of co-shopper in the retail environment (Seth, 1974, Assel 1987, Terry and Rao 1992, Ford et al, 1995). In high value and involved purchase (in this case consumer durable) situation the paper attempts: Firstly, to understand the influence of shoppers’ group on the purchasing decision at the point of purchase. Secondly, to reveal how the composition of shoppers’ group influences the purchase decision at POP and role of individual group members. Lastly, capture the decision-making process and search stereotypes role/ roles in members in the shoppers’ group. Integrating an observation study, along with 20 exit interviews of shopper groups, this research delves into this area. The result reveals that shopper behavior differs not just by active co-shopper or primary, but also secondary shoppers in the store. Shopping behavior is largely dependent on relationship with the co-shopper. It is also defined by the dynamics played in the purchase of high involvement product like consumer durables. Keywords co-shopper: primary and secondary, retail store, consumer durable, shopping behavior. POP- decision.