Consumer Buying Behaviour Pattern in Retail

Headnote

Abstract

This study was conducted for finding consumer buying behaviour pattern in the retail sector. It has been analyzed w.r.t. income group and location. The study covers groceries items like staples (atta, rice, cooking oil, sugar etc), personal care and toiletries (Oil, shampoo, soaps), & fruits and vegetables. These items constitute major part of the monthly grocery requirements of consumers. A survey of 450 consumer households was conducted in Delhi NCR Region. The study makes suggestions to retailers on the basis of research findings.

Keywords

Retail, Buying Behaviour, Consumer Behaviour in Retail, Food & Grocery Retail

Introduction

Habit is a tendency towards an action which by repetition has become spontaneous. Applebaum (1951) observes each customer has his or her own buying habits. But buying behavior pattern represents the design of behaviour of many customers. Jayachandran (2006) gives a classification of consumer products. Products are classified on the basis of consumer shopping habits as convenience goods, shopping goods and specialty goods. Convenience goods are like toothpaste, soap, detergents etc. These goods are frequently purchased with minimum search effort. The current study focuses on these goods. The present study attempts to identify consumer buying behavior pattern in retail sector, & analyze it with respect to income group & location.

Review of Literature

While reviewing consumer behaviour in retail, one comes across many studies focused on store choice behavior of consumers like Sinha et al (2002), Roy (2005), Carpenter and Moore (2006), Mittal and Mittal (2008), Prasad and Aryasri (2011) etc. Sinha et al (2002) conducted a study by way of a field survey of 247 respondents in Ahmedabad to find the primary reasons why a shopper chose a store. They found that for buying groceries, and fruits & vegetables, shoppers visit such stores based more on proximity and patronization. Shoppers seemed to be loyal to stores in this category. So, when the experience of shopping is good, there is a high likelihood of the next visit. Roy (2005) found out the factors that govern the choice of retail supermarkets based on a field survey of 100 respondents from the cities of Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Kolkata. Add on benefits (like early opening, in-store pharmacy, availability of regional food, home delivery etc), general services (like fast billing, employee...