Content area
Full text
Introduction
Unorganized retailers are the pinnacle of Indian retail sector. Prior research being conducted in rural context refers unorganized segment of retailers as “Small Retailers,” based on certain factors like the geography of the catchment, size of the catchment or the magnitude of their revenues (D’Andrea et al., 2006; Siddique and Siddique, 2012). Small retailers are stated as working with these four attributes, limited store operations, only-person handling the stores, undercapitalized and essential business goals are on survival (Davis et al., 1985). In a research conducted by Viswanathan et al. (2010), he talks about small retailers in a rural setup and refers them as subsistence retailers. The current research also studies the small retailers and defines them as retailers managing their retail stores individually, spread in a small area (<500 sq. feet) and carrying less product categories (Siddique and Siddique, 2012). Indian rural markets are a very well explored area of research; however, studies considering the retailer perspectives are limited.
According to Das Munshi (2005), small retailers behave differently in urban and rural environments,like the average stock keeping units in a small retail store in rural area is far lower as compared to an urban store. The number of product categories which were stocked by rural store was 19 whereas an urban store stocked 27 product categories (Das Munshi, 2005). This clearly demonstrates the need for different operations for small retailers in different geographies. According to Alur and Schoormans (2013), small retailers are Omni present and behave almost the same in rural and urban. With a vast presence in the retail environment, these retailers play a vital role in the product penetration. When companies launch a new product or want to enhance the catchment of the existing product, these small retailers act as a gateway to the final consumers. Seemingly, continuous support from the channel partners especially the retailer is very essential for the success of any product. A need to explore and study rural retailers in India has been expressed by the food and agricultural organization of the United Nations (Fao.org, 2015). Researchers have studied small retailers in various contexts and explored how these retailers influence consumer decisions. Retailer recommendations have a strong bearing on the final purchase decisions made by the...