Consumer Shopping Behaviour in Organized Food and Grocery Stores: A Case Study of National Capital Region

Vinod Kumar Bishnoi, Bharti and Nidhi Gupta

KEY WORDS: Consumer Shopping Behaviour; Organized Retailing; Food and Grocery.

INTRODUCTION

Indian economy has transformed from an extensive controlled economy to a liberal market driven economy. High- income opportunities, changing attitude towards saving, international exposure and necessities of lifestyle are the key drivers for fast evolving Indian consumer behaviour (KSA Technopark, 2006). Indian retail industry is witnessing a paradigm shift as the sector is getting organized and consumers are seeking a one-stop shopping place with convenience and entertainment. Professionally managed and separately owned retail organizations are the face of todays retail sector. India is stepping into a new era of Retail Chains from the traditional neighbourhood Kirana Store. Economic growth, changing lifestyles, urbanization, womens participation in economic activities and the spread of IT are the some of the key factors for the growth of the retail sector. It is the fastest growing sector of the economy with a compounded annual growth rate of 46.64 per cent. The estimated worth of organized retail industry is Rs. 350 bn, accounting for less than 3 per cent of the total retail market. Organized retailing provides an ideal shopping experience through consumer preference analysis, excellent ambience and choice of merchandise. Changing lifestyles, strong income growth and favourable demographics are the drivers for the fast growth of this sector. Rising income level, education, acceptance of smart and credit cards and global exposure have an impact on the Indian consumers shopping habits (Baseer and Laxmi Prabha, 2007). Health and beauty care services, food and grocery, entertainment and catering services, footwear and
Vinod Kumar Bishnoi, Associate Professor, Haryana School of Business, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar Phone: 91 9416136505 E-mail: bishnoivk29@gmail.com. Bharti, Research Fellow, Haryana School of Business, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar Phone: 91 9416056786 E-mail: rawatbharti@gmail.com. Nidhi Gupta, Student, MBA Final Year, Haryana School of Business, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar Phone: 91 9255900777 E-mail: n4nidhi@gmail.com.

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mobile phones, apparel and fashion accessories and jewellery are the fastest growing organized retail categories. In food and grocery retailing, the largest component of retail, only 1 per cent is organized; the remaining 99 per cent is unorganized. Food and grocery has three sub categories: branded FMCG products, dry and unprocessed grocery, fresh grocery and delicatessen (Sahani, 2007). Impact of the factors like availability of favourite brands, social status, buying behaviour during discounts, influence of family and friends over the store and brand choice, relationship between store and store brand, and consumer perception towards store and nationa l brands while shopping from a store, have not yet been gauged much by marketers. Thus, this paper is an endeavour to understand and deliberate consumer shopping behaviour towards organized food and grocery stores, so as to have a better insight of consumers buying behaviour.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1. To investigate the consumer shopping behaviour dimensions. 2. To measure the significance of demographic variables on shopping behaviour dimensions. To achieve these objectives, answers to the following questions were sought: 1. Do demographic variables and consumer shopping behaviour dimensions differ significantly? 2. Do membership status and consumer shopping behaviour dimensions differ significantly?
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The present study is focused on the shopping behaviour dimensions of consumers who visit organized stores for food and grocery items. To achieve an understanding of this, a questionnaire consisting of 33 items was developed. All the responses pertaining to this study were obtained on a 5-point Likert scale (from point 5 strongly agreeing to point 1 strongly disagreeing). A convenient sampling method was used to obtain the data from the four areas of NCR namely Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida and Delhi. A total of 400 questionnaires were administered; responses to 365 were received. Out of the collected 365 questionnaires, 330 were found to be fit for analysis. While conducting the survey due care was taken to include respondents from different walks of life, i.e., gender, educational background, occupation, age group, income level, etc. (Table 1).
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Table 1: Demographic Profile of Respondents

Variable Gender Male Female Age (in years) Below 25 2535 3550 Above 50 upto 12th Graduation Post Graduation Business Profession Service Housewife Less than 20000 2000040000 4000060000 more than 60000 Member Non-Member Frequency 191 139 76 143 88 23 54 152 124 70 48 156 56 92 125 82 31 106 224 Percentage 57.9 42.1 23.0 43.3 26.7 7.0 16.4 46.1 37.6 21.2 14.5 47.3 17.0 27.9 37.9 24.8 9.4 32.1 67.9

Education

Occupation

Monthly Household Income (in rupees)

Membership

The scale of variables was also put to reliability test, the obtained a value show of 0.687on the Cronbach alpha scale, which is considered satisfactory. The data was analysed with the help of factor analysis and one-way ANOVA. Factor analysis was applied to investigate consumer shopping behaviour dimensions whereas to measure the significance of demographic variables on shopping behaviour dimensions, one-way ANOVA was adopted.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

As mentioned in the research methodology, the scale consisting of 33 items was analysed; items having low inter- item correlation were dropped and 28 items were kept for further analysis. Factor analysis with principal component method and varimax rotation extracted nine factors as consumer shopping behaviour dimensions (Table 2). One-way ANOVA indicate the significant difference between the consumers of different demographic profile and their shopping behaviour dimensions (Table 3).

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Table 2: Factor Analysis of Variables

Factor Label and Variables 1. Impulsiveness and Price Consciousness I always buy the brands which I have already decided in advance. Many a times, I go to a store, see the product, if liked buy it. Given the same quality, I will prefer to buy store brand than costlier national brand. During discount period, I usually try new store brands. It is mainly the price of the store brand that influences me to buy them. If my brand is not available at the store I go for another brand. 2. Utility and Variety Seeker I visit a store as it is a one stop shopping place. I like self-selection while shopping. I visit stores as number of varieties are available there. I always look for comparison of different brands in a store. I feel usually national brands do not offer much discount. 3. Store Loyalty I prefer to visit the store nearest to my place. I buy all food and grocery items from stores only. I like to shop in a store due to acceptance of credit/debit cards. I visit stores for the store brands of my choice. 4. Time consumption The stores advertisement encourages me to visit the store. I like self-selection while shopping. I prefer to visit store as it saves my time and energy. I enjoy shopping at a store. Status Consciousness I believe High price means high quality. I feel shopping at stores is a status symbol these days. Opinion Seeker The stores advertisement encourages me to visit the store. I came to know about the store from my friends/relatives. My friends/relatives usually suggest me to try the store brands. 7. Quality Consciousness I usually compare the quality of brands while purchasing from a store. I think store provides better quality product. Shoppertainment I enjoy shopping at a store. I always go to store with my family or friends. I feel no difference while shopping from a store or somewhere else. Value Consciousness I feel that store brands are reasonably priced. I look for the benefit of the product for the price I pay. Rotated Factor Loadings 0.796 0.761 0.657 0.749 0.595 0.738 0.536 0.519 0.821 0.737 0.466 0.528 0.766 0.765 0.571 0.451 0.486 0.714 0.518 0.732 0.708 0.410 0.740 0.733 0.724 0.642 0.425 0.630 0.603 0.636 0.703

5.

6.

8.

9.

Barletts test of sphericity = 0.00; Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin KMO (0.804)

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Table 3: One way ANOVA

Factor Gender F Impulsiveness and 47.324 Price Consciousness Utility and Variety Seeker Store Loyalty Time Consumption Status Consciousness Opinion Seeker Quality Consciousness Shoppertainment Value Consciousness 83.557 .059 49.901 7.549 .047 2.679 .142 9.738 Sig. .000* .000* .808 .000* .006* .829 .103 .707 .002* F .788 2.198 .303 .181 .383 1.904 2.950 1.606 1.607 Age Sig. .501 .088 .823 .909 .765 .129 .033* .188 .188 Education F .662 .117 3.158 .038 1.018 .781 1.847 1.705 4.581 Sig. .517 .889 .044* Occupation F 5.099 4.958 .486 Sig. .002* .002* .692 .000* .051 .080 .644 .321 .072 Monthly Household Income F .454 4.365 4.294 1.663 .821 .121 1.789 4.085 1.613 Sig. .715 .005* Membership F 4.492 1.044 Sig. .035* .308 .000* .582 .354 .642 .054 .274 .774

.005* 225.309 .175 .483 .948 .149 .007* .186 .304 .862 .217 3.741 1.202 .082

.963 16.187 .362 .459 .159 .183 2.616 2.272 .557 1.171

.011* 2.356

Factor one deals with impulsiveness and price consciousness behavioural dimension. Consumers tend to purchase impulsively as they do not plan in advance and they also go for other brand if their preferred brand is not available in a particular store. They are influenced by the store brands prices and try them during discounts and if the quality is delivered, they prefer it over costlier national brand (Table 2). Table 3 explains that impulsive and price conscious behaviour differs significantly across gender (p = 0.000), occupation (p = 0.002) and membership status (p = 0.035) of the respondents. Factor two entitled utility and variety seeker describes the behavioural dimension of consumers related to the benefits they draw from shopping at a store like onestop shopping, self-selection, discounts on store brands and varieties available for comparison of different brands (Table 2). The one-way ANOVA table indicates that respondents of different gender ( = 0.000), occupation ( = 0.002) and p p income level (p = 0.005) differ significantly on utility and variety seeking aspect (Table 3). Factor three, store loyalty behavioural dimension explains that customers are willing to visit their preferred store rather than nearby store, and buy all food and grocery items from such stores. They visit store for their preferred store brands and also due to the facility of making payment other than cash (Table 2). Table 3
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concludes that store loyalty dimension varies significantly on education (P = 0.000), income (p = 0.000) and membership status (p = 0.000) of the respondents but not on remaining demographic variables, i.e., gender, age and occupation. Fourth factor, time consumption behavioural dimension, considers that consumers enjoy spending time while shopping and making self-selection and store advertisements also induce them to visit stores (Table 2). Male and female respondents vary significantly (p = 0.000) on time consumption dimension and also the respondents across various occupations (p = 0.000) but not by other demographic variables (Table 3). Fifth factor deals with the status consciousness of the customers who perceive high price as high quality and shopping at store as a status symbol (Table 2). Male and female respondents vary significantly (p = 0.006) for status conscious behaviour but not on the basis of the other demographic variables (Table 3). Sixth factor, opinion seeker dimension explains the behaviour of respondents who do not value advertisement for reference but look for the advice from friends and relatives for making the store and brand selection (Table 2). One-way ANOVA indicates no significant difference among the customers of different demographic characteristics and opinion seeking behaviour (Table 3). Seventh behavioural dimension signifies the quality consciousness of the consumer for products as they consider that stores provide better quality products and also compare the quality of the brands while purchasing (Table 2). Respondents belonging to different age groups differ significantly (p = 0.033) on quality consciousness dimension but p-values do not signify this phenomenon on any other demographics (Table 3). Shoppertainment is the eighth behavioural dimension of shoppers who look for entertainment and enjoyment while shopping with their friends or family and feel that there is a different shopping experience at a store (Table 2). Income (p = 0.007) of respondents is the only demographic variable that has a significant association with this dimension (Table 3). Ninth factor describes the value consciousness of the customers. They look for value for money and consider that store brands are reasonably priced (Table 2). Gender (p = 0.002) and education level (p = 0.011) have influence on respondents in considering the value conscious behavioural dimension for shopping (Table 3).

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MARKETING IMPLICATIO NS

Organized retail sector is growing rapidly and consumers are shifting to shopping in organized retail stores. Thus, understanding of shoppers behaviour is the key to success for the retailers. Marketers will have to understand the consumers shopping behavioural dimensions that will help them to tap the consumer in a better way. The customers visiting organized food and grocery stores are status and quality conscious while deciding on the store to purchase from and brands to purchase. They always look for the benefits of shopping in a store over the traditional retail outlets in terms of self- selection, variety, comparison of brands and discounts available and also seek value for the money they pay. They love to spend time in shopping and prefer to visit store along with family and friends; in all, they seek for complete entertainment while shopping. In order to taste success a marketer has to equip himself by taking into consideration all the said aspects of the study because potentiality in itself is not going to serve any purpose.
REFERENCES
Baseer, A. and Laxmi Prabha, G (2007). Prospects and Problems of Indian Retailing, Indian . Journal of Marketing, 37(10), 26 8. Global Consumer and Retail: Vision 2015, 8th Marketing and Retailing Summit, 1214 February 2006, New Delhi. Sahani, P.B. (2007). Consumer Buying Behaviour and Food Retailing, Marketing Mastermind, (December), 215.

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