Annexure II

TO WHOMSOEVER IT MAY CONCERN

This is to certify that the Synopsis titled

“________________________________________” carried out by

Mr._________________ ,S/o or D/o____________ has been accomplished under my

guidance & supervision as a duly registered MBA student of the Lovely Professional

University, Phagwara.

His Synopsis represents his original work and is worthy of consideration for making a

research project in the next term.

___________________________________

(Name & Signature of the Faculty Advisor)

Date:

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Annexure III

DECLARATION

I, "________________________________(student name)”,_________(registration

no) hereby declare that the work presented herein is genuine work done originally by

me and has not been published or submitted elsewhere for the requirement of a degree

program. Any literature, data or works done by others and cited within this synopsis

has been given due acknowledgement and listed in the reference section.

_______________________

(Student’s name & Signature)

Date:__________________

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CUSTOMER’S EXPECTATIONS OF STORE ATTRIBUTES:

A STUDY OF ORGANISED RETAIL OUTLETS IN JALANDHAR

Submitted to Lovely Professional University

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Submitted by: Supervisor: Name of faculty advisor

Group No- QM 62 Mr. Krishan Gopal

Name of the student 1- AMALTAS SINGH Reg. No - 3470070097

Name of the student 2 – TUSHAR SHARMA Reg. No - 3470070023

Name of the student 3 – VANDANA KUMARI Reg. No - 11007406

Name of the student 4 – SURYAKANT MALHOTRA Reg. No - 3470070064

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

PHAGWARA

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

S.NO CONTENTS PG. NO

1 1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 THE FUTURE OF INDIAN RETAIL INDUSTRY

1.2 STORE ATTRIBUTES

1.3 DETERMINANTS OF STORE ATTRIBUTES1.4 CHALLENGES INDIAN RETAIL INDUSTRY ARE FACING

5-8

2

LITERATURE REVIEW

8-12

3

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY / INFORMATION NEEDS

13

4

SCOPE AND USES

13

5

OBJECTIVES

13

6

6. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

6.1 RESEARCH TYPE

6.2 RESEARCH DESIGN

6.3 SAMPLE DESIGN

6.4 DATA SOURCE

14-16

7

REFERENCES

17

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1. INTRODUCTION

The Indian retail industry is the fifth largest in the world. Comprising of organized

and unorganized sectors, Indian retail industry is one of the fastest growing industries

in India, especially over the last few years. retail marketing is the act of promoting a

product directly to the consumers who use them. Retail marketing can take on a

variety of forms, such as television commercials, direct-mail pieces to consumer

households, Internet banner ads or coupons. Retail marketing possesses several

advantages to the retailer and to the consumer. Though initially, the retail industry in

India was mostly unorganized, however with the change of tastes and preferences of

the consumers, the industry is getting more popular these days and getting organized

as well. With growing market demand, the industry is expected to grow at a pace of

25-30% annually. The India retail industry is expected to grow from 35,000 crore in

2004-05 to 109,000 crore by the year 2011

According to the 8th Annual Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) of AT

Kearney, India retail industry is the most promising emerging market for investment.

In 2007, the retail trade in India had a share of 8-10% in the GDP (Gross Domestic

Product) of the country. In 2009, it rose to 12%. In 2010 it rose 22% .

According to a report by North bride Capita, the India retail industry is grow to US$

700 billion in 2010. It can be mentioned here that, the share of organized sector in

2007 was 7.5% of the total retail market.

1.1 THE FUTURE OF INDIAN RETAIL INDUSTRY

The retail industry in India is currently growing at a great pace and is expected to go

up to US$ 833 billion by the year 2013. It is further expected to reach US$ 1.3 trillion

by the year 2018 at a CAGR of 10%. As the country has got a high growth rates, the

consumer spending has also gone up and is also expected to go up further in the

future. In the last four year, the consumer spending in India climbed up to 75%. As a

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result, the India retail industry is expected to grow further in the future days. By the

year 2013, the organized sector is also expected to grow at a CAGR of 40%

1.2 STORE ATTRIBUTES

store attributes are viewed as overall image of the store and can drive store selection

process (Ghosh, Tripathi, & Kumar, 2010). (Martineau, 1958) identified that store

attribute is the method in which the store is described in the consumer’s mind, one

part by its useful qualities and other part by a feeling of emotional attributes.

(Lindquist, 1974) categorized store attributes into nine items: products, service,

consumers, physical facilities, convenience, promotion, store atmosphere, institutional

factors and past transactions. Among these factors, product-related considerations

such as assortment, quality and price seem to be the most important items. (Erdem,

Oumlil, & Tuncalp, 1999) determined three store attributes including status,

merchandise and price are significant for apparel shopping. (Westbrook, 1981) named

a number of store attributes as source of consumer satisfaction, these store attributes

were sales personnel, store atmosphere, product policy and service product, service

and promotion. (Soltani, 2004) supposed that based on consumers complains, five

store attributes including price, product assortment, promotion, sales personnel and

store atmosphere are the main reason of store weakness and lack of consumer

satisfaction in Iran’s hypermarket. That study named them as internal store attributes

and demonstrated the need for an improved understanding of the importance of these

internal store attributes in hypermarket format. Thus, this study will use them to

identify their relationship with lifestyle of Iranian consumer and its influence on

consumer satisfaction and loyalty to promote performance of hypermarket format in

Iran.

1.3 DETERMINANTS OF STORE ATTRIBUTES

Despite the obvious importance of detecting store attributes that influence consumer

decisions, research suggests that the perceived importance of specific store attributes

may be partially determined by the personal characteristics of the consumers. This

may lead to heterogeneous preferences that vary amongst people with different

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characteristic profiles. Hansen and Deutscher (1977-1978) found several differences

between demographic segments with regard to store attribute importance. Their

results indicate, for example, that older consumers and those with lower income and

education levels tended to place more weight on store advertising and its policy on

adjustments, whereas younger and better education consumers are more concerned

about prices and convenience. Semenik and Hansen (1976) indicated that low-income

consumers tended to be more concerned with issues related to who shopped at the

store and less concerned about the store‟s selection of merchandise or fast checkout.

Hortman, Allaway, Mason and Rasp (1990) suggested that the elderly placed

importance mainly on low prices, the atmosphere of the stores and the quality of

merchandise and convenience.Huddleston, Ford and Mahoney (1990) analysed the

relationship between the importance placed on retail store attributes and lifestyle of

mature female consumers. The results showed that certain lifestyle characteristics

were related to the importance placed on store attributes: credit attributes, importance

of quality and price attributes and age related attributes such as salespeople own age

and delivery to home. Similarly, a psychographic study among the elderly by Oates,

Shufeldt and Vaught (1996) found the significance of lifestyle as the primary

determining factor in store attribute importance. The study revealed that lifestyle

groups of elderly consumers differed significantly when considering store and

personnel quality such as fair prices, quality products and well-known brands.Erdem,

Oumlil and Tuncalp (1999) examined the linkage between consumer values and the

importance of some salient store attributes. They found that the importance judgments

for store attributes were influenced by the set of terminal and instrumental values

viewed as important by the consumers. But even though the importance of store

attributes were related to both kinds of values, there was a disproportionate

predominance of terminal values in this influence.Apart from other personal

characteristics such as lifestyle activities, values and demographics such as age,

income, gender, occupation and education attainment, limited research indicates that

religiosity appears to influence some aspects of retail store evaluative criteria.

McDaniel and Burnett (1990) investigated the influence of religiosity on the

importance of various retail department store attributes held by consumers. In their

study, religiosity was viewed from two perspectives: religious commitment and

religious affiliation. The results of this study show that one aspect of religiosity,

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religious 126 The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning Vol. 4, Num. 2,

December 2008 commitment, particularly measured by cognitive religiosity and one

aspect of behavioural religiosity are significant in predicting the importance

individuals place on certain retail evaluative criteria. Consumers with a high degree of

cognitive religious commitment viewed sales personnel friendliness, shopping

efficiency, and product quality as being of greater importance in selecting a retail

store than did those low in cognitive religious commitment. Religious contribution, a

behavioral component of religious commitment, was positively and significantly

associated with sales personnel friendliness/assistance and credit availability.

1.4 CHALLENGES INDIAN RETAIL INDUSTRY ARE FACING :

The tax structure in India favors small retail business

Lack of adequate infrastructure facilities

High cost of real estate

Restrictions in Foreign Direct Investment

Shortage of retail study options

Shortage of trained manpower

Low retail management skill

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2. LITERATURE REVIEW

V. Ann Paulins, Loren V. Geistfeld, (2003) describes the Consumer

perceptions of retail store attributes for a set of particular stores were examined to

determine their effect on store preference. Respondents rated 13 stores. Four variables

were found to affect store preference using forward stepwise logistic regression: type

of clothing desired in stock, outside store appearance, shopping hours, and

advertising. Significance of the effect of store attributes on store preference varied by

store type. In addition, associations between customer perception of store attributes,

education and age were observed. Implications for researchers and practitioners are

discussed.

Piyali Ghosh , Vibhuti Tripathi & Anil Kumar (2010) Study emphasizes on

the phenomenal growth of retail in India is reflected in the rapid increase in number

of supermarkets, departmental stores and hypermarkets in the country. However, this

unperfected growth trend has been challenged by the shadow of the current economic

slowdown, which has raised a fear of dip in consumption and slowdown of growth for

Indian organized retailers. At a time when consumer spending is on decline, success

will lie with those retailers that can drive customer loyalty by responding to the

demands of the discerning consumer. This study is an attempt to address issues related

to store attributes and their relevance in the store selection process. Eleven variables

(store attributes) have been identified in this article based on theory and judgment.

Factor analysis has yielded three factors: Convenience & Merchandise Mix, Store

Atmospherics and Services. The factors identified and recommendations made in the

article would be of use to retailers in designing their outlets with store attributes that

would meet the expectations of shoppers and thus motivate them towards store

patronage decisions.

Leanne H.Y. Too, Anne L. Souchon & Peter C. Thirkell (2001) Customer

loyalty is increasingly seen to be crucial to the success of business organisations, with

the growing realisation that attracting new customers is far more expensive than

retaining existing ones. It has been suggested that a way of increasing customer

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retention is through secure relationships between buyers and sellers. Surprisingly,

however, and despite the growing body of literature on relationship marketing issues,

little empirical research has been conducted on the link between relationship

marketing and customer loyalty in a retailing context. This paper attempts to address

this gap by presenting and testing a conceptual model of the process by which the

implementation of relationship marketing can enhance such loyalty. A dyadic

exploratory study of clothing store managers and their customers was conducted.

Findings reveal that customers' perceptions of clothing stores' relationship marketing

efforts are crucial to enhanced commitment and loyalty. Implications are drawn from

these results, and future research directions are discussed.

Leung and Oppewal (1999)  They had conducted research on the roles of store

and brand names in consumers’ choice of a retail outlet and concluded that a high-

quality brand or high-quality store is sufficient to attract the customer to a retail store.

The study also revealed that store names have a larger impact on store choice than the

brand names of the products that these stores have on offer.

Mridula S. Mishra (2007) Organized retail has started to spread its roots in the

Indian market since past one decade and is gradually making mark among all sections

of the society. This paper tries to explore the way organized retail has dramatically

changed not only the Indian traditional retailing structure by also the consumption

behavior. The consumption behavior was examined with the help of a structured

questionnaire. The results show that, for consumers, the shopping mall or variant of

organized retail format is the preferred type of retail store, due to convenience and

variety.

Patricia Huddleston, Judith Whipple, Rachel Nye Mattick, et al.(2009) The

study examines store attributes of product assortment, price, quality, and service in

order to determine which attributes have the greatest impact on store satisfaction for

each store format. Grocery store customers were compared to conventional grocery

store customers. For both store formats, store price, product assortment, service and

quality positively influenced satisfaction.

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Anon (1973) , Consumer demographics, store attributes, and retail format

choice in the US grocery market , International Journal of Retail & Distribution

Management

This study provides a general understanding of grocery consumers . here the

researcher tried to Identifies demographic groups who frequent specific formats

(specialty grocers, traditional supermarkets, supercenters, warehouse clubs, internet

grocers) and examines store attributes (e.g. price competitiveness, product selection,

and atmosphere) as drivers of format choice.

David Bell ,Teck-Hua Ho &Christopher Tang (2000) The findings of this

study are : Once consumers have settled into satisfying the major share of their needs

at one store, it is very difficult to get them to switch.

People also develop store loyalties for particular products, according to the study.

Although a consumer may do half of his or her shopping at store A and half at store

B, the purchase proportion of certain products is not necessarily 50/50. For example,

a person may buy 90% of his soda from one store, even though he buys half of his

shopping list at another store. Stores can use advertising, promotions and private

labels to create a draw on a particular category of products that causes people to

perceive the benefit of buying a product at one store to be higher than it is. And, if

you are able to do this over enough categories, you will eventually tip the scale so

those shoppers do all their shopping at your store.

It is always cheaper to keep customers than to try to attract new ones. Therefore, all

stores should be creative about enhancing store-specific benefits in ways that keep

customers coming back."

Visser   et al   (2006)  He studied the importance of apparel store image attributes

as perceived by female consumers by means of eight focus groups. Results indicated

that merchandise and clientele were perceived as the most important dimensions,

followed by service; physical facilities were the least important.

Hedrick   et al   (2005)   He propose that store environment and store

atmospherics can influence customer's expectations on the retail salesperson. They

conducted a study on sales people and store atmosphere, and identified that customer's

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perceptions of a salesperson's attributes and relationship building behaviors’ were

important drivers of customer satisfaction. In retail, intentions are usually determined

by a willingness to stay in the store, willingness to repurchase, willingness to

purchase more in the future and willingness to recommend the store to others.

Stephen J. Arnold, Sylvia Ma, Douglas J. Tigert (1978), The conclusion of this

study are: First, price/value for the money is an important attribute and will be

determinant, it appears, with even small amounts of differentiation across

competitors.

Attributes either equally important or secondary to price appear to differ depending

upon the environment. Among retail food stores, according to these studies, it is

locational convenience. Among fashion clothing stores, however, it is assortment and

quality.

There is considerable evidence that whenever there is noticeable dispersion across

supermarket chains on the economy/utility dimensions (price, location), those store

characteristics dominate the store choice process. Fashion shoppers, on the other hand

are not as concerned about physical convenience. They search out value, quality, wide

assortments, and up-to-date fashions. They appear to be willing to travel to whatever

location is required to find what they want.

“Exploring Consumer Retail Shopping Experience “ S. Ramesh Kumar,

Professor and U. Dinesh Kumar The study concluded that stock availability, quality,

brand variety, knowledgeable salespeople, layout- space, lighting, product display,

category variety and convenient location are factors relevant in their order of

influence in the modern retail format. While factors not significant include stocking of

latest products, air conditioning, labelling, appealing interiors, ease of locating

product, parking space, amenities, packaging and delivery, ease in locating store

personnel, courteous and helpful salespersons, ease of return, payment ease, checkout

speed, in-store advertisements, competitive prices and discounts and offers. Thus,

grocery retailers can refer to the factor priority when applying trade-off between

factors.

3. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

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India has been ranked as the fourth most attractive nation for retail investment among

30 emerging markets by the US-based global management consulting firm, A T

Kearney, in its Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) 2011.

Also FDI will be allowed in the coming future , due to which we will see , big retail

stores all around .

So it is necessary to understand their attributes which are differentiating them in

competition. E.g. transportation links , parking facility , store ambience , easy reach

offering , image influence , attractiveness etc are some of the attributes.

4. SCOPE AND USES:

It can help the marketers to develop the effective marketing strategy for their

retail stores.

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Help us gain independent knowledge about the consumer attitude of the

outlets identified.

Researchers and students can get additional information from this research.

5. OBJECTIVES

To find out the attributes of the retail store which affect/attract customers to

shop there.

To find out customers expectation from organised retail stores.

To find out the factors for customers switching from one store to another.

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6. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research is an organized inquiry designed and carried out to provide information to

solve the problem. The fact, search is an art of scientific investigation of a certain

problem. “Research is the process of systematically obtaining accurate answers to

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significant and pertinent questions by the use of the scientific methods gathering and

interpreting information”.

6.1 RESEARCH TYPE

Descriptive research: Descriptive researches are those studies which are concerned

with describing the characteristics of particular individual or of a group. The major

purpose of descriptive research is description of the state of the affairs as it exists at

present. The main feature of this method is that the researcher has no control over the

variables and he report only what has happened or happening.

6.2 RESEARCH DESIGN

A research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of data

in a manner that aims to combine relevance to the research purpose with economy in

procedure.

In this research, Descriptive Research Design will be used.

6.3 SAMPLE DESIGN

a. Population of the study:- People of Jalandhar city who shop in organized retail

stores.

Retail stores we will visit : viva collage , vishal mega mart , reliance trends ,

reliance digital ,Ritu wears , Chunmun mall , and easy day.

b. Sample size:- 300

c. Data collection instrument: - As a survey will be conducted to collect the data

from respondents; so for this purpose a questionnaire will be designed.

6.4 DATA SOURCE

Primary data and Secondary data

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Primary data:-It is the first hand information collected directly from customer. The

primary data is that, which is collected fresh and for the first time. Techniques which

we will use for collecting primary data will be questionnaire.

Secondary Data: - Secondary data will be collected through Internet, Journals and

Newspapers.

7. REFERENCES

V. Ann Paulins, Loren V. Geistfeld, (2003) "The effect of consumer perceptions

of store attributes on apparel store preference", Journal of Fashion Marketing and

Management, Vol. 7 , No 4, pp.371 – 385

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Piyali Ghosh , Vibhuti Tripathi & Anil Kumar (2010) Customer expectations of

store attributes: A study of organized retail outlets in India , Journal of Retail &

Leisure Property, Vol 9, pp 75–87

Leanne H.Y. Too, Anne L. Souchon & Peter C. Thirkell (2001) Relationship

Marketing and Customer Loyalty in a Retail Setting , Journal of Marketing

Management .Vol 17,No 3 , pp 287-319

Mridula S. Mishra (2007), The Consumption Pattern of Indian Consumers:

Choice between Traditional and Organized Retail

Patricia Huddleston, Judith Whipple, Rachel Nye Mattick, et al.(2009)

"Customer satisfaction in food retailing: comparing specialty and conventional

grocery stores", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol.

37 No: 1, pp.63 – 80

Anon (1973) , Consumer demographics, store attributes, and retail format choice

in the US grocery market , International Journal of Retail & Distribution

Management

David Bell ,Teck-Hua Ho &Christopher Tang (2000) ,How Store Location and

Pricing Structure Affect Shopping Behavior

Stephen J. Arnold, Sylvia Ma, Douglas J. Tigert (1978), "A comparative analysis

of determinant attributes in retail store selection", vol 5, pp: 663-667.

“Exploring Consumer Retail Shopping Experience “ S. Ramesh Kumar,

Professor and U. Dinesh Kumar

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http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=858559&show=html

www.palgrave-journals.com/rlp/journal/v9/n1/abs/rlp200927a.html

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1362/0267257012652140

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=994238

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http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1769011&show=pdf

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1556603&show=html

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=203

http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/display.asp?id=9500

http://tejas-iimb.org/articles/82.php

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