Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the purchasing drivers of apparel consumer in apparel product categories, in the context of the evolving organized retail industry in India. The paper attempts to correlate the distinct store features as perceived by respondents with the true motivations of various consumers in purchasing and patronising of organized outlets. In the process it provides insight of various attributes influencing the purchasing behaviours of an average Indian consumer. The framework evolved for evaluating effectiveness and impact of different attributes influence the behaviour and a major impact on the overall profitability of the retailing business. Increase in the rate of literacy, growing number of working women, highly disposable income, easy availability of credit at low interest rates and high rate of media penetration along with the assurance of similar quality products with large ambit of price differentiation, painted the India’s dynamic organized retail landscape. Rising interest and growing expansion of organized retail market leading to success of a business, depends solely on consumers’ urges that there is a need to study their buying behaviour. The study is based on primary data, a total of 178 apparel retail customer from leading outlets in Hyderabad and Secunderabad are surveyed by using structured questionnaire with mall intercept method. The results reveal that the shoppers do not rate the factors equally, without leaping in the dark, proper emphasis can be given to the factors. The results further prove that the apparel consumers’ buying behaviour is mostly influenced by the attributes like style > value > diversity > demand > credibility > concern > referral groups. This study contributes information to both academic and retail managers for their theoretical and practical purposes.

Key words: Consumer behaviour, retail format, apparel, demographic patronage behaviour.