A Study on Consumer Preference Over the Retail Format During and Post Covid Pandemic And Adoption of Digital Technologies to Meet Shopper's Expectations

Abstract

This The COVID-19 lockdown had mandated to redesign operations, trigger innovations and embrace contemporary technologies to sustain in retail business. Significant changes in consumption pattern, types of products opted, and place of purchase were observed. This research work studied the shopping behavior of millennial retail customers during the period of lockdown and after relaxations with respect to place of purchase of essential items. Understanding the Millinials preference over the various retail formats including small shops, Modern trade & E commerce sites during and post lockdown is the major objective of this research. The researcher has collected samples from Two hundred and fifty respondents residing in various parts of Tamil Nadu representing Metros, Urban, Semi Urban and Rural. Areas including Chennai, Coimbatore, Vellore, Salem, Madurai, Trichy, Pollachi, Rajapalayam, Bhavani, Kumbakonam, Siruvallur, Poolavadi, Pollavadu, Vellodu and Kattukottai has been identified using the method of convenient sampling for collecting data from the Millinials. Chi-Square and descriptive statistics were conducted as a apart of data analysis. The results implies that Place of Residence and level of Annual Income affects the choice of retailer of millennial customers. Increase in store traffic was observed in modern trade for Groceries (20%), FMCG (24%) and Packaged Food Products (14%) after lockdown restrictions were relaxed. The researcher has also analyzed customer expectations while shopping in online and offline stores through which the authors listed relevant digital technologies for enhancing the shopping experience electronic document is a “live” template and already defines the components of your paper [title, text, heads, etc.] in its style sheet.