Role of Store Choice Format as a Mediator in Shoppers’ Satisfaction

Abstract

The economic growth of India has been phenomenal throughout the last decade. The country has been growing at a positive rate, despite the economic slowdown witnessed throughout the world and is on the charts of fastest growing nations with an average growth of more than 7.3 percent (2018) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is quite remarkable for the last 5 years. The key factors that has been driving India’s growth constitutes of a soaring demand in the domestic market along with rise in consumption and a growth trend in investment, backed by evident inherent fundamental strengths such as the demography of the country. Over the past two decades, the market scenario of the country has underwent some noteworthy qualitative structural shift because of factors such as: liberalization of trade policy in 1991 and the recent developments of industrial policies in 2018 setting ablaze a path for competition in the economy. The organized retailers in India are experimenting with a variety of formats, ranging from hypermarkets to supermarkets, discount stores to convenient stores. In order to gain and sustain a strategic advantage in retail competition, it is significant to possess knowledge about the store attributes the consumers’ value and use them to differentiate amongst stores as well as knowing why those attributes are important. Therefore, there is a rising need to evaluate about the actual drivers of shopping behaviour in the Indian retailing Industry.