A study on attributes influencing the purchasing behaviour of apparel consumers in organized outlets

The objective of this study is to identify, at a macro level, 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. India, an emerging economy, has witnessed unprecedented levels of economic expansion, along with countries like China, Russia, Mexico and Brazil. In spite of late entry of India, it is forecasted that the country will be the second largest market of the world shortly and shall lead the industry, the way world does. 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 country'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. But the existing literature briefs a little about the buying behaviour functions in the Indian retail market. The frequent change in lifestyles with changing fashion preference of consumers is fed by the newer retail offerings coming from the organized retailers where apparel gets utmost importance. Keeping these changing facets in view, this study makes an attempt to identify the factors of the consumers’ buying behaviour that is influenced by retail apparel segment, and to assess the importance of each of them to consumers in selecting apparel from organized retail outlets.