The effect of retail format attributes on retail format choice and consumer patronage behaviour in food and grocery retailing in India - A study

Store format selection and consumer patronage behaviour has also been seen in the context of the risk reduction strategies of the shoppers. Food and grocery is the most promising area for setting up retail business in India. An understanding of shopper retail format choice behaviour will enable retailers to segment their market and target specific consumer groups with strategies premeditated to meet their retail needs. The purpose of this paper is to make a detailed study to test the functional relationship between retail format attributes and retail format selection, customer patronage behaviour in the food and grocery market environment. The literature concerning major retail format attributes was systematically reviewed. After assessing the construct validity of the store attributes based on confirmatory factor analysis, a path model specifying the relationships between store attributes and customer patronage behaviour was estimated. Descriptive research design is adopted applying mall intercept survey method using structured questionnaire for data collection. Both descriptive and inferential statistical tools are used to analyze the data collected from 580 food and grocery retail customers from neighbourhood kirana stores and supermarkets in Secunderabad and Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh in India.

On appraising the store customer's characteristics variables like demographic, geographic and psychographic were identified. While four of the six considered store attributes appear to be significant determinants of customer retail format chose and patronage decision, when examined for the degree of invariance between the consumer attributes and store attributes like location, merchandise, customer service, price and promotion, store ambience and store facilities were equally significant in both the retail formats. The affect of determinant store attributes such as location, merchandise, customer service, price-promotions, store ambience and store facilities on retail format choice decisions were examined using stepwise forward multiple linear regressions analysis (MLRA). The results facilitate the comprehension of the role that specific store attributes have on retail format choice and patronage behaviour. In addition, the results expand the retail manager's knowledge on consumer behaviour, with rational motives (product and price-related).The results expand one's knowledge on this relationship, propounding interesting empirical evidence of the model invariance among different consumer profiles.