Consumer purchasing behaviour for rice in metropolitan cities W.S.R.T. Delhi/NCR Region

The way Indian consumers are spending theirmoney on various items has changed in recent years. With the ever-increasing penetration of internet and social media, the purchasing behaviour of Indian consumers has changed dramatically. Urbanization is taking place in India at a dramatic pace and is influencing the life style and buying behaviour of the consumers. The Indian consumers are noted for the high degree of value orientation. India is a lucrative market even though the per capita income in India is low and it remains a huge market, even for costly products. Consumer behaviour is complex and very often not considered rational.

The paper aims to examine the determinants affecting the consumer’ purchasing behaviour for rice in Delhi/NCR region of India which is one of the huge market in India. It was based on a survey of rice consumers in the 36 locations of the city which includes malls, localities around malls etc. From the analysis the variables of great importance that affect the purchasing behaviour are the marketing activities, marital status, gender, age, occupational status, Income, family size. The results also indicated that rice attributes such as quality, flavor, taste, price, physical appearance and location also affect their choices of the brands available in the market. The majority of the consumers however, preferred to purchase basmati rice instead of local white rice. They were not loyal to the brand and the results pointed to the needs of producing high quality basmati rice and to develop the pricing and marketing strategies as the rice industry is evolving and is highly competitive where companies have to fight hard to retain their market share.