Indian Shopping Markets: A conceptual model of shoppers’ behaviour

Abstract

Purpose/Rationale

India is considered a land of shopkeepers with 70 million small merchants and 1.3 billion consumers(Ari Altstedter, 2019).Despite presence of malls and e-commerce players, retail markets and shopping streets are crowded on weekends and festival time. This paper delves into shoppers’ behaviour pertaining to markets as to what makes them stay and come back repeatedly to the markets through study of existing literature.

This study is based on existing literature and considers twelve factors to create a theoretical model of shoppers’ behaviour in Indian Markets. These factors are: ambience, layout,retail tenant mix, convenience, arousal, exploration, escapism, flow, shopping pleasure, utilitarian, desire to stay and re-patronage intention.

Design/Methodology/Approach

This paper is based on study of secondary data from research journals, books, newspapers and digital databases.

Findings

Marketers should understand and cater to consumer emotions. Efforts which can increase shopping pleasure, arousal, provide relief from emotional discomfort and induce ’flow’ should also be considered important besides tenant mix, ambience, convenience.

Research Limitations

The research is based on secondary data and the model needs to be tested with primary data from shoppers of Indian Markets

Practical Implications

Policy makers can use insights for improving shopping streets. Retailers can use it to decide store locations, training staff members to handle consumer emotions, creating experiences to encourage flow and facilitate escapism.

Originality/ Value

The study highlights important factors for attracting consumers to Indian markets and conceptualise interplay between various factors.