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The purpose of this paper is to explore store choice behaviour of Indian apparel shoppers and analyses the factors influencing their choice of retail formats from an emerging market perspective.

The research draws on a data set of 336 structured questionnaires with adult urban Indian respondents to understand their perceptions about organised and unorganised apparel store formats. The exploratory study uses a comprehensive list of demographics, shopping situations and format stimuli parameters along with two established psychographic scales to assess the extent of their effect on the store choice of apparel shoppers.

Factor analysis revealed five well defined store attributes influencing the apparel shoppers’ decision. The growing market for organised retail with a preference for multi brand stores is highlighted. The study establishes that the shoppers’ perception of single-brand stores is still going through a formative phase. Further at the micro level of the decision process, significant differences are established by a number of variables.

The paper explores the store choice behaviour from a wider perspective that may be useful for future research on developing integrated store format choice models. However, the data used herein relates to a cross-section of shoppers in urban India due to the feasibility and convenience of studying relatively organised retail forms and structure of retail in an emerging market environment.

The paper attempts to enumerate befitting analyses of factors that influence the store choice behaviour of apparel shoppers by using apt format classifications that are specific to the emerging retail market scenario in India.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the market demand and compare the average market margins for six broad categories of fresh produce in different retail formats across five select cities of the country. It also tries to qualitatively understand the supply chain management practices of these retailers across cities.

Registered retail outlets were selected randomly from online sources. Market potential was estimated as the average sales of each category of fresh produce. Personal interviews were conducted with the market players in order to collect qualitative data about their supply chain management practices.

Potatoes, onions and tomatoes are the largest consumed category of fresh produce across cities. Consumers in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities exhibit different buying behavior and preferences. Large retailers and small retailers coexist in the cities. Marketing margins of retail formats are not uniform across cities.

The study did not capture the reasons for the differences observed in consumer preferences and buying behavior across cities. The study has taken into consideration only registered neighborhood stores in the study locations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the paper is first of its kind which has attempted to estimate the categorywise market potential of fresh produce across study cities.

The opening up of the Indian retail sector has seen a proliferation of the corporate players through different retail formats and stores – the majority being in the food and groceries. This necessitates creating, building, and managing differentiated retail store brands, and image differentiation, to attract and retain shoppers. This research paper attempts to understand whether the Indian consumers differentiate the various store brands and images based on their experiences.

The study was conducted in two stages – list of parameters of evaluation of retail store image (developed from the literature), discussed with middle‐level managers from the retail sector to finalize parameters relevant for store image measurement in the Indian context and a questionnaire evolved for primary data collection, administered to 326 SEC A and B respondents (shoppers of food and grocery from modern retail stores). To assess the store image dimensions perceived by these shoppers, factor analysis was employed and for understanding various store image attributes used for differentiation of store brands one‐way analysis of variance was employed.

Results reflect that Indian shoppers have started identifying the dimensions of retail store image and are differentiating the various stores on the basis of functional attributes. Eventually, the stores would have to create differentiation based on psychological attributes.

The paper is limited to the organised modern food and grocery retail stores of Ahmedabad city.

The paper can be helpful to Indian retail store chains to focus on elements to create a differentiated store image.

Marketing, retail.

The case study is specific to the marketing demographics of Indian shoppers with respect to organized retail stores, and therefore, the inter-relationships between various design elements and the relative importance of certain parameters discussed in the text may not follow the same pattern elsewhere in the world.

The case emulates the real-life situation of an organized retail store, Super Mart, to understand the inculcation of voice of the customer in the design of organized retail stores in India. It gives insights about factors which influence the shopping intent of customers while giving information about the inter-relationships among various design characteristics. It also gives an idea about inter-dependence between design characteristics and customer requirements. This is followed by certain questions, the responses to which can be interpreted from the text and the data provided therein.

The case aims to educate its audience about the following aspects of organized retail business: factors influencing offline shopping intent of customers; relative order of importance of customer requirements with respect to organized retail stores; inter-relationships between various design elements; and future trends in the organized retail space. Such a knowledge would help hone the skills of the next generation of business leaders in the retail space.

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This study aims to examine the importance of credit and low price guarantee (LPG) on consumer purchase intention across types of retail store formats in an emerging market context.

A 2 (kirana/modern retail)×2 (high/low LPG)×2 (credit/no credit) experimental design was used for this study. A sample of 200 respondents was asked about their purchase intention for a newly introduced hypothetical toothpaste brand and six hypotheses were tested.

Findings show that credit and level of LPG determine consumer's purchase intention across store formats. The presence of credit and high LPG increases the purchase intention; however, relatively importance of these two varies by type of store. The absence of credit at kirana store definitely reduces the buying intention, while same is not true for modern retail store, where level of LPG is more important than the credit. Interestingly, buyer is likely to discount high LPG for a month's credit offered by a kirana store.

The study can help practitioners and scholars to understand consumer responses to credit and LPG in buying decisions, and subsequently in designing a better product offer at a particular store format in emerging markets.

Important insights are provided about the consumer behavior resulting from the presence or absence of credit and high or low levels of LPG in an emerging market context. The study also has public policy implications in a country where FDI in retail is a hotly debated topic.

The purpose of this paper is to check the reliability and validity of a well-acknowledged scale developed by Pratibha A. Dabholkar (1996) in the context of Indian organized grocery retail and also to identify new aspects of service quality with respect to grocery retail from literature that have not been taken into account in earlier studies and to finally develop a new scale to measure service quality of organized retail grocery stores with consultation from several experts.

In order to achieve the objectives of the research, both descriptive and exploratory research designs have been employed such that a survey of 800 respondents was undertaken as part of descriptive research whereas exploratory research was conducted to add new dimensions to the existing service quality measurement model so as to develop a new comprehensive scale.

The results of the study suggest that all the five dimensions of Dabholkar’s model are not suitable to measure service quality in Indian organized grocery retail stores. Therefore, a new instrument with total four dimensions has been developed.

The study is of great importance for the retailers as it offers a more comprehensive and specific scale to measure service quality of organized grocery retail stores.

This research supports and makes contribution to the previous research on development of service quality measurement scales in Indian context.

Introduction: Artificial intelligence (AI) and digitisation offer substantial human potential and profit margins, making them promising retail solutions. Retail leaders have successfully integrated comprehensive uses into their daily operations, while competitors heavily invest in new projects. The Indian retail sector is undergoing a significant transformation, which can be attributed to factors such as growing income, demographic characteristics, and enhanced consumerism, as well as the rapid development of new technologies such as digitisation and AI, which is changing both consumers’ and retailers’ buying behaviour.

Purpose: This study aims to determine the influence of AI on elements that drive digitisation in the retailing sector, as well as the factors that lead to organised retailers adopting digitisation and its impact on their business.

Methodology: The study employs a standardised questionnaire distributed to organised stores via an online link, and the data are analysed with SmartPLS software 3.0.

Finding: The retail sector is driven by elements that promote digitalisation in food and groceries retailing, such as simplicity of operation, adoption of digital payment, quicker internet connection, retailer consumer interface, and the involvement of AI.

Research implication: AI has significant consequences for retailing, which serves as the interface between marketers and customers.

Theoretical implication: The study’s findings reflect the perspectives of retailers, store managers, and entrepreneurs on how digitalisation and AI are crucial for the creation and growth of long-term competitive advantages in retail.

Increased competition among different retail formats has led mall managers to focus on mall promotional activities to attract shoppers to malls. The purpose of this paper is to understand Indian mall retailers views on mall events and its role in improving traffic, sales and mall image.

The current study used a qualitative to decipher mall retailers’ views regarding mall events. In total, 36 in-depth interviews of mall retailers across 13 metropolitan and non-metropolitan cities (Tier-I and Tier-II) were conducted to develop a comprehensive understanding of mall events organized by Indian mall managers.

The findings revealed that mall events were categorized under six different types: product launch events, events organized to promote the social cause, commemorate festivals, celebrity nights, events organized by retailers in malls and theme events. There were differences in the nature of events used by malls in bigger and smaller cities across India. The nature of mall events varied according to regional, cultural and lifestyle factors across the country.

Mall managers can use the insights from the study on mall events for segmenting and targeting strategies. The different types of mall events can be used for improving footfall, sales and mall image. The study findings employ a grounded theory approach to understand mall retailers’ views on mall events. Future research can be directed toward understanding mall managers’ and consumers’ opinions about the relevance of mall events in improving footfall and profitability of malls.

Extant research has looked at mall events, their role and efficacy in a consolidated manner. The current study attempts to segregate the events organized by mall management into distinct categories and provide linkages of these categories concerning mall image and traffic.

Hypermarket is the most successful amongst organised retail formats in India. The purpose of this paper is to identify segments of hypermarket shoppers based on shopping motivation. The study profiles the identified segments on demographic characteristics and shopping outcomes, and compares the shopping motivation of hypermarket consumers with that of traditional store shoppers.

The study involved a survey of 201 actual shoppers in a hypermarket and that of 117 actual shoppers in 20 traditional stores. Principal components analysis of the motives for shopping at hypermarket and traditional store identified the respective dimensions of shopping motivation. Cluster analysis of the factor scores obtained on shopping motivation at hypermarket revealed the typology of hypermarket shoppers. Chi-square test and MANOVA were used to profile the identified segments of hypermarket shoppers on demographic characteristics and shopping outcomes respectively.

Results revealed different dimensions of motivation to shop at the hypermarket and traditional store and four types of hypermarket shoppers were identified: utilitarians, maximisers, browsers and enthusiasts. The utilitarians are motivated by functional benefits such as the price and variety of products; the maximisers seek functional as well as recreational benefits; the browsers are high on social motivation; and the enthusiasts are high on all dimensions of shopping motivation. These segments showed overall significant differences on demographic characteristics and shopping outcomes.

The proposal for allowing FDI in multi-brand retail in India, a rapidly emerging market for global retail players, is at an advanced stage of policy making. Many national and multi-national retailers are in the process of expansion in India. This study adds to their understanding of Indian consumers. Based on the identified typology, the study suggests different strategies to target different segments of hypermarket shoppers.

The study contributes to the growing field of cross-cultural research on shopping motivation by highlighting the typology of Indian hypermarket shoppers.

Infrastructural revolution, intense competition and customer attraction towards organised apparel retailing in India are potentially affecting traditional retailing. The authors seek to identify the factors that customers perceive during shopping in organised apparel retail store. This study also investigates the indirect effects of identified factors on behavioural outcomes such as loyalty.

The study randomly selected the customers immediately after shopping to minimise the experience's carryover effects. A sample of 648 customers was collected. Data were analysed using multivariate analysis of covariance.

The study has found that in-store logistics is the second order factor with ease of return, on-shelf availability, product accessibility, shopping convenience, and product information as the variables. The result shows that in-store logistics, store environment, store communication, merchandise assortment, perceived price and employee attribute influence customer satisfaction. As expected, these factors indirectly influence the loyalty.

This study focused on organised multi-brand apparel retailing, and the survey was conducted in a tier-II city of India only. Hence, any attempt to generalise the findings must be undertaken with caution.

In the context of multi-brand retailing, competition is fierce. New entrants and traditional apparel retailers hesitate to adopt organised apparel retailing. The findings of this study can be helpful for new entrants and traditional apparel retailers to adopt organised apparel retailing.

Previous studies in the field of multi-brand retailing have mainly focused on the marketing aspect of retail stores. This study contributes to the operations aspect and tests the impact of operational function (in-store logistics) on customer satisfaction.