Factors Influencing the Retail Shopper

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Factors influencing the retail shopper Retailer also needs to understand the competitors and how the customers perceive them. This would help the firm understand how they are perceived vis-à-vis the competition. It is also important to understand why consumers choose the competition over your product. This analysis may reveal some startling facts, and provide direction for future differentiation strategies. At the heart of every business strategy must be a deep understanding of consumers. Why we buy ‘The Science of Shopping’ brings out some key facts about how consumers buy and the various influences on the same. The book brings out a key fact that most purchasing decisions are influenced and made on the shop floor itself. Highlighted are the facts that various aspects like sign ages, shelf position, display space and fixtures, all influence the shopper in his buying decision. The science of shopping is a hybrid discipline, part physical science and part social science and only part science at all, because it is also an art. It is practical field concerned wit providing information that can improve the retailer’ edge and reduce the odds of making a wrong decision. Much of the value of the science lies in the ability to go beyond collecting data and making educated guesses about what it means an how best to respond. The behavior of retail shoppers is a subject of study across the world. The basic difference however, continues to be the maturity of markets and formats. While retail in the West has evolved unit terms of formats over the past hundred years, organized retail in India is still a new phenomenon. Shopping has in fact, been termed as a science. In India, retailers and retail formats are still evolving. Ten years ago, if a consumer wanted to buy soap, his only option was the local bania or the Sahakari Bhandar or the fair price shops run by the government.

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