Consumer Perception Towards Retail Industry: A Study

The retail industry is the largest industry and it is witnessing revolution in India. The retail concept is emerging drastically with new formats like general stores, supermarkets, malls, hyper markets and specialty stores. The industry is at inflexion point, where the growth of organized retailing and rise in consumption levels by the Indian population is turning towards a higher growth trajectory. India's retail market is expected to grow tremendously in next few years. Retail industry in India is expected to rise 25% yearly being driven by strong income growth, changing lifestyles, and favourable demographic patterns. It is expected that by 2016 retail industry in India will be worth US $175 - 200 billion. Now the Indian consumer is enjoying world class shopping experience. Shopping in India has witnessed a revolution with the change in the consumer buying behavior and the whole format of shopping also altering. The consumer needs differ widely across the country. Distinct strategies should be adopted for different regions and different products. There is a need to analyze the perceptions of the shoppers towards the organized retail stores for making better strategic decisions. Hence, the study is undertaken with the main objective of analyzing the perception of the shoppers towards the organized retail stores. The essence of the study revolves around the organization variables that have an influence on the minds of consumers, and how they feel about the organized retail activities that are taking place. For this purpose, 300 shoppers have been selected from Hyderabad city and administered questionnaires. In addition to this, as many as informal discussions have also been held with the executives of the retail general stores. The secondary data and information have been collected from various research papers published in several magazines, journals and data made available to the public by general store operators through their websites.