Review of Literature

Uusitalo (2001), Grocery retailers are operating in a slow-growth market. The pursuit
of market share is one of the main concerns for retail managers. The retail structure is becoming
increasingly standardized and homogenous because of concentration of the ownership of
stores. Cultural differences remain, however, between different European countries. Cultural
factors influence the success of a positioning strategy. This study examined how consumers
perceive grocery retail formats and brands in Finland. Data from personal interviews were used
in highlighting the consumer perspective. Consumers perceive meaningful differences in
various store formats, meanwhile store brands are seen as quite similar. Consumers rely on
functional attributes of stores when discussing grocery stores. However, it seems that
consumers are unable to recognize the fabricated, often imaginary differences at the brand
level. The informant’s own, creative symbolic work results in this case to interpreting all
grocery retail brands as similar. Managerial implications of the study are presented.

Paulins & Geistfeld (2003), Consumer perceptions of retail store attributes for a set of
particular stores were examined to determine their effect on store preference. Respondents
rated 13 stores. Four variables were found to affect store preference using forward stepwise
logistic regression: type of clothing desired in stock, outside store appearance, shopping hours,
and advertising. Significance of the effect of store attributes on store preference varied by store
type. In addition, associations between customer perception of store attributes, education and
age were observed. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

Gehrt & Yan (2004) Most research related to consumer choice of retailers emphasizes
retailer attributes and/or consumer characteristics. Since many retail formats, including online
retailing, have emerged in recent years, knowledge of how consumers select retail formats must
be updated. A source of influence that has been examined to a very limited extent for store
retailers but not for emerging retail formats is situational influence. From a modern
interactionism perspective, this study investigates the influence of situational as well as
consumer and retailer factors on preference for online, catalog, and store formats. Key results
show that situational factors have significant influence on online and catalog format selection
and perceptions of attributes that are crucial to that selection.

Miranda & Kónya (2005), To identify the factors that influence shoppers' satisfaction
with their “primary” grocery store, and those that encourage them to continue patronising it
despite being presented with a significant inducement to shop elsewhere. A structured
questionnaire containing 31 variables relating to shopping behaviour and satisfaction was
administered to 934 shoppers leaving a number of grocery stores in an Australian city during
a two-week period. Results were used to construct two mathematical models predicting
customer satisfaction and store loyalty, from which two research hypotheses were derived.The
results of model estimation show that factors with a significant influence on store satisfaction
have little in common with others that impel shoppers to remain loyal to one store. Indeed,
there was no evidence in this study that shoppers' overall satisfaction was by itself a significant
influence on continued patronage. The questionnaire did not ask questions, judged to be
intrusive, relating to respondents' income level, education background, employment status or
household size – characteristics known to have a bearing on perception of risk associated with
switching to an unfamiliar store and hence potentially to inhibit action. It would be instructive
in future research to assess the extent to which demographic characteristics mediate perceptions
of financial, psychological and social risk, and their influence on satisfaction and
loyalty.Retailers often do not recognise that what influences customer satisfaction is not the
same as what engenders store loyalty, and consequently do not allocate scarce resources
systematically among tactics influencing one or the other. Unless they are vigilant to changing
consumer behaviour patterns, they will not be able to isolate in their strategy the elements of
the retail mix that could insulate their loyal customers from responding to competitors' special
offers.This study introduces intelligence gatherers and strategic planners in the retail context
to an important distinction between general satisfaction and specific loyalty.

Smith (2006), discusses whether at a theoretical level the large and growing role of the
vertically integrated supermarket chains raises a buyer-power concern because of potential
harm to other retailers, suppliers, and/or consumers. The exercise of buyer power by the chains
in relation to their suppliers may indirectly impact adversely on retail competition, especially
as barriers to entry into grocery retailing are relatively high.

Da Silva & Syed Alwi (2008), The purpose of this paper is to look into the relationship
between the physical aspect of a retail store, product-related attributes, personal interaction
with customers and perceived reliability and corporate brand image in an offline or bricks and
mortar context. The study is based on 511 interviews conducted in various bookstores and uses
structural equation modelling as a statistical tool for concluding the above.The paper argues
that physical aspect of a retail store, product-related attributes and personal interaction with
customers will have a significant and positive direct effect on the offline corporate brand image
whilst there was no significant connection between reliability and corporate brand image.The
research has been conducted in one organisation, albeit a number of bookstores were
scrutinized.The paper's managerial contribution lies in its lessons for practitioners who want to
understand what are the key drivers of corporate brand image in an offline context. It also
provides a background for further studies which can extrapolate the current thinking into other
sectors in order to validate or refute the results presented here.The paper scrutinizes the impact
of: physical aspects; product related information; reliability; and personal interaction in the
corporate brand image of a retail organisation.

Brengman & Willems (2009), The purpose of this paper is to identify the main
determinants of fashion store personality, as perceived by the shopper. It aims to discover
factors that are responsible for specific store personality trait perceptions in order to understand
how these humanlike personality traits are induced in a retailing context.With this end in mind,
a qualitative exploratory study was undertaken. A total of 70 in-depth semi-structured
interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of Belgian adult respondents to
systematically assess the connotations of the 34 different store personality trait descriptors put
forward by d'Astous and Lévesque. Respondents were asked which fashion stores they
considered to embody these specific personality traits and they were probed for the sources of
inference they used.The findings reveal that the store environment and store design particularly
is an important factor in determining the personality of fashion stores. Also, other factors such
as corporate social responsibility, reputation, service level, the salespeople, the merchandise
sold, price/quality perceptions and the consumer base determine perceptions of “genuineness”,
“solidity”, “sophistication”, “enthusiasm” and “unpleasantness”.A better understanding of the
determinants of fashion store personality is essential for retail managers who wish to
(re)position their stores. Retailers and store designers should be aware of the important role of
“atmospherics” in this regard.Apart from conceptual work; no empirical research has yet
systematically investigated determinants of each of the main store personality dimensions.

Huddleston & Whipple & Mattick et al (2009), The purpose of this paper is to
compare and contrast customer perceptions related to satisfaction with conventional grocery
stores as compared to specialty grocery stores. The study examines store attributes of product
assortment, price, quality, and service in order to determine which attributes have the greatest
impact on store satisfaction for each store format.A mail survey was sent to a sample of
specialty and conventional grocery store customers. The ten state sample was drawn from US
households located in postal (ZIP) codes in areas where national specialty stores (e.g. whole
foods) were located.Perception of satisfaction were higher among specialty grocery store
customers compared to conventional grocery store customers. For both store formats, store
price, product assortment, service and quality positively influenced satisfaction. Stepwise
regression indicated that each store attribute contributed differently to store satisfaction for
conventional and specialty store formats. The results demonstrate that price, product
assortment, quality, and employee service influence store satisfaction regardless of store type
(conventional stores or specialty stores). However, the degree of influence of these attributes
varied by store type. The results imply that while specialty store shopper satisfaction
characteristics are clearly delineated, conventional store shopper characteristics are more
difficult to pinpoint. Research limitations include a sample that is more highly educated and
has higher incomes than the average American household. Despite the growth of new product
categories and new industry players, few studies have investigated customer satisfaction within
the retail food industry. Comparisons of specialty and conventional food stores are equally
scarce.

Saraswat & Mammen & Aagja et al (2010), 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.

Asikhia (2010) find that customer orientation moderated by marketing information

system and managerial attitude is an efficient strategy of providing and sustaining customer
advantage for small and medium scale businesses in an ever changing business environment
and suggested that managers of small and medium scale businesses should allow their
businesses to emerge out of a customers’ need.

Thiruvenkadam and Panchanatham (2011) explore the demographic factors that

influence the decisions of the consumers on retail store selection in Chennai and conclude that
demographic factors such as age, income, gender and education are having significant role in
retail store selection. Shopper groups mainly vary in choosing a store based on their
significance for patronage factors of a store.

Rajagopal (2011) analyzed the impact of radio advertisements on urban commuters

towards buying behaviour in retail. His result reveals that shopping behaviour of urban
consumer at retail stores in response to radio advertisements is highly influenced by the
physical, cognitive and economic variables. Listeners of radio commercials are attracted
towards entertaining advertisements and promotional messages on sales of products have quick
response to the supermarkets and department stores.

Prasad and Aryasri (2011) make a detailed study and unpack that shoppers' age,
gender, occupation, education, monthly household income, family size and distance travelled
to store have significant association with retail format choice decisions. The findings from
shoppers' psychographic dimensions like values, lifestyle factors and shopping orientations
resulted in segmentation of food and grocery retail consumers into hedonic, utilitarian,
autonomous, conventional and socialization type.

Bala (2012), The purpose of this paper is to develop a forecasting model for retailers
based on customer segmentation, to improve performance of inventory.The research makes an
attempt to capture the knowledge of segmenting the customers based on various attributes as
an input to the demand forecasting in a retail store. The paper suggests a data mining model
which has been used for forecasting of demand. The proposed model has been applied for
forecasting demands of eight SKUs for grocery items in a supermarket. Based on the proposed
forecasting model, the inventory performance has been studied with simulation.The proposed
forecasting model with the inventory replenishment system results in the reduction of inventory
level and increase in customer service level. Hence, the proposed model in the paper results in
improved performance of inventory.Retailers can make use of the proposed model for demand
forecasting of various items to improve the inventory performance and profitability of
operations.With the advent of data mining systems which have given rise to the use of business
intelligence in various domains, the current paper addresses one of the most pressing issues in
retail management, as demand forecasting with minimum error is the key to success in
inventory and supply chain management. The proposed forecasting model with the inventory
replenishment system results in the reduction of inventory level and increase in customer
service level. The proposed model outperforms other widely used existing models.

Rao and Manikyam (2012) presents the customers’ perceptions on the experiences
related to the four specified areas viz. shopping experience, buying experience, service
experience and relationship experience and established the fact that the small scale retailers are
providing valued experiences to the customers. The customer experience management requires
an organized effort from retailers, continual review and committed effort of the management
for improvements qualitatively.

Rani (2012) examine the present Retail strategies of store services and store choice and
the effect of store services and store choice on Customer satisfaction at MORE and
FOODWORLD. Results of study shows that MORE retail store should concentrate more on
improving the store services and store choice Retail strategies for better customer Satisfaction
and FOOD WORLD should concentrate on some more retail strategies on store choice.

Malik, 2012, In a study on the Indian apparel retail sector the author observed that it is
very important for the retailer to clear of the stocks at the end of the season; else they have to
incursubstantial inventory carrying costs, allocate the limited shelf space to it and in the next
season it may be out of fashion and remain unsold forever. The common discount given on end
of season sale on stock clearance of apparels is upto 50% on Maximum Retail Price (Vyas,
2007). Retailers need to do proper promotions for discount offers in a strategic manner to
achieve fruitful results.

K.Narayanan, Samal and Rao (2013), found that 36% customers were satisfied with
the goods and services of organised retail stores, 38% customers were not satisfied due to
inconvenient parking facility, long standing queue for billing and delivery, poor home delivery
services and the like and remaining 26% customers were sure about their satisfaction level.
This fact is a word of caution for organised retailers to take care of services to win over the
customers‟ satisfaction.

R.Gomathi, S.Kishore, R.Deepika (2013), spells out that there is relationship between
the gender of the respondents and various offers and discounts offered by the departmental
stores. The customers are dissatisfied with the parking facilities, price of products like fancy
items, children‟s toys, door delivery, billing procedure, long waiting time the departmental
stores should address these issues quickly to make their customers satisfy and happy.

Sushmana (2014) have proved that 40% of the customers prefer unorganised retail
shopping while 34% of the customers prefer organised retail stores and 26% of the customers
prefer both. Further, 58% of the customers are satisfied with pricing strategy, 42% of the
customers are not satisfied.

Hameed (2015), highlighted that store layout must be favourable for high level of
satisfaction, for high level of brand loyalty. It is also found that factors like less queue and
welcoming staff, services, quality and accuracy of bills, price and price discount positively
affects the customers‟ reliability. The researcher suggested that if additional facilities are
provided to customers they are attracted towards stores.

Sameera.P (2015), found that majority of customers are satisfied with the product
variety and price range,physical facilities, adaption of modern equipment and fixtures,
operating hours, quality of services etc., They are also satisfied with self service, product price,
visual merchandising, home delivery and fast checkouts. They feel that the store layout is easily
accessible to find the products. But at the same time the study points out some difficulties are
associated with organized retail outlets like improper, insufficient parking facility and in this
era of technological advancement the customers are likely to have variety mode of payment in
the shops as their convenience. But majority of shops are lacking these facilities.

Kama raj University, July 2017,With the reviving of the economy, our highly
improved life quality booms service industries and causes economic growth. Among the
service industries, the department stores having a great to do with economic development for
its great amount of cash flow is especially worthy of attention. Furthermore, many large
department stores have been opened in the recent years and they do their best to promote in
order to attract consumers and boost sales. Since 20% off for all and price reduction is very
common, sellers start rewarding their customers with large numbers of prizes to draw their
attention. Saravanan, “an investigation of user perception and attitude to Reliance Fresh store

in Madurai”.

U. Dineshkumar, P. Vikramman 2018, In the consumers future purchase intentions

customers’ satisfaction plays an important role and is an important factor. In main aim of this
paper is to identify the attitude and behavior of the customers who are purchasing in the
organized retail outlets in the Erode City of Tamil Nadu state in India. Satisfied Customers are
likely to tell other of their favorable responses and those who are not satisfied are likely to give
negative responses. For the survey 200 questionnaire have been randomly distributed to retail
customers. For these study chi-squre test, correlation has been performed and the data is
analyzed.