Retail experience management in India

Abstract

Indian apparel industry is estimated to be at Rs. 779 billion for 2014-15 and with organized retail penetration of 21.7%. Apparel retail fetches one of the highest margins among all retail verticals such as food and grocery, footwear etc. In past few years even though there were boom predictions, the industry has witnessed stagnation. This industry is very sensitive to disposable income which has been fluctuating in the last few years. With good growth in GDP and controlled inflation retail sector is India is poised to witness growth in the coming years. The paper tries to understand the intricacies of consumer behavior in the retail apparel environment. The study is specifically aimed to understand about exogenous variables in the form of retail atmospherics that enhance the shoppablity experience for a consumer. Shopping in general is both a hedonic and a utilitarian experience for the consumer. These experiences create a long lasting impression on the minds of consumers. It is noteworthy that even with a plethora of models (e.g. S-O-R model by Mehrabian, Russel and Organizing framework by Dhruv Grewal, Michael Levy, V Kumar) that try to explain retail experience management, they dominantly based on the understanding of the western consumer. In the past the Indian consumer has baffled marketers who have tried to imitate western models in the India. So there was a need to investigate the importance and validity of these models from the perspective of Indian psyche. This qualitative findings of the study tries to classify the nature of the Indian shopper and describe the characteristics which he values. The paper makes use of in depth interview for drawing inferences. The paper includes literature review that went into the study before the primary survey, parameter selection based on secondary analysis and expert opinion coupled with a dip stick study with the consumers. In the later sections methodology of the research, findings and discussions are explained in detail followed by managerial implications and limitations of the current study.