A Survey Report on Consumer Buying BehaviourAt

Company Profile:

Shoppers Stop is one of the leading retail stores in India. Shoppers Stop began by operating a

chain of department stores under the name “Shoppers’ Stop” in India. Shoppers Stop has 65

stores across 32 cities in India. Shoppers Stop is an Indian department store chain promoted by

the K Raheja Corp Group started in the year 1991 with its first store in Andheri, Mumbai.

Shoppers’ Stop is promoted by the K Raheja Corp Group, one of leading players in real estate

development and hotels. Shoppers’ Stop has progressed from being a single brand shop to a

family orientated fashion and lifestyle store. Shoppers’ Stop operates under the Departmental

store format, and was one of the pioneers of the large format stores in India. Shoppers’ Stop hass

created a new business unit to manage its specialty businesses like Crossword, Mother care, F&B

business and MAC.

The Survey:

Survey Date: 5th July 2014

Location: Shoppers Stop, Jayanagar, Bangalore

The survey have been conducted on 30 random customers who visited Shoppers Stop, Jayanagar

and purchased some goods of their chosen brands. They were asked to express their views and

how satisfied they are on their purchases. The customers were from different age groups,

different states, gender, age, working experience, purchase habit. Customers were asked to fill up

a questionnaire based on their shopping experience and were asked to put forward their

suggestions which they think might help on the better sales or customer satisfaction by Shopper’s

Stop. It is to be noted that the survey was conducted only for the apparels and accessories of

Shoppers Stop.

Tirthankar Sutradhar1421427, M

Out of 30 people randomly surveyed, 17 were male and 13 were female. Following is the Bar

chart representing the same.

22 among them were employed and 8 of them were not working. Following is the Bar chart

representing the same.

Tirthankar Sutradhar1421427, M

The consumers surveyed were of different age groups. Of them, consumers between the ages of

18-30 were the most dominant one. This question was asked to know which age groups makes

the most of the purchases in Shoppers Stop. The company can always revive its plan as well as

strategy based on the findings which age group is most viable and active when the question of

actual purchase comes to picture. Only 3.33% of consumers (amongst the surveyed ones) were

above the age group of 50.

So it is clear that Shoppers Stop have to concentrate more on the satisfaction of buyers between

the 18 to 30 age group which comprises of 70% of their buyers.

26.7% of the buyers were between the age group of 30 to 40 which is a good number. But if

Shoppers Stop wants to attract consumers above the age of 50, it has to undergo a huge facelift

both in its strategies as well as stocks.

Tirthankar Sutradhar1421427, M

The below chart shows which income level people prefers to shop from Shoppers Stop. The

income slabs have been divided into 3 slabs: Below 20K, Above 20K to 50K and above 50K.

Here if we take a note of the consumers buying pattern from the survey conducted, two

fascinating facts are discovered. One, Non working class (students most probably) are

contributing much more than working class with an average monthly salary below 20,000 INR.

And, second, middle income groups are contributing to the sales of Shoppers Stop a highly more

than that of high income groups. One thing to be noted here is that the chart here do not show the

sales in terms of number but instead it shows the percentage of people from different income

groups. In reality, higher income groups might be contributing much higher in terms of numbers

when it comes to sales, but the average number of higher level consumers lags behind the

number middle income consumer by a slight margin. This is one of the key areas Shoppers Stop

must be concentrating. Specially how to catch the market for income group below 20,000 INR

(monthly income).

Tirthankar Sutradhar1421427, M

The following factors mostly influenced consumers on their purchases. One of the major

limitations of the survey was the limited number of options consumers were provided with. Still

utmost care have been taken to present before them the top valid causes that could have

influenced their buying/purchase.

Choice of brands sums up to a huge 80% of the cause that influences consumer’s buying at

Shoppers Stop. Moreover Shoppers Stop is known for its collection of variety of brands. So it is

one of the major strengths of the retail company which has caught the eye of the consumers.

Brands are followed by Quality (70%) and Discounts (66.6%) which is again followed by Offers,

current market trends and price equally (53.3%).

From the same it is visible that consumers at shoppers stop are more concerned with their

particular choice of brands and Quality of the same. Factors like price and trends are less

influential in Shoppers Stop when compared to consumer’s choice of brands.

Tirthankar Sutradhar1421427, M

Findings:

From the survey it is very clear about the buying behaviour of consumers at Shoppers Stop. Both

male and female of all age groups are consumers at shoppers stop, some of them were working

and some of them were non-working. But survey shows that non-working people do not highly

prefer to purchase from apparels or accessories from Shopper Stop. When asked about what they

liked most about Shoppers Stop people listed various notes which have affected them positively

while their visit to the store or post-purchase of their respective products. Only quite a handful of

the surveyed consumers were not highly satisfied with Shoppers Stop. The points can be noted

and worked upon.

When asked to rate about the Store layout on a scale from 1 to 5 (1 being the lowest and 5 being

the highest), Shoppers stop scored well on each of the points presented to the consumer. Much

have not been touched on those aspects on the reports from the survey conducted as Shopper

Stop have kept themselves well acquitted with customer delight as well as satisfaction when the

question of the location of their Store layouts, Maintenance, Cleanliness, Availability of

Products, Easeness to search the same in the store or their overall satisfaction are in the picture.

Suggestions:

From the survey I have picked up a few points which can be taken care of to increase the sales by

taking care of the buying behaviour of the consumers. The suggestions are presented based on

the numerical value of the survey conducted as well as the suggestions provided by the subjects.

Following are those:

a. Introduce some local brand products as to capture the market of lower income group. The

same can be done by pushing for higher discounts on selected products. That might result

in lowering the profit margin on the same items but it will result in increasing the total

number of product sold which will affect the net sales in a positive way.

b. More emphasis should be given to capture the mind of the students which will lead to a

drastic level of increase on the sales.

Tirthankar Sutradhar1421427, M

c. Since Shopper Stop consumer are more brand concerned than the price or offers, weekly

discounts on the same products can be rolled out to capture the mood of the consumer.

For the same a market survey is must, which will let Shopper Stop a step ahead of its

competitors by reducing the price of the product by marginal amount.

d. More stocks and options should be rolled out for women consumers.

e. Apparels for youths should be more as compared to the current collection of stocks for

younger generation.

f. Since share of consumers more than 50 age in Shoppers Stop is minimal, the same can be

either rolled backed completely to save costs or more emphasis should be given to

increase the market share of 50+ aged consumers.

Tirthankar Sutradhar1421427, M