22-06-2013, 04:04 PM
Customer Attitude Towards Shopping Malls in Mumbai
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Abstra
ct
Today, supermalls are replacing ‘kirana’ stores all over India. India’s
retail infrastructure is slowly undergoing a change with many hi-fi
supermalls being constructed and operating in various cities. The mall
concept has come to stay for good. The Indian consumer seems to be
undergoing a shift in terms of personality, buying motives, interests,
attitudes, beliefs and values when he or she is making a shift from ‘kirana’
stores towards shopping malls. In this context it assumes significance to
study the buying behaviour of consumers in Mumbai especially with
changes taking place in India’s retail scenario.
INTRODUCTION
Today, super - malls are replacing ‘kirana’ stores all over India. Lifestyle marketing is a process of
establishing relationships between products offered in the market and targeted lifestyle groups.
Lifestyle is a distinctive mode of behaviour centered on activities, interests, opinions, attitudes
and demographic characteristics distinguishing one segment of the population from another. A
consumer’s lifestyle is seen as the sum of his or her interactions with his or her environment.
Many consumers make their purchases from the local ‘kirana’ stores also known as India’s mom
and pop stores. But recently, India’s retail infrastructure is slowly undergoing a change with
many hi-fi super - malls being constructed and operating in various cities. The mall concept has
come to stay for good. The Indian consumer seems to be undergoing a shift in terms of
personality, buying motives, interests, attitudes, beliefs and values when he or she is making a
shift from ‘kirana’ stores towards shopping malls. In this context, it assumes significance to study
the buying behaviour of consumers in Mumbai especially with changes taking place in India’s
retail scenario.
CONCEPT AND IMPORTANCE OF A SHOPPING MALL
A shopping mall, shopping center, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or
more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandizers, with interconnecting
walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area-a modern,
indoor version of the traditional marketplace. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines
a shopping mall ‘as a large building or covered area that has many shops / stores, restaurants,
etc. inside it’1. The shopping mall concept is a big hit with the sole purpose to provide everything
under the sun under one roof or in one big complex. It also heralded in a new urbanization
concept where everything was taken to the consumer in his comfort zone, suburbia. Customers
state that malls, supermarkets and hypermarkets are well organized and that there are no quality
issues, the range of choices and value-for-money deals make them happy, the ambience is good,
there are better deals across categories with more choices and they get everything under one roof
and they get good deals on bulk buying and at the same there is more variety. Organized retail
chain and mall stores are mushrooming in all major cities and towns of India. Apart from private
players in the organized retail chain business like ‘Shoppers Stop’, ‘Spencers’, ‘Food Bazar’,
‘Hypercity’, ‘Inorbit’, ‘Big Bazar’ and so on, major industrial houses like Tata, Birla, Reliance,
Bharti, etc. have entered the retail business and have announced very ambitious future expansion
plans. Multinational retailers are also coming to India to set up retail chains in collaboration with
big Indian companies. Modern retail formats such as hypermarkets, superstores, discount stores,
convenience stores are widely present in major cities of India2.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The lifestyle of the Indian consumer pervades various aspects of his/her life and varies according
to the sociologically relevant variables. Family incomes are seeing a jump in recent times
resulting in the consumer spending more and a change in the lifestyle of the Indian consumer is
of great interest to society at large, manufacturing and consumer companies, advertisers, super -
mall owners, economists, census, researchers and so on. This study could also be used in the
context of positioning new products, repositioning an old/existing product, developing new
product concepts and creating promotional strategies. The objective of this research is to study the
metamorphosis in the life of the Indian consumer after the advent of malls in the country and
how the shift in his/her buying behavior has affected sales of consumer products. It will help to
analyze the consumer’s attitude towards super - malls, attitudes towards various product classes
sold in malls, products and services consumed, activities, interests and opinions of different
consumers, value systems and personality traits as an increasing number of urban consumers are
beginning to see themselves in a more modern context.
CONCLUSION
The purpose of the research is to analyze the “customer attitude towards shopping malls in
Mumbai” which is found to be positive.
1) Today multi storey shopping malls are a shopaholic’s paradise in Mumbai. These shopping
malls accommodate every taste, pocket and style. Also, the city of Mumbai offers ample
shopping opportunities to tourists who come here to spend their vacation.
2) From the study it is revealed that a majority of ‘Mumbaikars’ do prefer to shop at shopping
malls as it is a convenient place to buy anything they desire. Most respondents expressed that
the shopping malls are just not a place to shop due to its constant availability, but has also
created an ideal environment for social interaction for people of all ages.
3) Also shopping malls offer excellent parking facilities, create value for money, credit / debit
card facilities, and so on. As a result, higher customer traffic is attracted towards shopping
malls. All thanks to shopping malls for bringing about an overall development in Mumbai.