Project report

(3rd semester)

“AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF CONSUMER BUYING

BEHAVIOUR IN BANGALORE D-MART”

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the

degree of

Master Business Administration

OF

BENAGALORE UNIVERSITY

Submitted by

PRAVEEN H J

(REG NO: 17OTCMD026)

Under the guidance of

GANESHKUMAR C

Assistant professor

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PLANTATION MANAGEMENT

2017-2019
 Abstract:
The importance of consumer behavior and their impact on business profitability is
undisputable, but it is more difficult to build customer retention than it may appear.
Marketers and for that matter retailers do numerous things to determine study
relationships with their customers. Various strategies including attractive offers and
discount cards are sometimes used in an effort to retain customers and also influence their
buying behaviors, but their success is questionable. One particular practice commonly
seen with most of the retailers in India is the issuance of customer cards (reward points
card) serving as a strategy to identify and retain the customers. The end results of the
implementation of this strategy is that a lot of clients find yourself owning several
customer cards of various retailers with similar line of business.

The main purpose of the study was to search out if the essential plan of issuance client
cards still holds in an exceedingly scenario wherever a client owns 2 or a lot of such
cards. Again, the study looked into factors which possibly influence the buying behavior
of such customers.

The theoretical study of the research examined customer relationship management in

relation to consumer buying behavior. The answers to the stated research questions were
obtained through the use of quantitative questionnaires which were handed out to
customers at D-Mart Vijay Nagar. After this the analysis results were examined one once
the opposite showing however the results were connected to the theoretical review. The
items on the questionnaire which attracted the highest positive response were considered
as key factors influencing consumers’ buying behaviors.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Our selves Praveen H.J have completed the study project titled “An Empirical Analysis
of Consumer Buying Behavior in Bangalore D-Mart” under the guidance of Dr.
Ganesh Kumar C in the partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree of
Master Business Administration of Bangalore University

This project consumed huge amount of work, Research and dedication Still
implementation would not have been possible if researcher did not have a
support of many individual customers. Therefore researcher would like to
extend our sincere gratitude to all of them.

First of all Research are thankful to Dr. Ganesh Kumar C Sir for providing his
expert guidance and extending continuous support in completion of project.

Research are also grateful to all the D-mart customers for provision of data
and responses on implementation of product buying behavior with D-Mart
by them. Without their support and cooperation, the project would lack in
quality of outcomes, and thus their support has been essential.

Praveen H.J
 Table Content

Chapter Content Page no.

1 INTRODUCTION

2 COMPANY PROFILE

3 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

5 DATA ANALYSIS AND

INTERPRETATION
6 RECOMMENDATIONS AND
CONCLUSION

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Retail sales volume index.

Figure 2: percentage share of organized and unorganized retail.

Figure 3: The Annual India e-Marketing Research

ABBREVIATIONS

FDI: Foreign Direct Investment

 CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION

TITLE OF STUDY:

“AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF CONSUMER BUYING

BEHAVIOUR IN BANGALORE D-MART”

1.1 Introduction
A formal definition of customer behavior, states that customer behavior is: “Consumer
buying behavior is the sum total of a consumer's attitudes, preferences, and decisions
regarding the consumer's behavior in the marketplace when purchasing a product or
service”. From awareness, discovery, attraction, interaction, purchase. It may be wont to
mean a personal expertise over one transaction; the excellence is typically clear in
context.

To create a superior customer requires understanding the customer's point of view .In
practical terms, customer behavior is the customer’s perception of, and attitude about, and
different areas of your company or brand across the entire customer life cycle.

The whole idea around consumer's behavior is to maintain an ongoing deliberate effort to
keeping customers pleased with the service they have received so that continuous
improvement is something that exists as a real process.

Consumer buying behavior involves 6 stages that are:-

1) Problem recognition.

2) Information search.

3) Evaluations of alternatives.

4) Purchase decision.

5) Purchase.

6) Post-purchase evaluation.

The consumer buying behavior includes all the above stages and even some of the
unknown factors that influence them while making the purchasing decision.

INTRODUCTION TO RETAILING

India started its Retail Journey since ancient time. In Ancient Bharat there was an
inspiration of weekly HAAT, wherever all the patrons and sellers furl a giant marketplace
for bartering. It takes a fairly long times to and step to form the trendy retail. In between
these two concepts i.e. between ancient retail thought and therefore the fashionable
one there exist fashionable Grocery/ mammy and pop outlets or Baniya ki Dukan. Still
it's predominating in Bharat that the Indian retail trade is split into 2 sectors- organized
and unorganized.

The Indian retail trade is currently setting out to evolve transformation that has swept
alternative giant economies.

There is a massive modification in Indian retail, the liberalization of the buyer product
trade initiated within the mid-80’s and accelerated through the 90’s has begun to impact
the structure and conduct of the retail industry. The conception retail, which includes
the shopkeeper to customer interaction, has taken many forms and dimensions, from
the traditional retail outlet and street local market shops to upscale multi brand outlets,
especially stores or departmental stores.

Hence, that specialize in 2 aspects of retail promoting i.e. store retailing and non- store
retailing. Store selling because the chain store, that could be a store or multi complete
outlet, offering an array of products in various categories under one roof, trying to cater
to not one or 2 however several segments of the society and Non store selling because
the direct merchandising, direct marketing, automatic vending.

A consumer buying behavior with reference to D-Mart is to check the buying behavior of
an individual consumer, when he used to shopping in D-Mart. D-Mart includes all
household products for our daily routine in best affordable prices for every customer.

OVERVIEW OF INDIAN RETAIL SECTOR:

Retail trade, being the fifth largest in the world, is one of the sunrise sectors with huge
growth potential and accounts for 14-15% of the country’s GDP. Including both
organized and unorganized sectors, especially over the last few years, Indian retail
industry is one of the fastest growing industries in India, especially over the last few
years.

India's strong growth fundamentals, high saving and investment rates, fast growth in
labour force and, increased consumer spending has made it a very favorable retail
destination globally .Indian consumers continue to urbanize, started spending more on
non-food purchases and have more exposure to brands, this has resulted in powerful,
more discerning consumer class. India's nearly 1.2 billion populations is also an attractive
target for the global brands.

India's retail sector is on its method of modernization. Traditional markets are creating
method for brand spanking new formats like division stores, supermarkets and specialty
stores. Westernized malls may be seen quick showing in metros and tier-II cities,
introducing the Indian consumer to an implausible shopping experience.

According to the world Retail Development Index 2012, India ranks fifth among the top
30 emerging markets for retail. The latest announcement made by the Indian government
with reference to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail, for allowing 100% FDI in
single brands and multi-brand FD Which has created positive impact within the retail
sector.

UNDERSTANDING RETAIL INDUSTRY:

Retail is presently the flourishing sector of the Indian economy. This trend is predicted d
to continue for the future decades, and it is attracting huge attention from all
entrepreneurs, business heads, investors as well as real estate owners and builders.

Availability of quality, retail space, wider handiness of merchandise and whole

communication are some of the factors that are driving the retail in India Retail sector is
also supporting to create vast employment whereas a brand new style of organized retail
sector has emerged among the retail trade and it gave speedy section to Indian retail
sector.

Figure 1

Source - https://www.ssb.no/en

Figure 2
Source-IOSR

Figure 3

Source-The Annual India e-Marketing Research

EMERGING AREAS:
every street in a city, and cater primarily to local residents.

Some sectors that occupy a prominent position with the retail industry are:

Apparel Retail: Everybody understands the impact of fashion and textiles on the
environment. Almost $19.5 billion were spent on online apparel shopping in the year
2009 and increasing since then.

Fashion & Lifestyle Retail: In India the vast middle class and its almost untapped retail
industry are the key attractive forces for global retail giants wanting to enter into newer
markets, which in turn will help the retail to grow faster.

Food & Beverage Retail: Backed by huge potential and changing lifestyles, the food and
beverage retail market is growing at a robust 30-35 per cent per year.

Pharmaceutical Retail: Driven by therapies like anti-diabetic, vitamin, anti-infective and

dermatology, it accounted for a robust 15% growth in 2011.

E-commerce or E-tailing – the next big revolution: With the advent of e-commerce in the
retail industry, retail stores are facing stiff competition from e-stores. The rising demand
for e-shopping has lead to a new debate cropping up in the world

RETAIL FORMATS IN INDIA

MOM-AND-POP STORES:
These are small family-owned businesses, which sell a small collection of goods to the
customers. They are individually run and cater to small sections of the society. These
stores are known for their high standards of customer service.

DEPARTMENT STORES:
Department stores are general merchandisers. They offer to the customers mid- to high-
quality products. Though they sell general goods, some department stores sell only a
select line of products. Examples in India would include stores like "Westside" and
"Lifestyle"--popular department stores

CATEGORY KILLERS:
Specialty stores are called category killers. Category killers are specialized in their fields
and offer one category of products. Most popular examples of category killers include
electronic stores like Best Buy and sports accessories stores like Sports Authority
DISCOUNT STORES:
Discount stores offer price reduction. Discount stores are those that offer their products at
a discount, that is, at a lesser rate than the maximum retail price. This is mainly done
when there is additional stock left over towards the end of any season. Discount stores
sell their goods at a reduced rate with an aim of drawing bargain shoppers.

SUPERMARKETS:
One of the other popular retail formats in India is the supermarkets. A supermarket is a
grocery store that sells food and household goods. They are large, most often self- service
and offer a huge variety of products. People head to supermarkets when they need to
stock up on groceries and other items. They provide products for reasonable prices, and of
mid to high quality.

STREET VENDORS:
Street vendors, or hawkers who sell goods on the streets, are quite popular in India.
Through shouting out their wares, they draw the attention of customers. Street vendors
are found in almost every city in India, and the business capital of Mumbai has a number
of shopping areas comprised solely of street vendors. These hawkers sell not just clothes
and accessories, but also local food.

E-RETAILERS:
These are retailers providing online buying and selling of products and services.

CONVENIENCE STORES:
These are located in residential areas with slightly higher prices goods due to the
convenience offered.

KIOSKS/VENDING:
Kiosks are box-like shops, which sell small and inexpensive items like cigarettes,
toffees, newspapers and magazines, water packets and sometimes, tea and coffee. These
are most commonly found on
 CHAPTER –2

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

INTRODUCTION:
A formal definition of customer behavior, states that customer behavior is: “Consumer
buying behavior is the sum total of a consumer's attitudes, preferences, and decisions
regarding the consumer's behavior in the marketplace when purchasing a product or
service”. From awareness, discovery, attraction, interaction, purchase. It can also be used
to mean an individual experience over one transaction; the distinction is usually clear in
context.

To create a superior customer requires understanding the customer's point of view .In
practical terms, customer behavior is the customer’s perception of, and attitude about, and
different areas of your company or brand across the entire customer lifecycle.

The whole idea around consumer's behavior is to maintain an ongoing deliberate effort to
keeping customers pleased with the service they have received so that continuous
improvement is something that exists as a real process.

Consumer buying behavior involves 6 stages that are:-

1) Problem recognition.
2) Information search.
3) Evaluations of alternatives.
4) Purchase decision.
5) Purchase.
6) Post-purchase evaluation.

The consumer buying behavior includes all the above stages and even some of the
unknown factors that influence them while making the purchasing decision.

The key to keeping your business running smoothly is to address the wants, needs and
concerns of your customers. This example of a Consumer Behavior Survey will help you
gather the information you need to keep your clients happy and to improve the overall
performance of your company. It offers you the opportunity to find out what you are
doing right in the eyes of your customers.

Survival in today’s economic climate and competitive retail environment requires more
than just low prices and innovative products. To compete effectively, business must focus
on the customer’s shopping experience. To manage a customer’s experience, retailers
should understand what customer really need at the present situation.
COMPANY PROFILE:

We ensure that all our work processes are aligned towards delivering good products
at great value.
By the late 1990s, our founder, Mr. Radhakishan Damani was already established as one
of the more successful and well known value investors in the Indian equity markets.

Through his investing style he had developed a very keen understanding of the Indian
consumer sector and its psyche. He was anxious to start a business beyond investing,
which would enable him to test his hypothesis about the Indian consumer. After a couple
of years of introspection and research he decided to start a grocery retail chain, focusing
primarily on the value segment. D-Mart, our retail chain, was conceived by him in the
year 2000. Mr. Damani imagined the retail business with the same values of simplicity,
speed and nimbleness that he espoused in his stellar investing career. A focus on financial
fundamentals, high levels of patience and strong conviction have been the bedrock, on
which the Company’s values and business direction have been built .D-Mart, took eight
years to start its first ten stores. This wasn’t because of dearth of investment
opportunities, but more because of his belief in the importance of validating the business
model from a perspective of both profitability and scalability. His beginnings at D-Mart
were frugal. For a number of years since inception, D-Mart’s corporate operations were
run from a small space, carved out from one of the early stores. He and his early
leadership team worked together as one cohesive unit without any hierarchy or barriers.
More importantly, from the very beginning he had the foresight to understand and
strongly believe that any business needs the right blend of entrepreneurship and
professionalism. Entrepreneurship to build and strengthen the concept in its formative
years, professionalism to allow a committed team to create, sustain and grow a scalable
business model into the future. Today, D-Mart continues to focus on this early belief
system created during our formative years. We have a great blend of entrepreneurial spirit
and high quality execution.

D-Mart is a chain of hypermarkets in India founded by Radhakishan Damani in the year

2002. As of October 2018, it had 160 stores across India in the states of Maharashtra,
Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, National Capital
Region, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Punjab.

The company has its headquarters in Mumbai.

D-Mart is promoted by Avenue Super-marts Ltd. (ASL).

D-Mart is a one-stop supermarket chain that aims to offer customers a wide range of basic
home and personal products under one roof. Each D-Mart store stocks home utility
products –That includes Food, Beauty products, Garments, Kitchenware, Home
appliances and more. So that our customer gets satisfaction on competitive prices .Our
core objective is to offer customers good products at great value for their satisfaction in
D-Mart.

A consumer buying behavior with reference to D-Mart is to checking the buying behavior
of an individual consumer when he used to shopping in D-Mart. D-Mart offers all over
the household products for our daily routine in best affordable prices for every customer.
To provide the best value possible for our customers, so that every rupee they spend on
shopping with us gives them more value for money than they would get anywhere else.

VISION & MISSION:-

At D-Mart we continuously research, identify and make available new products and
categories to fulfill our customers’ everyday needs at the best value. Our mission is to be
the lowest priced retailer in our area of operation.

D-mart’s vision is to make available products/categories for the customer’s everyday use
at the ‘best’ value than D-Mart is constantly expanding across departments to keep pace
with our rapidly growing business.

D-Mart will believe in ‘learning through opportunities’. As an equal opportunity

employer, it strongly believe that ANYBODY can be a part of D-Mart. it encourage
candidates from every background to bring in their best in terms of new ideas, innovative
thinking and positive outlook towards work. They judge their prospective and existing
employees only on the basis of their professional mettle.

CORE VALUES ARE:-

 ACTION -- FOCUS: To be focused about what I do.

MOTIVATED: To be clear of achieving my goal.

ENTHUSIASTIC: To love what I do

 CARE-
RESPECT: To respect every individual in the organization and
provide her/him with the dignity and attention to make her/him believe that she/he
makes a difference to the organization.

LISTEN: To listen and resolve any employee/ partner/ customer

grievance quickly and fairly.

 TRUTH-

INTEGRITY: By being open, honest and fair in all our

relationships and being respectful and trustful to others.
NEED FOR THE STUDY:-
• One’s a customer get inside the store they will find all kinds of products available
that may be Food item, Cosmetic, Electronic, Garments, Furniture etc.

• Because of these features it has a very good reputation in that area and customers
who are residing far away and in other areas they also visit the store.

• This department will be responsible for the product arrangement at the store with
respect to their nature.

• This department will be responsible for the maintenance of the systems of the
store.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:-

In today’s market it is very challenging to understand the consumer buying behavior and
their life style. D-MART has more competition in the market like reliance retail, to
overcome this problem D-mart keep its cost low.

The impact of changing life style of the consumer, where their buying behavior will be
changing.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:-

• To know availability of varieties of products.

• To know about affordable price for everyone.

• To study the customer buying behavior.

• To comprehend the determinants of customer satisfaction.

• To study of availability of offers and services.

• To know the customer satisfaction level.

• To study of quality of products.

SCOPE OF STUDY:-
Since the study is on D-Mart shopping the detail study of the D-Mart will be conducted
about its customers & their behavior regarding shopping in D-Mart.

The scope of study is limited to D-Mart Vijay Nagar branch.

Study is conducted to understand general and specific customer behavior.

Various factors that are essential for the customers are in the store.

RESEARCH DESIGN:
Type of study will be descriptive research.

DATA SOURCES:

PRIMARY DATA:
The primary data will be collected with the aid structured of structured questionnaire with
respect to the objective of the project.

SECONDARY DATA:
Data regarding the industry, company and products will be obtained from internet,
company personnel and customer feedback book.

SAMPLING DESIGN:
Sample unit: Customers of D-Mart who shop inside the mall.

Sample size: The total sample size will be 50.

SAMPLING TECHNIQUE:
The sampling is non-probability convenient sampling of customers. The respondents are
chosen according to the convenience of the researcher. The customers who visited the
Vijay Nagar store during the period of study were picked randomly according to the
researcher convenience.
RESEARCH INSTRUMENT:
The instrument will be a structured questionnaire.

STATISTICAL TOOLS FOR ANALYSIS:

Descriptive statistical tools like mean, chart tables etc. and inferential statistics like
ANOVAs, t- test etc. using MS Excel Software.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY:

• The study is limited only to the customers of D-Mart in Vijay Nagar.

• The analysis is based on the responses given by individuals, which depends on the
perception of the customers.

• Qualitative aspects of buying behavior cannot be measured accurately i.e. the

opinion might have been biased.
 CHAPTER – 3

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

Review of literature literally means reviewing already acquired knowledge in a detailed

and completely connected way. It is a summary in which, various truths intensively
studied are seen as an organized whole, accurately related and well unified. Researcher
takes advantage of the knowledge which has accumulated in the past as a result of
constant human Endeavour. Research can never be undertaken in isolation of the work
that has already been done on the problems which are directly or indirectly related to a
study proposes by a researcher.

One of the important steps in the planning of any research study is a careful review of the
research journals, books, dissertations, these and other sources of information on the
problem to be investigated. It enables the researcher to define the limits of his field and
useless problem areas. The knowledge of related literature makes the researcher up-to-
date on the work which others have done and help him to avoid unintentional duplication
of well-established findings. The review of related literature gives the researcher an
understanding of the research methodology, tools and instruments, which have proved to
be useful and promising in the previous studies and provides an insight into the statistical
methods through which validity of results is to be established.

In the words of Best, “A familiarity with the literature in any problem area helps the
students to discover what is already known, what others have attempted to find out, what
methods have been promising and disappointing and what problems remain to be solved.”
In view of the importance of the review of related research, an attempt was made to
analyze the related researches on A consumer buying behavior with reference to D-Mart.
These studies have been systematically presented in the following section.

STUDIES RELATED TO RESEARCH ON A CONSUMER BUYING

BEHAVIOR WITH REFERENCE TO D-MART

(Doyle & Fenwick 1974; Jain & Etgar 1976; King & Ring 1980; Chowdhury 1998) , with
some research efforts having attempted to explore the evolution of store image formation.

( Mazursky and jacoby 1986); and others seeking to conduct a meta-analysis of retail
patronage studies (Pan & Zinkhan 2006). However, the exciting literature did not retail
image Consumers perception of store image is based, in part, on functional qualities that
the store may possess, and by other, less tangible or psychological attributes (Lindquist
1974).

Lindquist analyzed over 20 studies dealing with store image formation and identified 35
different aspects that in reveal in prior studies where clustering techniques had been used
to study consumers perception of influence store image formation. These were grouped
into nine broad categories, including: merchandise, service, clientele, physical facilities,
convenience, promotion, store atmosphere, institutional attributes, and post-transaction
satisfaction.

Mazursky and Jacoby (1986) conducted a similar analysis and verified that “merchandise
retail aspects” (such as quality, pricing and assortment), and “service related aspects”
(such as quality in general and sales persons’s service) are among the most important
components of store image. A 1994 study by Baker, Grewal and Parasuraman confirmed
that “the store image literature suggests there are linkages between merchandise and
service quality, and store image.”

A later study by Baker, Grewal and Voss (2002) also confirmed that service quality was a
key determinant of store image. Given the prevalence in the literature of merchandise and
service as two key determination in the formation of store image, these two attributes
were selected for present study to gauge consumer’s perception of retail stores. These
attributes were incorporated in this study by obtaining consumer similarity judgments on
retailers “service quality” and “merchandise quality”. The clustering of retail stores based
on these two attributes will yield a better understanding of competition within the
retailing industry.

Sonavane, Ravindra N. (11 June 2018). "D-Mart parent joins Rs1 trillion market cap
club". www.livemint.com. Retrieved 11 June 2018.

Official website:-

http://www.dmartindia.com.

http://www.Dmart.co.in

http://www.pantaloonretail.in/business/d-mar.html

http://www.scribd.com/doc/D-mart

http://wikipedia.org

http://www.pantalooneretail.in
 QUESTIONNAIRE

1) Personal Details:-

Name:-

Contact no:-

Gender:-

Male []

Female []

Age:-

(a) 11-25 years []

(b) 25-40 years []

(c) 40-60 years []

(d) 60 and above []

(e) others []

Income:

(a) Under 30,000Rs []

(b) 30,000 to 9,000Rs []

(c) 50,000 to 69,000Rs []

(d) 70,000 to 99,000Rs []

(e) 100,000 and more Rs [ ]

2) How frequently do you visit D-Mart?

a) Daily []

b) Weekly []

c) Monthly [ ]
3) Type of products you prefer to purchase?

a) Grocery []

b) Clothe []

c) House Hold [ ]

d) Food Items []

e) Others []

4) Offers of D-Mart as compared to stores?

a) Low []

b) Average [ ]

c) High []

5) For day to day need you prefer?

a) D-MART [ ]

b) Store []

6) Do you think D-Mart is more affordable for everyone?

a) Strongly disagree [ ]

b) Disagree []

c) Neutral []

d) Agree []

e) Strongly agree []
7) Are you happy with the parking facility provided?

a) Strongly disagree [ ]

b) Disagree []

c) Neutral []

d) Agree []

e) Strongly agree []

8) How frequently do you shop at D-Mart?

a) Weekly []

b) For two weeks [ ]

c) Monthly []

9) Why do you shop at D-Mart?

a) Low price []

b) Product variety [ ]

c) Quality []

d) Location []

10) Do you think store layout at this store makes it easy for customers to find
what they need?

a) Strongly disagree [ ]

b) Disagree []

c) Neutral []

d) Agree []

e) Strongly agree []
11) How would you rate the return policy of D-Mart?

a) Excellent []

b) Good []

c) Satisfactory []

d) Not satisfactory []

12) Are you happy with the store location?

a) Strongly disagree [ ]

b) Disagree []

c) Neutral []

d) Agree []

e) Strongly agree []

13) Distance between your house & D-Mart?

a) Below 2km []

b) Below 5km []

c) Below 10km []

d) More []

14) Do you agree with the tagline of D-Mart “Daily Discount, Daily
Savings..!”?

a) Strongly disagree [ ]

b) Disagree []

c) Neutral []

d) Agree []
e) Strongly agree ( )