BBA-MBA Integrated (2017-22)

6th SEMESTER

PRM Group Assignment 1

Research Proposal:

Comparative Analysis of peoples’ preferences of retail outlets and e-

commerce aggregators

Submitted to:

Prof. Hrudanand Misra

Submitted by:
Topic Introduction:
The subject of our research is “Comparative Analysis of peoples’ preferences of retail
outlets and e-commerce aggregators like Amazon and Flipkart in the electronics,
apparel and daily care product segment”.

Once a major offline retail market, India is expected to become the world’s fastest growing e-
commerce market, driven by robust investment in the sector and rapid increase in the number
of internet users. Various agencies have high expectations about growth of Indian e-
commerce markets. Hence, the topic is quite relevant in the present times because the entry of
giants like Amazon and Flipkart have led to a disruption in the retail business and if this has
been positive or negative is the issue under study. The study has been narrowed down to three
product segments i.e. electronics, apparel and daily care. The reason for the same is that
different product categories carry different customer sentiments as far as their purchasing
style is concerned. In other words, customer preferences in relation to buying from retail
outlets or online might be different in all these product segments. Hence it is not just a
comparative analysis but finding the deviation in customer preferences in their purchasing
styles for different products.

Rationale:

The following data holds significance while justifying this domain of study.
 Retail industry in India reached to US$ 950 billion in 2018 at Compound Annual
Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13 per cent and expected to reach US$ 1.1 trillion by 2020.
 Online retail sales in India are forecasted to grow at the rate of 31 per cent year-on-
year to reach US$ 32.70 billion in 2018.
 Revenue generated from online retail is projected to grow to US$ 60 billion by 2020.
 The retail sector accounts for about 22% of India’s GDP and the
present employment in the offline retail sector is nearly 4 crores and around 20 crore
people depends on this sector indirectly.
The above facts like growing of e-tailing in India at an extraordinary rate make the topic of
the research a more fundamental question as it is very important for both MNCs and Indian
retailers to know what are the Indian consumer preferences. It will help them to plan their
operations as well as answer their most important question of how to reach out to their
customers because today they have an enormous choice of products to choose from and that
too at competitive prices. The research will also help to know about what will be the future

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landscape of the Indian retail sector. As the traditional form of retailing is still a major
employment provider in India as well as major buyer or user of India’s commercial real estate
so any stakeholder in these sector can also be benefited from this research for making his
decision. Moreover it will also help the existing offline retailer as well as online aggregators
to understand customer preference and streamline their services or offerings as per their
demands. E-commerce is probably creating the biggest revolution in the retail industry, and
this trend would continue in the years to come.

Research Design
For the purpose of our research we will be using two broad categories of research design.
Initially, we will use Explorative Research method to gain a deeper understanding of the
market situation to proceed with our research. This will help us in developing instruments
like surveys and questionnaires which will be more specific to the study. This is a less
structured and flexible form of research which will provide a direction in order to initiate a
more structured research. In addition to this method, we will employ Descriptive Research
method. This method will help us in achieving more specific and relevant result for the study
and will be based on the findings of the Explorative Research method. To be more specific,
we will use cross-sectional method to study different sections divided on the basis of age,
income, gender, and so on. The result obtained through this method will be relevant for
drawing conclusions about the future aspects of both physical retail stores and online
retailers.

Research Objectives:

The main objectives of this study are as follows:

 To figure out the customer purchasing behaviour in terms of their inclination towards
buying online or offline towards different product segments.
 To determine the extent to which the electronics, apparel and daily care products are
shopped online and offline.
 To determine if the growing inclination towards online shopping i.e. preference to the
e-commerce aggregators is impacting the business of physical retail outlets or not.

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  In extension to the fact of growing inclination towards online retailing, we further
wish to expand our research domain to find out the reasons that drive the customers’
purchasing style preferences for the selected product segments.
 Our objective also includes the identifying the impact of factors like internet
accessibility, distribution network, purchasing power parity of customers, and various
demographic factors.

Research Hypothesis:

The proposed hypothesis for our research are as follows:

 Product price drives the purchase style decision. Customers will be more comfortable
purchasing apparels and daily care products in comparison to electronic products.
 Customers prefer pricing over convenience and have required knowledge about both
the markets, i.e. online market and physical retail stores.
 Online aggregators Amazon and Flipkart currently enjoy a competitive edge over
physical retail outlets.

Data Collection:

For the purpose of data collection from customers, we will mainly rely on primary source of
data. This will help us to identify various factors that drive customer preferences by using
surveys and questionnaires. In addition to this, for the purpose of identifying the degree of
impact of these online aggregators on physical stores by using both primary data collection
method and secondary data collection method.

As we are analysing this study from two different angles, i.e. from customers’ viewpoint and
retailers’ viewpoint, our target population differs with respect to Indian Market. In order to
collect data concerning customers, our target population will be college students, home-
makers and salaried employees. Simultaneously, to study the online aggregator’s impact, our
target population will include small retailers. We will also rely on secondary data to collect
data about online platforms like Amazon and Flipkart.

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Variables:

 Internet accessibility
 Location of Stores
 Delivery Time
 Demography of customers
 Product segment under consideration
 Customer sentiments towards online/offline shopping

Data Analysis:

For the purpose of data analysis, we will use co-relation method to establish a relation
between customer needs and their preferences of purchase platforms. We will also focus on
the causal effect of growing trend of online shopping against physical shopping. We will
represent the data in form of graphs and charts to identify which parameter is dominating in
driving customers’ sentiments towards the choice of their purchasing style.

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