1. Consumer Behaviour & Retail
Research

2. Introduction
• Consumers have wide choice
• Retailers- who understand the needs and wants of the
customer- are successful
• Many variables to identify and understand the retail
consumer
• Retailer that integrates the above information is able
to achieve profitability
• Thus retailers need to research on their customers –
who, and why for a decision
• This data can be used to select the target market and
integrate it into RIS- Retail Information system

3. Consumer information- four parts
• Demographics
• Psychographics
• Geographics
• Behavioristics

4. Demographics
• Statistics about any given population base
• These variables are used to help retailers about selecting better
target markets/segments for business
• Retailer can use this data to help forecast product/service sales
• and to develop better communication with customers
• Includes data on population sizes,no of households in a given
market area,household sizes,income levels,education,gender age
occupation etc
• Most popular method and easiest to obtain
• Alone may not be enough but when tied to product buying
situation- leads to info about consumer preferences
• Most common- age ,income,ethinicity

5. Psychographics
• Refers to lifestyle analysis
• Provides insights into what consumers do
• includes info on activities,interests,and
opinions
• utilizes also VALS

6. Geographics
• helps to find out where the customers are
located
• divided into separate geographic area
• Nation,state,region etc

7. Behavioristics
• Subdivided into retailers current or potential
markets based on buying responses,product
usage pattern,product/store loyalty
• Develop user profiles and their responses to
retail mix elements
• Eg 80-20 rule

8. Consumer behaviour
• Relates to how consumers buy products
• Reflects to the totality of consumers decisions
wrt to acquisition,consumption,disposition of
goods services etc
• Clear picture will help retailer to understand
how to increase sales
• How they make purchase decisions- which
store to enter and which merchandise to
select

9. Consumer decision making process

10. Problem awareness
• Consumer buys only when he is aware of the need
• Problems are associated with unsatisfied consumer
need
• Need recognition – conscious and subconscious
• Eg exam and textbook, food retailing
• Need to study needs to formulate as to why a
consumer buys from a particular outlet
• never fully stated
• Need to develop better understanding about customer
motivations

11. Information search
• Next step after problem recognition
• Consumer will search for information to solve the
problem
• Depending upon the time,effort and cost associated –
info search may take long or short time
• Internal search- based on experience
• External search- find out info
• Thus retailers need to provide info about itself so that
the consumers are aware when they attempt to satisfy
needs and wants

12. Alternative evaluation
• After search and gathering all information to
solve, the consumer must make the decision
for best alternative
• If routine- less time
• If new- long term phase- for this
phase, retailer must supply all info and prove
that how he can satisfy the needs and wants

13. Purchase
• Actually purchases or does not purchase the
product

14. Post purchase evaluation
• if consumer is happy- he will make further
purchases
• If not happy- will make reevaluation
• Customer service is important in this phase
• Happy customers- positive word of mouth
advt
• Cognitive dissonance: consumers doubt
about products – research and customer
feedback

15. In store decision making process

16. RETAIL INFORMATION SYSTEMS
AND RETAIL RESEARCH

17. RIS
• Data: News facts and figures which are
unorganized
• Information: A meaningful body of facts
organized around any topic
• Once raw data is gathered and organized- retail
information results
• Retailers managers need to inform themselves
with sufficient information to make decisions
possible
• Data used- from customers, the marketplace, the
retail environment, employees and competition

18. RIS
• A method for systematically
gathering, analyzing, storing,utilizing valuable retail
information and data
• facilitates the process of finding solutions to problems
• The process of
collecting, organizing, analyzing, disseminating data
relating to particular area is called as Market research
• can be high tech or low tech
• could be used in almost all areas of operation
• Generally accessible to all users but specific enough to
generate solutions to any retail problems
• RIS – could be used among store groups,vendors,internal
buyers,planners,dc

19. RIS
• Could be used in Supply chain mgt
• Data warehousing
• Distribution
• Pricing
• Merchanidising
• IMC
• Product acquisition
• Strategy

20. RIS
Inputs
-Mission
--Vision
- Objectives
- Situational
analysis
- Environment
scanning
- strategic plans
Processes
-Data collection
and
interpretation
- Control of
information
Systems
Data storage
,retrieval and
updates
Outputs
Data dissemination
to internal and
external public

21. Benefits of RIS
• Development of an effective RIS helps to ensure
that the system is fully integrated into the overall
retail management plan
• Effective RIS- allow for continuous data updation
• Necessary to be competitive in todays retail
environment
• Use RIS to access data regarding which items
have the highest turnover rates and where EOQ
items have to be ordered

22. RIS- facilitators
• Universal Product Code (UPC): Used along with a optic
scanner to read the bar code and gather the particular
data
• A barcode which stores all pertinent product
information
• Quality of codes is important : unscannable,
erroneous- concern- additional expense for improper
information fed into an RIS
• A typical UPC has a company identifier,specific SKU
built into it
• US and Canada- 12 digit
• EAN 13 EAN 8

23. RIS- facilitators
• Point of sale terminal (POS)
• Data from UPC collected and sent to centralized location for
analysis
• Used by managers to make decisions regarding
inventory,merchandise advt,accounting,planning etc
• POS – another facilitator in RIS
• A computer workstation designed to collect info from sale of
products or services
• Each workstation has optional peripherals- barcode
readers,scanners,invoice printers,magnetic card readers. Can be
fixed ,handheld or both.
• Effective in providing data to generate retail information
• RFID

24. RIS- facilitators
• Self checkout systems: A format in which
shoppers scan,bag and pay for their own
purchases
• Outsourcing: certain expertise

25. MARKETING RESEARCH

26. Marketing research
• Research conducted to identify and define
marketing opportunities and problems,
generate, refine and evaluate marketing
actions, monitor marketing performance and
improve understanding of marketing as a
process

27. Marketing Research process
1. Formulate the research problem
2. Conceptualize a research design
3. Create a data collection instrument
4. Select a sample
5. Write the research proposal
6. Data collection
7. Analysis and interpret the data
8. Conclusion

28. Formulate the research problem
• looks for cause
• Formulate the research problem
• Internal/External
• Clearly define the problem
Research design:
Depends on the type of data to be collected
Can be observation
Survey
Study
It is a guide for the entire process