CONSUMER DECISION MAKING BEHAVIOUR: IN-STORE VS. ONLINE SHOPPING KNOW-HOW AND ASSESSMENT RESEARCH

The retail sector has played a phenomenal role throughout the world in increasing productivity of consumer goods and services. It is also the second largest industry in US in terms of numbers of employees and establishments. There is no denying the fact that most of the developed economies are very much relying on their retail sector as a locomotive of growth. In store shopping environment is very important because these days’ customers not only look for availability of product but also factors which influence or attract consumers to shop at their outlets such as clean and organized environment, availability of wide range of products, employee helping nature, merchandise management, employee attitude etc. Despite the rise of e- Commerce, brick-and-mortar stores are as relevant as ever. Disposable income spent by U.S. consumers in stores will reach $5 trillion by 2020, according to marketer. In fact, 85% of consumers say they prefer to shop in physical stores, according to Time Trade research. And, if given the opportunity, 71% of consumers said they would even prefer to shop at an Amazon store over Amazon.com. An attempt is made to report to know the consumer behavior towards in store shopping in the organized and unorganized retail outlets in the Karnataka state. An attempt is also made to understand the dynamics in the retailing. The research paper is a descriptive research involving survey data analyzed using the quantitative and statistical tools. The research paper brings insights on the factors motivating the consumers towards opting the in store shopping.