Question

• Describe the factors that influence consumer shopping behavior today.
• Why are retailers likely to view technology as both a blessing and a curse?
• Describe how an omni-channel retailer is likely to be different from a traditional, single-channel retailer?

Answer 1

- The certain factors that influence consumer shopping behaviour are :-

a) Buying capacity of the customer- The buying capacity of each and every customer is different, some can afford to buy huge quantity of products while some cannot likewise some can buy very costly products while some can only afford to but certain amount of cheap products.

b) Trend in the market- The ongoing trends also influence the shopping behaviour of the customer as everybody wishes to buy the latest and trending products available in the market.

c) Luxury- For every section of the society luxury means something different, for a middle class affording car might be a luxury while for a rich person buying a yacht or private jet might be a luxury and for a poor person affording to live in his/her own house might be a luxury. Luxuries are basically the wants of a human being to maintain the standard of living so each and every sect of consumers have their own set of luxuries.

d) Offers- Sales,discounts,gift hampers and other forms of offers also affect the consumer shopping behaviour as these offers generally increase the buying capacity of the consumer and also provides them a sense of satisfaction.

e) Brand name- A good brand name always attracts the consumers and once people get use to it they become loyal to the brand as a result of which they mostly prefer to shop from the same brand in future too.

f) Access to products and services- Consumers mostly wish to buy those products and services which are easily accessible to them. This is why most of the consumers in today`s world wish to purchase the products online as they can purchase,return or exchange the products by just a singe click and by just sitting in the comforts of their home.

- Retailers are likely to view Technology as both a blessing and a curse due to the following reasons :-

* As a blessing-

a) The technology gives the retailer an access to large market share as now he can sell his products online as well as offline via his/her store.

b) The cost of advertising gets reduced as advertisements done via internet are cheap as compared to advertisements or promotions done through newspapers, televisions or pamphlets.

c) Through the means of technology the retailers are now well aware of the customer needs and ongoing trends in the market and it also provides him/her a regular sense of the competition prevailing in the market.

d) Digital payment systems have also made it very easy for the retailers as now transactions are easy to track and they have also become fast and safe.

* As a curse-

a) Retailers now have no face to face or physical contact with the consumer which makes it difficult for them to understand the ever changing buying behaviour of the consumer.

b) As digital payment mode is growing day by day so is the risks involved with it, there are a lot of hackers on the internet who can hack these transactions or business accounts of the retailers which leads to fraud and other wrong practices.

c) Technology adds up to the profit of the retailers but at the same time it increases the market Completion which the retailers have to face on a very large basis from foreign brands, changing consumer needs and a lot of alternate brands available over the internet.

d) Sometimes in order to capture large market share the quality of product offered is also reduced or compromised by the retailers which leads to bad brand name and losing the loyalty of consumers.

- An omni-channel retailer is the one which operates its business online as well as offline.An omni-channel retailer provides consumers the opportunity to purchase the products using their mobile or desktop as well as by a retail store while traditional or single channel retailers offer to sell their products through their stores only.Various examples of omni channel stores are Adidas,zivame,raymonds,pepperfry etc.