Retail Management

1. Identification and
Understanding Consumers
Dr. Gopal Thapa
Tribhuvan University
thapazee@gmail.com

2. Identification and Understanding Consumers
 Consumer demographics and lifestyle
 Consumer needs and desires
 Shopping attitudes and behaviours
 Retailor actions
 Environmental factors

3. Consumer Demographics
 Demographics are objective, quantifiable, easily identifiable and measurable population
data
 It includes: Sex, age, population growth rate, life expectancy, literacy, language spoken,
household size, marital and family status, income, retail sales, mobility, place of residence,
occupation, education, ethnic/racial background

4. Consumer Lifestyles
 Consumer lifestyles are based on social and psychological factors and influenced by
demographics
 Retailer should first have some knowledge of consumer lifestyle concepts and then
determine the lifestyle attributes of its own target market.
 Social factors which are useful to identify and understand lifestyles are: culture, social
class, reference group , family lifecycle, time utilization (eating, sleeping, shopping, work,
transportation, recreation etc.)

5. Consumer Lifestyles
 Psychological factors which help in identifying and understanding consumer lifestyle are:
▪ Personality
▪ Class consciousness
▪ Attitudes
▪ Perceived risk
▪ The importance of purchase

6. Consumers Needs and Desires
 Needs are a person’s basic shopping requirements consistent with his or her present
demographics and lifestyle
 Desires are discretionary shopping goals that have an impact on attitude and behavior
 Consumers today spend proportionately less on basic necessities, such as food clothing and
shelter, than 25-50 years ago. But they spend more on discretionary purchases that are
motivated by emotion and desire.

7. Shopping Attitudes and Behavior
 Attitudes toward shopping
▪ Shopping enjoyment: pleasurable shopping, bargaining, recreational browsing like window
shopping, pampered by salespeople, opportunity to go out of house.
 Attitudes toward shopping time
 Shifting feelings about retailing
 Why people buy or do not buy on a shopping trip
 Attitudes by market segment
 Attitudes toward private brands

8. Shopping Attitudes and Behavior
 Where people shop
▪ Consumers do cross shopping
▪ Shop for a product category at more than one retail
format during the year or
▪ Visit multiple retailers on one shopping trip

9. Consumer Buying Decision Process
 Stimulus
 Problem awareness
 Information search
 Evaluation of alternatives
 Purchase
 Post purchase behaviour

10. Types of Consumer Decision Making
 Extended decision making
 Limited decision making
 Routine decision making

11. Retailer Actions
 Mass Marketing: any kind of customer
 Concentrated Marketing: Distinct customer group like working women
 Differentiated Marketing: Two or more distinct customer group like men and boys

12. Environmental Factors Affecting Consumers
 State of economy
 Rate of inflation
 Infrastructure, traffic congestion, crime rate, ease of parking
 Price war among retailers
 Emergence of new retail formats
 Trend toward more people working at home
 Government and community regulations regarding shopping hours, new construction,
consumer protection etc.