This document presents research on motivation factors that affect customers' use of supermarkets in Sri Lanka. It begins with an introduction to supermarkets and their growth globally and in Sri Lanka. It then discusses the problem identification and objectives of the research study. A literature review covers previous research on shopping motives and factors found to influence supermarket use. The methodology section outlines the survey approach, including developing a questionnaire based on prior Vietnamese research and administering it to 205 Sri Lankan supermarket customers. Results include demographic analysis and factor analysis to identify nine key motivation factors for Sri Lankan supermarket customers. The factor analysis validated the questionnaire's reliability and identified the most significant motivation factors for further analysis.

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Why Customers Going Supermarkets?
(Comparative Study of Motivation Factors
Affecting to Visit Supermarkets)
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Why Customers Going Supermarkets?
(Comparative Study of Motivation Factors Affecting to Visit
Supermarkets)
Umesh Gunarathne W.H.D.P*
Department of Marketing, Faculty of Management and Finance, University of Ruhuna, Matara: Sri Lanka
umesh.gunarathne@gmail.com
ABSTRACT: The internationalization of retailing is increasing
throughout the global service markets. Among many retail shops,
supermarkets have become one of the fastest growing shop which
is actively engaging in internationalization. In managing retail
firms in other cultures, understanding of local customer’s
perceptions toward the retail shop is very important. Shopping
motives may be a function of retail shop, cultural, economic and
social environment. Prior studies on shopping motives, however,
have focused on western cultures and on a shopping mall format.
This paper provides a comparative examination of motivation
factors affecting to use of supermarkets by Sri Lankan customers.
A total of 280 questionnaires were administered and distributed to
find the factors affecting to use of supermarkets by conducting the
intercept questionnaire based self-administered survey method,
and 205 completed questionnaires were available for the data
analysis. Through Factor analysis identified nine factors which are
applicable for the Sri Lankan Context and four items not match
with the Sri Lankan context.
Keywords: Motivation Factors, Supermarkets
I.INTRODUCTION
During the last decade, with the rapid development of the
globalization, the world has become one place. Businesses are
very complex today. There are so many innovations, new
technologies generate because of the globalization. Especially,
today people do not have enough time to visit several shops,
compare products and purchase goods and services when compare
with the past. Consumer behavior has been changed. Today people
are trying to purchase all the products and services from one place.
But there was a lack of those kind of shops located in Sri Lanka.
Therefore customers had visit number of shops to purchase the
products they needed. To overcome this problem supermarket
concept has been created. Therefore, supermarkets play a major
role in today world. There are so many large-scale supermarkets
and medium scale supermarkets established nook and corner of the
world.
The history of super markets spread until the early days of the
twentieth century. Supermarkets were very small in size, at the
very beginning and consisted only of a limited number of
products. Only one aspect of food retailing was focused. Dry
items, canned foods, nonperishable goods and packaged food were
sold at that time. When supermarkets were first established in the
United States in the late 1920s, they had new institutional form of
retailing technology. By the 1950s, they had been introduced to 47
countries (Zimmerman, 1955). There were only a small number of
employees such as two or three, in a store. Although butchers and
green grocers were not sold in supermarkets at the early days of
emerge, in 1930s and 1940, selling them became the new trend.
The super market concept became a reality in the Asian context in
early 1990s. At the beginning, only the upper class families visited
super markets. Middle class and Lower class families did not use
supermarket, because they believed the cost were high in super
markets, when compared with the fair and traditional retail shops.
Introduction of the open economy by the government in 1978’s
global supermarkets companies came to Sri Lanka. Especially at
that time only few supermarkets established and they were limited
to capital city of Sri Lanka. But day by day with the higher
requirement of the economy supermarkets are located around the
main cities and towns. Today there are so many large scale
supermarkets such as Cargills, Keels super, Arpico super centers
and Sathosa situated in Sri Lanka.
Problem Identification
When comparing last few years, there is a high tendency to use of
supermarkets by the customers for buy their products. People are
going to supermarkets because of several reasons. Therefore, it is
very important to clearly understand about the customers attitudes
towards the supermarkets. Because it will leads to enhance the
performance of the supermarkets and determine the marketing
strategies as well. Therefore, this research study tried to find out
the factors affecting the use of supermarkets by Sri Lankan
customers. Based on the identified problem, developed a research
question which is going to answer through the research study. The
research question is “what are the factors affecting to going
supermarkets by the Sri Lankan customers?”
Objectives
The main objective of this research study is to find the factors
affecting the use of supermarkets by the customers in Sri Lanka.
Apart from the main objective, another objective is to, Provide
recommendations to supermarkets in order to enhance features,
which may add value and remove the features, which are
unattractive to customers. And also compare the factors affect to
use supermarkets in both Sri Lankan context and Vietnam.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
There are many researchers have conducted research studies in
order to find the motivation factors affecting uses of supermarkets
by customers. They have found that several motivation factors
related to different contexts.
Shoppers who are strongly motivated by hedonic aspects are more
likely to be satisfied with a supermarket that is able to provide
them with the hedonic value of their shopping trips and are,
therefore, more likely to be loyal to the supermarket (Dawson
B.H;Ridgway N.M, 1990) customers in transitional markets like
Vietnam, who have experienced traditional outdoor markets, find

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supermarkets to be convenient, modern, and attractive places
for shopping (Nien, 2004). Therefore, it is expected that shoppers
with a greater level HSM will be more loyal to supermarkets.
Supermarket attributes and Store attributes are viewed as part of
the overall image of a store (Bloemar J;Odekerken Schroder,
2002). Store attributes can be defined as the ‘‘summation of all
attributes of a store as perceived by the shoppers through their
experience of that store’’ (Omar, 1999, p. 103). Current literature
has presented various and varying conceptualizations of store
attributes. For example, Lindquist (1974-1975) suggests nine key
attributes: merchandise (MER); services; clientele; physical
facilities; convenience; promotion; store ambience;
institutional factors; post-transaction satisfaction. (Ghosh,
1990) introduces eight elements: locations; MER; store
atmosphere; customer services; price; advertising; personal
selling; sales incentive programs (Koo, 2003) proposes seven
components: store atmosphere; location; convenient facilities;
value; employee services (EMS); after sale services (AFS);
merchandising. In addition, the results of a recent study,
conducted by (Nguyen, T.M.T. and Nguyen, T.D., 2003), of
supermarkets in Vietnam indicate that supermarket atmosphere,
locations, and convenient facilities were conceptually distinct but
empirically un-dimensional. This category also includes
convenience, such as location convenience and parking. EMS
refers to the quality of services provided by a supermarket’s
employees (Koo, 2003; Lindquist, 1974-1975). AFS involve good
exchange and refund policies, and MER refers to product and
brand variety and availability (Koo, 2003). (Fischer, E.; Arnold,
S.J., 1994), argue that there are three different constructs: sex,
gender identity and gender role attitudes and these distinctions
need to be kept clearly in mind.
Several researchers have focused their interest on the determinants
of store loyalty such as store atmosphere, store images, store
satisfaction, service quality, perceived value, and attitudes
toward a store. From these studies they have found that people
shop for both hedonic and utilitarian outcomes. Hedonic shopping
motivations (HSM) are primarily based on the quality of the
shopping experience rather than information gathering or product
purchasing (Boedeker, 1995). Customers also view a store as a
place not only for shopping but also for other activities such as
socializing with friends or browsing without purchasing products
(Bloch et al., 1994). The entertainment aspect of retailing is
viewed as a key competitive tool (Arnold and Reynolds, 2003),
and retailers have shifted their focus on improving the
entertainment dimension of their outlets. Despite this trend, little
attention has been paid to the HSM of Customers (e.g. Arnold and
Reynolds, 2003; Jin and Kim, 2003).
Compared to traditional outdoor markets, supermarkets provide
shoppers with a wide range of goods, from food to consumer
durables. More importantly, shoppers can search for current
trends and fashions in the market. Supermarkets also offer
shoppers several other entertainment services such as coffee shops,
restaurants, and games for children (Nguyen, T.M.T. and Nguyen,
T.D., 2003). However, the shopping motivations of Vietnamese
customers, particularly the HSM, are largely unexplored
(McDonald et al., 2000), even though a common shopping pattern
of Vietnamese Customers is ‘‘to shop often, (and) to buy little’’
(McDonald et al., 2000).
III. METHODOLOGY
Measurement Development
All the measures are gathered and developed questionnaire from
the previous research study conducted in Vietnam. Further,
questionnaire consisted with two parts. First part included with the
items which are needed to identify the background of the
respondents. (Age, Gender, Average monthly Income, Educational
Level, Occupation)
Second Part consisted with the items which are needed to find the
factors affecting to use of Supermarkets in Sri Lankan Context.
There were 13 items developed based on the research conducted in
Vietnam. And five point Likert Scale were used (1= Strongly
Disagree 2= Disagree, 3= Moderate, 4= Agree, 5= Strongly
Agree).
After developing the questionnaire, conducted a pre-test in order
to measure the validity and accuracy of the questionnaire. Based
on respondents’ feedback at the pre-test, several questionnaire
items were modified to reflect more clearly the survey’s purpose.
Sample is limited to 250 respondents in Matara who are going
supermarkets. Random Sampling has been utilized to select the
sample from the population.
Primary Data gathered by using the adjusted questionnaire through
a self-administered survey and distributed the 280 questionnaires
to respondents by waiting in front of the “Cargill’s” and “Keels
super” supermarkets located in Matara. From the 250
questionnaires returned 235 questionnaires. Among them 30
questionnaires were uncompleted. Finally data analyzed by using
205 completed questionnaires Response rate was 94%.
IV. RESULTS
This research paper can be characterized as a consumer survey,
and those primary data necessary to understand why people use
supermarkets for their purchases. The analysis of collected data
was carried out through various statistical techniques. A
confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is undertaken on the data to
verify the un-dimensionality and reliability of the scale used to
measure the factors affecting to the use of Supermarkets by Sri
Lankan customers. SPSS (20) software package was used to
analyse the data.
4.1. Demographic Factors Analysis
Table 1: Summary of Demographic Factors
Factors Frequency %
Age
Less than 34 Years
35- 44 Years
45-54 Years
More Than 55 Years
94
73
30
8
45.9
35.6
14.6
3.9
Gender
Male
Female
96
109
46.8
53.2
Average Monthly Income
Less than Rs. 20000
Rs. 20000-Rs. 40000
Rs. 40000- Rs.60000
Rs.60000- Rs. 80000
More than Rs. 80000
36
66
59
33
11
17.6
32.2
28.8
16.1
5.4
Educational Level
Above Degree Level
Degree Level
Advanced Level
Ordinary Level
Below Ordinary Level
9
81
84
23
8
4.4
39.5
41.0
11.2
3.9
Occupation
Government Sector
Private Sector
Own Business
Unemployed
36
110
42
17
17.6
53.7
20.5
8.3
Research Study conducted by considering 205 respondents who
are going to supermarkets. Majority of the respondents are less
than 34 years and the percentage is 45.9%. It means that the

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middle age people are more willing to use supermarkets for their
purchasing activities. And also from the sample, 53.2%
respondents are female shoppers. It reveal that today also female
are the persons who going shopping on behalf of the family.
According to the findings most of respondent’s average monthly
income in between Rs.20000 and Rs.40000. And the percentage is
32.2%. And also when considering analysed data, most of the
respondents were completed Advance Level. The percentage is
41%. Finally sample is representing private employees rather than
the others. The Percentage is 53%.
4.2.Validity and Reliability
As a quantitative research reliability should be exceed 0.6
(Baggozi, 1988). The reliability of final items (after deleting the
items not significance to the analysis) has been computed by using
SPSS software. Reliability of the items shown in table 1 and the
Cronbach’s Alpha value is .639. It confirm that the items which
are adopted to find the motivation factors affecting to use of
supermarkets are significance or match with the requirement of the
present study. The statistical alpha value greater than (0.6<)
suggested this idea more assess the reliability by using this factors.
The KMO value is .525 it means that the adequacy of the sample
and the Significance level is .000. It represents the 99.99%
confidence level.
Table2
Reliability Statistics : Crombach’s Alpha ( no of
Items 9)
.639
KMO and Bartlett's Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling
Adequacy.
Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square
Df
Sig.
.525
171.470
45
.000
4.3. Factor Analysis
This analysis is based on the Common Factor Model, which
proposes that each observed response (13 items) is influenced by
underlying common factors (factor 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). This factor is
defined as the natural affinity of an item for a group (Wal et al.,
2002). The strength of the link between each factor and each
measure varies in that a factor could influence some dimensions
more than others (Coster, 1998). Score below 0.5 indicate a weak
loading or no significance.
A negative value indicates an inverse impact on the factor. All
values below 0.5 are cut off from the table 3 because they were not
significant to the analysis. This factor analysis proves that some
motivation factors are not meet the accepted level suggested by
Bagozzi and Yi (1988).
Table 3: Factor Analysis (Initial)
Component
1 2 3 4 5
I go to supermarket in order to
enjoy and relax
.575
I go to super Market because Price
at supermarket is reasonable
.533
I go to supermarket because one
can buy everything at one shop
I go to supermarket because
guarantee in Quality
.712
I prefer shopping at supermarket
than traditional market
.508
I go to supermarkets because of
good service of sales persons
I go to supermarkets because it is
fashionable
.532
I go to supermarket because of
curiosity
I go to Supermarket because of self
service at Super Market
.727
I go to Supermarket because it is
modern
.623
I go supermarket to buy everyday
necessities
.652
I go Supermarket because price is
fixed and does not have to bargain
I go to Supermarket because rates
high freshness at Supermarket
.592
After deleting 4 items from the component matrix (4 items were
deleted due standardized loading value less than 0.5) the adjusted
confirmatory factor analysis model shows in table 4.
Column three represent the t values of items computed by the
SPPS software. Professional researchers like Bagozzi and Yi
(1988) accept that t-values should be greater than 2.00 in order to
be the significant items for measure the relevance of the variables.
Therefore t values of final model items have taken > 2. Finally it
can be concluded that the factors included in table 2 are the factors
to use supermarkets.
Table 4: Confirmatory Factor Analysis (Final)
Constructs Standardi
zed
Loading
value
T
values
Entertainment
I go to Supermarkets, in order to enjoy
and relax
.575 28.89
Price
I go to Super Markets because price at
supermarkets are reasonable.
.533 41.96
Quality
I go to Supermarket because of Quality
in Guarantee.
.712 76.67
Preference
I prefer shopping at supermarkets than
traditional Markets
.508 54.64
Fashion
I go to supermarket because it
fashionable
.532 32.47
Self Service
I go to Super Market because of self
Service at supermarket
.727 37.5
Modern
I go to supermarket because it is modern
.623 78.98
Everyday Necessities
I go Super Market to buy everyday
necessities
.652 64.72
Freshness
I go to Supermarket because rates high
freshness at supermarket
.592 87.49

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V. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Findings
The questionnaire developed based on the research study
conducted in Vietnam. However, after analysing data some of
factors towards shopping did not match with Sri Lankan Context
when compare with the findings of the research in Vietnam. Those
items are shown in table 5.
Table 5
Deleted Items
Item Loading
Value
I go to supermarket because one can buy
everything at one Shop
.438
I go to supermarket because of Curiosity. .437
I go to supermarket because of fixed prices and do
not have to bargain
.409
I go to supermarket because of goo service of
Sales persons.
.439
Table 6
Comparison of findings
Research findings of based
research study in Vietnam
Findings of this Study
Sri Lanka
Self Service Self Service
Guarantee in Quality Guarantee in Quality
Fixed price and Bargain Not Applicable to Sri Lankan
Context
One stop Service Not Applicable to Sri Lankan
Context
Enjoy and Relaxing Enjoy and Relaxing
Good Service of Salespersons Not Applicable to Sri Lankan
Context
Reasonable prices Reasonable prices
Freshness Freshness
Curiosity Not Applicable to Sri Lankan
Context
Fashionable Fashionable
Modern Modern
Everyday Necessities Everyday Necessities
Preference Preference
Table 6 shows that the comparison between findings in Vietnam
and findings in Sri Lanka. According to the results, 4 items were
not match with the Sri Lankan Context.
Discussion
Followings are the possible reasons identified for the items that
did not match with the Sri Lankan context.
One Stop Service (I go to supermarket because one can buy
everything at one Shop)
In Sri Lankan supermarkets, they sell the products which are
needed to fulfil everyday needs, in other words, non-durable
goods. Unlike in developed countries, Sri Lanka does not have
super markets categorized according to social classes. As a result,
they have to sell different product brands, varieties from different
price categories, in order to satisfy all the customer segments.
Therefore, sometimes super markets may not be capable of selling
all what every customer wants, thus, they feel super market is not
a one stop service.
On the other hand, in Sri Lanka, the super market culture is still in
its infant age. Almost in all outlets, sales are limited to durable
goods, but not expanded up to the sale of other product categories,
such as clothes, jewellery, bakery items, etc. Customers in the
local context are a step ahead than the super market trend is now.
They are informed about the new trends in the global context. As a
result, the customers feel super markets are not a one-stop service
and there are yet more developments to be done.
Curiosity (I go to supermarket because of Curiosity)
Curiosity means that people are going to supermarkets in order to
experiment and find out something they have not experienced
before. This reason is very unlikely to be real in Sri Lankan
context, as supermarkets are no longer a new concept in Sri Lanka.
Customers are well aware of the structure, content and procedure
of super markets.
Fixed prices and not bargain (I go to supermarket because of
fixed prices and do not have to bargain)
Most Sri Lankan people are price sensitive and comprise of middle
and lower level income receivers, thus they prefer to purchase
goods and services at lower prices, sometimes bargaining.
Bargaining is not possible in super markets since all the prices are
fixed. Therefore, this is clearly not a reason for the customers to
visit super markets.
Good service of sales persons (I go to supermarket because of
goo service of Sales persons.)
Sales people are the people who support consumer to purchase
goods at the supermarkets. Sri Lankan customers still do not have
a positive perception towards the sales persons in super markets as
to their helpfulness and politeness. Therefore the service of the
sales assistants and the help given to select the best product is not
a reason for customers to visit super markets.
VI. CONCLUSION
The main objective was to find out the factors affecting to use of
Supermarkets in Sri Lanka.
Along with globalization, new global trends are being practiced all
over the world, in spite of the geographical boundaries or political
limitations. World has become one place, the whole globe has
become one market in the business context. One new global trend
that became popular in Sri Lanka, as a result of globalization is
super market trend. This study is conducted in order to find out the
reasons for the super markets to be popular among customers.
A sample of 205 customers, despite of their appearance, gender,
educational or social levels were selected conveniently, to collect
relevant data. They come from the population of the customers
who visit super markets such as, Cargills Food City, Keels Super,
Arpico Supermarket, Family Super, etc. to do their day-today
shopping. They were presented a questionnaire and those collected
data was analyzed by using statistical analysis such as, factor

6. Researchgate –June 2015
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analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and demographic factor
analysis.
According to the analysis, we could find out that the main reason
why the customers go to super markets are the ability to get a self-
service, in other words, do their selections themselves, and better
quality products can be bought from there. Also the findings
pointed out at reasons such as, the trendiness to buy from super
markets, ability to buy the necessities, the enjoyment they get.
In contrast, the results also showed the reasons, which are no
longer valid for the customers’ suggestion to visit super markets.
Customers do not go to super markets because of curiosity, good
service of sales persons, one-stop service, etc. As further findings,
we noticed females visit super markets more than men do. The
customers who visit super markets are mainly from the lower
middle class, who get an average monthly income of LKR 20000-
60000.
However, there are some negative sides of the super market
culture too. Getting used to unnecessary or over consumption, over
pricing due to needless packaging and promotions and low
contribution to the growth of small-scale businesses are the major
drawbacks of the popularization of supermarkets. Despite of all
those negative effects, Sri Lankan customers prefer super markets
to daily fair or retail shops.
Limitations and Directions for future Researches
The findings of this study provide an encourage start in
understanding shopping motives in the in the Sri Lankan Context.
However, this study has limitations in generalizing the findings
since it examined only one country, Sri Lanka and one retail
format with a highly competitive market. Limitations of this study
suggest several directions for future study. First, shopping motives
of shoppers in other provinces cultures may be different. For
example, for western province customers, shopping at
Supermarket has become a family activity for the weekend. Before
introducing Supermarket stores, shopping had been mainly the
woman’s job. Shopping at Supermarkets with the husband and
children and eating out there at the same time may be enough for
Southern province customers to fulfil their socialization and
diversion motives while satisfying their utilitarian motives as well.
A cross-cultural comparison would guarantee a future study. And
also the sample size limited to 205 customers. Therefore it is not
enough for draw a conclusion to the entire population.
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