Has the Consumer Perception Changed? An Overview of Consumer Behavior towards Organized Retail Sectors in Kolkata, India

The research paper focuses on the change of consumers’ perception towards purchasing different commodities in the organized retail outlets of Kolkata. The study revealed that the behaviour of a consumer towards a particular outlet mainly depends upon factors like product availability, spending pattern, sales man services, store layout etc. The research shows that currently a large section of consumers is attracted towards the organised retail outlets because of wide range of services like variety of payment options provided by the store, visibility of the billing counter, wide range of brands availability, quality of the products, and better service at the store have majorly attributed to preference of organized retail store over the unorganized outlets. Also, parameters like visibility of display of MRP, discount offers, quality of service at the organized store, trolley service facilities etc. are some of the reasons of inclination of consumers towards organized retail stores as compared to traditional retail formats. The study has found mostly the younger generation consumers are tending to have a tendency towards making new experiences mainly for groceries and have an urge to make spontaneous purchases compared to older generation of consumers. Apart from the positive aspects, the study also observed a bunch of constraints that restricts a consumer from going to an organized retail store which are the factors like lower budget, inability of the lower income group of people due to financial constraints, lack of advertisements, unavailability of low-priced products, most of the necessary products being easily available in the traditional markets, illiteracy etc. are some of the major constraints found in the study which have contributed to 19.48% of variance and has been further renamed as consumers perception by using the Principle Component Analysis (PCA) method.