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An Analysis of Perception of Rural Consumers towards Organised Retail: A Case Study

of 3A Bazaar

Dr. S.K. Dubey*

Vivek Kumar Pathak**Rajeev Kumar Malik***

Abstract:Retail is an emerging sector in India. Marketers are leaving no stone unturned to

influence the consumers by offering them products and services in various ways, at various

locations, in various forms, resulting in emergence of various retail formats throughout the

country. Paramount Trading Corp (Pvt.) Ltd has launched 3A Bazaar and taken the initiative

of uplifting and empowering rural India by enhancing reach of Information and quality

products. 3A Bazaar is a unique strategy to bring the first chain of rural retailing in India

through small stores and mobile vans. It is India's first shop on wheels to start in different

villages of JP Nagar, in Uttar Pradesh. It offers a wide range of products from Grocery to

FMCG, Cosmetics, Stationary and Women Accessories. The present study is an attempt to

analyse the perception of rural consumers towards organised retail with special reference to

3A Bazaar.

Key words: 3A Bazaar, Rural consumers, Organised retail, Perception

* Associate Professor, Faculty of Management Studies, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi

** & *** Research Scholars, Faculty of Management Studies, Banaras Hindu University,

E-mail- dubey_sk@yahoo.com, vivekbizs@yahoo.co.in, rajeevcms@gmail.com

Mobile No.- 9415302077, 9450387713, 9795943341

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Introduction: Are rural areas ill-suited for the organised retail business? This question has

assumed significant importance in the present time. At present, the penetration of organised

retail is very low in rural India. Approximately 10,000 out of 6, 00,000 villages in India have

access to organised retail services, but, the huge market potential is undisputable. India's rural

retail market is expected to go up to Rs. 2400 billion (US $ 58 billion, Approx.) by 2015

(Confederation of Indian Industries-YES Bank Study, 2007) helped by rising incomes and

changing consumption patterns. Current major players like ITC, Godrej and DSCL are

expanding their retail operations by setting up more stores, entering new states and offering

newer product categories. When organised retail first made its presence felt in rural India, it

wasnt a pure retailing operation targeting the rural masses. Initially it was more focussed on

the agri-inputs targeting farmers, but now, a shift has been seen towards non-farming

segments. Paramount Trading Corp (Pvt.) Ltd has launched 3A Bazaar and taken the

initiative of uplifting and empowering rural India by enhancing reach of Information and

quality products. 3A Bazaar is a unique strategy to bring the first chain of rural retailing in

India through small stores and mobile vans. It is India's first shop on wheels to start in

different villages of Moradabad & JP Nagar (Uttar Pradesh). Now 3A Bazaar has got three

stores at different locations in Moradabad and J.P. Nagar and 7 mobile vans are associated

with these stores and covers almost all the prominent villages of that area. It offers a wide

range of products from Grocery to FMCG, Cosmetics, Stationary and Women Accessories.

One practical problem that organised retail in rural areas faces is that of image. The products

are perceived as expensive and also the rural people find the ambience of the store

intimidating. The present study is an attempt to analyse the perception of rural consumers

towards organised retail with special reference to 3A Bazaar.

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Review of Literature: Marketers are leaving no stone unturned to influence the consumers

by offering them products and services in various ways, at various locations, in various forms

resulting in emergence of various retail formats throughout the country.

According to Gupta & Mittal (2001), consumers are highly influenced by image of the retail

outlet, its attributes, product range, variety, services, employees behaviour, dcor, music and

marketing strategies.

According to Ghosh & Tripathi (2009), consumers choice of a particular store depends on

shopping orientation as well as satisfying experience. In addition, a customers attitude

towards the store may result from his / her evaluation of the perceived importance of store

attributes, moulded and remoulded by direct experiences with the stores overall offerings.

Rajesh Rajaguru and Margaret J Matanda (2007), opined that Store attributes are measured

using variables such as store appearance, service quality, and store conveniences and these

variables are more relevant to Indian context.

For the first time, Martineau (1958), defined store image as a store defined in customers

mind partlybased on functional attributes and partly based on psychological attributes. Store

image includes its characteristic attributes and it makes customers feel the store different

from others. Functional attributes are assortment of commodities, layout, location, price value

relation, and service that consumers can objectively compare with other stores. Psychological

attributes are attractiveness and luxuriousness that represent special attributes of that store.

Research Methodology: Consumer characteristics, store attributes, store image, store choice

and retailing strategies are some of the key concepts that play a role in successful retailing.

The marketing mix as well as store image attributes all contributes to the overall store image,

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which consumers apply to evaluate the store on a multi-attribute utility function. This study

endeavours to gather information on customers perception of 3A Bazaar.

Objectives of the study: The study includes the following objectives,

To determine the consumers overallperception about 3A Bazaar with special reference

to the marketing mix and store image attributes.

To study the difference in the perception of different income-group consumers on the

basis of individual components of marketing mix and store image attributes.

To study the difference in the perception of different age-group consumers on the basis of

individual components of marketing mix and store image attributes.

Sampling & Questionnaire design: A non-probability, convenience sampling method is

used to select both the stores and the respondents from J P Nagar (Uttar Pradesh). The stores

were chosen arbitrarily in convenient locations across the area of study. A total of 100

respondents were approached, out of which 81 completed responses are used. For the final

study, a structured questionnaire consisting of different sections is compiled in accordance

with the conceptual framework and study objectives. The various sections dealt with

marketing mix & store attributes and demographic information. A Likert-type scale varying

from 1 to 5 was used to measure the degree to which the variables under study vary with 1 =

poor degree and 5 = excellent degree.

Data analysis: The data obtained was statistically analysed using various statistical tools

such as mean, standard deviation and ttest using SPSS package. t test was used to find out

significance difference between the perception of different age and income groups.

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8

2

4

20

20

2

49

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

REGULAR

AT NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH

SEASONAL SALES AND DISCOUNT

FAMILY OCCASIONS

FESTIVAL

SEASONAL

RARE

NO. OF RESPONDENTS

PERIOD

OFPURCHASE

Results and discussion: The results obtained from the study are presented here. Profile of

the consumers is presented first and the latter part deals with descriptive statistics and

hypothesis testing.

Consumer profile: Table: 1 shows the profile of the consumers of 3A Bazaar. It is clear

from the table that most of the consumers (61%), who shop at 3A Bazaar, are in between the

age group of 20-34 years i.e. younger generation. Furthermore, the consumers having a

monthly income between Rs. 10,000-20,000 per month (58%) are the main shoppers at 3A

Bazaar. It is also clear that Home and personal care goods (65%) are more sought after goods

followed by food and beverages (50%).

Further investigation of the data shows that consumers dont make a regular purchase at 3A

Bazaar (Figure: 1), only 10% of the respondents shop regularly at 3A Bazaar. The purchase is

mostly made at family occasions (25%) and in festival seasons (25%). More than half of the

respondents (60%) dont make aregular purchase at 3A bazaar.

Table: 1- Profile of the consumers of 3A Bazaar (N=81)

Age of Respondents

< 20 Years 20-34 Years 35-50 Years >50 Years

Number 4 50 19 8

Percentage 5 61 23 11

Income of Respondents (Rs./Month)

< Rs.10,000 Rs.10,000-Rs.20,000 >Rs.20,000

Number 30 47 4Percentage 37 58 5

Types of Product Purchased

Food and Beverages Apparel Home and Personal care

Number 41 24 53

Percentage 50 30 65

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Figure: 1-Period of purchase at 3A Bazaar

Descriptive statistics: A list of 19 individual components of marketing mix and store image

attributes were selected. Table:2 shows the mean values of responses received for different

individual components of marketing mix and store image attributes. Quality, availability,

range of products, & store ambience received the higher mean values (>4). Credit facility

received the lowest mean score (1.9933).

Hypothesis Testing:The following hypotheses were designed to be tested in order to attain

the objectives.

Ho1: Consumers overall perception of 3A Bazaar stores marketing mix and store image

attributes is not positive.

Ha1: Consumers overall perception of 3A Bazaar stores marketing mix and store image

attributes is positive.

The descriptive statistics shows that the sample mean of the consumersperception scores is

3.2250, with a standard deviation of .30977. It gives an indication that the Consumers

overall perception of 3A Bazaar stores marketing mix and store image attributes is positive.

Table: 2- Descriptive statistics showing the mean values of responses (Higher is better)

Attributes MeanStatistic*

Attributes MeanStatistic

Quality of products 4.2500 Fixed rate 3.3333

Availability of products 4.1800 Range of fresh stock 3.0833

Range of products 4.1667 Range of local items 2.8333

Store ambience 4.0833 Price of products 2.7500

Parking facility 4.0000 Convenient location 2.5000

Staff attitude 3.9167 Scheme and offers 2.4167

Ease of locating things 3.7500 Return/Exchange 2.3333

Time taken in billing 3.7500 Ability to bargain 2.2500

Operating time 3.5833 Credit facility 1.9933

Range of branded items 3.5833Note:*Mean value of responses (in descending order) on a Likert-type scale varying from 1to 5 (1 = poor degree and 5 = excellent degree).

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One samplet test was conducted and the hypothesis that consumers overall perception of

3A Bazaar is positive (with test value=3, the midpoint of the scale) for selected stores

marketing mix and store image attributes was found to be statistically significant (p0.05) & price of the products (p=.070>0.05), the perception was not

found to be positive.

H02: There is no significant difference in the perception of different income-group

consumers in terms of individual components of marketing mix and store image attributes.

Ha2: There is significant difference in the perception of different income-group consumers in

terms of individual components of marketing mix and store image attributes.

The significance value of t test in independent samples t test is 0.05. When the value of

the statistic is greater than 0.05, the groups have equal variance. An independent-samples t-

test was conducted to compare the perception scores for the two income groups (low income

group-up to Rs. 10,000 per month and high income Group- above Rs 10,000 per month).

There was no significant difference in scores for low income group (M = 3.23, SD =.327) and

high income group (M = 3.20, SD = .280); t (79) = -.392, p = .697 (two-tailed).

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Table:4 Independent Samples- t Test for Income groups

Levene's Test for

Equality of Variances

t-test for Equality of Means*

F Sig. t df Sig. (2tailed)Equal variances

assumed

.097 .757 .392 79 .697

Equal variances not

assumed.413 34.588 .682

Note: *Statistically significant at p.05) except for the following attributes,

Table:5 Independent Samples- t Test for Income groups, significant*

Attributes F Sig.(2-

tailed)

Low income group High income group

Range of branded items 1.053 .002 3.87 3.00Range of Local items 1.179 .000 2.50 3.50

Ability to bargain .357 .040 2.12 2.50

Return/Exchange 1.022 .029 2.50 2.00

Note:*Statistically significant at p

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significant difference in the perception of different age-group consumers in terms of

individual components of marketing mix and store image attributes was also not found to be

statistically significant. The null hypothesis thus is not rejected against the alternative

hypothesis.

Table:6 Independent Samples- t Test for Age groups

Levene's Test for

Equality of Variances

t-test for Equality of Means*

F Sig. t df Sig. (2tailed)

Equal variances

assumed.083 .774 -.106 79 .916

Equal variances not

assumed

-.105 18.434 .918

Note: *Statistically significant at p.05)

except for the following attributes,

Table:7 Independent Samples- t Test for Age groups, significant

Attributes F Sig.(2-tailed) Mean (Gr-1)* Mean (Gr-2)*

Range of fresh stocks .578 .028 3.22 2.66Ability to bargain .162 .004 2.11 2.76

Fixed rate 1.822 .004 3.12 3.76

Note:* Gr-1= up to 35 years of age group, Gr-2= above 35 years of age group

Conclusion: As per the results of the study, the overall perception of rural consumers

regarding the selected stores marketing mix and store image attributes of 3A bazaar is

positive. However, even then the rural consumers dont make a regular purchase at such

stores. As the rural consumers have limited ability to pay, it is quite obvious from the analysis

that their perception regarding the price of the goods of 3A bazaar is not positive. Apart from

this the rural consumers search for local goods which are quit cheaper as compared to

branded items. The study also indicates that the perception of rural consumers towards the

product component of marketing mix is highly positive, with most of the product variables

receiving a mean response of more than four. The study also found that there is no significant

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difference in the perception of different income-group/age-group consumers in terms of

individual components of marketing mix and store image attributes except for certain

variables. Range of branded items received low mean scores by high income group while

range of local items received low mean scores by low income group. For these two variables

there was a significant difference in the perception. To improve the flow of consumers to the

store the range of local items needs to be increased without compromising with the range of

branded items. The reason for not making a regular purchase at 3A bazaar can be attributed to

these factors. A detailed investigation in this area is needed.

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Martineau, Pierre (1958), The Personality of the Retail Store, Harvard Business

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DECLARATION

This is to declare that the paper entitled- An Analysis of Perception of Rural Consumers

towards Organised Retail: A Case Study of 3A Bazaar is the original work of the

author(s)- Dr. S.K.Dubey, Vivek Kumar Pathak & RajeevKumar Malik and that

the paper has not been submitted for publication anywhere else.

Dr. S.K. DubeyAssociate Professor

Faculty of Management StudiesBanaras Hindu University

Varanasi

Vivek Kumar Pathak Rajeev Kumar MalikResearch Scholar Research Scholar

Faculty of Management Studies Faculty of Management StudiesBanaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University

Varanasi Varanasi