Playing the price game!: an exploratory study in retail in-aisle consumer decision making ... : or why consumers really walk-away
Creators: name: Nair, Smitha
Publisher: name: Macquarie University
Year: 2022
Subjects: Other education not elsewhere classified

description: In this era of self-service shopping, the retail industry is witnessing intense competition like never before. Retailers are continuously improving their in-store shopping experience to attract more customers to sustain in this competitive market. Even though online shopping market is rapidly growing, consumers still prefer to shop in-store as they can feel, touch and check the product. In the past, research has been done to understand the consumer choice and decision making, but this research seldom focuses on the aspect of in-aisle choice process of consumers and their non-purchase decision about products in retail stores. The present study explores this gap in the literature by using eye-tracking glasses to understand the in-aisle consumer decision making while purchasing products in a real store environment. This study is exploratory in nature and uses eye-tracking technology to understand how a consumer shows choice behaviour in the store. Eye-tracking glasses tracks the eye movement of shoppers as to which shelf and which product in an aisle they are having a look at and which part of the product package they are interested to look at. The aim of the study is to understand in-aisle consumer decision making, choice behaviour and walk-aways from shelves. This study is conducted in a pharmacy and green grocery store. The present study uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to form a theory. This study collects data using video, interview and questionnaire. This study uses a grounded theory approach. It has been found that consumers look at brand name, price and product description of the product in pharmacy store. A majority of the consumers don't look at the ingredients and directions while buying medicines, as they trust the pharmacist. In a green grocery store, shoppers look at the product and price with more focus on choosing the vegetables and fruits carefully. Consumers' walk-away from pharmacy and grocery shelves if they don't find the brand of product on the shelf or the price of the product is perceived to be expensive by the consumers. This project suggests consumer in-aisle choice processes involved in in-aisle choice behaviour generating in-aisle consumer decisions to purchase or not to purchase products in a pharmacy and green grocery store. This project contributes theoretically by providing the reasons behind walk-aways, which has largely been introspective, and non-academic in nature, and suggesting a consumer choice process integral to in-aisle choice behaviour generating decision-making of purchasing products encompassing real time shopping in a real environment. This project also contributes methodologically by using both quantitative and qualitative methods to understand in-depth about consumer decision making which has only been in quantitative form in the present literature. Thus , consumer's in-aisle choice process differs from stre to store and more research needs to be done with a large sample of population and in different types of retail stores to get a better understanding of complex consumer in-aisle choice behaviour and decision-making.