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Research Methodology

Research Title

Consumer Preference

Comparison of Grocery Store

Shopping and Mall Shopping

Research Project Submitted By:

MMS - Div ‘A’ - Roll Nos. -

Samar Deshpande…………...15

Piyush Khandelwal…………..28

Parvinder Manchanda……..31

Mayur Pradhan…………….….38

Amogh Puranik………….…….39

Falguni Shiyad………….........54

Research Project Submitted To:

Prof. Dr. Gowri Joshi

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Index

Sr

No.Content

Page

No.

1 Research Problem 3

2 Research Objectives 3

3 Sampling Design 4

4 Data Collection Tool used 6

5Data Analysis &

Interpretation7

6 Recommendations 15

7 15

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Conclusion

8 Annexure A 16

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Research Problem

“Do consumers in Mumbai prefer shopping for household items in

Grocery Stores or in Malls? What are the factors responsible thataffect this choice of preference of shopping by consumers as on

February 2011?”

Scope: Shopping in GROCERY STORES and MALLS in MUMBAI

Limitations: Shopping of HOUSEHOLD ITEMS only

Research Objectives

•  To compare Consumer Preference for Grocery Store

Shopping and Mall Shopping of Household Items

•  To determine if Attractive Display in Malls affect the

consumer preferences.

•  To analyze whether consumers like to compare the products

manually before making the decision to buy.

•  To understand whether Discounts / Sales / Festival Offers /

Free Gifts attract customers to the Malls.

•  To study whether people like to do Window Shopping / Mall

Crawl for Entertainment purpose.

•  To understand whether customers face the problem of 

Accessibility of Location of Malls.

•  To estimate whether the consumers usually prefer to buy

products on Credit Facility.

•  To estimate the consumer preference for Quick Home

Delivery.

•  To understand the consumer needs for replacement of 

products that don’t meet their expectations.

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Sampling Design

1) Type of Universe: We have taken a finite universe of 

consumers in the suburbs of Mumbai. The objects of our

study are middle aged women and men who shop for

household items.

2) Sampling Unit: We have used two sampling units as

follows:

• Firstly we have taken a geographical sampling unit of the suburbs in Mumbai.

• Secondly we have taken a social sample i.e., individuals

in the family who are middle aged and hence take care

of the shopping of the household items.

1) Source List: Following is the source list of the geographical

sampling units in Mumbai we have used in our study:

• Dadar• Matunga

• Mulund

•  Thane

• Vikhroli

• Kalwa

• Dombivli

• Kalyan

•

Navi Mumbai• Bhayander

• Kalina

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1) Size of Sample: Our sample size is 45.We got the

questionnaires filled from 45 middle aged people from the

above mentioned areas of Mumbai.

2) Parameters of Interests: As mentioned earlier, our major

parameter of interest is the subgroup of people who shop forhousehold items. The two other subsidiary parameters of 

interest are:

• Frequency of shopping of consumers i.e., daily, weekly,

monthly, etc.

•  The number of members in the family of the

respondents.

1) Budgetary Constraints: There was no budget constraintfor our project since the research topic chosen by us is

simple. Also, we have used a questionnaire technique to

collect our primary data which is a very cost effective

method of data collection.

2) Sampling Procedure: We have used a probabilistic

sampling technique because we are doing a descriptive and

empirical research i.e., we are reporting facts based onprimary data collected.

•  The probabilistic sampling method used by us is

“Stratified Sampling”.

• Our stratas are based on geographical locations as

listed above i.e., we have done “Area Sampling”.

• We have chosen a few consumers out of each strata

which are all homogenous.

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Data Collection Tool Used

We have used a data collection tool called “Questionnaires” to

get the primary data for our empirical research on whether

consumers prefer to shop for household items in Grocery Stores

or in Malls.

Our Questionnaire which is attached in Annexure A consists of a

number of questions printed in a definite order on a form which

the respondents read, understand and write down their replies in

the space provided in the form itself.

Reasons for choosing Questionnaire Technique:

• A large number of respondents can be covered easily by this

method.

• It is very cost effective.

• It is also very time effective i.e., it is less time consuming.

•  There is no scope of bias from the researcher’s side.

Features of our Questionnaire form:

• We have kept a proper sequencing for our questions.

• Question formulation and wordings used are correct and

proper.

• We have not used MCQs for complex questions.

• We have used only 2 open ended questions against the 8

closed ended questions. This ensures a proper mix since

open ended questions are difficult to handle.• We have tried to make the form presentable and as

aesthetic in appearance as possible.

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Data Analysis and Interpretation

 The above pie chart represents the preferences of shopping of 

house hold items in terms of percentages of our sample collected.

Data Analysis:

From the above findings we can conclude that:

• Majority of our sample set (i.e., 42 %) prefers shopping in

both malls as well as the grocery stores for household items.

• Mall shopping (31 %) gets an edge over the grocery storeshopping (27 %).

Interpretation:

From the above data analysis we can interpret that:

• Malls have taken a substantial market share of the grocery

shops in the segment of household items.

 The above pie chart is the representation of the frequency of 

shopping amongst our sample set regarding household items.

Data Analysis:

From the above findings we can conclude that:

• Majority of the respondents (i.e., 51%) shop for household

items weekly.

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•  The second most preferred period for shopping (i.e., 27 %) is

fortnightly (every 15 days).

•  The next most preferred shopping frequency is monthly (18

%) and lastly those who shop daily (4 %).

Interpretation:

From the above data analysis we can interpret that:

• Majority of our sample set prefer to shop in bulk for

household items.

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Analysis of Reasons why people prefer

Shopping in Malls for Household Products

 The above bar chart is representation of the various reasons why

the respondents prefer shopping in malls for household items.

Data Analysis:

From the above findings we can conclude that the order of 

importance of reasons of shopping in malls of our sample set is:

• Discounts / Sales / Festival Offers / Free Gifts. (62 %)

• Comparison of products is easy and helps in decision

making. (51 %)

• Attractive display of products and Hygienic Storage of 

products as compared to grocery stores. (42 %)

• Mall Crawl / Window Shopping / Entertainment. (15 %)

Interpretation:

From the above data analysis we can interpret that:

• Discounts / Sales / Festival Offers / Free Gifts have a

tremendous impact on customers. It’s the biggest plus point

malls have over grocery stores according to our sample set.

• People like to touch and feel the product before buying it

and also like to compare products manually before deciding

what to buy.

• Consumers get attracted to the ambience and display of 

products in malls and like the hygienic storage.

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• Consumers don’t like to mall crawl or window shop in malls

according to our sample set.

CHOICE OF MALLS:

We also took an analysis in our questionnaire to determine which

mall do our sample sets prefer more. We had given the following

choices:

• Big Bazaar

• D-Mart

• More

• Star Bazaar• Spencer’s

• Hypercity

• Reliance Fresh

• Sahkar Bhandar

• Spinach

Our sample set preferred ”Big Bazaar” the most.

 The second most preferred mall was “D-Mart”

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Analysis of Reasons why people prefer

Shopping in Grocery Stores for Household

Products

 The above bar chart is representation of the various reasons that

the respondents prefer shopping at grocery store for household

items

Data Analysis:

From the above findings we can conclude that the order of 

importance of reasons of shopping in grocery stores of our sample

set is:

• Accessibility of location of grocery stores. (60 %)

• Quick Home Delivery. (53 %)

• Easy Replacement of goods bought. (42 %)

• Quantity that can be bought is flexible. (29 %)• Availability of Credit Facility. (22 %)

Interpretation:

From the above data analysis we can interpret that:

• Consumers have easy access to grocery stores and hence it

is convenient to them. Maybe malls are not located near totheir houses.

• Most of the grocery stores give quick home delivery at no

extra costs.

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• Since the grocery store owners are acquainted with the

consumers, hence they replace certain goods easily. This is

not possible in malls.

• Flexible quantity buying and credit facility are the least

agreed reasons by our sample set.

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 The above pie chart represents the effects of advertisements on

the consumer’s preferences for shopping of household items in

malls or grocery stores.

Data Analysis:

From the above findings we can conclude that:

• Majority of the respondents (i.e., 49%) feel that

advertisements do not affect their choice.• 38% say that advertisements affect their choice of 

preference.

• 13% are unsure.

Interpretation:

From the above data analysis we can interpret that:

• Malls are gaining popularity because of the kind of advertisements they do which affect consumers mindset

towards shopping.

Since the effect of advertisements was an open ended question,

we got to know that how exactly ads affect the consumer

preference. Following are some of the popular feedbacks:

•  TV ads create a long lasting memory for the mall.

• Newspaper ads help a lot to know the variety of productsavailable.

• Locations of the malls are given in the newspaper ads which

assist a lot.

• Ads give information about the dates and validities of the

discounts, sales and festival offers.

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We had also put an open ended question regarding online

shopping preference of consumers. Following are our findings:

• Only 1 out of the 45 respondents said that they arecomfortable shopping online for household items.

• A huge majority i.e., 44 out of the 45 respondents said that

they are absolutely not comfortable shopping online for

household items.

• Out of these 44 respondents who were not comfortable, only

1 said that he will like to shop online for household items in

future.

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Recommendations

Based on the research we have done, we can give the following

recommendations to malls and grocery store owners.

Recommendations for Grocery Stores:

• If the display of products is made attractive, then the market

share of grocery stores can be increased again as it will

attract more customers.

•  The grocery stores should come up with discount schemes,sales and festival offers regularly.

•  They should start offering discounts on bulk shopping.

• Hygiene should be maintained in stores while storing

products such as sugar, food grains etc.

Recommendations for Malls:

• Malls should make provisions for quick home deliveries.

•  They can give credit facilities to regular customers.•  They can increase their accessibility by opening franchisees

in densely populated areas.

Conclusion

We have concluded from this research that since the past few

years, the Malls have steadily increased their market share and

captured the market share of Grocery Stores in Mumbai.

Consumers are becoming more and more aware about the

benefits of shopping in Malls. There is a huge possibility that one

day Malls will takeover the entire business of Grocery Stores

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unless the Grocery Stores take some steps to withheld their

position.

Annexure A

 This survey is done for research work regarding preference of consumers for

shopping of HOUSEHOLD ITEMS in Grocery Store or Malls.

Name:

Age and Gender:

 The City/Locality in which you live:

1) How many members are there in your family? _____ 

2) How often do you shop for household items?

Every Day Every Fortnight (15 days)

Every Week Every Month

3) What do you prefer amongst the following for the shopping of household

items?

Grocery Store Shopping Mall shopping

Both

4) If you prefer Mall shopping for household items, then what are the reasons?

Variety of products displayed attractively

I can compare the products and make the decision to buy or not

Discount Schemes / Sales

Mall Crawl / Window Shopping / Entertainment

Festival Offers / Free Gifts

5) If you do not prefer shopping in Malls for household items, then what are the

reasons?

Not Easily Accessible

No Credit Facility

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Very Less Provisions for Home Delivery

Replacement of Goods Bought is Difficult

I have to buy the product in standard fixed quantities

6) If you prefer shopping in Grocery store for household items, then what arethe reasons?

Easily Accessible (Near your House)

Credit Facility

Quick Home Delivery

Easy Replacement of Goods Bought

I am able to buy whatever quantity I want, however small (Eg.

100 ml Oil)

7) If you do not prefer shopping in grocery store for household items, then what

are the reasons?

No proper display of products

Not much discounts on MRP

Shopping becomes boring

Sometimes the hygiene is not maintained while storing

8) Which of the following do you prefer? (Choose any 3; Write preference in the

box: 1,2,3)

Big Bazaar Star Bazaar

Reliance Fresh

D-Mart Spencer’s Sahkar

Bhandar

More Hyper City

Spinach

9) How comfortable are you with shopping online? Would you ever shop for

household items online?

 ______________________________________________________________________________ 

 ______________________________________________________________________________ 

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10)How do advertisements affect your choice of preference of malls for shopping

of household items?

 ______________________________________________________________________________ 

 ______________________________________________________________________________ 

 Thank You for giving your precious time and feedback.

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