Consumer Perception on Big Bazaar Essay Example

family, making Big Bazaar India’s favorite shopping destination.Big Bazaar is the destination where you get products available at prices lower than the MRP, setting a new level of standard in price, convenience and quality. It was started in the year 2001 with the slogan “Is se sasta aur achcha kahin nahi”.

The title of the project is “Customer perception towards Big Bazaar(Ambala)”. The purpose of the study is to understand how the customers perceive the store and provide suggestions for improvement. The type of the research design used was the Descriptive Research design and the sampling procedure that was followed was non probabilistic convenience sampling. The total sample size for the study is 100 respondents across all the ages, income category, occupation and gender.

Bar charts and other useful tools are used for the analysis of the study. Some of the limitations of the study include the biased responses provided by the respondents; the sample may not represent the whole population, and most customers were busy with shopping are some of them. Structured questionnaire were used to get the responses from the respondents by personally interviewing them in the store. Some of the suggestions provided by the respondents for improvement include increasing the efficiency of the billing system in weekends and during festive seasons, proper arrangement of the products, reducing too much crowd during festive seasons and improvement in parking facility.Based on the findings the conclusion was that the overall perception of the customers towards the store is good.

The overall perception was good but there is still scope of improvement, which are the recommendations given for the study include priority given on the basis of quantity of

purchase in the queue to complete the billing formalities, proper trimming or arrangement of the products, making aware and attractive, attracting the customers by conveying the benefits of visiting the store during off season, improving the ambience and making sales personnel interaction more effective are some of the recommendations given for the study. [pic] Introduction The Indian retail industry is the fifth largest in the world.Comprising of organized and unorganized sectors, India retail industry is one of the fastest growing industries in India, especially over the last few years. Though initially, the retail industry in India was mostly unorganized, however with the change of tastes and preferences of the consumers, the industry is getting more popular these days and getting organized as well.

With growing market demand, the industry is expected to grow at a pace of 25-30% annually. The India retail industry is expected to grow from Rs. 35,000 crore in 2004-05 to Rs. 109,000 crore by the year 2010.

Growth of Indian Retail

According to the 8th Annual Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) of AT Kearney, India retail industry is the most promising emerging market for investment.

In 2007, the retail trade in India had a share of 8-10% in the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the country. In 2009, it rose to 12%. It is also expected to reach 22% by 2010. According to a report by Northbride Capita, the India retail industry is expected to grow to US$ 700 billion by 2010. By the same time, the organized sector will be 20% of the total market share. It can be mentioned here that, the share of organized sector in 2007 was 7.

5% of the total

retail market. [pic] Major Retailers in India Pantaloon:Pantaloon is one of the biggest retailers in India with more than 450 stores across the country. Headquartered in Mumbai, it has more than 5 million sq. ft retail space located across the country. It's growing at an enviable pace and is expected to reach 30 million sq.

ft by the year 2010. In 2001, Pantaloon launched country's first hypermarket ‘Big Bazaar’. It has the following retail segments:

• Food & Grocery: Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar
• Home Solutions: Hometown, Furniture Bazaar, Collection-i
• Consumer Electronics: e-zone
• Shoes: Shoe Factory
• Books, Music & Gifts: Depot
• Health & Beauty Care: Star, Sitara
• E-tailing: Futurebazaar. com
• Entertainment: Bowling Co.

Tata Group

Tata group is another major player in Indian retail industry with its subsidiary Trent, which operates Westside and Star India Bazaar. Established in 1998, it also acquired the largest book and music retailer in India ‘Landmark’ in 2005. Trent owns over 4 lakh sq. ft retail space across the country.

RPG Group RPG Group is one of the earlier entrants in the Indian retail market, when it came into food & grocery retailing in 1996 with its retail Foodworld stores. Later it also opened the pharmacy and beauty care outlets ‘Health & Glow’. Reliance Reliance is one of the biggest players in Indian retail industry. More than 300 Reliance Fresh stores and Reliance Mart are quite popular in the Indian retail market. It's expecting its sales to reach Rs. 0,000 crores by 2010.

AV Birla Group AV Birla Group has a strong presence in Indian apparel retailing. The brands like Louis Phillipe, Allen Solly, Van Heusen, Peter England are quite popular. It's also investing in other segments

of retail. It will invest Rs. 8000-9000 crores by 2010.

Retail formats in India Hypermarts/supermarkets: large self-servicing outlets offering products from a variety of categories.

• Mom-and-pop stores: they are family owned business catering to small sections; they are individually handled retail outlets and have a personal touch.
• Departmental stores: are general retail merchandisers offering quality products and services. Convenience stores: are located in residential areas with slightly higher prices goods due to the convenience offered.
• Shopping malls: the biggest form of retail in India, malls offers customers a mix of all types of products and services including entertainment and food under a single roof.

E-trailers: are retailers providing online buying and selling of products and services.

Discount stores: these are factory outlets that give discount on the MRP.

Vending: it is a relatively new entry, in the retail sector. Here beverages, snacks and other small items can be bought via vending machine.

Category killers: small specialty stores that offer a variety of categories.They are known as category killers as they focus on specific categories, such as electronics and sporting goods. This is also known as Multi Brand Outlets or MBO's.

Specialty stores: are retail chains dealing in specific categories and provide deep assortment. Mumbai's Crossword Book Store and RPG's Music World are a couple of examples.

• Challenges facing Indian retail industry
• The tax structure in India favors small retail business
• Lack of adequate infrastructure facilities
• High cost of real estate
• Dissimilarity in consumer groups
• Restrictions in Foreign Direct Investment
• Shortage of retail study options
• Shortage of trained manpower

Low retail management skill TheFutureThe retail industry in India is currently growing at a great pace and is expected to go up to US$

833 billion by the year 2013.

It is further expected to reach US$ 1. 3 trillion by the year 2018 at a CAGR of 10%. As the country has got a high growth rates, the consumer spending has also gone up and is also expected to go up further in the future. In the last four year, the consumer spending in India climbed up to 75%.

As a result, the India retail industry is expected to grow further in the future days. By the year 2013, the organized sector is also expected to grow at a CAGR of 40%. Company Profile: Type: Subsidiary of Pantaloon Group. Founded: 2001. Headquarters: Mumbai, India. Industry: Retail.

Parent: Pantaloon Group.Owner: Kishore Biyani. Slogan: Is se sasta aur accha kahi nahin. Big Bazaar is a chain of hypermarket in India, which caters to every family’s needs and requirements.

This retail store is a subsidiary of Future group, Pantaloons Retail India Ltd. and is an answer to the United States’ Wal-Mart. Big Bazaar has released the doors for the fashion world, general merchandise like sports goods, cutlery, crockery, utensils, and home furnishings etc. at best economical prices.

Big Bazaar group offers more than 100 stores all over the country with an amalgamation of Indian bazaars’ feel and touch with a convenience and choice of the modern retail facilities.The retail format of the Big Bazaar group includes Aadhar, Rural ; Home-Town retail chain, Ezone home-improvement chain, sportswear retailer, depot and music chain is few among others. History of Big Bazaar The worldwide country chain, Big Bazaar, is formed by CEO of Future Group, Mr. Kishore Biyani. The group do not promises more than what it delivers. Their

basic attraction associated with reasonable prices is their Unique Selling Price.

Though, the products Big Bazaar stores stocks might not be advanced, but the customers are assured to avail the worth of the money spent by them. In 2001, the group opened its first store on the VIP Road, Calcutta, which was the primary departmental store offering regulated services of parking, steel vessels, apparel, electronics etc under the one roof at the competitive prices.Big Bazaar has become a massive hit with lower middle-class and middle class people as a major client base. At present, the Future Group comprises various formats and brands like Pantaloons, F123, Copper Chimney, Etam, Staples, One Mobile, Urbana, Brand Factory, LootMart, HomeTown and Central. The Big Bazaar has several stores located all over the India, among that Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune, Mumbai and Delhi is those metro cities where the stores of Big Bazaars are located.

Facilities Offered by Big Bazaar

Online shopping: Big Bazaar has an official website, FutureBazaar. com, which is one of the most favorite sites among people of India for online shopping.FutureBazaar is an online business venture of Future Group, which sells an assortment of products such as fashion, which includes merchandise for men and women, mobile accessories, mobile handsets and electronics like home theatres, video cameras, digital camera, LCD TVs, kitchen appliances and many more.

• Discounts: “Hfte ka sabse sasta din was introduced by the Big Bazaar, wherein extra and special discounts were offered on Wednesday every week, to attract the potential buyers into their store.
• Security check: At each exit of Big Bazaar, they use alarm systems or Electronic Article Surveillance system, which detects the products
  

that has attached tags or not. Statement of the Problem:It is very important for any company to know how the customers perceive their products, services or the organization as a whole.

It is the customer’s perception which influences the products and services of the organization. If the organizations makes an attempt to find the customers perception then, it can alter its products accordingly and offer to its customers. So understanding the customer’s perception is a very difficult and vital task for the organizations. The companies should be dynamic and should update themselves according to the changing needs of the customer. Coming to our study customer perceptions can give a lot of inputs and scope for improvement, lots of customers across all the ages, income groups and occupations visit the store.

Different customers have different experiences and perceptions towards the store, understanding these differences and rendering what the customers need is very vital for the survival and the growth of the store. In this study we are attempting to understand the customer perceptions so that the store can improve upon in the areas where the customers do not have good perceptions. Ascertaining customer’s perception becomes very complicated when it comes to retailing, as it is a part of service sector. Lot of complications are involved in ascertaining the perception like firstly, retailing is a service (which is intangible) and secondly, it is very difficult to understand how the customers perceive.So understanding the customer’s perception helps the store to improve itself in many areas.

Objectives of the study: 

• To know the overall perception of the customers towards Big Bazaar.
• To know the frequency of the customers visiting the store.
• To
  

know the gender, marital status and occupation of the respondents visiting the store.

Whether customers know the private label product or not. Scope of the study: The data was collected from the respondents across all the ages, income groups, occupation and gender. The total sample size for the study is 100. The study involves ascertaining the customer perception towards various areas such as price, promotions offered, billing system and parking facility etc. The study also tries to know why the customers visit and shop at BIG BAZAAR and get valuable suggestions from them.

So the study tried to get the responses almost all kinds of respondents. Type of research design Meaning: A research design is a method and procedure for acquiring information needed to solve the problem.A research design is a basic plan that helps in data collection or analysis. It specifies the type of information to be collected, the source and collection procedure.

A good research decision will ensure that the data collected is relevant to the objectives to be achieved.

Types of Research Design:

• Exploratory Research
• Descriptive Research
• Causal Research Design

Exploratory research design: Exploratory research focuses on the discovery of the ideas; the major purpose of this study is to identify the problem. Exploratory study is used in the initial phase of the research.

The broad and vague problem divided into small and precise statements.Exploratory research

is intended to develop initial insight and provide direction for any other further research needed.

Descriptive research design: It is a research, having clearly defined objectives and data requirements and is capable of suggesting a specific course of action to be taken by the decision makers. As the name suggests, it implies to describe something. It is intended to generate data describing characteristics of the groups such as consumers, Salespeople, Market areas; Questionnaires can be used to gather data.

Type of Data There are mainly two types of data collection method. They are:

Primary data. Secondary dataPrimary data is the data, which is collected at the first hand either by the researcher or by someone else especially for the purpose of the study.

Communication and observation are two basic means of obtaining primary data. Communication involves the questioning of respondents to secure the described information using a data collection instrument. Observation does not involve questioning. Rather it means that the situation of interests is checked and the relevant facts, actions and behaviour are recorded.

The primary data for this study was collected through questionnaires. This method of data collection is quite popular, particularly in case of big enquiries. The questionnaire has been used to survey the customers who visit the BIG BAZAAR store.Secondary data includes those data, which are collected for some earlier research work and are applicable in the study, the study researcher has presently undertaken. Efficacious use of secondary data can both save money and time of the researcher. The researcher using secondary data must also know the fundamentals of the primary data collection.

Secondary data is a valuable source of data. Though the secondary data is less expensive

and can be collected within a short period of time yet, they do not solve the research problems completely. This may be due to different units of its measurement, different classes employed to report data, which may become outdated by the time of its publication, this data may not be adequately processed, it may not be sufficient and so on.The source of secondary data for this research is mainly internet. Sampling Procedure In the study of this kind primary data plays a vital role.

Regardless of the method used to obtain the primary data (experimentation, observation and survey), the researcher has to decide whether the data to be obtained from every unit of the population under study or only a representative portion of the population will be used. The first approach, which is collecting data about each and every unit of the population, is called census method. The second approach, where only a few units of population under study are considered for analysis is called sampling method. Sampling planType of sampling: The sampling is non-probability convenient sampling of customers. The respondents are chosen according to the convenience of the researcher. The customers who gave visit to the store during the study they were picked randomly according to the researcher convenience.

Sample size: The total sample size for the study was 100 responde Research Instrument The instrument used in the study is – structured questionnaire. Method of data collection The data was collected by personally interviewing all the respondents. Limitations of the study Every research is carried under some boundaries and this research is not an exception. The limitations of this research are: The opinion of the respondents

visiting the BIG BAZAAR store may not represent the whole population.

• Due to the limitations of time, a larger respondent base could not be covered and was limited to a sample size of 100 respondents.
• There might have been tendencies among the respondents to filter their responses under the given conditions.
• The customer’s opinion might have been biased and may not represent the whole population of the city.
• Most customers were busy and pre-occupied with shopping.

Conclusion

The overall perception of the BIG BAZAAR store is good except in some areas like billing system during the weekends, and parking facility.The target market for the BIG BAZAAR hyper market is the growing middle class segment. Customers found the prices are affordable with a good variety of the products available under one roof. Customers responded positively to the promotions offered at the store, with the sales during the weekends and festive seasons picking up nicely. The quality of the products offered at the store was also very well accepted by the customers, and customers also enjoyed the food offered at the food stop.

Reasonable price of the products at the store was the driving factor for the customers to shop in the store. Most of the customers found it convenient to visit the store once in a week.So we can conclude that the overall perception of the customers towards the store is positive and are satisfied with the way the store is managed.

Recommendations

The problem of the billing system comes into picture during the weekends and during the festive seasons, where in it takes a lot of time for the customers to complete the billing formalities. So the store should take

certain steps where the customers without any difficulty pays the bill and comes out of the queue as soon as possible.

For this the store can give priority for the customers whose purchases are bulky and allow that customer to come out of the queue as soon as possible because of the bulk purchases made by that customer.In this way by introducing certain flexibility the problems can be reduced.

During the festive seasons and weekends the store will be too crowded and customers do not find it comfortable to shop. So it is important that there will be smooth flow of the customers within the store and the customer finds it easy to shop during this period.

For this reason the store can covey the benefits of visiting the store during the off season to the customer. The same strategy can be used by the store to reduce the problem of parking during the weekends and festivals.

The sales personnel in the store also play a very vital role in influencing the customer perception towards the store.As sales people in the store are the one who face the customers and interact with them on the consistent basis they should posses a descent knowledge about the products in which they are involved in selling and make sure that they behave in a right way with the customers.

The store should not focus only on one or two areas to improve the customer perception towards the store instead, the organization should involve itself in improving all the customer influencing areas and try to improve the overall customer perception towards the store.

The tidiness of the store also helps in enhancing the image of

the store. The employees should make sure that the floors of the store are clean and no dust should be found on the products. These small things should be taken care of regularly and should not be ignored thinking that these are small things.

The ambience within the store also plays a very important role in influencing the customer perception towards the store. The ambience, such as the lighting in the store, the music that is being played etc. should be taken care of. Good ambience for shopping improves the customer perception.

One bad instance in the store can disappoint the customers. So the employees in the store should make sure that, no bad instance is faced by the customers while shopping.

Practicing this enhances the customer perception towards the store.

Last and not the least all the employees should work as a team to provide a better shopping experience to the customers. At the end of the day what counts is, what is that the customers have taken away from the store.So all the employees should work as a team and provide a good shopping experience to the customers so that the customers visit the store frequently.

Bibliography

OccupationStudent Business Man Employee Others Sir/Madam I am a student of Saraswati Institute of Management ; Technology Teek,(Kaithal) doing a study on consumer perception towards Big Bazaar. Kindly answer the question listed below.

1. Responses provided would be strictly used for academic purpose.
2. How frequently do you visit Big Bazaar? Once in a week Twice in a week Once in a month Occasionally
3. How do you perceive the price offered at Big Bazaar? EconomicalCompetitive Satisfied
4. The product variety at Big Bazaar is? Narrow
   

(Poor)AverageBroad (Good)