Perceived Quality And Its Influence On Customer Choices In Retail

Question: Discuss About The Influence On Customers Choices In Retail? Answer: Introduction The present consumer behavior has transformed in very dramatic manner in last ten years which further changes the needs of the consumers and the choices they make for the routine needs. In the present dynamic as well as competitive business culture, retailers should also understand as well as predict on how consumer should behave in purchasing many goods as well as services for the overall usage (Orel Kara, 2014). This is why, in order to create a competitive based position in the retail industry and also strategizing themselves to grow in a unique manner in the mind of the shoppers towards the store for maintaining a strong influence on the behavior. The retail industry and their operations is presently going through a revolution which is radical because of the many factors and new formats in the form of organized retail. Organized retail is gaining a lot of significance in the present time. In addition, with the ever changing behavioral elements, retailers also needs to get more c oncerned related to the overall lifestyle, demand and preference of customers that plays a crucial role in changing purchasing opinions or perception of the customers. Therefore, it is also crucial to note here that the overall perception of the customers based on the image of the store that eventually impacts the customer choices along with purchase based intention, satisfaction and loyalty (Ye et al, 2014). The report is based on analyzing perceived level of the quality on the consumers choice in the present retail sector. Literature review In competitive world, retail sector is also changing since the service quality is also improving along with high expectation of the customer and the lateral level of demand. At the time of recession, there was a high level of success that will depend on the retailers who have the right ability to develop loyalty by answering to the demand of the customer. Moreover, the needs of the consumers and the patterns associated with it are changing in a drastic manner. In order to meet diverse needs, organization must adopt customer focused and differentiated marketing strategies to gain an edge in competition in the market which ensures them to completely stand out in the present competition. For improved level of association with the customers that can help in leading to high level customer loyalty, profit level and retention. This is why, it is also important to build a stable as well as long term association with the consumers in the present competitive society (Subramanian et al, 2014). The consumers are presently more associated with perceived service quality and it also provides value to the study with the impact on the service based quality as per the loyalty of customer. To improve service based quality, improvement in the quality of product is also required. As discussed, a crucial number of managers also agree to the overall success that will depend on organization that is willing to save the quality as well as the service as per the demand of consumers. Quality is typically is a key strategic element of competitive advantages and this is why improvement in the quality of the product has been a matter of concern as a priority for the organizations. Quality of product cans also a better place to initiate providing high level of satisfaction and generating desired loyalty (Verhoef et al, 2015). The positive points include pioneering of the market with low cost proactive innovation and industry based redefinition. The negative impact consists of the loss in varied market opportunities with loss in market leadership and high cost based innovation and brand development. This is why product quality is worth all the attention. Retail service quality The service quality can be defined as the level of discrepancy that exists between the consumers normative level of expectation for the services and the overall opinion of the service based performance. To calculate any kind of discrepancy, SERVQUAL is devised and this can be regarded as the most frequently used and comprehensive used tool for calculating the level of service quality. The service items that are proposed are actually divided into five categories which are reliability, tangibles, empathy, responsiveness and assurance. The opinion only calculates the service quality which solely based on the performance and was later reintroduced by Taylor and Cronin (Das, 2014). Systems like SERVPERF is also adopted since the previous finding have further shown that it has completely outperformed SERVQUAL and can be applicable for calculating the level of service quality. People are also asked to show the level desired and the present level of the services and there is psychological ba sed limitation in that people tend to rate that is previously higher than the latter. Moreover, it was also found that quality of the service as calculated in SERVQUAL most importantly relies on perception based score than on the level of expectation score. The respondents sometimes also get irritated and stuck with the divided expectation and the opinion version of this software like SERVQUAL that can affect the quality of data in negative manner. The general perception around SERVQUAL across different service based setting is unclear and cannot be tested in an empirical manner in the present retail store culture. This is why, to get dimensions that are crucial for the retail customers, different authors have combines the findings from three qualitative studies with retail and service based quality literature. There are number of scales to measure it like The Retail Services Quality Scales that which can be perceived as a general scale which is right for the studies in the current retail business offering the mix of goods and services (Berg, 2014). The study also is used with a scale to measure the quality of the service with large chain of retail store present in countries like Australia and UK. Store image Image of the store is based on overall perception that the customers have of a specific store and of the overall experience of the shopping. In the present retail market which is highly competitive and progressive by nature, there is a need to be clear about the image of the store in the mind of the consumer and how this image can be compared with an expected or ideal image. It is also important to compare it with the image of the competitors in the market. In order to develop a powerful image, the retailers are provided with so many opportunities towards properly differentiating and creating a specific kind of image. Studies have also shown that the present literature review strongly based on the favorable kind of store image that helps the retailer in developing as well as managing the present market position (Delgado-Ballester et al, 2014). It further helps in creating an edge to achieve competitive advantages in terms of product, service and prices changes or differentiation that is not easy to replicate or duplicate by the competition. At the same time, store image is also based on clear positioning of message for the present target market found to have impacted the loyalty of the store. This is further done by raising the level of transaction advantages for the retailers. Many years ago, authors have defined the store image as an overall personality of the store with the help of shopper defined a store on his or her mindset. On the basis of two categories, the overall concept of store image was designed that are called as functional features and psychological features. Assortment of products, convenience of the store, location and layout of store when combined with the latter category along with psychological features represented the feeling of the shopper which is constantly stimulated by the functional level features of the store (Kandampully et al, 2015). At the same time, explanation of the concept associated to store image is not very easy since the authors have defined it with different store features to appreciate conjoint by creating the overall image of the store. At the same time, with constant efforts for past many years there are different kinds of academicians that have described the store image in terms of different features of the store or features that are part of overall image towards the store. Consumer Behavior The foundation of consumer behavior before has been related with the field of varied marketing based disciplines. At the time of development and importance to study the consumer behavior has always focus by number of different kind of practitioners to gain the complete knowledge from diverse theory based perspectives. It is important to note here that the previous emphasis was mainly on marketing form of managerial based perspective that move toward the perception on consumer behavior by being clear on how and why the consumer behave in a specific patter as per the needs and priorities of the people. It is also important to understand that the consumer behavior is a combination of acquiring the consumer, disposing the products with consumption as well as services (Han Hyun, 2015). The concept of consumer behavior can be defined as the combination of emotional, mental and physical activities with which people select, use, purchase and dispose product as well as service that can satis fy the overall desires and needs. The concept of consumer behavior also shows the company consumer based decision making process with number of physical function that people usually engages in while testing, getting, utilizing and also disposing the goods and services in proper manner. With the emergence of different concepts like consumer behavior which can be seen as a changed paradigm, the significance of gaining better clarity about the consumer needs, attitude, perception and purchase based intentions which have become an important for the successful execution of the marketer. The change was revolutionary and dramatic in past ten years which changes the needs of the consumers along with choices on the routine needs of people (Chiu et al, 2014). In the current competitive based business environment and dynamic changes, the retailer should completely be clear as well as also predict on how any consumer must behave in buying many kinds of goods and services for the overall usage. There is considerable amount of research and literature that discusses the changing retail environment which is impacted by the behavior of the customers. As per the recent studies and research, some kind of attentions should be given to store culture since it impacts the base and sets the tone for the consumer behavior. Studies have also shown that there is importance on varied store choices that impacts the behavior and choices of the consumer. In addition, consumer based buying behavior, effective decision making approach along with consumer repurchase attitude (Chiu et al, 2014). The behavior of consumer usage along with different angles for maintaining the image of the store along with number of experimental proofs has suggested that overall conc ept of store image was always very crucial. After taking a lot of efforts by so many authors in this direction, have proved that the focus was always on the angle of store image with the help of different store features that are part of bigger picture for the store. Important store features that can be identified here are accessibility of the location, suitability of the merchandise, right value for price, efforts through proper sales and in the end store based services. It was also proposed that there around twelve stores that can be featured and consist of price of quality, assortment, sales promotion, atmosphere of the store, accessibility of the location, reputation based adjustments and other important factors associated with accessibility. It is also important to note that there is rise in the overall number of non-traditional outlets for grocery and the increase is substantial in last few years where target is specific with high volume categories of grocery products, frozen products and other kinds of products like personal care products and general merchandise (Chiu et al, 2014). Low level in operating margins also provides some attractive level of less priced products along with consumers that are making sure that there is high volume of supplier based shipments. With some new kind of formats being widely introduced in present retail offering of the store in the ever evolving market places is well studies across all the product categories. The current choice of retail based format is enriching by nature with few consumer features that comes with so many explanatory elements with focus on varied consumer demographic (Chiu et al, 2014). There are number of studies which shows that there are frequent and some non-frequent shoppers for the present departmental stores that have found constant consumer to be younger as well as education with relatively high level of income. Conclusion As discussed, in last ten years have seen immense development specifically in international economy and there is also the presence of high development rate in so many developed countries and the current exponential development has also emerged as success in many developing economies. The development is rapid and the main crucial factors are followed by rise in the level of competition with emerging new retail formats in shaping the new situations in retail stores. There is also an introduction new format in retailing that ensures that products are offered in all kinds of formats with high competition that is becoming intense in term of direction. In addition, consumers now take different factors while selecting a specific retail stores (Chiu et al, 2014). The customer are becoming very sensitive while selecting stores therefore it increases the significance of retail store that are establishing the identities of the brand rather than just setting new retail stores. This is why, the s tudy of how customers selects any retail stores and the factors that drives the choice for store, will be vital for contribution in present retail store and it further affiliates with changing demand of consumers and overall growth in retail sector. The current retail sector is going through many structural kinds of transformations with some of the changes being shown by choices of consumers associated with purchases. The retail sector has grown substantially and becoming more focused with the entry of new stores and forms like super centers and other hyper markets. 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