Journal of Business and Retail Management Research

Customer perceived service is considered as one of the key determinants of business performance. In the process of creating this differentiation, the role of delivery of quality services is very vital. So far, in the Indian context, there is a dearth of tested instruments which can measure customer-perceived service quality of a retail store. Application of quality measurement scales, in Indian context, particularly retail service quality, is yet very limited. In order to understand the driving factors of a typical Indian retail customer, the key objective of this study was to empirically test the service quality dimensions. The study also opined to carry out the gap analysis and identify the areas for improvements in retail service quality. The instrument proposed by Dabholkar, Thorpe and Rentz (1996) RSQS(Retail Service Quality Scale) was used as the questionnaire with the addition of two more variables which were found to be relevant for the Indian context after a pilot survey among small group of consumers. A 5-point Likert scale (1-strongly disagree, 5-strongly agree)was employed to measure the service quality of the retail shop. The findings of the RSQS in India are thus different from those of Dabholkar, Thorpe and Rentz.

Retailing is one of the fastest growing sectors in India and as such it is attracting considerable interest because of its potential to contribute to the economic development of the country. A lot of professionalism is now evident in the sector for acquiring, maintaining and retaining the customers. In fact, many industrial houses have entered in to the retailing with twin objectives. One of the objectives is to provide superior service to the customers for building brand loyalty for which intermediaries may not be so effective. Another reason is to reap the superior profit in the terminal market. But retailing is not as easy as one may perceive it to be. Effective retailing requires a large amount of effort to be put in. This article highlights the importance of retailing, its scope and types, retail mix and retail marketing strategy for a successful endeavour. The article also focuses on the negative and positive impact of information technology on retailing.

The recent global financial crisis calls for a financial structure both at national levels and international level devoid of instability. First, the authors try to analyze the causes of the current crisis and the current financial scenario in major countries .Then the current financial system in the major economies and the associated drawbacks are dealt with. Finally, an attempt is made to evaluate the model and strategy suggested by the UK financial authorities in overcoming any future crisis along with experts' observations. It is noted that given the severity of the recent crisis, there should be a coordinated and collaborative response by the various actors of the financial structure to meet the challenge. This is so far not seen. It is thus apt time for international financial structure modification. Policy mistakes this time can prove to be detrimental in nature for the society as a whole. Suggestions from international bodies, economists, practitioners and other stakeholders must be taken into account before coming to any conclusion regarding changes in the financial structure along with proper supervision-national and international.

The origins of retail in India can be traced in fairs and ‘mela’s (an Indian word for village events to sell and promote goods) which were held across the country for the twin purpose of trade and entertainment. The retail story silently continued in an unorganized structure across every street and its corner in India till early 80’s. The process of liberalization which started during 80’s brought modern retail into its veracity. But the contemporary retail is only a re-evaluation of century old activity of traders selling their produce in a collective arrangement. The paper attempts in tracing out the transformation of traditional formats of fairs and melas into the contemporary retailing in India. The modern format of retail is only a gradual evolution of trade from melas to malls contradicting the general theory of revolution.

The aim of this study is to develop mathematical model for Weibull deterioration of items in inventory in declining market when the supplier offers his retailers a credit period to settle the accounts against the dues. The computational steps are explored for a retailer to determine the optimal purchase units which minimizes total inventory cost per time unit. The numerical examples are given to demonstrate the retailer’s optimal decision. A sensitivity analysis is carried out to study the variations in the optimal solution.

Unorganized retailing is by far the prevalent form of trade in India – Constituting 98% of total trade, while organized trade accounts only for the remaining 2%. The retail industry in India is of late often being hailed as one of the sunrise sectors in the economy. However, in order to find its feet in the Indian environment a lot needs to be done in terms of efficiency enhancement. This case study is an attempt in exploring the benefits of applying Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in the organized retail industry, for achieving business efficiency by transforming the point – of – sale into a point – of – service through SOA and thus ensuring maximum customer satisfaction. The discussion is divided into three parts; firstly the introduction which gives an idea about the retail sector and SOA. The second part deals with the areas of improvement for the Indian region in case of retail through information technology. The third part deals with the SOA based suggestions for the mentioned problems. The conclusion sums up the effective use of SOA in retail.

This study examines the relationship between individual volunteers’ functional preferences and their ratings of a variety of non-monetary rewards. Participants, 95% of whom had volunteer experience, completed the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) and rated 31 potential rewards. The results suggest that volunteers have relatively similar reward preferences, despite distinct differences in their functional preferences. Further, gender and volunteer experience have little impact on an individual’s ratings of specific rewards. Also some rewards have almost universal appeal. Finally, some rewards appear to be enjoyed less than initially expected, suggesting that volunteers may find themselves disappointed. In summary, the benefits of assessing volunteer functional needs may not offset the cost of gathering this data. In most situations, nonprofits may be best-served by offering identical, highly rated rewards to all their volunteers, since the top items have virtually universal appeal and tend to be relatively inexpensive as well.

The Indian food and grocery retail sector has been evolving from traditional to a modern, organized retail marke and the macro environmental factors have significantly affected this process. Store choice behaviour in Indian grocery retailing has now become a complex issue for both retailers and shoppers. Shopper’s attributes such as socio-economic, demographic, geographic and psychographic dynamics have influenced the choice of retail format and store in grocery retailing. The purpose of the paper is twofold: 1) to make a detailed study on the association and predictability of shopper’s demographic and geographic attributes with supermarket store choice behaviour and 2) to examine the effect of shopper’s demographic, geographic and psychographic attributes on segmenting the food and grocery retail consumers towards supermarket stores. The study is purely based on primary data collected from 1040 retail customers from sixty five supermarkets through mall intercept survey method using structured and non-disguised questionnaire in twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad in Andhrapradesh in India. Both descriptive and inferential statistical tools have been used to test the statistical significance. The findings revealed that shopper’s age, monthly household income, family size, distance travelled to store, gender, education, occupation, lifestyle factors and shopping motives have been the significant predictors of supermarket store choice behaviour. The findings also

India has already proven its mettle as a superpower in the arena of information technology. The retail industry offers to bloom to the same level of conducive environment and support is provided to it. ‘Retail is detail’ is the mantra and without effective use of IT, managing a successful retail enterprise could be quite impossible. Retailers and their vendors are now able to transfer data between themselves through the use of Electronic Data Interchange technology. This article divulges the significance and applications of EDI technology from management perspective that facilitates almost paperless transactions with high levels of efficiency in retail industry

Indian retailing is one of the largest fragmented and the least organized industries. The knocks of the organized retailers have posed threats to the existence of unorganized small retail shoppers. A study with its objective to explore the adopted promotional strategies, customer retention measures and patronizing shop strategies has been carried out. The results of the study have been analyzed using a survey data of 200 small retail shoppers they have been selected through convenient sampling and reveal that sales of small shoppers are declining. 78 and 67 percent of grocery and apparel shoppers respectively offer credit facility to their customers. 98 and 67 percent of grocery and apparel shoppers respectively offer credit facility to their customers. 98 percent small shoppers have attracted customers by offering better quality goods. Information obtained from a sample of 200 customer visitors of the sampled retail shop reveals that 78 percent customers have patronized the grocery shops because of credit facility and 82 percent due to better quality and home delivery. In case of Bakery, some 90 percent customers patronize the shop because of quality products. The study also reveals that the personal behaviour of small retail shoppers play a vital role to retain customers. Retailers use flexibility in terms of Customer Retention Strategies and modify them with changing circumstances and conditions of organized retailers so as to meet the challenges of the competitive enviro