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1. Introduction
The Indian retail sector is expanding and undergoing rapid transformation. The BMI India Retail Report ([5] BMI, 2011) estimates a growth in the total retail sales from US$411 billion in 2011 to US$804 billion by 2015. The report forecasts that sales through mass grocery retail outlets will increase by 126 per cent to reach US$60 billion by 2015. It also predicts an average annual GDP growth of 8 per cent from 2011 through 2015. Organised retail in India grew at a compound annual growth rate of 19.5 per cent from 2004-2007 ([17] ICRIER, 2008). It is expected to increase from 5 per cent of the total retail market in 2008 to 14-18 per cent by 2015 ([21] McKinsey, 2008). This growth is due to India's rapid shift from small independent retailers ("mom-and-pop stores") to large organised outlets such as the supermarket, departmental store, hypermarket, discount store, cash-and-carry centre and specialty store. To tap this growing market, many domestic players such as Reliance Retail, Bharti Retail and Pantaloon Retail, and multinational companies such as Wal-mart, Carrefour and Tesco are investing heavily in different formats of the Indian retail sector. The current debate on FDI in retailing in India makes the scenario more attractive for understanding the market structure in terms of consumer segments.
Amongst the various retail formats, hypermarkets have been the most successful format in India. The total organised retail grew by 17.4 per cent in 2005-2006, while the Indian hypermarket segment grew at a much faster pace of 37.2 per cent during the same period ([8] Cygnus Business Consulting & Research, 2007). The trend has continued over the past few years. The hypermarket business accounts for more than 60 per cent of the turnover of India's largest retailer, Pantaloon Retail, which has multi-format businesses including supermarkets and departmental stores ([23] Mukherjee, 2009). A total of 30 per cent of the new investment in retail is expected to be in the hypermarket segment ([24] Northbridge Capital, 2011). Most of the announcements of expansions by leading players such as Bharti, Aditya Birla Retail, Spencers and Carrefour are in this format. In this scenario, it is imperative for retailers to know what drives Indian consumers to hypermarkets. Many studies have developed taxonomies of shoppers based...