Content area
Full Text
Consumer behaviour is a challenging job for researchers. It includes buying behaviour of end consumer and the factors that affect consumer in their brand choice. The purpose of this study was to investigate those constructs which governs consumers ' buying decisions and their potential underlying factors. International as well as national apparel marketers are always uncertain about factors influencing consumer buying behaviour in apparels. The paper attempts to study how consumers make judgments when picking between apparel product alternatives. Furthermore, based on an extensive literature review, few constructs are identified i.e, demographic, psychographic and internal characteristics of buyers that influences consumer behaviour. The findings from this study gives valuable insights to academic practitioners and clothing marketers about consumers' decision making practices in terms of ready to wear apparels. In addition, they also provide basis for academic practitioners for investigating consumer decision making styles in a more comprehensive manner.
Keywords: Consumer Behavior, Consumer Decision Making, Apparels, Retailing, Shopping Behavior.
INTRODUCTION
Research in organized retail market specifically apparel retail market has mainly focused on European and western countries. Further, India is an emerging market of the future and offers tremendous research potential given its uniqueness and diversity in terms of economic, social, demographic and cultural issues. In India, most of the studies are focused on food and grocery items. Hence, there was an extensive scope to conduct study in apparel retail category. The findings of the study are projected to benefit retailers as well as manufacturers in formulating diverse marketing strategies related to apparel category. This study will help retailers and manufacturers to have better idea of the consumers thus, would help to develop better marketing strategies, once they recognize the buying behaviour of their consumers.
LITERATURE REVIEW
CONSUMER PREFERENCES
Consumer preferences are defined as the individual tastes measured by utility of various bundles of goods. They permit the consumer to rank these bundles of goods according to the levels of utility they give the consumer. It is found that preferences are independent of income and prices, ability to purchase goods does not determine a consumer's likes or dislikes. This is used primarily to mean an option that has the greatest anticipated value among a number of options. Preference and acceptance can in certain circumstances mean...