Differences in shopping mall patrons: An Indian context

Transcription

1 Differences in shopping mall patrons: An Indian context *Vipul Pare, Geoffrey Atkinson, Thanh Tung Ha, Ehrenberg Bass Institute for Marketing Science. University of South Australia. Abstract This paper examines the extent to which shopping mall visitors classified on the basis of gender and main purpose of visit differ from each other in terms of behavior. The results indicate that men visit mall more frequently but mainly for recreational purposes. Female functional shoppers visit malls more frequently than male functional shoppers and a high proportion of them are browsers. The research suggests that inclusion of motive alongside gender as a demographic variable provides a useful method of examining mall shoppers behavior. Keywords: Shopping malls, Consumer profiling, Indian retail Introduction India has experienced an exciting time of growth in the retail sector in the last decade (Patel & Sharma, 2009; Khare 2011). Hofstede (1980) defined Indian society as a collective society where individual see themselves as an integral part of a collective group such as family, friends or colleagues. Rising incomes, influence of consumerism and wide availability of products and services at single locations such as malls have had an impact on the buying behavior of Indian consumers. Shopping malls are no longer associated with only shopping but have instead become places to meet friends, watch movies, eat, browse casually and so on. With the wide variety of activities available in a shopping mall it becomes important for retailers and mall administrators to understand the extent to which shopping mall behavior, such as number of visits to shopping malls and time spent per visit, is related to shoppers demographic profile. The study further classifies mall visitors with respect to the main motives of their visit and examines the extent to which such classified groups of mall visitors differ from each other in terms of behavior. The findings would benefits retailers and mall administrators in many ways, including the following: a) It will enable managers to design their marketing activities with the aim of converting footfalls into actual money spend. b) It will provide a better understanding of the mixture of customers present in the mall. Demographics, Motives and Mall Behavior Demographic characteristics are easily measureable and identifiable segmentation variables (Kotler, Brown et al 2011). Within demographic characteristics, gender has been one of the most important variables especially when examining differences in shopping behavior (Otnes and McGrath 2001). It was traditionally perceived that shopping was mainly a female type task (Pierre 1957 cited in Bellinger et al 1977). Although gender roles have changed in today s metropolitan societies (Fisher & Arnold 1994), research has reported differences in shopping behavior between genders (Otnes and McGrath 2001; Kuruvilla & Ranjan, 2007). (Otnes and McGrath 2001, p113) state that describing shopping as a gendered activity is now seen to be

2 an oversimplification, therefore, in order to further understand the correlation between gender and shopping, it is important to consider or combine other shopping related variables with gender. In this study, we first examine gender differences individually and then combine gender with the motive of the visit and report the extent to which behavior differs. With respect to the motives for shopping in a mall, previous literature (Hawkins et al, 2009; Ballenger & Korgaonkar 1980; Roy 1994; Jarboe & McDanial, 1987; Shim, 1996, Kuruvilla et al, 2009) classifies shoppers into the three broad categories: functional shoppers, recreational shoppers and browsers. Functional shoppers are those who have utilitarian shopping motives. They tend to visit malls mainly to make purchases. Browsers and recreational shoppers, on the other hand, tend to visit malls without a planned purchase purpose. Recreational shoppers come to a mall as part of their leisure activity, whereas browsers visit malls, with little planned purpose, but do purchases items of interest once found. This classification is used and studied widely because it identifies strong and distinctive characteristics among shoppers. This study explores these three groups of shoppers alongside the demographic variable of gender in terms of frequency of their visits and time spent in a mall per visit. These two variables, frequency of visits and time spent have been used in many studies to understand behavior of mall shoppers (e.g. Roy 1984; Pan et al 2006; Kuruvilla and Joshi 2010). Literature review and Research questions Gender and mall behaviour This research partly replicates (Kuruville and Joshi 2010) by examining the correlation between gender and shopping malls. However, we extend the research by examining combinations of motive of patronage and gender and their relationship with mall behavior. Kuruvilla & Ranjan (2009) found that there is no significant difference between gender and time spent in mall. Nevertheless, they found that men visited malls more often than women. On the other hand, Dholakia, Pedersen and Hikmet (1995) stated that the ratio of shopping center usage between women and men is 2:1; therefore, shopping malls often seem to appeal more to women. Functional shoppers and mall behavior Functional shoppers make a shopping trip when they want to complete a purchase goal (Bellenger, Robertson, & Greenberg, 1977). Studies suggested that functional shoppers spend less time than other type of shoppers because they know their needs and allocate time to shop (Roy, 1994). Additionally, functional shoppers tend to go shopping less frequently than others. With respect to gender, the literature is divided when it comes to functional shoppers. Babin et al (1994) and Babin et al (2001) suggested that women are hedonistic shoppers. Hu and Jasper (2003) adds support to the argument by concluding that women are less likely to go shopping with a purchase purpose. On the other hand, some studies showed that women consider shopping a serious task and use time as efficiently as possible. Therefore, they are extremely functional shoppers (Laermans, 1993). With respect to men, it seems that most men enter malls with mainly non-utilitarian motives (Babin et al, 1994). Recreational shoppers and mall behavior The main shopping motive of recreational shoppers is hedonistic shopping. This group of shopping mall visitors includes shoppers who are looking for fun, leisure and

3 social interaction (Bellinger etal 1977; Bellinger and Kargaonkar 1980). Therefore, they are likely to spend more time in the mall as compared to the other groups. With respect to the gender divide of recreational shoppers, Bellinger and Kargaonkar (1980) found that women are more likely to be recreational shoppers than men. Nevertheless, there has been significant social change since 1980s and therefore, a present-day research is in order. In addition, (Babin et al, 1994) come to a contradictory conclusion, indicating that men are mainly non-utilitarian shoppers. This suggests that they are more likely to be placed within the recreational shoppers group. Browsers and mall behavior Browsers can be seen as similar to window-shoppers but involving the desire to make a purchase (Jarboe & McDaniel, 1987). Therefore, this group of mall visitors does not plan to shop but does buy something in an unplanned manner if they like it. With respect to gender differences, Dennis and McCall (2005) found that women spend twice as long in a shop as men and are more likely to be browsers. Men tend to go straight to what they want in the mall in a purposeful way (Reid and Brown, 1996; Campbell, 1997; Dholakia, 1999). This research examines these findings in the context of an Indian mall. In light of the above discussions, the research questions are: RQ1: Is there a difference in shopping mall behavior, that is, the frequency of visits and time spent per visit between genders? RQ2: Is there a notable divide between gender with respect to motive of visit? That is, is a particular gender more likely to be a functional, recreational or browsing shopper? RQ3: Are male functional shoppers different from female functional shoppers in terms of the frequency of visits and time spent per visit? RQ4: Are male recreational shoppers different from female recreational shoppers in terms of the frequency of visits and time spent per visit? RQ5: Are male browsers different from female browsers in terms of the frequency of visits and time spent per visit? Data and Method Exit interviews were conducted to collect the data. The sample was collected in Mumbai, India with a total of 600 respondents, of which 400 were usable. The survey was carried out in 4 different malls of the city. Out of 400 respondents, 195 were female and 205 male. The questionnaire consisted of questions related to the customer s shopping motives, actual behavior in the shopping mall and demographics. The respondents were also asked to identify the main purpose of their visit on most occasions. It was a single response question that helped us to classify them according to specific patronage motive. Behavioral variables included frequency of visits and average time spent in the mall per visit. Those respondents who indicated that they visit mall at least once a week or at least once a fortnight formed the first group deemed as frequent visitors, those who visited the mall once a month or once in two months formed the second group and those who indicated that they visited a mall once in a quarter or six months time formed the third group. Cross-tabulations were used to derive results. The chi-square test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to test the significance of difference in groups.

4 Results Table 1 shows that men visit shopping mall at a higher rate of frequency than women. In addition, a higher percentage of women visit a mall once a month or once in two months. On an average woman spend slightly more time in the mall as compared to men. The results are statistically significant as indicated in the table. Table 1: Gender, frequency of visits* and time spent per visit** Gender At least once a fortnight or more (%) Once in a month or two (%) Once in a quarter or six months (%) Average hours spent per visit** Male (n=205) Female (n=195) *** p is significant at level, ** p is significant at 0.05 level; * p is significant at 0.10 level Table 2: Gender and main purpose of visit** Gender Functional (%) Recreational (%) Browsers (%) Others (%) Total (%) Male (n=205) Female (n=195) *** p is significant at level, ** p is significant at 0.05 level; * p is significant at 0.10 level When gender is related to the purpose of visit, the results suggests that a notably higher percentage of men come to mall for recreational purposes while a significantly higher percentage of women visit the mall for browsing purpose. With respect to functional motives, the divide between the two genders is not markedly different. Therefore, the results show that recreational shoppers are mainly men and browsers are mainly women whereas both men and women are equally divided with respect to functional shopping. Next, the research combines each motive with gender and examines behavior. Due to limitations of space, the three tables (4, 5 and 6) representing group, male/female functional shoppers, male/female recreational shoppers and male/female browsers are presented first and a combined discussion follows. Table 3: Shopping mall behavior of the three main type of shopping mall visitor Motives Gender Frequency of visit (%) Functional *** Recreational *** Browser Male (n=78) Female (n=80) Male (n=66) Female (n=35) At least once a fortnight or more (%) Once in a month or two (%) Once in a quarter or six months (%) Total (%) Avg. time spent per visit ** ** *** *** Male (n=33) Female (n=47) *** p is significant at level, ** p is significant at 0.05 level; * p is significant at 0.10 level

5 Continuing from table 2, which showed that about 40% of shoppers of either gender indicated that their main motive of visit to malls is functional or shopping oriented, of those 40%, female functional shoppers visit malls comparatively more frequently (23%) as shown in table 3. With respect to hours spent per visit; the two groups spend a relatively similar average number of hours per visit. Table 2 shows that male recreational shoppers were almost twice the number of female recreational shoppers (32% to 18%), while table 3 indicates that a majority of recreational shoppers of both genders visits malls at a high frequency. Table 2 also shows that a comparatively high proportion of women belong to the browsing group. Table 3 shows that in terms of frequency of visits and time spent, the proportion of male and female browsers are equally divided. Discussion and Implications The main findings in relation to research questions are: a) Men visit malls slightly more frequently than women. Women spend slightly more time in malls compared to men. b) There is a notable divide with respect to recreational and browsing shoppers in terms of gender profile. A comparatively large proportion of men are recreational shoppers whereas a comparatively large proportion of women are browsers. c) A comparatively high proportion of female functional shoppers visits malls at least once a fortnight whereas a comparatively high proportion of male functional shoppers visit malls at least once in six-months. There is no significant difference in terms of time spent in a mall by both these groups. d) More than 80% of male and female recreational shoppers visit a mall at least once a fortnight or more. The difference between the two groups in terms of time spent per visit is significant, where male recreational shoppers spent more time per visit. e) There is no significant difference between male and female browsers with respect to visit to a mall or average time spent in the mall per visit. These two findings show that although men visit mall more frequently then women, they are mainly recreational shoppers. The comparatively large proportion of women being browsers indicates that women make more purchases than men. This knowledge has implications in respect to placement of stores and promotional activities. This research adds to the knowledge of shopping mall behavior by extending the concept of combined profiling of shopping mall visitors. It provides greater insight into the more complex gender profiles by not only comparing to shopping mall behaviour but also purchase motivation. Finally, most of the study on malls is mainly from the European context, while this study is an attempt to bring evidence from a new growing market. An extensive study covering more cities across the country for generalized result will follow in future research. In addition, the research acknowledges that other demographic variables such as age and income need to be included in future studies for a comprehensive conclusion.

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