Dynamics of Buyer Behavior – A New Trend towards Omni Channel Shopping and Retailing

Abstract

The future of retail will not be online only, it will comprise of a convergence of channels both offline as well as online. The Omnichannel retail revolution is being discussed extensively. With e- commerce growing the retail market place is the combination of channels which is the driving force for the future. Most of the developed countries have moved from brick and mortar to online. Although the retail stores continue to remain important forproviding customer experience. There has been a new generation wave of possibilities for the Onmichannel companies to understand the opportunities for the consumer providing a holistically view of the customers - keeping in mind that the whole idea should be frictionless for the customer towards his shopping experience. Research conducted Big Commerce.com and Boston Consulting Group and Hybris have shared, that 94% of retailers are struggling to become an omni channel company – due to the ongoing challenges. The motivation behind the research is to analyse the buying habits of the Indian consumer across various retail formats and to understand whether the Indian retailer are ready for Omni Channel by adopting the new marketing technologies.  The research undertaken towards the study for the retailer and the consumer includes personal interviews and web interviews to undertake the same. The sample undertaken was to interview four of the largest retailers - the top management key decision makers to understand the changing roles in technology and marketing – to understand the interests of the customer from its core. Panels of 2519 respondents were studied across 100 cities in India. Input and reactions were concentrated from the retailers about Mar Tech Investment towards the association between customer desires for Omni channel and retailer attitude. The paper provides how Indian retailers are expected to redesign their brick and mortar stores to be an Omni channel hub and develop their customer related capabilities towards personalization of customer behavior patterns.