Relationship between the retail shopping behavior (RSB) of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and business performance (BP) in Ampara coastal belt (ACB), eastern province (EP) of Sri Lanka (SL)

Abstract

Retail shopping behavior of fast moving consumer goods refers to the behavior of retail shoppers towards fast moving consumer goods. Because a large number of retailers are exploring opportunities locally and internationally retailers have to be aware of their shoppers. Therefore, this study tries to identify type of retail shoppers; to know motives or reasons for retail shopping; to find out retailers' opinion about retail outlet environment; to identify availability of brands for retail shoppers and to know the relationship between shopping behavior and business performance. 120 retail shoppers who shop from retail stores which are located in Ampara Coastal Belt were selected in this study. It identified that of different types of shoppers, 75%, 71%, 71% and 65% were economic shoppers, nonpersonal shoppers, nonethical shoppers and nonapathetic shoppers. Shoppers ask for price when shopping. Retail shoppers did not shop from relatives' groceries & grocer. They did not willfully shop from grocer. They thought the proximity rather than relatedness. 98% of the shoppers shopped for convenience location (proximity) motives or reasons. Shoppers opined that 76% of shoppers did not get courteous help from store personnel. 100% shopped for nice decor. 61 % of shoppers felt uninterestingly when they entered into grocery. 67% of shoppers opined that stores had not a wide range of product i.e. choices. 62% expressed that groceries did not sell goods at low price. These were the opinions of shoppers regarding retail outlet environment. In case of availability of brands for retail shoppers, 72% of groceries had not quality products. 76% of stores did not have available alternative brands. 58% of shoppers were not brand loyalist. Finally, the relationship between shopping behavior and business performance were tested using bivariate correlation. Correlation analysis has been carried out as bivariate analysis after data reduction technique of PCA. Values of Pearson r correlation between type of shopper, motives for shopping, retail store environment, product variable and business performance are 0.447, 0.153, 0.091 and 0.254. It shows that all variable have poor relationships since the values are below 0.5.