Saturday, May 11, 2013

LADIES' PURCHASE INTENTION DURING RETAIL SHOES SALES PROMOTION




Fashion shoes industry is completely driven by constant idea and new inspirations. Shoes fashions are fluctuate due to many designs and demands. (Sajid.M.Tamboli, 2008). Ladies especially are more involved in fashion buying than that of older consumers. According to O’Cass (2000), females are more involved in fashion clothing than males. When it comes to buying behavior, female are happy through sprawling clothing, shoes, and accessory collections in the retail outlet. The male has a different buying behavior.  According to the new Wharton research, in the study titled, “Men Buy, Women Shop,” found that male are out to buy a targeted item and flee the store as quickly as possible. The research also indicates that women react more strongly than men to personal interaction with sales associates while men are more likely to respond to more aspects of the experience. To support, Robert Price, Chief Marketing Officer at CVS Caremark stated that female tend to be more invested in the buying experience on any dimension. Namita, Subodh, and Akanksha (2012) have agreed that female attitude towards shopping seems very positive. They view the buying as a fun, satisfying, hedonic, and joyful activity.

Female buying behavior can be related to sales promotions. Sales promotions are direct inducements to the consumer to make a purchase. A sales promotion gets people to pick the product up at retail and try it by offering something concrete (www.answers.mheducation.com). In sum, most sales promotions are oriented at changing consumers’ especially female purchase behavior.
How does a sales promotion give impact to female buying behavior? The article ‘Ladies’ purchase intention during retail shoes sales promotions sets out to answer the question.
The researchers highlighted that there at least six sales promotions yearly in Malaysia. Warehouse sales, stock clearance and annual sales and anniversary promotions are the sales promotions example in Malaysia. Additional to sales promotion, reported from the article that shoes are promoted as festive season products in all shopping mall. Dato’ Jimmy Choo is the famous local designer who has made a name internationally. Recent news, a young local shoes designer, Vinky Hor won over 12 judges with her ladies’ boots design (Loshana, 2012).
As mentioned in the title of the article, the purpose of the study was to examine the ladies’ buying behavior during shoes sales promotions in Malaysia by using Belk’s Model. The article begins with the literature review on the Belk’s Model which hypothesis was derived. Then followed by research methodology and finally the findings were discussed and recommendations proposed.
The literature review was briefed. Belks’(1975) situational factors such as physical and social surrounding, task definition, temporal perspectives and sales promotions and ethnic group were discussed. The researchers highlighted that the said model was tested across different countries to indicate the different of buying behavior among shoppers. Hong Kong, US and China have been stated as an example. Annually sales promotions hold by most countries and during the events, retail shops normally create the friendly ambiance to customer such as different décor, music, and discount voucher. Moreover, organized retail outlets, malls, fit, and look are some of the factors which impact the buying behavior. Arising from the Belks’ model, the researchers had added literature review to the said model situational factor. First factor is social surroundings. From the past literature, the researcher found there is a correlation between time spent and with social companion. Other than that, the researchers identified that some buyers are enjoy shopping alone while others are enjoy shopping with family, friends, and mate. As a result, hypotheses were stated. The hypotheses were: (H1) There is a positive relationship between shoppers with friends and purchase intention during sales promotion. Second factors are Temporal perspective. The study found that there are two categories in this factor. First is sales period and second are time spend. The first category comprises into three sales period which are early shoppers, non-rush shoppers, and last minute shoppers while time spend comprise of availability of sales assistant. Hence, the hypothesis was stated: (H2) There is a significant relationship between shoppers spending time during sales promotions. Task definitions are the third factor. At sum, hypothesis was stated that (H3) There is a significant relationship between buyers meeting shopping tasks and purchase intention during sales promotion. Next factors are Physical surrounding. The study found (H4) there is a positive relationship between physical environment of the retail store and purchase intention during sales promotion. The good elements such as layout, decors, product display, lighting, music, and ambiance give high exposure rates to the buyers’ views. The last factors discussed were sales promotions and ethnic group. The hypothesis was stated that (H5) There is a moderating effect of ethnic groups on social surrounding, temporal perspective, task definition, physical surrounding, and purchase intention during sales promotion.
For methodology, female buyer has been chosen as research sample. The female buyers are chosen from different background of races. The researchers used a questionnaire survey approach. There are two sections in the questionnaire given. There is Section A which focused on demographic of buyers while section B used a five-point Likert scale. Belks’ Model was used as the element to the questionnaire. The researchers also highlighted that 300 questionnaires were distributed to students and administrative staff at different faculties. To add, judgment sampling was used in the data collected.
The results and findings of the study were reported briefly. Demographic of female buyers are analyzed by using descriptive statistic analysis. The results indicate that 69.3% of female buyers belong to students and 27.1% belongs to university staff while another 3.5% belongs to lecturers.  Among the races, Chinese was at the top with 58.6% and followed by other ethnic, Malay with 31.1%, and Indian and other ethnic group with 10.3%. When female buyers annual income was analyzed, 18.7% belongs to university staff and lecturer which monthly income are above RM 3000.00 and 40.3% belongs to students which monthly allowance below RM 500.00. Further, half of the respondents reported that would buy at least 1 pair of shoes. It also observed the hypotheses by using multiple linear regressions.
Then the discussion and recommendation were take part. Analysis of the collected data revealed that at least 30.7% of the variance in sales promotions purchase is explained by Belks’ situational factors of social surrounding, temporal perspective, task definition, and physical surrounding. In this research, the prime focus is on female buyers to analyze and evaluate their purchase behavior during retail shoe sales promotions. For the first factors, temporal perspective, the results show the buyers tend to be early shopper rather than last minute shoppers. This is due to the shoe design selection. Study also revealed that the distance from buyers home to the mall influence buyer’s choice of mall. The study also revealed that female buyers enjoy shopping at the mall with the good environment with music and large retail shoe store. This relates to the second factor of Belks’ situational factor which is Physical surrounding.  It was also found that money is the significant factor in the task definition factors.
From the study, there are some limitations during the study was conducted. The study revealed that the results are not generalisable to other demographic factor in female groups such as age above 31, education level, and others. Second, the different results will get if the respondent are intercepted immediately after shopping. However, from the limitation of the study, the researchers provide some tips for the future researcher.
In summary, the researcher has described purpose of the study, literature review, research methodology, data analysis, including the discussion and recommendation and conclusion. There are several weaknesses in the study. The number of respondents did not mention and no problem statement was discussed. Hence, to make the study more conclusive, more research in the subject from the different angles to be carried out.

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