Consumer Behavior towards Organized Apparel Retail Industry in Bangladesh

A Study on Consumer Behavior towards Organized Apparel Retail Industry in Bangladesh

Md. Shahidur Rahman
Managing Director
SHAFA Sourcing
E-mail: shahinrsp@gmail.com

Executive Summary
The report represents the three-month working experience on Silver Line Group. I was assigned in the Factory & Head Office. This report gives a clear idea of the Consumer Behavior towards Organized Apparel Retail Industry in Bangladesh. Silver Line Group incorporated in 2004 and being into textile operation on 2013 with a view to provide spinning, fabric, dyeing, printing & apparel facilities to its client and accordingly meet the demand of garments & textile section in all over the world. During the short span of its operation the textile & garments sector had been widely impact in Bangladeshi Economy.

It is argued however, that any study of Consumer Behavior towards Organized Apparels Retails Industry in Bangladesh as like Fashion House, Purchasing House, Trading House, Shopping Mall, & few Brand Outlet are focusing on behavior of consumer & as will definitely help me a lot in building my future career in textile & apparel sector.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction
Consumer behavior is the systematic study of the processes consumers’ procedure to select, secure, use and dispose of goods and services that satisfy their needs. Understanding of consumer behavior directly influence marketing strategy (Anderson et al, 2005). That’s why the marketing concept, i.e., the idea that firms exist to gratify customer needs (Winer, 2000). Firms can gratify those needs only to way to extent that they understand their customers. That’s why, marketing strategies must incorporate knowledge of consumer behavior into whole aspect of a strategic marketing plan (Solomon, 2002).

1.1 Background
One of the basic necessities of human being is apparel. This basic necessity to cover the body has leaped to fashion and lifestyles with growing advancement in human civilization. The growing demand of apparel for clothing as well as fashion consciousness among various socio-economic background of population around the world and in Bangladesh is linked with the success of the apparel retailing sector. “Apparel is a highly symbolic product category due to its high visibility. The Apparel Industry reflects people’s lifestyles and shows their social and economic status” (Bhanot S, 2013).

The apparel retail industry consists of the sale of all male’s wear, female’s wear and children’s wear. The male’s and female’s cloth market includes male’s active wear, casual wear, essentials, formal wear, formal wear-occasion and outerwear. The children’s cloth market includes baby clothing, boy’s active wear, boy’s casual wear, boy’s essentials, boy’s formal wear, boy’s formal wear-occasion, boy’s outerwear, girl’s active wear, girl’s casual wear, girl’s essentials, girl’s formal wear-occasion, girl’s outer wear and toddler clothing (Chandra, P., 1998).

1.1.1 Retailing and retail sector in Bangladesh
Retailing has been one of the oldest trade practices in Bangladesh. Traditional retailing practices include weekly fairs etc. fair price shops of public distribution system is a large retail network managed and controlled by the government. The onset of the twenty first century saw tremendous growth in organized and modern retail outlets. There have been many different formats that have come up in Bangladeshi retail scenario. These formats include department stores, hypermarkets, supermarkets, discount stores, boutiques etc. specialty stores is another format that has become popular. There are specialty stores for electronic and white goods, jewelry, footwear, and apparel (Prasad, 2014).

Organized retail has been growing in Bangladesh since the beginning of the new millennium. This growth in organized retail is facilitated by growth in the Bangladeshi economy spurred by the government of Bangladesh policy of liberalization, privatization and globalization of Bangladeshi economy since early 2010s and subsequent rise in income levels and surplus money among Bangladeshi public. As a result Bangladeshis, especially middle and upper middle class are psychologically and economically ready to pamper the growth in organized retail. This growth in Bangladeshi organized retail is led by chain stores like shoppers stop and lifestyle that are largely fashion and apparel retailers (Prasad, 2014).

1.2 Apparel retail sector in Bangladesh
Apparels have the largest share of organized retail in Bangladesh. The seeds of today’s modern apparel retail industry were sown in the 2010s during the process of economic liberalization, when a new breed of modern retailers like Yellow, Zara, Menz Klub and Infinity opened stores in different parts of the country. This period also saw the development of Bangladesh’s first shopping malls. Starting with Bashundhara City Shopping Complex in Dhaka, 2004, the arrival of this new retail environment transformed the experience for consumers and created a new platform for the growth of modern retailers. In today’s scenario Bangladeshi apparel retailers are competing increasingly against other organized players as well as the unorganized sector.

Apparel retailers have taken lead in the retail revolution. Apparel and fashion products are way different from other products. These products are characterized by short life cycles and high product turnover. The consumer purchasing behavior of apparel and fashion products is also different (Prasad, 2014).

The female’s wear market in Bangladesh is an exciting example that proves the inherent differences within a consumer group. The wardrobe of urban woman could include the best of the international brands along with the local unbranded/street fashion. On one hand, the urban woman could be found dressed in the traditional sarees and on the other, she could be in latest western wear fashion items like dresses and denim. This inherent heterogeneity of the market requires the apparel retailer to micro-segment the market so that the individualities and exclusivity in consumer purchasing patterns of each micro-segment could be understood and product proposing could be tailored to the specific needs of the micro-segments (Gugnani Amit and Sakshi Chhillar 2016).

1.3 Consumer purchasing behavior in organized retail market
Consumer behavior is associated with the culture and economy of a country. There is a need to research on the purchasing behavior of consumers in organized retail market, as they play the pivotal role to bring the success of any business. In order to research on purchasing behavior of consumers in organized retail market, there is a need to understand the consumer purchasing behavior.

Consumer purchasing behavior study is of, how individuals spend their available resources on consumption-related items. It includes the study of what they buy, why they buy it, when they buy it, where they buy it, how often they buy it, and how often they use it (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004).

Nowadays companies are more worried on individual consumer behavior. By yield information, helps them about how the consumers think, feel and choose their products. Every individual is consumer. Consumer behavior is the study of the processes involved when individual or groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of the product, service, ideas or experiences to satisfy needs and desires. The study of consumer behavior will help to explain such type of purchasing behavior. Furthermore consumer and buyer behavior is in fact an ongoing process, not merely indicates the interaction between consumers and producers at the time of purchase but it includes various stages in the consumption process: pre purchase issue, purchase issues and post purchase issues. (Solomon, 2013, p. 32).

The starting point of understanding purchasing behavior is the stimulus response model. Marketing and environment stimuli enter the buyer’s consciousness. The buyer’s characteristic and decision process leads to certain purchase decision. A consumer’s purchasing behavior is influenced by cultural, social and personal factors (Kotler, 2003).

Female value unique products and brands that they can use to express their uniqueness. Females actively seek new styles and fashion trends to a larger extent than male. Female are more sensitive to clothing needs and possess a greater clothing awareness than male.

Radha and Shylajan (2007) proposed a conceptual model and considered the influence of various marketing and demographic factors on consumers’ habitual purchasing behavior towards branded articles. But identification of factors, presence of which indulges consumers to go for organized retail apparel brands are still left unturned.

1.4 Definition of the terms used in the research topic

Apparel: Apparel refers to a covering for the human body that is worn. The working of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies. The amount and type of clothing worn depends on physical, social and geographical considerations (Bajaj, Chetan, Tuli Rajnish and Nidhi Srivastava 2008).

Retail and Retailing: The word ‘retail’ is derived from the French word ‘retailer’, which means ‘to cut a piece off’ or ‘to break bulk’. Retail is any business that directs it marketing efforts towards satisfying the final consumer based upon the organization of selling goods and services as means of distribution. The term ‘retailing’ is derived from the old French word ‘retailer’ meaning ‘a piece of’ or ‘to cut up’. This can be applied to the functions carried out by the retailer-acquiring whole stock of goods which they divide into smaller amounts which are sold to individual consumers. Retailing can be referred to all activities involved in marketing and distribution of goods and service.

The Bangladeshi retail industry is divided into organized and unorganized sectors. Organized retailing refers to retail chains and hypermarkets which are owned by large private retail businesses; whereas, unorganized retailing is the traditional format of low-cost retailing (The Economist 2008).

Organized retail sector: Organized retail sector refers to the sectors undertaken by licensed retailers, that is, those who are registered for tax on moveable commodities at times of sales under VAT system. At present the name of the tax is commerce tax. These include the corporate retail formats of the exclusive brand outlets, hypermarkets, departmental stores and shopping malls.

Consumer: Consumers are individuals and households who buy goods and services for personal consumption (Kotler, 2003).

Consumer behavior: Consumer behavior is defined as a study of responses by individual towards a product or service (Kardes, 2001).

1.5 Statement of the problem
Consumers’ purchasing behavior has drawn a considerable attention of the earlier researchers. Its impact on designing marketing strategies also became the part of a sizeable number of studies. But, while reviewing the literature on buyer behavior as well as retail marketing, only microscopic number of studies has been found available that analyzes how consumer behavior functions in retail market. Recurrent change in lifestyle also dictates a continuous variability in the fashion preference of consumers giving organized retailers a wide scope of opportunity to appear with newer fashion apparels. Various factors like increasing family income, changing lifestyle, development of Information technology, working female have led to the changing consumer behavior. In view of the immense and colorful growth of apparel segment at such rapid pace, the proposed study is intended to keep confined only to the organized apparel retailing. Hence, the study will consider all these factors and will analyze its impact on the apparel purchase from organized retail stores.

Considering the importance of the study in Bangladesh, it was proposed to conduct the study of consumer behavior towards organized apparel retail industries in the Dhaka, Chattogram and Khulna cities have heterogeneous population with diverse cultural, traditional, religious and economic background for conducting the data collection are fasted. The study will make a contribution towards a comprehensive understanding of the Bangladeshi apparel retail market. The study can be a great help to retail industries, academicians, business school students, researchers, etc. With the output of the study, the retail industry players will be of the help as to what factors influence the consumers for selection of the retail outlet, what is the awareness level of consumers with regard to different retail outlets, what promotional strategies influence the consumer’s decision making process, etc.

1.6 Scope of the study

• The scope of the study will be limited to Apparel outlets in the Capital city namely, Dhaka of the Bangladesh.
• The study would be limited only to Casual Wear & Formal Wear, both in Male and Female Segment.

CHAPTER 2

Literature Review
Consumer behavior is the systematic study of the processes consumers’ procedure to select, secure, use and dispose of goods and services that gratify their needs. Understanding of consumer behavior directly affects marketing strategy (Anderson et al, 2005). For this reason the marketing concept, i.e., the idea that firms exist to gratify customer needs (Winer, 2000). Firms can gratify those needs only to way to extent that they understand their customers. For this reason, marketing strategies must incorporate knowledge of consumer behavior into whole facet of a strategic marketing plan (Solomon, 2002).

Shainesh (2004) in his study exposed that purchasing behavior in a business market is characterized by long cycle times, group decision making, participants from different functional areas and levels and occasionally divergent objectives, and changing characters of the participants during the purchasing cycle.

Mostafiz Uddin (2018) conducted a report on “Bangladesh RMG: Gains and pains in 2018”. In Bangladesh, RMG, the largest sector accounts for 30.61 Billion of total 33.66 Billion. RMG accounted for an estimated 83.49 percent of export during fiscal year of 2017-18.

Gender differences are detected as man adolescents show more favorable attitudes towards stores, greater consumer affairs knowledge, more acquisitive values, and stronger social motivations for consumption. On the other hand, female show more favorable attitudes towards advertising and score significantly higher on information looking for and cognitive differentiation measures. In general, woman kids have stronger influence in family purchase decisions and use influence strategies such as reasoning, asking, and persuading more repeatedly than boys (Schultz, M., & de Chernatony, L., 2002).

Law, Ka Ming Derry (2002), in a research on “The influences of fashion modification on the apparel-purchasing behavior of young generation in Hong Kong”, displayed that many young consumers enjoyed being fashionable, a high portion of them were fashion followers and many students fell into the categories of fashion opinion leaders. Regarding clothing satisfaction; partiality reflected highest variance among most of the subjects.

Visual refers attending, or affecting to the sense of sight, capable of being seen by the eye, optical, having the nature of or producing an image in the mind. Merchandising refers to promote the sale of, as by advertising or display. (Bloch, P. H., Brunel, F. F., and Arnold, T. J., 2003).

Unlike the western countries, where visual merchandising receives maximum priority in commercial planning of a product, the Bangladeshi industry understands and practice of the concept of visual merchandising is insufficient. This is the appropriate time that the Bangladeshi textile and clothing industry, understands and takes the scientific and professional system of visual merchandising rather than the traditional practices of display of products. (McCracken, G., 1986).

Price sensitivity is a vital aspect in the market today, as majority consumer would definitely prefer a product that is cheaper than a product which is above his budget. Although brand image comes into picture, but it’s the money quotient that plays the vital factor in the consumer behavior. It is the pricing of the product that stimuli the consumer to go ahead and pick up a product that he desires (Richins, M. L., and Dawson, S, 1992).

Sharma J. P. and Samar Sarabhai (2012) showed a research on “Factors Impacting Store Patronage and Format Choice in Utilitarian Retail”. This paper tried at understanding the relationship between grocery shopping behavior, retail format, and store choice.

2.1 Research gap
During reviewing the literature, it was noticed that a maximum of studies were done on consumer purchasing behavior towards apparel retail sectors in Bangladesh. However, a few studies were done on the gender specific buyer behavior and retail marketing, which analyze how gender specific consumer behavior functions in retail market exactly in the organized sector and also no similar study was happened in the Bangladesh. This is a research gap, which needs broad study. The aims to assess gender wise purchasing behavior of the consumers towards apparel organized retail industries and various factors influencing the purchasing behavior in the Bangladesh.

The research question and hypothesis evolved from the research gap identified in literature review.

2.2 Objectives:
The broad and specific objectives of the present thesis are as follows:

2.2.1 Broad objectives:
A study on consumer behavior towards organized apparel retail industry in Bangladesh.

2.2.2 Specific objectives:

• To study the demographic factors influencing the consumer purchasing behavior for apparels of two segments i.e. Male’s Segment and Female’s Segment.
• To identify the factors influencing the consumer behavior while selecting retail outlet.

2.3 Theoretical framework of the research
A theoretical framework is the behavior of consumer towards organized apparel retail stores has been developed (Figure-2.1) to understand the various factors influencing consumer purchasing behavior for apparels and selecting retail outlets. This framework backed in studying the consumer purchasing liking for apparel by gender and demographic profile and selecting retail outlets by age, education, occupation and family income.

CHAPTER 3

Methodology
The methodology of the present research at a glance is shown in Table-3.1.

3.1 Research design
Research design is the main path of a research that focuses on how the study is to be conducted. The present study is descriptive research design. Descriptive research design refer to the characteristics of relevant group, is more suitable in approximating the percentage of units in a stated population showing certain behavior, determining the perception of product characteristics, degree of association between various marketing variables and making specific predictions. This research design is pre-planned as well as well structured. The large sample size is required. Only quantitative methods of social research design was used to conduct the study.

Quantitative method: A survey was conducted to interview the consumers using a structured questionnaire.

Sample Size: The larger the sample is, the more likely that the generalizations are an accurate reflection of the population. From Dhaka city of Bangladesh, the consumers who had visited for purchasing apparels were approached and 120 were selected for interview on the basis of convenience sampling technique from various organized apparel retail shopping Malls. The selected consumers were interviewed personally using a structured questionnaire.

Sampling frame: The target population of the present study is the consumers of apparel organized retail stores and the sampling unit is the individuals.

Sampling technique: Convenience sampling technique was used to collect data through Mall by 5 point likert measurement scale. Convenience Sampling attempts to obtain a sample of convenient elements. Respondents are selected as they happen to be at the right place at the right time.

Table 3.1 Methodology of the study at a glance

3.2 Data sources

Secondary data: The Secondary Data has been collected from various books, magazines, newspapers, journals, websites, etc.

Primary data: The Primary Data was collected by survey of consumers who shop in retail apparel outlets through Mall Intercept Method.

6.3 Data collection tool
Qualitative data collection was designed to conduct the study. The designing of the tools for quantitative data collection, various literature were reviewed. Following tool was designed:

Quantitative tool
A close-ended structured tool was designed to interview the consumers. Based on the objectives of the research, the questionnaire was designed. All questions are standardized so that all respondents face the same questionnaire. The questionnaire used for this research is included in Annexure I. A five-point Likert-type scale ranging from ranging from least preferred or strongly disagree to most preferred or strongly agree was used in the questionnaire to measure each parameter contained within the composite variables. The tool was designed consisting of four parts:

• Part I consists frequency of retail store visit, type of apparel purchase, rating of store attributes and rating of salesmanship and courtesy.
• Part II consists of rating of promotional factors, ranking of promotional schemes and source of information about retail outlets.
• Part III consists of rating of statements on visual merchandising elements.
• Part IV consist of questions related to personal details of the respondents.

3.4 Data collection
The survey of the selected consumers who had visited the selected shopping malls for purchasing apparels were approached and the interview was conducted personally using a close-ended structured questionnaire.

The total period of data collection was three months, collected in the year 2019.

3.5 Data analysis
The data analysis in this study was undertaken via Statistical Package for the IBM SPSS Statistics 20 version. The primary data collected through questionnaire were entered in Excel sheet and was analyzed based on the tabulation plan, which included the following analysis techniques:

• Frequency, percentage tables
• Weighted mean of Likert-type scale was used to analyze the data related to the scale questions. The ratings were given from 1 to 5 on a Likert scale with 1 as lowest and 5 as highest.

CHAPTER 4

Findings
This chapter presents results of data collected from 120 consumers. The results of the study has been presented into two sections, as, (1) Demographic profile of the consumers and (2) Frequency of visit to apparel retail outlets and demographic factors influencing the consumer buying behavior for apparels.

4.1 Demographic profile of the consumers
In this section, an attempt is being made to study the demographic profile of 120 respondents interviewed by gender, age, education, occupation and by annual family income. Such an analysis helps in understanding the socio-economic background characteristics of the respondents and helps in category wise comparison.

4.1.1 Gender wise distribution of the respondents
Total 120 consumers were interviewed from Dhaka city. TABLE 4.1 shows that out of total sample, 62 (51.7 percent) were males and 58 (48.3 percent) were females. The male-female percentages of the present study is close to that of population of Bangladesh as per 2019. Out of total 168,954,790 population in Bangladesh 50.6 percent are males and 46.8 percent are females in 2019.

Table 4.1 Gender wise distribution of the respondents

4.1.2 Age group wise distribution of the respondents
In the questionnaire, the age-group was divided into five categories, as, below 18 years, 18-24 years, 25-34 years, 35-44 years and 45-60 years. These age- group categorization was done considering changeable apparel choice within a gap of ten years. TABLE 4.2 shows that most of the consumers interviewed belonged to the age group 35-44 years (40.0 percent). Other consumers belonged to the age groups 18-24 years (30.0 percent), below 18 years (17.5 percent), 25-34 years (11.7 percent) and only one (0.8 percent) belonged to the age group of 45-60 years.

The average age of the respondents was 32.5.

Table 4.2 Age group wise distribution of the respondents

4.1.3 Educational profile of the respondents
Literacy is considered as one of the main parameter of human development. The categorization of the educational background in the questionnaire was done as Upto class 12, Graduation, Post- graduation and Others. As expected, majority of the respondents (73.3 percent) were either graduates (43.3 percent) or post graduates (30.0 percent), since the data was collected in upcoming malls of the city. This was followed by those studied upto class 12 (15.0 percent) (TABLE 4.3). TABLE 4.3 Educational profile of the respondents

4.1.4 Occupational profile of the respondents
Like education, occupation and family income are the two important deciding demographic indicators for purchasing apparels. TABLE4.4 shows highest percentage of the respondents was students (27.5 percent), 25.0 percent were housewives or unemployed, 20.0 percent were engaged in business, 18.3 percent of the respondents were engaged in private service, 5.0 percent of the respondents were government employees and 4.2 percent of the respondents were self-employed or freelancers.

Table 4.4 Occupational profile of the respondents

4.1.5 Annual family income of respondents
In order to identify the consumers on the basis of purchasing affordability, they were categorized on the basis of annual family income. Income is a vital factor which Indian consumers have been found to be sensitive about while shopping for apparels. But to get correct information about family income in quick market survey is perplexing. Table 4.5 shows that the annual family income of highest percentage of the respondents was below BDT.1,50,000/- (27.5 percent), followed by 23.3 percent of the respondent’s family income per annum was BDT.3,00,001/- to BDT.4,50,000/-,

20.0 percent informed their annual family income as BDT.4,50,001/- to BDT.6,00,000/-, 15.8 percent belonged to the income category of BDT.1,50,001/- to BDT.3,00,000/- and 13.0 percent of the consumers interviewed belonged to the annual family income category of above BDT.6,00,000/-. The median annual family income of the respondents was reported to be BDT.3,00,001/- to BDT.4,50,000/-.

Table 4.5 Annual family income of respondents

4.2 Frequency of visit to apparel retail outlets and demographic factors influencing the consumer buying behavior for apparels
In this section, an attempt is being made to understand the frequency of visit by the consumers to apparel retail outlets and various demographic factors like gender, age, education, occupation and annual family income influencing the consumer buying behavior for apparels.

Demographic factors involves identification of who is responsible for the decision making or buying and who is the ultimate consumer.

4.2.1 Frequency of visit to organized apparel retail stores
On asking the question about how frequently do you visit the organized apparel retail stores, more than half of the respondents reported to visit once in a month (46.7 percent), followed by 17.5 percent of the respondents visit twice in a month (Table 4.6). Women purchase apparel more frequently than men, as they purchase for their family members also. This is in contrary to the findings of the present study as it is observed from the Table 4.6 that males visit more frequently twice (17.5 percent) or thrice in a month (13.3 percent) as compared to the females (17.2 percent and 13.8 percent respectively). Frequent visit of males were also noticed within a week, visiting four times a week (14.5 percent) as compared to that of the females (10.3 percent). This reveals the buying frequency of consumers, which is an important component for the retailers to improve the sale strategies of apparels for frequent visit of the consumers.

Table 4.6 Frequency of visit to organized apparel retail stores

4.2.2 Purchase of type of apparel from organized apparel retail outlets by demographic profile of respondents
One of the objectives of the present thesis is to study the demographic factors influencing the consumer buying behavior for apparels. The influence of various demographic factors were examined on the buying behavior of consumers for various types of apparels from organized retail outlets.

Influence of gender of respondents: Gender differentiates consumption behavior. Table 4.7 shows that overall, majority of the consumers visit the apparel retail stores, and purchase casual wears (73.6 percent), 34.0 percent purchase formal wear and 12.4 percent mentioned to purchase apparel other than formal and casual wears. It is observed from the table that more females prefer to purchase casual wear (40.4 percent) as compared to that of the males (33.2 percent). Males were found to be inclined towards purchasing formal wear more (20.7 percent) as compared to the females (13.3 percent). Women tend to shop more casual and party wear, but men prefer to buy executive wear. This may be due to that, most of the males, who are working need the formal wear to maintain the office decorum.

Table 4.7 Purchase of type of apparel from organized apparel retail outlets by gender of respondents

Influence of age group of respondents: Consumer behavior change came from through ages. The older the person the more purchasing experience they have than the younger one. Older people consider diversified option through the experience they have developed. While younger ones with less experience rely on brand and price. Table 4.8 shows that youngsters aged below 18 years and 18-24 years prefer to buy formal wear (42.9 percent and 52.8 percent respectively) more than the consumers of age groups 25-34 years (14.3 percent) and 35-44 years (27.1 percent). This may be due to that youngsters need formal wear for going to educational institutions, to face interviewed. The purchase of casual wears were observed mostly preferred by the consumers of age group 25-34 years (92.9 percent) besides only one individual in the age group 45-60 years. However the latest advancements in information technology have shown the Bangladeshi consumers what is casual wear and formal wear.

Table 4.8 Purchase of type of apparel from organized apparel retail outlets by age group of respondents

Influence of education of respondents: From TABLE 4.9, it is pertinent that higher educated consumers like post graduates (41.7 percent) and others (technical, professional course) (64.3 percent), who were in either lucrative services or perusing professional courses like management, mass communication etc. prefer to purchase formal wear more than those who were graduates (32.2 percent) and educational level upto 12 (27.8 percent). All the consumers who were perusing technical and professional courses were found to purchase casual wear for feel good and relaxed feelings and majority of the lower educated (upto 12) consumers also prefer to purchase casual wear (83.3 percent) as compared to the graduates (76.9 percent) and post graduates (75.0).

Table 4.9 Purchase of type of apparel from organized apparel retail outlets by education of respondents

Influence of occupation of respondents: Table 4.10 shows that more than half of the consumers who were engaged in services, both private (54.5 percent) and government (50.0) prefer to purchase formal wear followed by student (33.3 percent). Since the service class consumers and also the students need to maintain the office and institutional decorum, their need influence them to purchase formal wear besides casual for regular wear. Purchase of casual wear was reported by all the 5 professional (self-employed) category of respondents (100.0 percent), followed by those whose occupation was private service (86.4 percent).

Table 4.10 Purchase of type of apparel from organized apparel retail outlets by occupation of respondents

Influence of family income per annum: Income is superior determinant of purchasing behavior. The level of income affect the life style and attitude of a consumer. A person with high income purchase expensive product and these with low income prefer to buy product with lower price. TABLE 4.11 throws light on the information about purchase of type of apparel as per the annual family Income.

Family income wise analysis of preference for purchase of formal and casual wears is shown in the TABLE. The purchaser of formal wear was found highest among the respondents whose annual family income was as high as BDT. 4,50,001/- to 6,00,000/- (45.8 percent). The purchaser of casual wear, however, was found highest among the respondents whose annual family income was as low as BDT. 1,50,001/- to 3,00,000/- (76.3 percent).

Table 4.11 Purchase of type of apparel from organized apparel retail outlets by family income per annum

CHAPTER 5

Conclusions, Limitations and Recommendations
This chapter presents conclusions, limitations of the study and recommendation. The findings of the present study will improve the competitiveness levels of organized apparel retail industries and stores which will be beneficial for the consumers.

5.1 Conclusions
Consumers’ buying behavior has drawn a considerable attention of the earlier researchers. But, while reviewing the literature on buyer behavior as well as retail marketing, few studies has been found available that analyses how consumer behavior functions in retail market. Considering the importance of the study in Bangladesh, it was proposed to conduct the study of consumer behavior towards organized apparel retail industries in the Dhaka City. The present research was conducted with the objectives to study the demographic factors influencing the consumer buying behavior for apparels.

1. Gender influence: Overall, majority of the consumers visit the apparel retail stores, purchase casual wears (73.6 percent). More females prefer to purchase casual wear (40.4 percent) as compared to that of the males (33.2 percent). Males were inclined towards purchasing formal wear more (20.7 percent) than females (13.3 percent). This may be due to that, most of the males, who are working need the formal wear to maintain the office decorum.
2. Influence of age group: Youngsters aged below 18 years and 18-24 years prefer to buy formal wear (42.9 percent and 52.8 percent respectively) more than the older age groups. This may be due to that youngsters need formal wear for going to educational institutions, to face interviews etc.
3. Influence of education: It is pertinent in the present study that higher educated consumers like post graduates (41.7 percent) and others (technical, professional course) (64.3 percent), who were in either lucrative services or perusing professional courses like management, mass communication etc. prefer to purchase formal wear more than those who were graduates (32.2 percent) and educational level upto 12 (27.8 percent).
4. Influence of occupation: More than half of the consumers who were engaged in services, both private (54.5 percent) and government (50.0) prefer to purchase formal wear followed by student (33.3 percent). Since the service class consumers and also the students need to maintain the office and institutional decorum, their need influence them to purchase formal wear besides casual for regular wear.
5. Influence of family income: The present study shows that the family income has influence in the consumer buying behavior for apparels. The purchaser of formal wear was found highest among the respondents whose annual family income was as high as BDT. 4,50,001/- to 6,00,000/- (45.8 percent) and that of casual wear was highest among those whose annual family income was as low as BDT. 1,50,001/- to 3,00,000/- (76.3 percent).

The study will make a contribution towards a comprehensive understanding of the Bangladeshi apparel retail market. The study can be a great help to retail industries, academicians, business school students, researchers, etc.

5.2 Limitations of the Study
The research outcome of the present study has some meaningful findings with useful insights into the consumer buying behavior. However, there are some limitations in this study.

• The proposed study covered only major city as Dhaka of Bangladesh and the conclusions may not be generalized for all areas.
• The study findings is strictly based on the responses given by respondents.

5.3 Recommendations

• Similar study may be conducted in randomly selected cities covering five geographical areas of India which may possibly possess certain demographic peculiarities.
• Comparative study of various cities can be done to assess the differences in buying behavior and customer retention strategies.
• Also, comparative studies of various Malls can be done to assess the differences in customer’s Mall preference and retailer’s product selling strategies.
• There are several areas in need for further research. Further research should investigate the differences in customer retention strategies across different product categories.

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Mazharul Islam Kiron

Founder & Editor of Textile Learner. He is a Textile Consultant, Blogger & Entrepreneur. Mr. Kiron is working as a textile consultant in several local and international companies. He is also a contributor of Wikipedia.

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