Swati Vashishtha | Chitkara University (original) (raw)

Papers by Swati Vashishtha

India is an evolving retail destination. Correspondingly the behaviour of the consumer is making ... more India is an evolving retail destination. Correspondingly the behaviour of the consumer is making new strides as the consumer's metastasis in behaviour brings newer challenges for the retail outlets. The customer has a store choice to make even before he decides on which brand to buy. This study is an attempt to identify, the various dimensions that would drive a consumer to select a store. The study is confined to selected consumer durables as a product category. With focus on the consumer's perception of store selection, 702 respondents were taken into account to arrive at certain store attributes that might be of interest to the large consumer durable industry and the retailers selling these product. Pre-testing followed the result analysis using exploratory factor analysis. The result proposes certain finding relevant for further inquiry on the part of the researchers.

The Indian retail market is rising and so is the challenge to attract a customer. A customer has ... more The Indian retail market is rising and so is the challenge to attract a customer. A customer has unlimited retail options to look for his desired product and make the purchase decision. Getting a new customer or a potential buyer is certainly important to enhance profitability. Consequently there is a need to understand the efforts employed by the retailer to acquire a new customer. This manuscript was written with the purpose to understand the retailer's efforts towards new customer acquisition through a secondary data review of past research work. Based on the review various variables have been identified to determine the perception of a retailer towards new customer acquisition. The impact of these concepts on new customer acquisition needs further deliberation and research. The study proposes a model that would through an empirical deliberation find the gap between dimensions of retailer's perception of new customer acquisition and the consumer's dimensions of store choice. However, the future research needs to test the model and to know the customers response towards these efforts made by the retailers and to ascertain the success of these efforts from the point of view of the retailer.

Conference Presentations by Swati Vashishtha

'The Consumer, so it is said, is the king…each is a vote who uses his money as votes to get thing... more 'The Consumer, so it is said, is the king…each is a vote who uses his money as votes to get things done that he wants done' (Samuelson, 2000). Understanding and predicting consumer behaviour and decision making has and never been simple. Constantly varying consumer choice can result in the most unpredictable decisions at the last minute. The Black Box Model explains one such phenomenon, where even the best of marketing practitioners are unable to predict the thought process of a consumer. This study suggests that the deciding variables (economic, socio-cultural and psychological), are phenomenal towards explaining and predicting the major determinants in acquiring a consumer durable. The exploratory cum descriptive part of the research has been done on 400 consumers in Chandigarh, using cluster sampling method, to arrive at some consequence which might be of interest to a marketer. The study brings to light the economic factors perceived as important in the Indian scenario-economic implications of change in government, maintenance of the product and the level of income. The respondents were most influenced by the family amongst the social factors. The consumer's perception towards Life expectancy and Resale value of the product were the psychological factors perceived important by the respondents. The study contributes in giving an understanding and a vision on how a consumer makes a decision. The data was analyzed using factor analysis in SPSS version 22.

The banking practitioners have always been in a constant discussion on understanding the customer... more The banking practitioners have always been in a constant discussion on understanding the customer base that drives profitability. This effort is equally applied by commercial, retail and trust banking. With respect to retail banking the customer base is assessed using new customer acquisition strategies and the retention strategies for the existing customers. The banks have been striving to improve their profitability position by increasing their customer retention rates. An article cites that it is as easy as enhancing profits by a 100 per cent by retaining an additional 5 per cent of customers. The arguments in favour of retention have been challenged at various places and it has been stated that its advocacy to enhance profitability is conflicting in the present era of changing customer loyalty. This article brings about the relevance of new customer acquisition in contrast to customer retention. With a rising customer defection rates in banking, there is an ever growing need to come out of the seductive arguments given in favour of retention. This empirical investigation primarily defeats the arguments in favour of retention like year by year positive cash flows and has focused on analyzing the banking customer perception towards customer acquisition using 7 P’s of selected commercial banks. The empirical research brings out the important elements that are considered relevant by a new customer.
Key Words: Banking, profitability, customer retention, customer acquisition, commercial banks

Consumption decisions are primarily based on the different decision making styles that a consumer... more Consumption decisions are primarily based on the different decision making styles that a consumer exhibits. This paper assesses the credibility of Consumer Decision Making Styles Inventory in the Indian context. Most of the existing studies on consumer decision-making styles follow from the seminal work done by Sproles and Kendell (1986). The decision making styles assessed are taken from the scale developed by Sproles and Kendell (1986). This study is a step forward in consumer decision-making as it examines the scale across respondents belonging to different age groups, while they were in the process of making a decision on selected household consumer durables. A sample of 702 respondents was chosen using purposive sampling from the retailer stores selling household consumer durables. The reliability and validity of the scale was examined using Confirmatory Factor Analysis. The study through a critical examination of the validity of the scale in developed and developing countries reports the difference in the acceptance and modifications of the scale in different contexts. The revised scale provides for an appropriate model that can be suitably applied in marketing strategies of segmentation and targeting. Empirically, this research makes a valuable contribution in consumer decision making styles specifically when it comes to making a decision of buying certain household consumer durables. This study is one of its kinds where the scale has been validated for a category of products. The retail and product marketers can get fresh insights into the shopping orientation of customers making buying decisions.
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Key words: consumer decision making styles, shopping orientation, consumer durables, confirmatory factor analysis, buying decision, India