Gender Impact on buying behavior in organized retail outlets with reference to Hyderabad City

The increased globalization and purchasing power of people led an increase in organized retail outlets across the country. India, is now, one among the largest retail outlets shopping places in Asia. More consumers are buying the products through these outlets to get brand value, discounts, quality and also a matter of social status. The products are available to all levels of consumers at moderate rates and sometimes the companies are giving additional benefits or discounts to attract more consumers from unorganized to organized retail outlets. No doubt, the unorganized retail outlets are the most preferred shops for most of the consumers but yet, the organized outlets want to diversify them towards their shopping culture by incentivizing various schemes, policies. Consumer buying behavior is something which is not constant and one can not predict the same at all times. It will change based on various factors which are internal, external, psychological and emotional. One of the basic factors that will impact buying behavior is Gender. It is quite evident and natural that the buying habits of women are entirely different from men. Men, mostly not interested to spend more time shopping. They make decisions quickly. In contrast, women have more patience and relative judgment in buying the products in shopping. The tendency of these behaviors has been probed for research on gender based study on organized retail outlets shopping. This paper throws light on the impact of gender on buying behavior by analyzing the primary data obtained from a sample survey. The study reveals some interesting facts and also establishes the close association among the different variables in the study.


Introduction
The recent trends of buying prepositions in the market has been seen at a very para normal way and the buying behavior of the consumers is unpredictable and far from expectations. consumers are now focusing on more quality, durability and variety of products in the market to maximize their satisfaction. It can be seen that during 1970-1999, the buying was very normal and predictable due to less information and awareness among the consumers. Also, the number of products is also limited in the market. After the new millennium, the shopping trends have witnessed a dramatic change and a multiple variety of products were offered to the market due to Globalization. The purchasing power of people has also increased during these times due to increased employment opportunities. Diversified products with multinational brands are now available in outlets today. The outlet system is revamped and is classified into Organized and Unorganized retail outlets. In unorganized retail outlets, all small kirana and provisional stores which use brick and mortar system are included. Where as in the Organized retail outlets, super markets, departmental stores, shopping malls, multi brand stores etc. are included which offers variety of products with various promotional policies to attract all levels of consumers. Various factors affect the buying habits of people in these outlets like gender, incomes, awareness on market information, quality & durability of the products, discounts and offers, promotion policies of companies, liking of brands etc. One of the key factors is gender perception. The preferences and buying habits of men and women are different and one can not precisely say that both have same perception while buying in retail outlets. This paper tries to examine the gender-based impact on buying behavior in organized retail outlets and the various factors that differentiate the buying patterns of men and women.

Review of Literature
Various studies are done in this regard by various experts. The summary of these findings is given below. V Sai Prasanth & M Jyothsna (2018) in the study on consumer buying behavior in organized retail outlets with reference to Visakhapatnam city, Andhra Pradesh in which 586 respondents were taken from various outlets like Big Bazar, Spencer's, Reliance, More and others for the survey on various parameters and two-way ANOVA is used to test the impact of demographic factors on purchasing behavior. The testing concluded that there is no significant difference with regard to within and between the groups of gender in buying perception in retail outlets.

Dr K Vidyakala & J. Divya Bharti (2018)
had done a study on demographic factors influence on retail outlets shopping behavior. The study was conducted on 400 customers in Coimbatore city of Tamilnadu. All the demographic factors such as income, education, occupation etc. are taken to analyze the impact on various variables of retail outlets. The study found that there is no significant difference on gender impact on buying behavior in retail outlets but it suggested implementing variety of promotional schemes and proper training to salesmen on products and discount offers by the outlets to get more customers and to enjoy the competitive advantage.
Dr Jay Prakash Verma (2017) in his study it has been found that the rise in income of the consumers along with the effect of modern culture the purchasing power of the people has increased. Shopping has become more an entertainment than a utility aspect for people. It also reflects that occupation and income of the consumers have the greater impact on the frequent visit of them to organized retail outlets like Reliance Mart. Apart from store ambiance, features like service, cost and availability of products drag the interest of the consumers that induce the preference to shop at Reliance Mart.
Bhanot S (2017) in the research made on the impact of gender on mall shopping in India. In this study, various hypotheses were framed to test the significant difference between male and female attitude towards various shopping natural dimensions like spending more money, spending more time shopping, positive attitude to go for more shopping, frequency of shopping, more shopping on clothes and fashion etc. Independent t-test and Chi square test were used to test the relationship and association among variables under study. The research found no difference between male and female shoppers with regard to the above variables. The study suggested more promotional schemes through digital media to attract more consumers to malls.

Farida Khan & Shalini Sharma (2015)
in their study on consumer behavior towards retail outlets shopping in Delhi NCR region, chi-square test is used to test the association among various attributes in the study. The study revealed that there is no significant difference or association between male and female with regard to shopping habits in retail outlets.

Dr R. Menaka & Sudeep B Chandramana (2014)
made a study to understand the buying behavior of consumers and the factors affecting the same. The study was conducted through primary data where 200 respondents had given their responses. Percentage analysis was used in analyzing the responses. The study found that convenience of shopping, wide range of merchandise, various socio-economic factors, time to travel are the major reasons affecting consumer behavior. However, the study has not made any specific findings as such.

Sources of Data
The data collected for the study is taken from both Primary and Secondary sources. Primary data is obtained by distribution of questionnaires consisting of 20 questions on various parameters impacting the consumer behavior. Secondary data is taken from the literature review, books on consumer behavior, newspaper articles and other web sources for the latest information and trends in consumer preferences.
Sample Size 258 respondents are taken for the survey on a simple random basis. These respondents do not belong to any one segment. The buying behavior changes from person to person as per their tastes, preferences, incomes etc. And accordingly different consumers' responses are recorded.

Statistical tools Used
Tabulation of data and percentage analysis is used to present the data. Chi-square test is used to test the association between the gender and other variables that impact on the shopping behavior in organized retail outlets.

Limitations of Study
The study was done for a limited sample. Had it been more, the results may vary. Due to the pandemic, an online survey was conducted so as to cover a wide range of people from all over India.

Data Analysis and Interpretation:
The sample so taken was randomly selected. Total of 258 respondents were surveyed for this purpose. Accordingly, the responses were recorded through google form. The male count was 130 and Female count was 128. To test the association between gender and other variables, Chi-Square test is used at 5 % level of significance and the results were obtained from SPSS 17 software. The following hypotheses were framed to test the association in this regard.
1. There is no significant difference between the gender & Preferences of choosing the outlets 2. There is no significant difference between gender and frequency of shopping 3. There is no significant difference between gender and time spent in shopping 4. There is no significant difference between gender and factors affecting to buy a product

Interpretation:
From table -1, it is understood that a greater number of male participants prefers D-Mart (53 Numbers with 20.5%) whereas Female participants also prefer the same outlet (60 numbers with 23.3%). Overall, 113 participants prefer D-Mart which is 43.8% of total sample and Ratna deep got the lowest of 5% preference with 13 respondents. The Chi-Square analysis of the gender wise preference towards retail outlets is analyzed with the help of Chi-square and the results are shown below: Decision: Since the p value 0.2 is greater than 0.05, we conclude that the null hypothesis is accepted i.e Gender has no significant impact on choosing the outlets.  Decision: Since the p value .0.150 is greater than 0.05, we conclude that the null hypothesis is accepted i.e Gender has no significant impact on visiting the outlets frequently.

Interpretation:
From Table-3, it is observed that more number of Male buyers (80 consumers with 31%) are spending between 30 min to 1 hour time in shopping in retail outlets. More number of female buyers (86 consumers with 33.4%) are spending less than 45 min time for shopping. Incidentally, there are 38 consumers in total ( 14.7%) spending more than 1 hour in retail shopping. The Chi-Square analysis of the gender wise classification of time spent in retail outlets is analyzed with the help of Chi-square and the results are shown below: Decision: Since the p value 0.035 is less than 0.05, we conclude that the null hypothesis is rejected i.e. Gender has a significant impact on time spent in the shopping

Interpretation:
Table-4 clearly indicates that there are many factors that influence the consumers to buy the products at retail outlets. The data reveals that around 70 male consumers with 53.9% and 69 female consumers with 53.8% preferring to buy based on the quality of the product. On total, 140 consumers (53.9%) prefer the quality of the product as the major factor in buying. Surprisingly, very less consumers (4.3%) prefer free home delivery in buying a product. The Chi-Square analysis of the gender wise analysis of factors affecting the choosing a product in retail outlets is analyzed with the help of Chi-square and the results are shown below: There is no significant difference between gender and factors affecting to buy products in outlets 0.78 Accept H0

Findings and Conclusion
Shopping in retail outlets will have many factors to get influenced. Especially in urban and metro areas, the consumers' behavior towards the retail outlets is always variable and fluctuating. Many factors affect the purchasing decisions of consumers in the outlets. The following conclusions can be drawn from the above research analysis.
1. The consumers are almost equally distributed between the two genders, i.e, Male and Female. 2. Most of the consumers prefer to go to D-Mart when compared to other retail outlets. The number of male and female is also almost equal in choosing this outlet. Ratna deep is the last preference for retail shopping. 3. Many consumers willing to go to outlets once in a month. Surprisingly, 2. The average time spent in a retail outlet is 30 min to 1 hour for all the consumers. Surprisingly, male consumers are spending more time than female consumers comparatively. 3. Male and female consumers are of equally opinion that quality of the product is their first choice in buying a product. The second preference is the offers and discounts offered by the outlets from time to time. Very less people opting for free home delivery which intends that they are not bothered about transport charges but about quality of product.
Considering the above findings, it is suggested and concluded that, all the retail outlets should focus on quality products with some offers and discounts to attract more consumers. Also, as the average time spent by the consumers is ranging from 30 min to 1 hour, it is advised to increase promotional strategies in advertising more about the products in the store. This may make the consumers to visit the outlets more often in a month.