International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research (IJMSSR)

Volume 2, No. 1, January 2013

ISSN: 2319-4421

56

AN ANALYSIS ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION TOWARDS

SERVICE QUALITY VARIABLES IN SELECTED
ORGANIZED RETAIL OUTLETS
Dr. Girish K Nair, Team Leader International Hospitality Management Faculty, Stenden University, Qatar.
Harish K Nair, Doctoral Research Scholar, Research and Development Centre, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore,
Tamilnadu, India.

ABSTRACT
This study on customer perception on Retailer Service
Quality variables aims to identify the dimensions that
organised retailers offers the customers. An analysis of the
various retail service quality variables were done to
understand the relationship between them. The study also
tries exploring the factor that attracts the customers
towards the organised retail sector in capital city of
Kerala, (Trivandrum). As organized retailers are seen as
offering similar products in the outlets, improving service
quality is seen as critical to ensure customer loyalty. With
the introduction of FDI in multi brand retailing, more
international players are expected to enter the Indian
market this intern will bring more competition in this
retail sector. For benchmarking themselves with global
standards the Indian retailers will have to improve their
service quality. This study tries to find interrelationship
between various Retail Service Quality dimensions, which
will help the retailers to identify the steps needed to
improve the overall quality of service.

cities like Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Pune, Kolkata,

Ahmadabad, Baroda, Hyderabad, Cochin, Nagpur, Indore,
Trivandrum etc. provide a good platform for a brand to
enter Indian market.

1.2

Organized Retailing in India

Organized retailing refers to trading activities undertaken

by licensed retailers those who are registered for sales tax,
Income tax and it includes the retail chains, corporate
backed hyper market and directly owned large retail
business, Organized retailing comprises of shopping malls,
Multi-storey mall, and huge complexes that offers a large
variety of products in terms of quantity and value of
money.
India is rated the fifth most attractive emerging retail
market: a potential goldmine, estimated to be US$ 200
billion, of which organized retailing (i.e. modern trade)
makes up 3 percent or US$ 6.4 billion.

Keywords: Retail Service Quality, Service Quality

Dimension, Organized Retail.

As per a report by KPMG the annual growth of

department stores is estimated at 24%.Ranked second in a
Global Retail Development Index of 30 developing
countries drawn up by AT Kearney.

1. INTRODUCTION

1.3
Growth
and
Contribution
Organized Retail in INDIA

Retail industry the largest sectors in India and second

largest employment provider after agriculture (Zameer,
2011); it plays a significant role in increasing the
productivity across a wide range of goods and services. In
India both organised and unorganised retail sector exists,
majority of the share being under unorganised. Organized
retailing has finally emerged from the shadows of
unorganized retailing and is contributing significantly to
the growth of Indian retail sector.

1.1

Retailing in India Present

The metros and the tire I cities continue to sustain retail

growth, there is a shift from the great cities to lesser
known ones, the spending power is no longer limited to
metros, every Tire II cities in the country has good market
for almost every product and service due to this tire II

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of

The growth of organized retail is expected to the extent of

637 billion in 2015, according to the survey of associated
chamber of commerce. Organised retail industry was
initially concentrated in metropolitan cities like Bangalore,
Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and they entered small towns to
curb rural population.
As the expansion of organized retail outlets was happening
in smaller cities and towns, it became imperative to
understand the perception of the customer about the retail
service quality in such smaller towns in comparison with
metros where organized retail outlet across the cities have
already been accepted by the customers.
As the Indian council for research and international
Economic relations (ICRIER) retail sector is expected to
contribute 22 percent of the Indias GDP.

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International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research (IJMSSR)

Volume 2, No. 1, January 2013

1.4

ISSN: 2319-4421

Retailers Association of India (RAI)

The state having one of the best infrastructure in terms of

road rail connectivity, water, skilled Labour pool and
telecommunication network, many big retail brands have
established their presence here, besides, the initiatives
taken by the state government to recognize the retail sector
as an important thrust area and its pragmatic approach to
support the industry too helped the growth.

1.5

Retail Service Quality

Retail service quality is termed as the customers overall

impression and satisfaction of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organization of its services and which is
more important to retail outlets.

1.6
Retail Service Quality Measurement
Scale
The retail service quality scale of measurement were able
the identify the dimensions were the control of service
quality in retail services provided by them to the
customers and also creates the pathway to identify the
customers where and what they perceive through the
services provided by the retail outlets on various
dimensions
Realizing the need for developing a scale to measure retail
service quality, Dabholkar et.al (1996) made extensive
research to develop the retail service quality scale and he
identified five dimensions of (RSQS)
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.

Physical aspects
Reliability
Personal Interactions
Problem Solving
Policy

Physical aspect dimension included the appearance of the

physical facilities as well as the convenience of the stores
layout
Reliability dimension is concerned with the stores ability
to keep promises and do things right
Personal Interaction dimension is concerned with
whether or not the store has courteous and helpful
employees who inspire confidence and trust
Problem solving dimension includes assessing the stores
performance on the basis of its ability to handle potential
problems
So the retailers can use this instrument as a diagnostic tool
to determine service areas that are weak and need to
develop

1.7
Retail Industry
Capital City of Kerala

in

Trivandrum,

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Trivandrum is the Second largest city in Kerala after

Cochin with operational stores like Big Bazaar, More,
Reliance Fresh, Spencers retail and Margin Free. The
industry experts believe that the city will soon experience
the retail development because of the people life style,
disposable income and the rapid growth of Information
Technology.
As per a recent report by the state government of Kerala,
Trivandrum the tier II city has everything in shape,
including telecom, power, a highly skilled workforce, a
rapid pace of infrastructure development and a pro-active
government that is aggressively promoting the city. As a
result, a number of top multi-national companies are
migrating into the city which in turn accelerates the
growth of organized retail, hospitality, entertainment and
residential sectors.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
The dual objective of the present study is to examine the
interrelationship between various Retail Service Quality
dimensions, which will help the retailers to identify the
steps needed to improve the overall quality of service.
Hence, to have methodological improvement in the
present study by plugging out the loop holes of the earlier
studies, the studies pertaining to Retail Service Quality has
been reviewed. In the present chapter it is attempted to
provide a brief sketch on the earlier studies carried out in
the area of retail service quality performance.
Parasuraman (1990) in his study on superior customer
service and marketing excellence discussed the meaning
and measurement of service quality and offered
managerial guidelines for delivering superior service by
invoking key insights from a multi-year, multi sector
stream of research on customer service. He developed a
model called SERQUAL, which consisted of five
dimensions like reliability, responsiveness, assurance,
empathy and tangibles. He concluded that reliability to be
the most important of the five SERQUAL dimensions. He
also concluded that a company should effectively blend
external marketing with customer service to deliver
superior service to customers.
R. Ravikumar (2007) in his Study A study on retail
service quality dimensions in select organised retail of
Chennai city, This research which suitably modified the
SERQUAL scale to suit the requirements of the retail
stores by retaining the dimensions such as triangles (4
attributes), reliability (7 attributes), responsiveness (5
attributes), assurance (5 attributes) and empathy (9
attributes) with a total attributes of thirty in number.
Sin and chow (2003), by using the adapted version of sin
and cheung (2001), examined the service quality of a

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International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research (IJMSSR)

Volume 2, No. 1, January 2013

Japanese supermarket in Hong Kong. The original

dimension of the problem solving areas integrated with
personal interaction and a new factor emerged in the
study.

retail shop during the month of October 2012 was the

population. The secondary date was collected from various
sources like magazines, journals and web portals

3.4
Dr.M.N.Malliswari (2007) in her study Emerging
trends & strategies in Indian retailing, she found that
the customers are influenced by the west due to their
exposure to media. The social networking sites and
internet as a whole has changed the shopping pattern and
behaviour of the customers.
Ashokan and Hariharan (2008) in their study conducted
in different retail outlets in
Palakkad district found out that the customer were
satisfied with the merchandise they have bought and
expect the stores to improve the customer service and also
to design the planogram in such a way that the products
could be located easily.
Prof Sudhansu sekhar & Dr.sarat kumar sahoo (2009)
in the study Organized retailing in India: issues &
challenges identified mainly the challenging factors like
technology, supply chain, human resources, store
positioning.
Leen and Ramayah (2011) in their study on Validation
of the RSQS in Apparel Specialty Stores found that all
the five dimensions: physical aspects, reliability, personal
interaction, problem solving, and policy, are highly suited
for measuring retail service quality in clothing stores.
Retail service quality is furthermore associated with future
consumption behaviour in terms of the customers
intention to visit, purchase and recommend the stores to
others.

ISSN: 2319-4421

Sample Selection & Research Design

A descriptive research design was adopted for the study

.The data is obtained from the consumer survey .The
survey is carried out in the organized retail outlets in
Trivandrum in the month of October 2012 and a sample of
20 each from five retail outlets and totally of 100
respondents from the population selected randomly.

Table-1 Samples of Selected Retail Outlets

4.
DATA
ANALYSIS
INTERPRETATION

AND

Chi-Square
The X^2 Statistics is defined as X^2 o ^2 (Oi ei) ^2/eix^2(n-1) d.f
t=1

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1

Objectives of the Study

1)
To understand the factors influencing the
shoppers buying at the organized retailers.
2)
To study the customer perceptions on organized
retailers.
3)
To study the promotional activities taken by the
organized retailers.
4)
To provide suggestions to improve the services
provided by the organized retailers.

3.2

Level of significance
= 0.05 level of significance
Change (from x ^ 2o= 44.440)
x ^ 2e = 7./815 for 3 d.f at 5 % level

Scope of the Study

1)
The study provides suggestions to the organized
retailers about their service quality.
2)
The study helps the researcher to know how the
customer perception works on organized retailers.
3)
This study provides suggestions on improving
the standard and the quality of the organized retailers.

3.3

4.1
Test the Respondents Opinion
Regarding Organized Retail Outlets

Table-2 Respondents Opinion Regarding Organized

Retail Outlets

Sources of Data

The primary data were collected using a structured

questionnaire and the consumer who visited the organized

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International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research (IJMSSR)

Volume 2, No. 1, January 2013

ISSN: 2319-4421

Table-4 Shoppers Perception on Other Physical

Aspects of Organized Retail Outlets

Inference
x ^2o > X^2 e
The null hypothesis is rejected for the table it is
understood that convenience & Competitive cost takes the
organized retailing to the customers

4.2
Test the Shoppers Perception on
Physical Aspects of Organized Retail Outlets
Ho: There is no relationship between Modern Looking
Equipments and Fixtures and Visually Appealing
H1: There is a relationship between Modern Looking
Equipments and Fixtures and Visually Appealing
Level of significance
= 0.05 level of significance
Table-3 Shoppers Perception on Physical Aspects of
Organized Retail Outlets

Inference
Degrees of freedom = (Rows-1)(columns-1)=(2-1)(5-1) =1
* 4 =4
Table value of Chi-square is.05 level of significance with
4 degree of freedom=9.49
Calculated Chi-square Value is 11.71
Since the Calculated Chi-Square value is greater than the
table value, null hypothesis is rejected. Hence there is
significant relationship between easy accessibility and
easy internal mobility variables of Physical aspect
dimension.

4.4
Test the Shoppers Perception on
Reliability of Organized Retail Outlets
Ho: There is no relationship between Error Free Billing
and Reliability in using Credit Cards.
H1: There is a relationship between Error Free Billing
and Reliability in using Credit Cards.
Level of significance
= 0.05 level of significance
Table-5 Shoppers Perception on Reliability of
Organized Retail Outlets

Inference
Degrees of freedom = (Rows-1)(columns-1)=(2-1)(5-1) =1
* 4 =4
Table value of Chi-square ar.o5 level of significance with
4 degree of freedom=9.49
Calculated Chi-square Value is 10.83
Since the Calculated Chi-Square value is grate than the
table value, null hypothesis is rejected. Hence there is
significant relationship between Modern looking
equipments and fixtures and Visually Appealing variables
of Physical aspect dimension.

4.3
Test the Shoppers Perception on Other
Physical Aspects in Organized Retail Outlets
Ho: There is no relationship between Easy Accessibility
and Easy Internal Mobility.
H1: There is a relationship between Easy Accessibility
and Easy Internal Mobility.

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Inference
Degrees of freedom = (Rows-1)(columns-1)=(2-1)(5-1) =1
* 4 =4
Table value of Chi-square ar.o5 level of significance with
4 degree of freedom=9.488
Calculated Chi-square Value is 2.19
Since the Calculated Chi-Square value is less than the
table value, null hypothesis is accepted. Hence there is no
significant relationship between Error free billing and
Reliability in using credit card variables of Reliability
aspect dimension.

4.5
Test the Shoppers Perception on
Personal Interaction in Organized Retail
Outlets
Ho: There is no relationship between Employee greeting
and customer willingness.

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International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research (IJMSSR)

Volume 2, No. 1, January 2013

H1: There is a relationship between Employee greeting

and customer willingness.
Table-6 Shoppers Perception on Personal Interaction
in Organized Retail Outlets

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Ho: There is no relationship between convenient store

hours and Convenient Parking Facilities.
H1: There is a relationship between convenient store
hours and Convenient Parking Facilities.
Level of significance
= 0.05 level of significance
Table-8 Shoppers Perception on Policy in Organized
Retail Outlets

Inference
Degrees of freedom = (Rows-1)(columns-1)=(2-1)(5-1) =1
* 4 =4
Table value of Chi-square ar.o5 level of significance with
4 degree of freedom=9.488
Calculated Chi-square Value is 10.11
Since the Calculated Chi-Square value is greater than the
table value, null hypothesis is rejected. Hence there is
significant relationship between Employee Knowledge and
Employee Behaviour variables of Personal aspect
dimension.

4.6
Test the Shoppers Perception on
Problem Solving in Organized Retail Outlets
Ho: There is no relationship between Returns and
exchanges and Sincerity in Problem solving.
H1: There is a relationship between Returns and
exchanges and Sincerity in Problem solving.
Level of significance
= 0.05 level of significance
Table-7 Shoppers Perception on Problem Solving in
Organized Retail Outlets

Inference
Degrees of freedom = (Rows-1)(columns-1)=(2-1)(5-1) =1
* 4 =4
Table value of Chi-square is.05 level of significance with
4 degree of freedom=9.49
Calculated Chi-square Value is 12.71
Since the Calculated Chi-Square value is grate than the
table value, null hypothesis is rejected. Hence there is
significant relationship between Returns and exchanges
and Sincerity in problem solving variables of Problem
solving aspect dimension.

4.7
Test the Shoppers Perception on Policy
in Organized Retail Outlets

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Inference
Degrees of freedom = (Rows-1)(columns-1)=(2-1)(5-1) =1
* 4 =4
Table value of Chi-square is.05 level of significance with
4 degree of freedom=9.49
Calculated Chi-square Value is 7.83
Since the Calculated Chi-Square value is less than the
table value, null hypothesis is accepted. Hence there is
significant relationship between convenient store hours
and convenient parking facility variables of Physical
aspect dimension.

5. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

From the above study it was found that convenience and
competitive price are the two factors which attract
customers towards organised retail outlets.
From the chi square analysis of the different variables of
the various dimensions of Retail Service Quality it was
found that:
1. There is significant relationship between Modern
looking equipments and fixtures and Visually Appealing
variables of Physical aspect dimension.
2. There is significant relationship between easy
accessibility and easy internal mobility variables of
Physical aspect dimension.
3. There is no significant relationship between Error free
billing and Reliability in using credit card variables of
Reliability aspect dimension.
4. There is significant relationship between Employee
Knowledge and Employee Behavior variables of Personal
aspect dimension.
5. There is significant relationship between Returns and
exchanges and Sincerity in problem solving variables of
Problem solving aspect dimension.
6. There is significant relationship between convenient
store hours and convenient parking facility variables of
Physical aspect dimension.

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International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research (IJMSSR)

Volume 2, No. 1, January 2013

The retailers can improve their Retail Service Quality by

improving the variable that has significant impact on other
service quality aspects.
Future researchers may address on the dimensions of
service quality factors for Indian retail industry. A study
can be undertaken to find how the customers evaluation
of service quality factors differ within the different regions
of the country, influenced by the cultural factors.

6. CONCLUSIONS
The customer perception of retail service quality is an
important segment to the emerging and the existing
retailers in the market. As the study reveals that perception
of service quality is influenced by the various natures
among various customers, even some of the general
factors like Personal interaction, physical aspects are the
dimensions on which customer perception remains
constant and common to the entire customer on a majority
basis. So the retail outlets have to frame their own
strategies in order to attract the customers on a longer
basis.

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