Proceedings of the International Conference on Electrical, Electronics, Computer Engineering and their Applications, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2014
The Potential of Mobile Technology Application in Hypermarket Industry
A Case of Malaysian Consumer Behavior
Liew Chin Chooi, Salmiah Amin
Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
liew.lcc@gmail.com; salmiah@apiit.edu.my
ABSTRACT
Due to the increasing income and purchasing power
of the Malaysian consumers, as well as the
proliferation and wide expansion of hypermarkets in
Malaysia, the hypermarkets are in an intense
competition for survival and sustainability.
However, with the high mobile penetration rate of
Malaysia, the author foresees the potential to
leverage mobile technology to help retail businesses
gain competitive advantage by improving service
satisfaction. Malaysian consumers (N=69), with
focus on students, professionals, and housewives,
have been surveyed and interviewed to better
understand the Malaysian consumer market, grocery
shopping behavior, as well as the acceptance and
preference of mobile technology relevant to the
grocery shopping practice. Results of this pioneer
research indicate the feasibility of the mobile
application implementation whereby its findings
imply strong acceptance (69%) of mobile
technology into grocery shopping routine.
Additionally, Shopper Engagement Study
conducted by POPAI and business analysis using
SWOT have been adopted as secondary research in
supporting primary data collected. Based on the
primary and secondary data gathered, the outcomes
of this research support the recommendation of
mobile system with features preferred by the
Malaysian consumers, namely Product Browsing,
Product Comparison, Promotion/Discount
Personalization, and Shopping List.
KEYWORDS
Hypermarket; mobile application; Malaysian
consumer; Shopper Engagement Study; consumer
behavior; grocery shopping; technology acceptance
ISBN: 978-1-941968-02-4 ©2014 SDIWC
1 INTRODUCTION
The retail industry is experiencing
significant expansion as the “society has grown
more affluent in recent years and with greater
purchasing power” [1]. Due to the increase in
the Malaysian “income and purchasing power”,
the retail sector is experiencing tremendous
growth with the expansion and proliferation of
hypermarkets in Malaysia [2]. The competition
among hypermarkets in the region is escalating,
also considering the fact that the number of
hypermarkets in Malaysia has been
proliferating since the 1980s, players in the
Malaysian hypermarket industry have to strive
to maintain competitive advantage to keep up to
the game of the retail sector.
Nevertheless, Since the advent of mobile
technology, mobile devices, ranging from
laptops to tablets to mobile phones, have
largely penetrated and influenced the modern
daily lives of many. The rate of mobile
penetration in the global market is on the rise
from one year to another, reportedly to reach
6.9 billion mobile subscribers by the end of
2013 as estimated by Mobile Factbook 2012
[3].
Joe Colopy, the CEO of Bronto Software
discussed through an interview conducted by
Hauss, specifically stating that “the retail
industry is experiencing a momentous shift in
consumer behavior, fueled by the ubiquity of
smartphones”, signifying the gradual increase
of influence of the mobile technology in the
retail industry [4].
Therefore, the author recommends adopting
user-centric design approach where the author
suggests shopping practices to be translated into
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features to incorporate into a mobile system,
which will cater to the characteristics of the
four (4) general types of consumer behavior,
determined through the Shopper Engagement
Study conducted by POPAI [5]. Nonetheless,
the suggestions will be amended throughout the
course of this research to ensure the
compatibility to the Malaysian market.
Consequently, this research outlines the
feasible features in mobile technology
application implementation for the hypermarket
industry preferred by the Malaysian consumers,
in which the recommendations are based on the
primary data (questionnaire and interview) and
secondary data from the Shopper Engagement
Study conducted by POPAI [5]. As the
implementation of information systems in the
hypermarket industry would impact not only
one but many related companies through
increasing competitive advantage, business
analysis using SWOT is performed to support
the feasibility of system features to be
recommended in the mobile technology
application. The recommendations are expected
to bring a new level of grocery shopping
experience to the Malaysian market, to equip
the hypermarket industry with the requisite
capabilities, to reinforce the industry network
and also the commitment to effectively deal
with competitors.
This research paper is organized as follows;
section 2, the current problems are discussed in
relation to the growth of hypermarket industry
in Malaysia and satisfaction level of consumers
in major hypermarkets in Malaysia. Section 3
serves the rationale of undertaking this
research. The Shoppers Engagement Study that
has been chosen as the basis in analyzing the
four (4) general types of consumer behavior is
explained. The relevance on why the Shoppers
Engagement Study is feasible to derive the
recommended features for mobile technology
application (mobile app) in hypermarket
industry is also briefly explained in this section.
Then, section 4 comprises the methods used to
gather primary and secondary data in
recommending suitable features. In section 5,
ISBN: 978-1-941968-02-4 ©2014 SDIWC
the findings gained from the research methods
performed are discussed. The recommendation
of suitable system features for the mobile app in
hypermarket industry are presented in section 5
and finally, conclusion is prepared in section 6.
2 PROBLEM STATEMENTS
The growth of the average number of
hypermarkets in Malaysia is tremendously
significant that it is, reportedly, to have
increased from 2.1% to 26.8% from 2003 to
2008, whereby in 2009 and 2010, there were a
total of one hundred seven (107) granted
licenses and seventy-eight (78) were
operational. This indirectly contributed to the
intense competition that causes difficulties for
hypermarkets to compete for survival and to
maintain competitive advantage in the retail
sector of Malaysia [6][7].
Furthermore, the level of customer
satisfaction with the major hypermarkets in
Malaysia namely AEON Big (formerly known
as Carrefour), Tesco, and AEON (formerly
known as Jusco) is within the range of 48% to
75%, indicating only average satisfaction level
of consumers in the major hypermarkets of
Malaysia [8]. The adoption rate of technology
into existing hypermarkets in the country is
comparatively lower than that of the western
countries where the implementation and
application of technology into the grocery
shopping experience have gained wide
consumer acceptance. Reportedly, Malaysia has
yet to be introduced with the concept of
technology adoption into the hypermarket
retailing industry and the Malaysian market is
yet to be familiarized and accustomed with
such a concept [9].
Since studies had shown average satisfaction
level of consumers in the major hypermarkets
of Malaysia, and the concept of technology
adoption is yet to be familiarized by the
Malaysian hypermarket retailing industry, the
recommendation for feasible features in mobile
application system to meet consumer
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satisfaction is necessary to be proposed with
relation to customer behaviors.
3 RATIONALES
In order to maintain and improve
competitive advantage, hypermarkets could use
consumers as a pivotal point by providing
maximum service satisfaction since,
competitive advantages can be gained through
customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is
one of the key elements in instigating customer
retention and building customer loyalty [10].
Also, researchers concluded that the satisfaction
level of the Malaysian consumers on the major
hypermarkets in Malaysia can be improved by
integrating technology to the retail sector by the
provision of a better grocery shopping
experience to consumers in order to bring
higher service satisfaction [8]. Discovered by a
survey carried out through “CompTIA’s Retail
Sector Technology Adoption Trends Study”,
technology is deemed to be of high importance
to business rated by 72% of retailers, and the
percentage is anticipated to reach 83% by 2014
[11].
In regards to the changing Malaysian
consumer behavior, factors such as the growth
of the retail industry, increase in income and
purchasing power and changing workforce with
more female participation have parallel impact
on the Malaysian consumer behavior, for
instance, consumers start finding stronger needs
and demands for convenience to better suit their
lifestyle [6]. Thus, service expectations of the
consumers from the hypermarkets will be
increasing proportionally, where the
introduction of technology to the retail sector
will facilitate to increase customer satisfaction.
That said, it is imperative to involve
participation of the Malaysian consumers in the
primary data collection, specifically
questionnaire and interview, for the ultimate
purpose of this research.
What is more, based on an article, one point
one five (1.15) billion smartphones were in
active use globally in January 2013.
Statistically, telecommunication has
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significantly infused with the population of
Malaysia with thirty-three point four (33.4)
million of mobile service subscribers in
particular and 113% of mobile penetration
[12][13]. Ergo, the author opts to relate mobile
technology to the increase of consumer’s
hypermarket service satisfaction ascribed to
Malaysia’s high rate of mobile penetration.
The author has selected the 2012 Shopper
Engagement Study conducted by POPAI –
Point of Purchase Advertising International,
considering the fact that POPAI has been
serving as the “leading international advocate
and voice of the marketing at retail industry”
since 1936, as well as conducting original
researches every decades by studying shopper
purchasing behaviors from as far back as the
1960s [14]. Moreover, the 2012 Shopper
Engagement Study is one of the “most popular”
studies that shows “grocery channel shopping
behaviors”, in which Ravenshoe Packaging’s
content strategist mentioned in his article that
POPAI Shopper Engagement Study is “one of
the best sources of information on consumer
behavior” with “volumes of information about
the shopping experience, who shoppers are,
what is working at retail, and what shoppers do
not like” [15]. Thus, the author takes into
account of the credibility and popularity of the
study that has driven the author to adopt the
2012 Shopper Engagement Study for the
purpose of this research. The author believes
that the study could provide accurate
information concerning the consumer behaviors
and respective characteristics, which will then
form the foundation of the user-centric design
approach that the author adopts in this research.
4 RESEARCH METHODS
In lights of this research, the author has
come up with a research methodology that
follows a flow as depicts below.
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hypermarkets to gain competitive edge by

Figure 1. Research methodology to adopt.
The author adopts user-centric design
approach in which firstly, the author performs
secondary data collection where the four (4)
general types of consumer behavior based on
the Shopper Engagement Study, namely the
Time Stressed, Trip Planner, Bargain Hunter,
and the Explorer are identified [5]. Six (6)
shopping practices, where the author deems
practical to be incorporated into a mobile
application as system features, are
recommended to cater to the characteristics of
the four (4) consumer behaviors. Next, primary
research on three (3) groups of consumer
namely, student, professional, and housewife, is
conducted where the quantitative and
qualitative data will serve to:

Identify most prominent
consumer behavior;

Study how Malaysian consumers behave
and react to various grocery shopping
aspects;
 Gauge the relevancy and consumer
preference of the six (6) proposed
shopping practices.
A SWOT analysis is also done for strategic
evaluation of the six (6) shopping practices.
increasing customer satisfaction, the
recommendations will be to essentially meet the
characteristics of shoppers of the identified
consumer behaviors by incorporating relevant
functions and features to mobile application in
hypermarket industry. Below summarizes the
characteristics of the four (4) generic consumer
behavior:
 Time Stressed – time pressure, perceived
budget constraint, less likely to use
circulars/coupons, least consistent use of
written list.

Trip Planner – organize trips, execute
according to plan, loyal, most circular
use, most consistent use of written list,
not interested in bargain hunting,
controlled and restrained, accurate
budgeting, spend shortest time in store,
fewest weekly trips.
 Bargain Hunter – willing to shop around
for lowest price, least retail loyal, highest
circular/coupon use.
Malaysian  Explorer – enjoy browsing store in
general, get inspirations while shopping,
heavy use of circulars, spend longest
time in store, easily tempted, compulsive
buyers, makes most weekly trips.
Table 1. Consumer Behaviors and Characteristics.
Consumer Behavior
Time Trip Bargain
Explorer
Stressed Planner Hunter
Time Pressure H H L L
Grocery Shopping Criteria

Then, proposed solution with system features Organization M H L L

derived from the six (6) shopping practices and Store Browsing L L H H
research data will be designed to best fit the Retail Loyalty M H L M
Malaysian consumer market that also Bargain Hunting L L H M
encourages proper grocery shopping practices. Impulsive Buying H L H H
Circular / Coupon Usage L L H H
4.1 Secondary Data Collection
Written List Usage L H M L
* Priority:
According to the Shopper Engagement - H: high
Study conducted by POPAI, there are generally - M: medium
four (4) types of consumer behaviors, namely - L: low

the Time Stressed, Trip Planner, Bargain

Hunter and the Explorer [5]. In order to aid the

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Table 1 is used to analyze the priorities of
the consumer behaviors against several usual
characteristics or criteria relevant to grocery
shopping practice.
To satisfy the needs, wants and demands of
different consumer behaviors identified, six (6)
shopping practices to be incorporated into the
proposed mobile app are derived as below.

Shopping List for Planned & Organized
Shopping Trip
Shopping list helps Trip Planner and Time
Stressed shoppers in planning and organizing
shopping trips that are bound to time pressure
and the need to control and organize. As the
mobile app will act as a mobile tool to automate
and simplify the process of writing the grocery
list, it is environmental-friendly, convenient,
and time-saving since the shoppers no longer
need to use papers for such a purpose. Also, the
process of adding up the grocery shopping costs
and listing the products/items will no longer
require manual efforts.
In addition, according to a consumer
research paper, impulsive buying is essentially
described as “unplanned purchase behavior”.
From this standpoint, the author reasons that a
shopping list could help to curb impulsive
shopping behavior as “an impulse purchase
could be construed as any purchase not written
on someone’s shopping list” [16]. This would
facilitate to instill healthy shopping practice
while specifically addressing the impulsive
buying issue that shoppers with Time Stressed,
Bargain Hunter, and Explorer consumer
behaviors may experience.

Budget Shopping Trip
In relation to the point discussed above, a
budgeting system will complement the
shopping list function of the mobile app by first
allowing shoppers to input a budget. The
mobile app will the alert the shoppers when the
total cost of products/items on the shopping list
has exceeded the inserted budget. This is effort-
and time-saving and would benefit the shoppers
especially the Time Stressed and the Trip
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Planner where smart grocery planning is in
practice.

Product Browsing & Searching
Allowing shoppers to browse store products
with the proposed mobile application can help
to meet the needs and satisfy the demands of
the Bargain Hunter and the Explorer. In store
products will be displayed in the form of a web
catalogue that virtually represents the physical
or distributed catalogue. In addition, this feature
will also be beneficial to the Time Stressed and
Trip Planner shoppers as it reduces the time and
effort needed to look for the intended
products/items to add on to the grocery list with
the use of the search function and different
filters.

Product Comparison
Bargain Hunters are able to compare
products by firstly searching for products with
keywords and then apply filters, for instances,
lowest price, highest price, popularity, and such
to do a side-by-side comparison of products
displayed in the form of a catalogue.

Promotion/Discount Personalization
This feature addresses bargain hunting as
shoppers will be allowed to personalize the
promotions and discounts available to personal
preference, saving them from the efforts to
trim, store, carry, and use printed coupons only
usable during grocery shopping trips. This also
helps the hypermarkets to strengthen retail
loyalty as business is able to track and study
consumer preferences, as well as to encourage
less paper usage that is cost-effective to
business.

Circular/Coupon Viewing
Shoppers will be able to view promotions,
discounts, or vouchers that will be virtually
represented, which will be useful for shoppers
with consumer behaviors diagnosed with high
circular/coupon usage such as the Bargain
Hunter and Explorer. This will replace the
traditional circulars, for instance, pamphlets
and flyers that will help business to save costs
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while adding value to the shopping experience
of the shoppers.
4.2 Online Questionnaire Survey
Questionnaire is a primary data gathering
technique where a standardized set of domain-
related questions is designed to capture
meaningful and useful quantitative data set for
analysis. Questionnaire is then distributed to
intended respondents through various medium,
for instances, snail mail, email, distributed, and
such. Online questionnaire has been selected as
one of the data gathering techniques for the
purpose of this research due to its capability to
outreach to wide audience via the Internet
within comparatively shorter period of time
with lower costs. Since this research paper is
not funded, using the online questionnaire
method for data collection is fairly suitable for
sampling purpose for further analysis.
The online questionnaire is created and
designed using Google Docs and a link is
generated and distributed to selected
participants online via social media networks
and email addresses. Gathered data is then
summarized into charts and diagrams for
analysis, transferred into spreadsheet for
advanced analysis using Google Analytics
application.
That said, data can be easily tabulated and
analyzed due to uniformity in which the
participants respond to the same set of
questions. Having said that, questionnaires are
directly submitted to the author as participants
complete the questionnaires, hence increasing
the efficiency of the data collection process as
time needed to collect data of a certain sample
size is fairly reduced compared to other
methods in that aspect. Also, the online
questionnaire is self-administered therefore
increasing the response rate and the accuracy of
response since human error can be
circumvented while biasness towards subjective
questions can be minimized as the online
questionnaire can be answered anonymously
[17].
ISBN: 978-1-941968-02-4 ©2014 SDIWC
For the assurance of data integrity and
accuracy, the author uses control question in the
questionnaire where only questionnaire
responses from participants whose age are at
least eighteen (18) are valid. The sample size of
the research is sixty (60) respondents. The
questions in the questionnaire can be
categorized into three (3) different objectives
that are:

To categorize respondents based on three
(3) consumer groups that are student,
professional, and housewife.

To categorize respondents based on
different aspects of grocery shopping
such as frequency, durations, budget,
plan, promotions, products, and
satisfaction.

To identify the features that respondents
mostly preferred to have in mobile
application for shopping experience in
hypermarket industry.
4.3 Interview
The semi-structured interview technique is
selected so that the author could personally
address to the participants to collect rich and in-
depth qualitative data, in order to gain insights
on how three (3) consumer groups of student,
professional, and housewife differently behave
and react to various aspects of grocery
shopping. Semi-structured interview is
specifically chosen since the area of research
has been already identified and that it allows
more in-depth discovery of data where details
and personal revelations are paramount.
The participants of the interview sessions
would be equally made up of the three (3)
consumer groups as above mentioned where
three (3) participants from each group have
been personally selected hence a total of nine
(9) participants are participating the interview
sessions. The particulars and responses of the
participants are recorded as participants are
providing answers to the questions the author is
proposing during the interview.
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4.4 SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis is carried out to evaluate
the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and
Threats to the business involved in this
research. The SWOT analysis is useful in
facilitating business in decision making
situations when a desired objective has been
defined, also used in creating suggestions and
recommendations during a feasibility study. In
addition, organizations also perform SWOT
analysis for pre-crisis planning and preventive
crisis management [18].
Helpful
Internal
Strength
External
Opportunity
Figure 2. SWOT Analysis Matrix.
Internal and external origins are covered in a
SWOT analysis where the internal factors are
the strength and weakness; the external factors
are opportunity and threat, presented in the
form of a matrix (Figure. 2).
As one of the goals is to enhance the
competitive advantage hypermarket with
technology, a SWOT analysis is developed
based on the characteristics of mobile
application for hypermarket industry to study
how such proposal would benefit the business
with competitive edges and possibly hurt the
business. The opportunities of the proposal will
be established mainly based on the assumed
weaknesses and then possible threats are
identified.

Strength – the proposal characteristics
that would provide competitive
advantage to the business over the
competitors.
 Weakness – the proposal characteristics
that would possibly hurt or harm the
competitive position of the business.
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 Opportunity – elements that are
potentially exploitable for the advantages
of the proposal.

Threat – environmental elements that
could hurt or harm the proposal or the
business.
5 RESULTS
The analysis of data gathered via
questionnaire and interview are summarized
into quantitative and qualitative results to help
Harmful the author to figure out the relevance of each
feature to be recommended in the mobile
application for hypermarket industry. Also, the
Weakness results and analysis are used to help the author
to approve, disprove, or amend the decision the
author developed as stated in section IV (A).
Respondent’s satisfaction level of traditional
Threat
grocery shopping, preference of mobile
technology usage for grocery shopping, and
preferred item/product categories to be
available in the mobile application are
identified through quantitative questionnaire
survey while qualitative interview sessions with
three (3) consumer groups of student,
professional, and housewife are conducted to
gather in-depth information about different
groups of consumer and respective consumer
behaviors.
The quantitative results focusing on six (6)
areas which have been discussed in section IV
(A) are as below:
 Shopping List for Planned & Organized
Shopping Trip: The quantitative results
show only 60% of the respondents
usually plan grocery shopping trip using
a shopping/grocery list whereas 40% of
them respond negatively. It is inferred
that most of the respondents would
prefer the usage of a shopping list for
grocery shopping and such function to be
considered for the proposed system.
 Budget Shopping Trip: 70% of the
respondents do not budget grocery
shopping trips while 30% of the
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respondents have the habit of controlling respondents prefer such function in

and budgeting expenditure for grocery future.
shopping. It is inferred that most of the
For respondent’s satisfaction level, a total of
respondents do not exert budget
21% of the respondents find that the traditional
constraint on grocery shopping nor do
grocery shopping experience is satisfying
the respondents exercise good shopping
where 62% rate average. However, 17% of the
practices.

respondents find that the traditional grocery
Product Browsing & Searching: There is shopping experience is not at all satisfying. The
a total of 43% of the respondents who possible reasons to the medium level of
rarely or never use circulars; 28% of the satisfaction with the conventional grocery
respondents have average usage of shopping experience would be that the retail
circulars; and the remaining 28% of the industry of Malaysian market has yet to be
respondents have responded to high introduced with technology adoption hence the
circular usage. It is inferred that most respondents are complacent with the traditional
consumers browse circulars and such way of grocery shopping.
function has to be considered. Another reason could also be the human

nature that resists changes due to the familiarity
Product Comparison: 87% of the and comfort built over years of doing grocery
respondents perform product comparison shopping in the traditional way since the very
before making a purchase decision while beginning as integrating technology into
merely 13% respond that they do not grocery shopping is considerably a new concept
compare products to decide which to to the Malaysian market.
purchase. It is concluded that most
respondents compare items/products Having said that, the author strongly believes
between different brands.

that the technological advancement of the retail
Promotion/Discount Personalization: sector through implementation of mobile
23% of the respondents vote application will be significant as 17% of the
Promotion/Discount Personalization as respondents do not at all find the conventional
the most preferred system feature, which grocery shopping experience to be of
ranks second after the Product satisfactory, where space for improvements can
Comparison (42%) feature. It is inferred still be seen. Technology integration into
that most respondents are in favor of this grocery shopping is reckoned to be able to
system feature. bring a new level of experience and more

convenience to the consumers compared to that
Circular/Coupon Viewing: of the traditional grocery shopping. The
Respectively, there are 60% and 15% of concept of technology adoption in the retail
the respondents rarely and never use sector and grocery shopping experience is
coupons for grocery shopping while 13% acceptable by the Malaysian market and the
and 12% of the respondents rate average resistance is not high since a total of 69% of the
and often use coupons for grocery respondents have average and above average
shopping. It is inferred that the coupon preferences for mobile technology usage to
usage is low for most of the respondents facilitate, ease, and enhance grocery shopping
due to reasons such as the printed trip, even though there is a minority of 30% of
coupons do not always reach many the respondents who do not find mobile
consumers and that it is easily misplaced technology to be useful and helpful for grocery
and cumbersome to trim, store, and use shopping trip.
printed coupons for grocery shopping.
The author may consider incorporating Among all the shopping practices/mobile
e-coupon if the findings show that app features that have been discussed in section

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4.1, Circular/Coupon Viewing is the least
favored with merely 2% of the respondents
have selected. The other five (5) mobile app
features, arranged with the most favored first
and least last, are: Product Comparison (42%),
Promotion/Discount Personalization (23%),
Product Browsing (17%), Budgeting System
(10%), and lastly Shopping List (7%). Below
shows the changes to the recommended six (6)
Table 2 depicts four (4) proposed features of
mobile application system in hypermarket
industry, translated from the six (6) shopping
practices using primary research data, and how
each proposed feature addresses the grocery
shopping criteria similar to that of Table 1.
Table 2. Proposed Features and Grocery Shopping
Criteria.

 More emphasis and attention to Product

shopping practices: Mobile App Feature
Promotion /
Product Product Shopping
Discount
Comparison, Personalized Comparis
Personalizatio
Browsi List
on ng (7+10=17
Promotions/Discounts, and Product (42%)
n
(17%) %)
(32+2=34%)

Browsing in the system features as these Time
are the system features most preferred by Pressure

the Malaysian consumers; Organization 


  

Grocery Shopping Criteria

Store
Shopping List & Budgeting System: Browsing
Retail
Shopping list appears to be one of the Loyalty
least preferred features possibly due to  
Bargain
Hunting
the fact that manually producing a

Impulsive
written list can be cumbersome for short Buying

duration of grocery shopping trip
especially when most of the consumers
(62%) spend only a maximum of one (1)
hour for grocery shopping according to
the research data. To tackle this issue, the
author suggests to incorporate Shopping
List feature with Budgeting System that
would cost the consumers least effort to
develop a shopping list and with extra
flexibility and convenience built in. This
feature will in turn facilitate to educate
the Malaysian consumers of good
shopping practice that can curb impulse
purchases.
 
Circular /
Coupon
Usage

Written List
Usage
Next, the primary data collected also shows
that 68% of the respondents are students, 18%
are working professionals, and 5% are
housewives. The author then discovers through
data collected via interview that housewives do
not often visit to hypermarkets as compared to
students and professionals for grocery shopping
because housewives generally do daily grocery
shopping at the wet markets, mom-and-pop
stores, minimarts, and convenient stores, which


are more accessible than hypermarkets
Circular/Coupon Viewing: Such feature especially the small format stores such as
is to be absorbed by Promotion/Discount minimarts. Minimart is the fastest growing
Personalization feature through trade channel in terms of new outlets and offer
equipping it with personalization good-value-for-money products with very
capability to allow consumers selectively competitive pricing. “Coupled with the
view only preferred information, and convenience factor and simple store layouts”,
address what is perceived as information minimart is an emerging channel that is going
overloading because many items are to become a strong force to content with in
clustered into few pieces of papers, Malaysia [19].
which result in low conventional circular This has fortified the need for the
usage. hypermarket industry to bring in technology

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integration for competitive advantage, and  Circular/Coupon Viewing (Student: H)


driven the author to give more emphasize on
Bargain Hunting (Student: M)

the consumer behaviors of student and
professional to be discovered when proposing Time Pressure (Professional: H;
system for this research based on the in-depth Housewife: H)

data collected through interview, as
Organization (Professional: H)

summarized in Table 3 shown below.
Written List Usage (Professional: H)
Table 3. Malaysian Consumer Types, Grocery Shopping
Criteria and Consumer Behavior. This priority list is then used by the author to
cross reference with Table 2 to:

Malaysian Consumer
Student Professional Housewife Determine if the proposed mobile
Time Pressure H H application features for hypermarket
Grocery Shopping Criteria

Organization H industry address all the criteria on the

Store Browsing H priority list;

Retail Loyalty
Analyze if the priorities of the proposed
Bargain Hunting M L
mobile app features address accordingly
Impulsive Buying H H
to the priority list, for instance, Product
Circular / Coupon Usage H L
Comparison (42%) should address the
Written List Usage H
Trip Time
grocery shopping criteria ranked higher
Consumer Behavior Explorer
Planner Stressed priority on the Priority List whereas the
* Priority: Shopping List (17%) should address
- H: high
- M: medium
those with lower priority ranking on the
- L: Low Priority List.
Table 3 depicts how the Malaysian consumers behave The inference is that the primary data used
with respect to the grocery shopping criteria as listed in to derive the proposed mobile application
Table 1 based on the interview sessions conducted with the system features is accurate. The questionnaire
three (3) groups of consumer, namely student, professional,
and housewife. Table 3 is put in comparison to Table 1 and interview results complement one another
where the author then identifies the consumer behaviors of where both data set on the priorities of the
the three (3) consumer groups, which has resulted in features arranged based on consumer
student as the Explorer, professional as the Trip Planner, preference are in sync. Hence, the author
and housewife as the Time Stressed.
finalizes that the proposed mobile application
Figure 3. Figure Caption for Table 3.
system will carry the following four (4)
features, arranged with descending priority:
The author then uses Table 3 to rearrange  Product Comparison
the grocery shopping criteria according to the  Promotion/Discount Personalization

behaviors of the three (3) consumer groups,
giving the most priority to the student group, Product Browsing

followed by the professional group, and the
Shopping List with Simple Budgeting
housewife group with the least priority level,
presented as a priority list as shown below in System
the order of descending superiority: Since business analysis using SWOT is also
 Store Browsing (Student: H) one of the research methods to prove feasibility


of the suggested system features to be
Impulse Buying (Student: H; Housewife: implemented in mobile application technology
H) of the Malaysian hypermarket industry, here the

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 Proceedings of the International Conference on Electrical, Electronics, Computer Engineering and their Applications, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2014
results of SWOT analysis of the proposed
solution can be viewed in Table 4.
Table 4. SWOT Analysis for Proposed Solution.

Pioneer technology integration in Malaysian hypermarket industry.
 Encourage Go Green campaign and paperless environment to fulfill
Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR), which helps to build
reputation and company image.

Strength
Encourage research and development and a new alternative of
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to the industry.
 Better comprehension of buying behaviors and patterns of customers.
 Encourage good grocery shopping practices such as planning
shopping trips and budgeting.
 Unable to deal with customer complaints.
 Lack of accuracy on the analysis of consumer buying behaviors and
Weakness
patterns as system merely facilitates customers in viewing store items
and planning shopping trips, yet does not allow direct purchasing of
products/items.
 Unable to implement digital coupon usage as external devices are
needed to be developed for every checkout counter.

Unable to deal with customer complaints.
 Lack of accuracy on the analysis of consumer buying behaviors and
patterns as system merely Enhance, refine and upgrade system
Opportunity
gradually to allow customers to provide feedbacks with the system.
 Allow online ordering and purchasing of items for increased accuracy
in buying behaviors and patterns of consumers.
 Collaborate with business that provides passbook service where
digital coupons can be stored in mobile application and install QR
code scanners for such function to be operational.
 Low level of acceptance of the Malaysian market.
 High resistance to change in traditional grocery shopping as such
Thrat
concept is considerably new.
 Competitors may catch up to speed quickly and come up with a better
system, causing business to lose customers.
*With reference to Fig. 2.
In summary, the students (Explorer) are
especially in favor of the personalization of
promotions and discounts, and product
comparison functions. They are mostly not
serious nor are they consistent shoppers. Ease
and convenience would be the main concerns.
The professionals (Trip Planner) view the
traditional grocery shopping experience to be
overall time-consuming and less
environmental-friendly. They are bound to time
pressure and organization, and tend to plan
and/or budget their grocery shopping trips.
System effectiveness and efficiency would be
the main concerns. Although the housewives
ISBN: 978-1-941968-02-4 ©2014 SDIWC
(Time Stressed) mostly still prefer the old ways
of grocery shopping, they find such concept to
be helpful. They are bound to budget constraint
and are the strongest bargain hunters amongst
all categories. Cost effectiveness would be of
the main concern.
In addition, the author also believes that the
proposed mobile application system should take
into consideration that most of the primary
research respondents (63%) are students
(Explorer) and female, therefore incorporate
elements that are relevant to their
characteristics.
All in all, the complete data gathered from
the primary and secondary research shows that
the student, professional, and housewife, are
generally supportive of the idea and concept of
mobile application usage for grocery shopping,
and believe that technology could help to
facilitate, ease, and enhance the conventional
grocery shopping experience.
6 RECOMMENDED MOBILE
APPLICATION SYSTEM FEATURES
FOR HYPERMARKET INDUSTRY
To conclude, the proposed mobile
application solution for the Malaysian
hypermarket industry, the system emphasizes
the ease of use and convenience, while
targeting young female adults and working
female adults the system active users. PSA
allows users to browse and compare
products/items, plan grocery shopping trips,
and view customized promotions and discounts.
To add value, the author recommends building
in a basic and simple budgeting system that
merely allows the users to input budget for a
shopping list, displays the total amount of a
shopping list, and then notifies the users if the
shopping list is over or under budget.
Based on the analysis of the primary and
secondary data gathered, the author
recommends to incorporate such system
features as listed below into mobile application
system for hypermarket industry, arranged
based on descending priorities:
80
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 Product Browsing: to view and compare

products/items, and/or to add directly to
shopping list. For instance, users can
enter keyword to look for a specific
product, or further filter the catalogue
based on the 3-layer filtering function
that can perform sorting based on
product/item category and/or pricing or
popularity, in an ascending or a
descending order.

Figure 4. Examples of Recommended Product

Browsing/Searching Feature [20]

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 Promotion/Discount Personalization: Figure 1. Examples of recommended feature [20]

customizable viewing of promotions and Product Comparison: to allow users to do side-

discounts (circulars/coupons). Users may by-side comparison in aspects of product/item
select to arrange and display promotions category, price, popularity, and others depending
and discounts based on user’s most on the search keywords inserted as products/items
are displayed in the form of a catalogue, while
searched/compared products /items, and browsing products/items via filtering and sorting
also according to products/items users capabilities.
frequently add into shopping list.

Figure 6. Examples of Recommended Product

Comparison Feature [20]

 Shopping List with Simple Budgeting

System: users are allowed to create new
shopping lists by giving the list a title
and setting a budget for the list. Also,
shoppers can select products/items to be
added into a shopping list while
browsing and then when completed, the
users select a specific shopping list to
add the selected products/items into the
particular list. In addition, the users are
allowed to view the lists created and the
corresponding details, such as
product/item name, quantity, price,
subtotal, total, and budget. It allows the
users to input budget for a shopping list,
displays the total amount of a shopping
list, and then notifies the users if the
shopping list is over or under budget. For
extra flexibility, the users are allowed to
modify product/item quantity or to
remove products/items directly when
Figure 5. Examples of Recommended viewing a shopping list, with immediate
Promotion/Discount Personalization Feature [20] effect on the total amount of shopping
list.

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 Proceedings of the International Conference on Electrical, Electronics, Computer Engineering and their Applications, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2014

Figure 7. Examples of Recommended Shopping List

with Simple Budgeting System Feature [20]

Figure 8. Examples of How a Shopping List can be

created.

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 Beverages
 General household items
 Health & beauty products

7 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK

The problems the hypermarket industry of

Malaysia is facing call for a solution to resolve
the issues with the implementation of mobile
technology application. To further define
Figure 9. Examples of Flexibility in Product/Item
Quantity and Deletion Built-In to a Shopping List; as
problem areas and verify resolutions, the author
well as Remark on Exceeding or Not Exceeding Budget has conducted sufficient primary and secondary
of a Shopping List. researches, as well as gathering ample data and
information to seek for more evidences to
approve or disprove the suggestions the author
developed in the early stages to resolve the
issues identified.
The data collected from primary and
secondary researches are studied and analyzed
to generate results that are used to measure
against the research and resolutions the author
developed during earlier stages. Also, a SWOT
analysis is performed to learn the strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats the
proposed system would post to the business
and/or industry. Until present, the author deems
that the data collected is adequate for the
development of mobile technology application
for hypermarket industry.
The recommendations of mobile technology
application for hypermarket industry has been
decided to not include every solutions that the
author has recommended prior to primary data
collection but to focus only on important
functions and features identified through the
primary data gathered. Nevertheless, further
investigations need to be carried out especially
Figure 10. Examples of Immediate Update of
Amendment being done to a Shopping List to involve more number of respondents to cover
every part and aspect of hypermarket industry
In relations to the data gathered from both in Malaysia for feasible solutions. Currently,
primary and secondary research, the product since this research has not been funded by any
category that being recommended to be institutions and organizations, merely a small
included in the system is as below: number of respondents (N=69) are involved in
 Food products the research.

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