Outshopping Behaviour

Outshopping Behaviour defined as movement of people from one retail trade area to another in search of better options and deals has been studied in many countries worldwide. Most studies try to identify behavioural reasons behind such movement and its impact on trade. Outshopping also predominates in India, because of market structures differences across urban and rural areas and needs thorough investigation. A Sequential Mixed Method design was used for the study. Extensive literature review followed by in-depth interview based grounded theory study was used to generate a set of variables applicapable to Indian market. Variables and model thus generated was studied quantitatively on larger sample. SEM was used to establish the validity of the model. Results give a model for outshopping and establish differences in shopping behaviour for rural and urban customer, later being more habit oriented and vicarious in nature as against value orientation in the previous one. Theoretically results establish the importance of need for uniqueness and service expectations in explaining Outshopping Behaviour.