Great India Place, Noida-2,760,417;

Introduction: The Indian retail sector is pegged at a whopping $500 billion dollars and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13% to reach $950 billion dollars by 2018. Indian market is considered among the top 10 retail markets of the world. The organized sector which is currently at 7.5 % is expected to grow at a rate of 19-20% per annum and would constitute 10% by the end of the year 2018. This organized retail sector consists of supermarkets, chain stores with centralized operations and shops in malls. In India, currently, there is FDI in single brand retail but no FDI is allowed in multi brand retail. Furthermore, liberalization of FDI policy is expected to take place which will allow all the global players the access the Indian market. Currently E-commerce companies clock a revenue of $12 billion dollars due to which brick and mortar stores are finding unique ways to give a stiff competition. Some of the mall companies in India include Pantaloon Retail, Shoppers Stop, Spencers Retail, Reliance Retail etc. India currently has 500 operational malls with a total area of 180 million sq.ft. The seven metros have 190 malls in operations. If we consider all the malls irrespective of the sizes, there are around 60 malls in Delhi/NCR region. The average monthly footfall in the top 3 malls are as below:

Ambience mall, Gurgaon -1,856,250;

Select Citywalk , Delhi-191,667

Objective: To analyze the factors that influence the consumer buying behavior in malls of Delhi/NCR.

Research Design: Since we are trying to determine the characteristics of a group of people, the methodology to be followed is descriptive research which would be based on primary and secondary data. The primary data would be collected through a well elicited questionnaire. Some of the variables that are impacting the research objectives are:

1. Price

2. Variety

3. Status symbol

4. Location

Hypotheses

H1: Consumers shopping in malls are driven by the variety of goods offered at a single place.

H2: Consumers are attracted by the discounts offered at various retail outlets in malls.

H3: Consumers consider shopping at malls a status symbol.

Methodology:-

According to the research objective, the top 10 malls in Delhi/NCR region to be considered are: 1. Select Citywalk, Saket

2. DLF Emporio, Vasant Kunj

3. DLF Promonede, Vasant Kunj

4. Ambience Mall, Gurgaon

5. The Great India Place, Noida

6. TDI Mall, Rajouri Garden

7. Sahara Mall, Gurgaon

8. Crown Plaza Mall, Faridabad

9. Shipra Mall, Ghaziabad

10. Opulence Mall, Ghaziabad

These malls are ranked in some specific order. The malls are taken into consideration based various parameters like average footfall in a month, ease of access etc

The following steps would be followed in the research:

1. Planning a sample which would include people depending on age groups and incomes.

2. Developing a questionnaire.

3. Collecting the data and coding the variables.

4. Data analysis and interpretation through regression analysis.

5. Formulating the conclusions.

6. Preparing the report.

References:

[1]. Rupesh Tiwari International Journal of Management & Strategy July-Dec.2010 Vol.1,No.1

[2]. Research studies on malls in India by asipac

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/the_consumer_decision_journey