Abstract: The Indian rural market has a huge demand base and offers great opportunities to marketers. Two-thirds of Indian consumers live in rural areas and almost half of the national income is generated from there. In recent years, rural markets have acquired a lot significance, as the overall growth of the rural economy due to good monsoon, improved method of crop yields have resulted into substantial increase in spending power of the rural consumers. However, the major challenge for marketers while catering this market is to ensure the availability of the product and services to these remote locations. The retailers are the main link between the FMCG manufacturers and rural consumer. Generally, they buy FMCGs from the nearby feeder towns and distribute it to the rural consumers. Therefore, the effectiveness of rural marketing by marketers heavily depends on the understanding of behavior, attitudes and functioning of retailers. In order to understand the dynamics and practices of rural retiling the current empirical study has been undertaken. To realise the stated objectives, the researchers have employed a survey method. For this purpose a structured questionnaire has been framed and pre-tested and administered on the 320 rural retailer respondents. The validity of the questionnaire was adjudged, using Cronbach's coefficient (α). Based on the analysis of the study a brief summary of findings have been made and a meaningful conclusion has been drawn. Finally the results have been compared with the possible evidence. The study revealed that there is a significant influence of religion of the retailer on the motive behind entering rural retail business. A majority of the rural retailer respondent’s consumers ask for a specific product. The most important factor considered by consumers while buying FMCG are both quality and price. There is a significant influence of distance to the nearest town on product groups sold by the retailer. Opinion of retailers also has a say in rural areas. Retailers influence the choice of a brand at the point of sale for rural consumers. Most of the time, rural retailers give preference to regional brands over national brands, because of better margin, reasonable quality and credit facilities provided by sellers.
Keywords: FMCG, Monsoon, Cronbach's coefficient (α), Supply Chain Management, Haats and Melas.
Title: DYNAMICS OF RURAL RETAILING IN INDIA: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Author: Dr. Sathyanarayana S
International Journal of Management and Commerce Innovations
ISSN 2348-7585 (Online)
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