A study on consumer's preference for days of the week for special occasion purchases Rangarjan Varadarajan*, Arunachalam M. S** *Department of Management Studies, MITS, Madanapalle, Chitoor district AP, India. Email id: varadarajanr@mits.ac.in **Professor, T J Institute of Technology, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. India. Email id: Arunachalam_Ms@Yahoo.Co.In Online published on 9 February, 2018. Abstract Retail store management has become important not only due to increase in consumer demand but also due to change towards cosmopolitan structure of population in major cities leading to diversity in consumer choices. Additionally, maximizing the fill rate of customer basket of purchases requires that inventory imbalances be minimized, that is ensure that the right kind of product is available in sufficient quantities on the shelf. This translates into understanding consumer preferences and the ability to predict consumer choices for different products. While this may seem impossible, given the diversity of consumer's choices at different shopping encounters, but this can be done to some extent for loyal customers (customers who visit the store often). One of the issues is to understand consumer behavior from the perspective of the days the customers choose to buy their products for special occasions such as marriages, religious functions, etc. for example there is a general tendency of customer in India across all regions avoid buying cooking oil and items made of metal (specifically made of iron) on Saturdays. Moreover, when it comes making purchases for special occasion consumers from different regions prefer different days of the week. This paper analyzes the consumer's preference of days of the week for special occasion purchases, such as marriages, religious functions, etc. and statistically tests the relationship between consumer's region of origin (North, South, East, and West) and their preference for days of the week. In addition, statistical test for relationship of annual income, gender, education, marital status, and age of consumer to days of preference for special occasion purchases. It has been found through analysis that in general consumers preferred Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday for shopping. Moreover, Education and Marital Status seemed to have significant influence on the choice of the days. Region of origin, income, Age, and Gender did not influence the choice of days for shopping. Furthermore, age, gender, education provide mediating effect on the region of origin. Top Keywords Consumer Behavior, Consumer Preference, Retailing, inventory management, special occasion purchases. Top |