The Hindu Business Line : Study to identify potential shoppers in smaller towns

The lifestyle factors that triggered shopping mania were linked to `visits to coffee shops and cinema halls', which translate to more footfalls in malls.

Besides, there were certain product ownerships, which also revealed potential shoppers.

The higher the penetration of readymade goods such as colour cosmetics and washing machines, the larger the army of shoppers, predicts the study.

This resulted is a unique set of shopping influencers that would not have made it to the conventional list.

The real drivers of shoppers in the existing towns thus comprised those who were regular cinema watchers, were English speaking, consistent visitors of coffee shops and users of washing machines and colour cosmetics.

Specific market studies revealed that Visakhapatnam had 224 per cent higher shopping potential than Jalandar. Lucknow had a 36 per cent higher potential than Ludhiana.

Also, Madurai was ranked higher than Jamshedpur as a shopping destination.

Trying to understand the retail category, the Lodestar Universal Labcenter's research was about figuring out the small towns that spelt big business.

For the retail sector, the answer will decide the destination of tomorrow's mega malls, claims the study. With smaller towns emerging as engines of growth, cheaper real estate costs would provide for larger spaces. However, there was lack of insights on the quantum of likely shoppers in smaller towns. The target audience for the study was thus heavy shoppers, who could form a sizeable audience.

The potential of smaller towns had to be leveraged to drive the client's business growth, which led to Lodestar Universal exploring the myriad factors that influence shopping behaviour in the existing markets.

These markets with major retailers formed the basis for the study.

Apart from demographics, it factored-in product ownership, lifestyle, affluence indicators, media consumption and penetration of retail products.

Mapping out potential

Ms Nandini Dias, COO, Lodestar Universal, said: "We are doing this as a proprietary study for mapping out the potential of the retail sector. There is ranking done of the top 72 towns across the country to figure out the potential for shopping in each of them.'' Last year, Lodestar Universal undertook a similar exercise for ranking the potential of radio stations across the country.

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