Comparative Analysis of Consumer Buying Behavior and Preference towards Organized and Unorganized Retail Formats

India presents vast opportunities and openings to the world at age, to use as a hub. The Indian retail sector is in a transformation mode and has evolved dramatically from traditional village fairs, street hawkers to resplendent malls and luxurious outlets, mounting a growth ladder of strength. Standing on the edge of a retail rebellion and witnessing a fast changing retail landscape, India is all set to experience the phenomenon of global village. India is well-thought-out as the "Promising land" for global brands and Indian retailers as "A vibrant and pulsing economy". The retail sector has been at the rudder of India's growth story.;The researcher has taken the initiative to step on the laid path of research by understanding consumer preference and behaviour towards organized and unorganized retail formats with the aim to develop the surviving structure by providing the operational framework to the organized retailers in the Indian context.;Different frameworks have identified different set of consumer behavioral dimensions. Store attributes and shoppers' attributes are mainly covered in all frameworks followed by consumer attributes (characteristics). Further it is extended with situational variables. But through literature it was found that product type (Merchandise items) available in the store does play a crucial role in the preference towards the format. Even professional researchers emphasized upon identifying consumers preferences for product categories specific items preferred from different formats to segregate viable and unviable products specific to formats. Thus it necessitated a need to incorporate product category specific items dimension which in turn developed five dimensional consumer behavior framework which is not yet studied and laid a research gap. Thus through literature and empirical evidences consumer behavioral dimensions driving preference for retail formats organized and unorganized have been found as shopping oriented temporal aspects, Consumption Preference for Product Category Specific Inventory Items/Merchandise Mix, Store Attributes, Situational Variables and consumer characteristics and have been taken as the constructs for the presented research.;All five dimensions of consumer behavior have been studied with descriptive research design as a predictor of consumer preference for organized and unorganized retail formats for all three product categories separately to derive the surviving operational framework for all three categories. Field survey method has been adopted with the total sample of 900 across the selected cities of Gujarat. The respondent has been taken as the family influencer (Adult consumer above age 19) who holds major responsibility of shopping of the house and having exposure to organized and unorganized retail formats (element) of the selected houses/residences (unit) in the cities Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot (Extent). The organized retail formats cater their offerings towards the needs of the family be it grocery, apparel or consumer durable by keeping merchandise addressing the family need than only individual and thus are positioned as family shopping destinations. The influencer can certainly be the buyer also. But the buyer might or might not be the influencer and decider of the shopping destination. And as the research has aimed at identification of preference towards particular format, who drives and guides the preference becomes more important to identify than to only concentrate on who undergoes the buying process. Thus family influencer is selected as the respondent. The respondents are identified through Judgmental convenience sampling. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).