Research in Marketing

Brand consciousness has been a global phenomenon over the past decade with fashion trends crossing borders and a global appeal being associated with all brands. Since recession though, consumers have lost preference for big brands owing to high cost of brands. People have started preferring low cost apparel and clothing and supermarket giants such as TESCO have made full use of this new found opportunity by releasing their own brand of clothing which deliver quality at much lower prices. The same counts for other products in cosmetics, food, footwear etc. thus changing the whole business scenario with changing trends of buying pattern of consumers. According to leading market research firm Euromonitor International (2008), consumers are happy to sit at their homes in such times rather than go out and spend unnecessary money. This gives these supermarkets the opportunity to look at online shopping as a feasible option to cater to the needs of these consumers who prefer sitting at homes and comparing prices online. Sitting at the comfort of their homes, consumers have access to online bargains and a variety of models which they can select according to their preferences. The immense competition among various brands enables consumers to get products at smart prices opening up a whole new business model. However, this step would be taken with the risk factor in consideration because risk and uncertainty is common in online transactions and online shopping. This risk factor would prove as the only drawback with online shopping but the convenience factor would make up for this flaw proving this as a reason of hope for retailers and supermarkets to protect themselves from going down with the crisis.