An Empirical Study of Consumers Cognizance towards Foreign Direct Investment in Indian Retail Sector

Indian retail sector is in the nascent stage, even though India has become an attractive place or target for foreign players due to one of the largest consumer markets in the world. At present, around 92 percent retail sector comes under the unorganized retail and 8 percent of retail belongs to the organized retail. Because of modern style of consumer’s buying behavior, organized retail has become more famous in big cities. Earlier, entry of foreign retailers was restricted in India but now Government has opened its doors wide for single brand retail and only 51 percent FDI is allowed in multi brand retail. The present paper is an attempt to analyze the perceptions of consumers about foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail through questionnaire and interpreted by SPSS software. This research study presents an overview of Indian retail segment, current policy of Foreign Direct Investment in retail and the correlation between the foreign direct investment in retail and consumer purchasing behavior. It also includes the views of consumers for the perception of buying capacity, shopping style, quality of product, brand consciousness and monopoly situation of market.