Change In the Purchase Behaviour of Tourists and Its Impact How

Questions: 1. What are the factors that link purchase behaviour of the consumers with the shopping experience? 2. What is the impact on the local business owners as a result of degrading condition of leisure shopping? 3. What are the possible steps that the local business owners might take in order to improve the degrading condition of leisure shopping? Answers: Introduction: The research proposal is a business problem case study. The proposal highlights the major business problem decisions along with the research questions and the research techniques that shall be undertaken for this particular research study. Analysis of the business decision or problem: As stated by Machleit, Meyer and Eroglu, (2005), leisure shopping is a magical concept for the tourism industry and has been offering true sense of spending leisure time in a new region by the means of shopping. Leisure retail is referred to the shopping outlets that attract shoppers to browse the retails outlets and the products available there in their free time. It has been found that many small towns and village on the rural margins or tourism centres have turned to retail outlets (Machleit, Meyer Eroglu, 2005). This step has been undertaken as a retail development option and has also offered a strategy of offering tourist shopping to support local business. The local businesses involved in art, craft and local food and beverages could be benefitted with this local business approach. Many places like Singapore, Dubai, Europe and even Canada is well known for their local products. Tourists find it amazing to get the taste of the local flavour and the local businesses are found to prosper. However, in the view point of Murphy et al., (2008), considering the approach of the consumers towards changing pattern of shopping, the local business owners could face great challenges in terms of dealing with the consumers. Turley and Milliman, (2000) pointed out that there is a clear evidence of changing habit among the consumers around the globe. This has created serious challenges to the local business owners. Literature review: As stated by Zaidan, (2016), there has been a change in the consumer buying habits in the recent time due to changes in the ideology of the consumers and the changing pattern of the shopping method. Same conducted the research and came up with a number of possibilities that has created the transformation in the shopping experience of the consumers around the world. It has been found that common shopping experience has created hassles among the consumers. This hassling experience often results in irritation, frustrating and stressful as an everyday life transaction. Similar pattern is observed when it comes to shopping context (Azmi et al., 2017). People interact in a number of ways including browsing, searching for more information and ultimately purchasing things. Shoppers that have task oriented shopping are found to face difficulties in identifying the uplifts of shopping while shopping oriented shoppers are found to enjoy a part of the leisure shopping. Shoppers that have a recre ational tendency towards their shopping activities are found to enjoy their shopping experience. It is only when the shopping is tend to be task oriented, shoppers find it little monotonous to deal with the experience and ultimately results in a situation where shopping is no more fun. As stated by Choi, Heo and Law, (2016), retailers are found to continuously develop strategies to overcome the conceptualisation of the consumers decision on purchasing a product. In this respect, Mele, Ng and Chim, (2015) stated that tourist product is peculiar product because it is simultaneously a product and also the place where the product belongs to. There are a number of factors that shape the purchasing decision of the consumers. One of the most vital factors is the environment of shopping. It is only when the location and the environment of the particular place is suitable for the consumers to shop, they would find it convenient to shop. It has been found that focus has been made on leisure shopping and the retailers are shifting the shops and the outlets of their retail to the malls and other places to attract more consumers. This provides the shoppers to spend more time at the shopping outlets and give more time to the consumers to browse and then decide upon their choice. The degrading situation of the street shopping has been a major concern in many countries of Europe as well. The countries like Spain, Amsterdam and others are where the regions are famous for the things that they offer to the local people and the tourists. However, the situation has been found to degrade from time to time and the shops are shifting to big malls. The situation of Singapore is at a poorer situation and the local retailers are really in constrained to overcome the situation. As pointed out by Mele, Ng and Chim, (2015) the increasing demand of the online shopping and the availability of the option of the e-commerce has attracted more consumers towards the online shopping and the availability of the many options there. It is one of the major reasons that the local stores are getting affected due to the changing behavior of the consumers. Mele, Ng and Chim, (2015) has argued that the retailers need to concentrate on their part of offering the best quality service to the consumers. Mele, Ng and Chim, (2015) has also pointed out that the local shopping or the leisure shopping is one of the effective means that has increased the overall income of the local people of the country, but the change in the consumers buying pattern has undoubtedly changed the way the consumers used to shop. Zaidan, (2016) has commented on the role of the government on the declining condition of the local tourism activity. It has been pointed that the government should take the initiative to improve the local shopping experience and give better opportunities to the retailers to come up with the approach that they would have something better to offer to the consumers. The condition of the local market should be improved that it would become a better place for the consumers where they would carry out their shopping as a means of leisure. Gap of the literature: The gap in the literature that has been identified is impact of the retailers due to the degrading condition of the leisure shopping in the local tourists locations. Focus shall be made on the local regions of Singapore. The research shall also focus on the major steps that the retailers have been taking to improve the situation. In addition to this, the research shall also focus on the role of the government that would eventually help to improve the condition of the leisure shopping in Singapore. Research methodology: Research design: There are four types of research designs, namely, exploratory research design, descriptive research design, explanatory research design that is accompanied by correlations and hypothesis testing along with experiments and lastly, the special cases that includes the analysis by the means of case studies, action research and scenario building (Creswell Poth, 2017). For this particular research, it is expected that the descriptive research design would be used where the secondary and the primary data gained from the detailed research shall be evaluated in a proper way to reach a particular conclusion. The theories and the concepts that have been recognised in the literature review part of the research shall be evaluated and an in depth knowledge of the same can be gained (Yin, 2013). In addition to this, by using this particular research design, one can critically evaluate the concepts and theories related to the topic. In this case it is very important because the complete research is depended on analysing the consumers behaviour and the changing pattern of the purchasing. The research approach that has been undertaken is by the means of interview and survey. The result of the interview and survey can be gained by the descriptive form only. There is no scope for experiment or testing and so the explanatory method should be avoided (Ioannidis et al., 2014). In addition to this, focus has not been made on a particular ethnic group of people that the exploratory research design would be selected. The research is based on the overall tourists visits Singapore and the retail shop owners of local places of Singapore. Therefore, there is no chance of the exploratory research design as well. So the selected research design is descriptive research design. Measuring the variables: The two variables that have been identified in the research are the consumers behaviour and the changing ideology of shopping that has created direct effect on the pattern of leisure shopping. The variables of the research shall be measured using a number of tools. The measurement depends on the types of variables (Ekinci, 2017). There is a direct measuring technique depending on the symbols and characters of the pre specified set of rules. The nominal scale shall be used for measuring certain categories or groups of variables like the age, gender or the specific choice of a person related to many options. The ordinal scale shall be used to understand the difference in the categories of major options like time duration (Xu et al., 2015). For example, the visitors might be asked on how long they have been doing shopping from the roadsides of Singapore and the duration of the years can be measured in terms of the ordinal scale. On the other hand, the interval scale can also be used to measure the qualitative options for the purpose of measuring other variables used in the research. Sampling requirements and sampling options: For this particular research, both probability and non-probability sampling technique shall be used for the purpose of this research. It is expected that in order to gain the idea about consumer behaviour, a survey should be conducted among 75 tourists in Singapore. There remain the probable chances that the aim of the survey will be fulfilled if the survey is carried on among the visitors of Singapore because they are the ones who shall provide the right information about their approach towards the changing consumers pattern on leisure shopping (De Vaus, 2013). The sampling technique taken into consideration is both probability and non-probability because the chances of gaining proper response from the respondents high but there still remain the probability that the selected participants would not be the right person selected for the research (Wildemuth, 2016). A survey paper shall be distributed among the participants that would contain only close ended questions and the participan ts shall be asked to select from the various options. The options shall be based on likert scale that the outcome of the response can be easily measured (De, 2013). For the qualitative approach, it is expected that 3 experts who have good knowledge about the changing consumer demand pattern and leisure shopping shall be interviewed in order to gain knowledge about the changing scenario. The questionnaire for these experts should be open ended where they shall be given the opportunity to present their own point of view on the topic. This way, an understanding on the topic can be gained and the research outcome could be more to the point and a detailed discussion on the topic taken under consideration (Xu et al., 2015). From the evidences of these qualitative and quantitative research approaches, a better conclusion could be reached that shall directly contribute to the findings of the research. Ethical issues: Ethical dilemma or issues might arise at the time of conducting a research. The major ethical issue that arise while conducting research is regarding the consent of the participants. It might happen that the participants remain unaware that they are part of the research and knowingly or unknowingly they might not have the consent of dealing with the researchers. The next ethical issue under consideration is the health and safety issues (Greenfield, 2016). It should be the primary concern of the researcher that none of the participants are harmed in the process of research. Thus, it is required to take complete precaution in every step of the research that none of the participants is harmed. As the research will be supported by quantitative data, the data has to be collected from a sampling group (Osungbade, Ogundiran Adebamowo, 2014). It is expected that while carrying out the survey, proper precautionary methods are undertaken that would not harm any individual. The sampling paper should not have the name of any particular company or brand that would act as an advertisement or promotional tag line. The survey paper should be designed is a manner that it would be used only for the purpose of the research and not other purpose (Blumberg, Cooper Schindler, 2014). In addition to this, none of the participants should be forced to participate in the survey. It is expected that they should sign a consent letter of their participation and show their full co-operation to the study. The last thing to be considered is the confidentiality of the participants. The participants of the research should be given the authority that their confidence should be kept intact and that they do not have to suffer due to the research (Fraley Hudson, 2014). These things are of great importance and should be thoroughly considered at the time of conducting the research. Summary: A detailed research methodology for the research has been stated here. A detailed approach on how the research would be conducted has been stated here. 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