DETERMINANTS OF RETAIL SELECTION DECISION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF RURAL AND URBAN CONSUMERS

India is a land of Villages. Villagers constitute major part of market base which is seldom realized by urban retailers. Over the past few years rural India has witnessed an increase in the buying power of consumers, accompanied by their desire to upgrade their standard of living. Major retailers who have already established themselves in the Indian market have now realized that the urban market is already has been saturated & rural market is largely unexploited. Host of projects, such as NREGA, ITC's e-chaupal, HLL's project Shakti, retail hubs like Kisan Sansar (Tata), Haryali Kisan Bazar (DMC), both from the government and the private companies, have changed the rules of the marketing game in rural India. Despite the irregular buying capacity of rural markets, the taboos and traditions it is steeped in, the rural market in India is a highly lucrative one. The paper discusses the profile of the rural Indian customer and analyses the characteristics of the diverse and scattered rural market comparatively with urban Indian customers. The paper goes on to explore what factors do the rural & urban consumer considers before choosing a particular product. Keywords: Rural, Customers, Urban, Retailers, Market, Produc