Scale Development Approach to the Influence of Gifting Behavior on Store Choice

A gift is understood as more an expression of a feeling rather than the monetary value it connotes to. The intangible part of the gift is more valuable and hence customers exercise great care in the process of selection of a gift. This identifies the significance to gifting behavior as an exclusive part of consumer behavior. The descriptive study was carried out with a questionnaire comprised nineteen Likert scales reflecting the components of gifting behavior on which an exploratory factor analysis with Varimax rotation was conducted. The survey was carried out with 150 respondents shopping for gift articles in the town of Pondicherry using convenience sampling method. In this paper gifting behavior has been identified to classify under six dimensions namely merchandise, emotion, atmospheric, convenience, social and service. Gift items are a major market for a retailer and this scale would be useful for retailers to check their gift shopper satisfaction preparedness level. This study in future can be extended to other cities in India and can also be carried for specific demographic variables like gender or age.