EXAMINING MEDIATING EFFECT OF TRUST BETWEEN STORE IMAGE AND LOYALTY IN GROCERY SPECIALTY STORES IN HYDERABAD

Retailing in India has been at the growth trend in recent years. India has seen a huge increase in number of players coming in organised sector. The food and grocery sector is the largest category with in the retail sector India. India is ranked 6th largest country in terms of food and grocery. In order to survive in the market competition, having loyal customers can be beneficial to organisations. So retailers look at different aspects to keep customers intact. Store Image has become one of the most important factors for the survival and development of stores. In this paper, a model of relationships among the multidimensional variables of store image, trust and commitment to the store is formed and tested with a sample size of 209 customers in three stores in the metro city of Hyderabad. The important conclusion of the research is that several interrelations among store image, trust and store commitment exist. The result showed that Store Image indirectly influences Store Loyalty through Trust. The results also show significant gender differences in perceptions of store image. These results provide several important insights for managing supermarkets and are also important for future research.