Factors influencing customer behavior

Abstract This research focuses on customer satisfaction and the main factors that have significant effect on purchasing decision and behavior of the consumer. The purpose of this research is to identify the factors that affect the customer behavior for buying from shopping center. Bravo shopping center has been selected as case study for this research.

choice of the topic The most important was that there were few studies done which focused on Palestinian consumer The second reason is the desire to apply science and some of the skills that we have gained in the area of Industrial Engineering Bravo shopping center has been chosen as a case study due to its success day after day in terms of consumer interests and needs

Problem Statement Currently the customers expect to be treated as equal partners with courtesy and efficiency thus need of retail stores to make the customer feel the value of using its products or services is greater that the price the customer is paying. This has led to increase competition in this sector. Every retail store is competing in order to get that one customer

Bravo Company is facing challenges in an attempt to attract and retain customers. Therefore this study intends to investigate the factors that affect on purchasing decision and behavior of the Palestinian consumer. The main question of the study is: What is the impact of competitive advantage, human factors, environmental factors, and advertising campaigns on purchasing behavior of the consumer?

Purpose of the project  To identify the factors affecting the willingness of the customers to purchase from bravo store  To gain in-depth and analyses the factors that influence on purchasing behavior of the consumer, and which of these factors has greatest influence  To develop a theoretical framework that explains the factors affecting the customer purchasing behavior

Constraints

interviews First part: We conducted interviews with a people who specialized in marketing It was in the form of an exploratory interview helped us to understand more and to choose the most important factors that affect the behavior of consumer Second part: We collected the data necessary to design a questionnaire that combines all the assisting Factors that contribute to how to understand the behavior of the customer

Methodology : Research framework Research approach Data Collecting Sample size

Research framework This research conducted in order to find out he factors that affect the Palestinian consumer behavior in shopping centers our frame work : Identifying research problem Defining research objective topics that related with our research Making interviews and questioners Data processing and analysis using statistical tools (spss) Result and conclusion formulation

Research approach We use both qualitative and quantitative approach will be used to collect the data for this study . Quantitative collection of data through numerical method. Qualitative data collection help to understand consumer behavior .

Data Collecting Secondary data Secondary data used for this research were collected from various sources including relevant books borrowed from An-Najah University library Primary Data interviews and carrying out questionnaire survey

Research assumption: The results were analyzed in this research based on the science of testing hypotheses 1- Environmental Factors 1) Store locations 2) Weather 3) the geographical nature 2-Demographic factors 1) gender 2) Age 3) educational level 4) Income   5) The number of family members

To obtained statistically representative sample size of population Thompson formula Thompson (2015): N: the total sample size Z=z is upper for the normal distribution (1.96 for 95% confidence interval) by using normal distribution table for the prior judgment of the current value. P: is equal to 50%, the percentage of response. ME: is the desired margin of error 5%, with 95% confidence interval. By substitute these values in the equation, n will equal to 385.12 approximately 385sample.

Competitive advantage 1) Israeli products 2) easy access 3) Availability of item 4) delivery service out 1) Staff Courtesy 2) accounts accuracy 3) Good looking and uniforms HUMAN FACTORS

4- salary was in the interval (1000-3000) with percentage of (27 4- salary was in the interval (1000-3000) with percentage of (27.1%) 5- family member the highest percentage was for families consisting of (4-5) members and the least was for singles. 6- Competitive advantage it has a percentage (84%). 7- Advertisement strongly affects customer’s purchasing behavior in shopping centers, and it has a percentage of (77%).

Sample size : But our research is Taking into consideration that the shops found in the city of Nablus and headed to the population so we snapped a sample based on the number of residents of Nablus and the number of families currently stationed in the city which equal to 389328 and the number of female is 187,394 , and males is 193,567 and the number of families in Nablus by estimate in average is 4.9 and by subtract the total number of population on the average we will have 79454 family .

Discussion 1-There is significant differences in customer purchasing behavior due to gender(177) males forming (50.6%) and (173) females forming (49.4) Age the most (33-40) with a percentage of (52.6%) 3) the study sample have bachelor degrees with a percentage (66.9%), followed by master (17.1%), and the lowest of sample members who hold doctora (3.7%).

8- Environment surrounding the shopping center affect customers’ (81%) Parentage 19- Human element is of a great impact on customer’s purchasing behavior, and it has a percentage of (85%).

Recommendations 1-Bravo should present more sales and discounts 2-There should be more work to raise competitive advantage 3- Shopping centers should encourage national products 4-Trying more and more to afford all products such as: trademarks and brand names, international products. 5-Children recreational areas are very important to customers, and it should be more creative and safe.

6- Delivery services are shown to be very important to customers, so Bravo should think about start using it creatively and using online selling services via visa cards. 7- When advertising, all details of the product should be provided to audience. 8- When advertising, quality of the product must be highlighted, and advertising should be through all possible media.

9- Shopping centers should be relatively close to residential areas 9- Shopping centers should be relatively close to residential areas. 10- The place of shopping centers must be easily reached, and allow as much parking lots as possible. 11- Bravo should care more about greening the outer area of the mall, especially parking area.

thank you