The Role of Demographics on Decision-Making Styles of Botswana’s Retail Shoppers

Abstract

The current paper presents findings on key decision-making styles adopted by retail shoppers and how such styles are influenced by gender, age, education, income and marital status in an attempt to facilitate a sound understanding of retail shopping behavior. The sampling unit consists of the general shopping public whose age ranges from 18 to 64 years residing in Gaborone and Francistown. Gaborone and Francistown are the two largest cities with a combined population of approximately 20% of the two million people in Botswana. Data was collected by way of mall intercepts from a sample of 894 retail shoppers. Findings reflected that retail shoppers in Botswana are best described by three decision-making styles — time energy conserving, perfectionism and fashion-hedonistic consciousness. Time energy conservers were found to be old and less educated males. Perfectionistic shoppers were younger, more educated and married females. Fashion-hedonistic consciousness was common among older and married female shoppers. It is crucial for retailers to have an extensive knowledge of the role of demographics on consumers’ decision-making styles in order to ensure competitive advantage through the use of appropriate marketing strategies.