Impact of customer dependency in buyer–seller relationship: a case of small retailers

Abstract

Small Retailers in Indian Retail industry are very prevalent and contributes a very large portion. Maintaining a relationship in such environment is very important. The relationship marketing research extensively covers variables such as customer dependence, satisfaction, trust and loyalty, which play an important role in building and maintaining long-term relationships. A country like India has a huge base of unorganized markets and the relationship between the customer and the seller is healthy. In such an environment, the dependency of customer (Buyer) and retailer (Seller) is an emphasizing issue. We attempt to identify the determinants of customer dependence through the literature and conceptual model development. We conducted a survey to study customer dependence in the relationship between a small grocery retailer in a rural area and the local residents. Variables like product familiarity, customer dependence, switching cost, supply uncertainty and product importance are studied in the paper.