Perspectives on retailer satisfaction with non-premium dust tea – An opinion study

Abstract

India is one of the largest tea beverage consumers in the world and is the second largest producer of tea in the world. A large part of tea available in India for end user consumption is Non Premium Dust Tea (NPDT). Dust tea is available in many brands with almost all types of retail outlets, from small kiranas to huge shopping malls. This study seeks to identify the various elements that influence retailers' satisfaction and their views on NPDT. To address the research questions, data was collected from 213 NPDT retailers in Virdhunagar and Madurai districts, by using a structured questionnaire. A direct survey was used for data collection. Data thus collected was subjected to multiple linear regression to understand the impact of various factors considered on the retailers’ satisfaction in retailing NPDT. The factors considered to have an impact on retailers’ satisfaction were product quality of NPDT, demand of NPDT with consumers, brand image of various brands of NPDT, price offered by various brands of NPDT to customers, promotional support offered by the manufacturers of tea, service quality offered by the sales team of NPDT brands, distribution support offered and satisfaction on the payment system to have an impact on the satisfaction of tea retailers when dealing with NPDT. From the analysis it was found that all the factors considered had a significant contingent effect or impact on the retailers’ satisfaction in patronizing NPDT.