Change in Consumer's Purchase Pattern of Clothing Due to the Price Hike: A Case Study on the Dhaka City Area of Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh has been manufacturing garments for foreign buyers for a long period of time with worldwide reputation. Correspondingly, Bangladesh's local market size for apparel products is also increasing and most of the local brands have placed their retail shops in the capital city. However, when the price hikes, consumers need to adjust their lives accordingly. This study aimed to provide the findings of an investigation into the effects of hikes in clothing prices. A purposive sampling method was used only in the Dhaka city area and a sample of 247 consumers was fixed through a semi-structured questionnaire. To fulfill the aim, paired sign test, binary logistic regression and exploratory factor analysis were applied to test the significance of five developed hypotheses. Finally, the reduction of buying clothes was found mainly due to the price hike along with the shoppers’ perceived inflation rate during the survey time. Significant reduction was noticed for buyers over 40 years old, homemakers, graduates, or HSC-passed personnel. Though people with more than 50000 taka monthly income guessed the actual inflation rate, customers 31 to 40 years old found it high. As an effect of the price hike, consumers did not prefer branded, expensive dresses. Rather, they shared clothes with family and repaired and used the same clothes for a longer time. However, these findings can be beneficial for the retail shop owners, policymakers, etc. to explore alternative purchasing behaviors.