Buying behaviour of households in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The paper analyses results of an inquiry performed in the Czech Republic on the turn of 2005/2006. The objective was to discover how households buy foodstuffs, clothing, shoes, and home appliances and which factors influence this behaviour. The obtained results showed that quality was the most important factor when buying foodstuffs and home appliances. When buying clothing and shoes, above all the product properties (i.e. de facto also its quality) were preferred. Price was mentioned less frequently as a factor influencing the buying behaviour. Although it was not mentioned as a priority, there were also some differences, which depended mainly on the incomes of individual households. In contrast to foodstuffs, which were preferably purchased in discount shops, supermarkets, hypermarkets, and shopping centres, clothes, shoes and home appliances were purchased mostly in specialised outlets. As the purchase of home appliances is more complicated, the majority (85%) of customers looked for information in different sources of data, especially in different catalogues.