PERFORMANCE OF THE NEW HDB CENTRES IN JURONG WEST

Abstract

With the weakening role of small retailers and the poor performance of neighbourhood centres, this research aimed at understanding shoppers’ shopping motivations and behaviour; identifying factors of attraction and competitive advantage among these centres through the response of shoppers at Gek Poh S.C. and Pioneer Mall. A quantitative research design was conducted through convenience sampling method. A series of tests were carried out in analysing the data collected; namely Fisher’s exact test, principal component analysis (PCA) and two-way factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA).

The gender of the respondents was concluded to affect the shoppers’ responses on the importance ratings of ‘long operating hours’ and ‘offering niche merchandise’. The age of the respondents was found to have effect on the shoppers’ responses on the importance ratings of ‘availability of wet market’, ‘air-condition of the centre’, ‘availability of entertainment facilities’ and ‘offering of niche merchandise’. Lastly, the monthly income of the respondents was concluded to affect the shoppers’ responses on the importance ratings of ‘good parking facilities’.

On the other hand, the ANOVA test found significance in the age and income of the respondents on the mean score ratings of ‘atmosphere’ and ‘value-add’. The underlying reasons to explain these statistically significant results were provided in Chapter 4. Significant interactions between the demographic profile of the respondents and the mean score ratings of the factors generated from PCA were also discussed in detail. It was recommended that the management agent of Gek Poh S.C and Pioneer Mall should consider the impact of these significant attributes when formulating effective marketing strategies.