Abstract
As the role of retail stores in distribution channels becomes more significant and competition among them becomes more fierce, retail stores are making efforts to gain a dominant position in market share. And as such, consumer store choice behaviour is becoming more diverse and complex. The purpose of this study was to analysis the store choice process and to aid in understanding the types of store choice behaviors. 30 subjects were sampled by focus sampling and investigated by in-depth interview. Some consumers went through all stages of store choice process and others skipped some. The consumers who usually had no plan to visit stores and who purchase without problem recognition process were categorized as opportunity-taking type, and the consumers who visited just one store without external search of other store information were categorized as store-loyal type. Finally, the consumers who searched store information externally were divided into brand-oriented type and value-seeking type. The brand-oriented type represented the consumers who did not evaluate stores in detail because which store to visit was decided on brand; and the value-seeking type represented the consumers who did in fact evaluate stores in more detail according to the items and trends in fashion. This study is meaningful in that it provides a dynamic store choice process and examines related variables thereto.