Name: Anchal Arora, Nishu Rani & Ashish Bajaj
Country: India

Year: 2026
Volume: Volume-11, Issue-1, January-June 2026
Page Number: 434-454
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20079963

ABSTRACT
In the contemporary business culture, one requires to be more conversant with consumer decisionmaking trends in various geographies in order to successfully radiate their offerings and goods and attain a competitive edge. Due to various marketplace dynamics, men's and women's decision-making
styles differ. It is important to comprehend their conduct to be competitive in the market. Shopping styles are of paramount significance because they determine consumer behaviour and are vital for market segmentation. Several variables affect decision-making while buying products or services. In
Kotler's model, the five steps in the purchasing process are need identification, information search, alternative assessment, purchase decision, and post-purchase behaviour. Consumers have to make a difficult and important decision while making a purchase in the contemporary marketplace. Marketers often try to comprehend consumer behaviour in order to produce and create goods that will be competitive on a global scale. The Consumer Style Inventory (CSI), created by Sproles and Kendall in
1986 to define a consumer's decision-making style, is based on the consumer characteristic approach and examines many cognitive aspects of consumer decision-making. After testing it twice on groups of US female students, they came up with eight features. Numerous studies on CSI have been conducted over the years among consumers in various countries by various researchers. The goal of the study is to explore the factor affecting consumer behaviour by using consumer style inventory among Gen Z consumers. Since Gen Z is significant population and digitalization has played a significant role in establishing their shopping styles. It becomes significant to understand their
behaviour. The study is novel as it contributes to both academics and marketers in framing appropriate marketing mix. The results conclude with eight major factors that exploratory factor analysis confirms are: novelty conscious, perfectionist, brand conscious, impulsiveness, brand loyal, confused by overchoice, recreational conscious and price conscious when it comes to purchasing apparels among the consumers of North India.

Keywords: Consumer Behaviour, Consumer Style Inventory, Decision-Making Styles