A Study On The Operational Efficiency And Customer Loyalty In Discount Retailing: With Reference To DMart In Coimbatore

Discount retailing has emerged as one of the fastest-growing formats in India\\\'s organised retail sector, driven by the rising aspirations of middle-class consumers for quality products at affordable prices. DMart, operated by Avenue Supermarts Limited, has consistently positioned itself as a benchmark of operational excellence in the Indian retail landscape through its Every Day Low Price (EDLP) philosophy, ownership-based store model, and tightly integrated supply chain. Despite DMart\\\'s remarkable commercial performance, empirical research specifically examining the relationship between its operational efficiency practices and customer loyalty at the store level remains limited. This study investigates the influence of four operational efficiency dimensions — inventory management efficiency, cost management efficiency, store layout and service efficiency, and supply-chain efficiency — on customer loyalty among DMart shoppers in Coimbatore. A descriptive research design was employed, with primary data collected from 340 DMart customers using a structured questionnaire on a five-point Likert scale. Purposive sampling was adopted, and data were analysed using reliability analysis, correlation, multiple regression, and one-way ANOVA using IBM SPSS 26. Results indicate that all four operational efficiency dimensions positively and significantly influence customer loyalty. Price satisfaction (a key outcome of cost and supply-chain efficiency) emerged as the strongest predictor of loyalty (β = 0.69, p < 0.001), followed by in-stock availability (β = 0.61), checkout experience (β = 0.54), and store layout adequacy (β = 0.48). The study concludes that DMart\\\'s operational model creates a self-reinforcing loyalty loop, and recommends targeted improvements in queue management, digital integration, and private-label expansion to deepen customer commitment.