AMDT, JOHN, (1964) in his research enrich says that an important outcome of the interplay

between satisfaction and positive word of mouth may be pointed out as the positive
communication about a textile shop, which will always act as a 'reference' among consumers
with regard to both routine and special buying. This enables the retailers to fortify their market
share ever in the midst of keen competition.' A favorable word of mouth communication
increases the probability of purchase while exposure to unfavorable comments decreases the
probability'. Facility for transaction by credit cards can be pointed out as the recent addition to
the parameters to judge the functional features of textile shop.

COWAN, M.L AND JUNGERMAN, M.E, (1980) remark that on the basisof specialty, fibers
may be classified into natural, animal and man-made. Natural fibers are mainly constituted by
'cellulose fibers' which have their origin from 'cellulose of plant cells'. 'Cellulose is a complex
compound made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, with the molecular formula of (C6 H10 05)
Cotton, hemprame and flex are the commonly found cellulose fibers. Fiber strength, fitness,
Spiral or convulsion, moisture absorbance and easy care are the outstanding qualities of cotton
fabrics.

DIMINGO, E, (1983)18 Dress materials of teenagers can be identified as a 'fashion sensitive

segment' in the textile market. Western clothes like jeans, short tops. 'Miniskirts, frocks, 'T-
shirts, etc have become part and parcel of the lifestyles of the teenagers. Kids wear' is highly
fashion oriented in character. This has a special relevance in Kerala, as the Keralites take
extreme care in dressing up their children in relation to another one.' Positioning refers to a
product's image in relation to directly competitive products'. A positively positioned shop will
always be the destination of the prospective buyer as and when he goes out for shopping. In other
words, positive positioning generates a preference for the shop. Variety rating can be pointed out
as the fundamental criterion for developing preference for a textile shop.

CONNOR, 0.MICHAEL, (1987)15 suggests that the sellers consider the location of their shop
as ideal from the perspective of its access to other facilities such as transport, banking,
recreation, boarding and lodging. 'Good location is a combination of factors including
accessibility and nearness to suppliers'. This has a special relevance if floating population mainly
represents the target consumers. As floating population perceive shopping as an auxiliary goal,
they prefer those selling outlets, which have easy access to other facilities.

ASSAEL, H, (1990) points out those textile manufacturers occasionally introduce new texture,
design, style and colour in order to comply with the requirements of those consumers who are
sensitive to novelty and variety. This trend is very prominent among manufacturers of
readymade garments like jeans, shirts, kid's wear and `churidar'. It is reasonable to note that
consumers are generally resistant to new textile products if they are costly. 'Price promotion is a
short-term discount offered to get consumers to try a product' Textile manufacturers occasionally
introduce new texture, design, style and colour in order to comply with the requirements of those
consumers who are sensitive to novelty and variety.

CRISPELL, D, (1994)14 points out that education enables peoples to acquire lucrative jobs.
'The more educated person, the more likely he is well paid and has an admired and reputed
position'. People who hold admired positions in the society like to be perceived differently so as
to project a distinctive image. They prefer products or services that symbolize their status. In the
textile market, the premium brands are perceived as symbolic expressions of status. Kerala being
a state of high literacy, educational status plays a vital role on the behavioral aspects of
consumers in the textile market. It influences many aspects like selection of colour, fashion
adoption, quality assessment, brand preference, and price.

BELCH, E.G, (1993), Examined that consumers show much confidence on the reliability of
news paper advertising. The extent of information brought by newspaper advertisement and its
replication will enable them to take the appropriate buying decision. 'Most consumers rely
heavily on newspapers not only for news, information and entertainment but also for information
to make consumption decisions'.

Panthaki (1995) stated that the future of garment export from India predicts bright future and
outlines the future course of action for the garment industry. The garment industry needs to pay
greater attention to evolve markets favourably disposed to India for historic reasons, such as,
South Africa, C.I.S., Venezuela, Chile, Columbia, where Indian garments are yet to take a
foothold.

BROOK, Y, (1995)9 explains that the word fashion is mainly used to refer to the clothing's style
of appearance' (Brook, Y, 1995).1t has a direct implication on novelty in texture, colour, design
and print, which make clothing or garment stylish or fashionable though fashion is widely used
in textiles, it must be understood that the influence of fashion is applicable, in other articles such
as household utensils, ornaments, and vehicles, etc. 'Fashion essentially involves changes; there
can be fashions in almost any human activity from medical treatment to pop music'.

BILTON, T, (1996) suggests that since clothing is considered as a basic necessity, next to food
and shelter, it exhibits the features of that resembles more with consumer products. The
communicative property of clothing reveals the economic or social status. Clothing has also been
categorized as a status symbol product. While clothing is viewed from the perspective of both
consumer product and status symbol product, the economic status of every individual consumer
has a role to play on its purchase and use. If clothing is considered as a consumer product, the
economic status of consumers can influence the volume and frequency of its purchase.

CAVENDER.D.F. et.al. (1996)12 say that research enhances U.S industry responsiveness to
consumer demand for apparel products in the global marketplace. A model of cross-national
acceptance for U.S textile and apparel products among international consumer markets was
refined and tested with consumer markets in Mexico, China, and Korea.
Koshy (1997), Examined that the perceptions of 107 exporters regarding the progress of
overseas importers with respect to garments and fashion garments. The study pointed out that for
basic garment sourcing; the exporters believed that production capability had an important
generic value, forming the basis of value chain match in the eyes of the overseas buyers.
According to this study, Indian garments exporters perceive that the importer segments expect
many additional dimension in fashion garments which distinctly different from basic garments.
These factors can be termed as production, product specialization and development function
and quality and quick response.
Rajesh (2001), found that on the ongoing debate on the enactment of labour laws in India opined
that while on one hand, by reducing trade barriers and wooing FDI, on the other hand, going to
face competition induced growth and attract FDI. Highlighting the issue of a need for an industry
friendly labour laws to enable the textile industry to face emerging world competition. China had
two sets of labour laws, one for old companies and the other for the new ones. To attract
investments, they had made labour laws flexible for new companies. Therefore, it expresses a
feeling that government should allow a certain number of labour to be replaced so that the new
set of workers can handle new technology efficiently.

GUPTA, S.L AND PALSUMITHRA, (2001)32 consider that culture can be broadly classified
into internal material culture and external / internal material culture. The former can again be
categorized into 'cognitive component'- which is represented by the knowledge that one acquires,
and 'normative component'- which is constituted by values and norms. 'The external material
culture gets reflected in the outward life of a person and it is manifested through clothing, eating,
aesthetic, etc'. Culture can be split up into several subsets, which can be termed subcultures.
'Subcultures are groups in a culture that exhibit a characteristic behavior pattern sufficient to
distinguish one from the other group within the same culture' Geographic, economic, religious
and political demarcations can also be observed across subcultures.

MANILAL, M.K (2002)4 points out the National Household Survey on Markets for textiles
and Clothing was initiated by the Textile Committee of the Government of India in 2001, and its
report was published in December 2002. The survey focused on the task of collecting and
analyzing the information about the current purchase of textiles by the house. It also intended to
assess the effect of various factors like income, price, area, gender, fabric, etc., on the consumer
demand and ascertain the shift in demand on account of change in consumer preference

CHURCHILL PETER, & SUDHARSEN, (2003)13 remark that the consumer buying process
includes different types of decision making which ranges from routine to limited to extensive
decision-making. Consumers are most likely to use extensive decision-making when the product
is important, the price is high, the product is complex or unfamiliar, and there are many brands to
compare. Once again a guide for assessing quality visually could expedite the process of
decision-making for online consumers of clothing textile products. Interactive agents that make
purchase recommendations could assist the online consumer when weighing different purchase.

HILDEGUNN KYVIK NORDA'S (2004)35 says that the objective of his paper is to assess the
likely impact of liberalization, taking into account the recent technological and managerial
developments in the sector, and focusing on recent developments in supply chain management in
the clothing and textiles sector. The study starts with a discussion of the structure of the textile
and clothing industries, focusing on technology and industrial organization, and discusses the
Agreement on Textile and Clothing (ATC) and the progress so far in quota elimination.

MOLI.P.KOSHY, SURESH.N (2007), Examined that the clothing as a basic necessity has
transformed into a product also reveals the person's personality and status. So the textile retailers
are compelled to change their way of doing things in a more customized manner. Purchasing
goods according to the changing trends and customer preferences is the most important and most
difficult problem the retailer is facing. The retailers should be aware of the latest fashion, designs
and material and must put those goods in their inventory at the right time. So he is forced to be in
the buying market to know the latest trends and price fluctuations

GOPALAKRISHNAN AND ARPITA NAYAK (2008)29 emphasized thequality and testing of

quality of textile goods at various stages of production for successful marketing processes. For
every industry or business, to get increased sales and better name amongst consumers and fellow
companies, it is important to maintain a level of quality. In the garment industry quality control
is practiced right from the initial stages of sourcing raw materials to the stage of final finished
garment.

Roy (2009), Stated that garment industry worldwide was undergoing significant restructuring
since the final phase out of the Multifibre Arrangement. The changes were taking place in terms
of relocating production sites on the one hand and coping with the new competition on the other.
In this context, the paper tried to look into the status of garment industries in India and see how
the assumed release of constraints in demand both through liberalization in domestic trade
policies and by phasing out of Multi fibre Agreement had impacted upon the growth and size
distribution of firms in the sector. The paper focused on how the responses of individual firms
were embedded in the evolving patterns of production organization, labour processes and
institutional arrangements related to respective industrial sites.

SASI KALA, P.GANESAN, & HARIHARAN (2009)52 explain that the sale of textile goods
or merchandise usually for personal or household usage either from a fixed location or from
associating subordinated services is known as textile retailing. Textile retailers usually refer to
those groups of who purchases huge quantities of textile products from manufacturers or
importers either directly or through a wholesaler and ultimately sells individual product item or
small quantities to the general customers in shops or stores. Textile whole sale and retail are
terms closely associated with the commercial aspect of textile industry
Abraham and Sasikumar (2011), Analyzed the implementation of the Agreement on Textile
and Clothing (ATC) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), this agreement both threatens and
provides opportunities to Indias Textile and Clothing (T&C) industry in the wake of liberal
international trade. Firms acquire greater international competitiveness through various cost
cutting and efficiency enhancing strategies. The question one tries to ponder on was what route
does Indian firms take to join the international export market in T&C.

Sheela and Singh (2013)18 stated that the Indian textile industry an age old industry employing
more than thousands of workers changed its face of operation in the post liberalization period
after 1991. In the year 1995, WTO had removed its MFA and adopted Agreement on Textiles
and Clothing (ATC) which stated that all quotas on textiles and clothing to be removed among
the WTO member countries by 2005. This policy benefitted some countries and with some it did
not. The main objective of the study was to analyse the changes in the Indian textile industry in
the post liberalization period.
Shetty et al., (2013)19presented that the textile and clothing industry in Karnataka was
concentrated in Bangalore which houses some of the largest Indian export houses. The abolition
of the quota regime under the WTO in 2005 had opened up the global textiles and clothing arena
for exporters in Karnataka with its adequate raw material base complemented with state-ofthe-
art infrastructure facilities and skilled manpower supply. The paper studied the perceptions of
exporters in Bangalore towards the opportunities and threats in the post-MFA global textile and
clothing trade. The data for the study was collected from a sample of one hundred export-
oriented textile and clothing units based in Bangalore through a structured questionnaire.