The Inter-Relationship between Category Management Practices and Customer Satisfaction; The Cases of Three Supermarkets in Karachi

he basic purpose of this research is to ascertain the relationship between Category Management Practices (CMP) and Customer satisfaction with specific reference to three major supermarkets of Karachi viz. Imtiaz, Hyperstar and Naheed. The quantitative research design has been used and questionnaire is administered among the respondents. The SEM analysis is used via AMOS. Sample size is kept at 250 respondents and probabilistic sampling is used. The findings indicate that Product Promotion and Presentation are found to have significant impact on customer satisfaction. However, the factors like assortment,availability, pricing and customer service are shown to have minimal impact within the CMP and with customer satisfaction. Presentation, promotion and customer service have positive correlation while assortment, availability and pricing have negative association with the customer satisfaction.Thus, superstores need to pay more attention towards promotion and presentation of products on the shelves. Moreover, customer service should be enhanced to increase satisfaction. However, superstores need to pay less attention and resources towards assortment and pricing. This shows that customers of these Karachi-based superstores are not price sensitive; rather they tend to look for quality and thus marketing strategies should be accordingly designed. This study carries dual significance; it has negated certain factors of CMP in Karachi-based superstores of past studies and it has given a new roadmap for these stores to devise future marketing strategies