Retail revolution is sweeping every sector of India, and rural sector is no exception. Buying behavior of agri input consumers of organized rural retail outlets has been explored in this study. Two top and bottom retail outlets on the basis of sales of Godrej Aadhaar and Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar were included in the study. Using simple random sampling, 15 respondents were selected from each retail outlet, making a sample size of 120. Customer profile of the organized rural retail outlets largely included the persons with large landholdings. Results from the study indicate that major items purchased from rural retail outlets included implements, seed and fertilizer. Quality and trustworthiness were the major reasons for making a purchase from the organized rural retail outlets as compared to other options. Price was the most important consideration at the time of purchasing agri inputs followed by packaging and branding. Fair billing and home delivery were considered relatively less important. Respondents from top and bottom retail outlets were in agreement over the importance given to various factors at the time of purchase. Agri inputs remain a price-sensitive market as factors like quality, brand and packaging were considered relatively less important.

Buying behavior refers to the act of consumers obtaining and using goods and services and the decision process that determines these acts. Buying decision is a set of many decisions which may involve a product, brand, style, quality, dealer, time, price and mode of payment (Dodds et al., 1991). Customer buying behavior with respect to agri inputs has changed in Punjab. The decreasing family size results in increased number of nuclear families. As a result, youngsters are now taking purchase decision. This is because the young person is educated and has more exposure to outer world. Community decision making is very common in villages with a strong caste system, social structure and low literacy level. These young decision makers are more receptive to new ideas and outer world. The number of small and marginal farmers in Punjab is quite large. They purchase agri inputs from cooperative agents on credit and so do not have a choice of brands. They have to take whichever brand the commission agent gives. Whereas young decision makers intend to purchase branded products from private agri input dealers. Trust in private retail outlets is increasing. Large and middle class farmers are basically the reference groups for the small and marginal farmers (Prasad and Rawal, 2004).

On the production side, farmers look for a crop that provides them the comfort of a steady and sure return. Attention is shifting towards the use of organic and biosources of plant nutrition to produce organic food fetching a premium price. There is a big shift in awareness on consumer rights. Customers no longer hesitate to sue unfair trade practices asking for quality or performance. While very few consumers were aware of such rights a decade ago, the number of consumers asking for replacement or return of the defective/spurious/sub-standard products is increasing. This shows that there is an increase in consumer rights awareness (Aggarwal and Parihar, 2007).

Management Research Journal, Multinational Companies, Indian Pharmaceutical Sector, Financial Management, Working Capital Management, Public Sector Enterprises, Inventory Management, Credit Management, Multinational Private Sector Companies, Multiple Regression Techniques, Pharmaceutical Companies.