Abstract:
Nowadays, shoe products are imported in different ways to Ethiopia, and many
imported shoe customers also purchase these imported shoe products. As these
shoe products imported from outside, the country also has its own shoe factories,
which provide different types of shoe products, and currently suffering because of
high competition from imported shoes.
This study assesses product differentiator reasons of customers who prefer
imported shoes over locally produced ones, taking the case of imported shoe
customers and retail distributors of Awassa town which is 275 kms far from Addis
Ababa to the south. The study relied on a sample of 750 Awassa town imported
shoe customers and all imported shoe retail distributors. The data collection
based.on 6 product differentiators namely; quality, price, durability, repairability,
easiness to clean, and fashionability of a shoe and the data is collected through
questionnaire and interview. The result of the data analysed using percentages
and summarization tables show quality, fashionability, durability and price are the
four major product differentiator reasons of customers to prefer imported shoes
to locally produced ones.
