Structure and Determinants of Consumer Expenditures

Article deals with consumer expenditures development. Concretely with a potential which mar-\nketing research disposes with within these questions. a brief literature overview shows consumer \nexpenditures as a result of product and service seeking, from that consumers expect satisfying \nof their needs. On the basis of introduced determination authors realized a marketing research \nwhich main aim was to enable more detailed insight into this economic category. The data was divi-\nded according to the data of the European Bureau of Statistics, the percentage compound of con-\nsumption expenditures. For better comparison possibilities, the structure of individual market sub-\nject consumption expenditures was added. The structure was averaged to original 15 European \nUnion member countries, which are considered as the most developed regions. Before analysing \nthe results of this marketing study the structure of consumer expenditures development of Czech \nhouseholds is briefly outlined. Its scheme shows a gradual convergence to EU15 countries. Rea-\nlized facts in combination with a marketing insight into consumer expenditures realization served \nas a starting-point for an analysis of factors forming a consumer’s buying decision. Summary of \nresults enabling both relative and absolute comparison through surveyed consumption categories \nand influencing factors is presented at the end of the article. Except confirmation of intuitively \nperceived facts (whose explicit confirmation authors regard as exceptionally valuable), there were \nfound several relatively surprising facts providing new possible points of view on consumer decisi-\non making process and results.