IMPACT OF ONLINE SHOPPING

(ON DIFFERENT INCOME GROUPS)

INTRODUCTION
The advent of technology has made our lives easier but hectic too. This is because our
productivity is expected to increase by use of technology than manually driven work.
Along with this lack of time is another factor which is making people to seek for easier
ways of shopping. By the time they leave office most of the brick and mortar shops are
closed. These inconveniences have made the entry of online websites to make
shopping easier. Virtual shopping, online shopping or e-shopping is a form of electronic
commerce where consumers buy goods or services directly from a seller over the
internet utilising a web browser. There are many names of online shopping such as e-
web-store, e-shop, e-store, internet shop, web-shop, web-store, online store, online
storefront and virtual store. Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which
allows consumer stodirectly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using
a web browser. An online shop evokes the physical analogy of buying products or
services at a regular "bricks-and-mortar retailer or shopping center; the process is
called business-to-consumer(B2C) onlineshopping. A typical online store enables the
customer to browse the firm's range of products and services, view photos or images of
the products, along with information about the product specifications, features and
prices.
ADVANTAGES
Online stores are usually available 24 hours a day, and many consumers in
Western countries have Internet access both at work and at home. Other
establishments such as Internet cafes, community centers and schools provide
internet access as well.

Online stores describe products for sale with text, photos, and multimedia files,
whereas in a physical retail store, the actual product and the manufacturer's
packaging will be available for direct inspection (which might involve a test drive,
fitting, or other experimentation).

One advantage of shopping online is being able to quickly seek out deals for
items or services provided by many different vendors (though some local search
engines do exist to help consumers locate products for sale in nearby stores).

One of the great benefits of online shopping is the ability to read product reviews,
written either by experts or fellow online shoppers.

DISDAVANTGES
Fraud and security concern.Given the lack of ability to inspect merchandise
before purchase, consumers are at higher risk of fraud than face-to-face
transactions.

The lack of full cost disclosure may also be problematic. While it may be easy to
compare the base price of an item online, it may not be easy to see the total cost
up front. Additional fees such as shipping are often not be visible until the final
step in the checkout process.

Review of literature

1. According to the Girish punj The higher-income consumers are attracted by the
time-savings features of web-based shopping environments to a greater extent
than the money-savings aspects attract lower-income consumers. Marketers can
play a more active role in educating lower-income consumers to make the correct
trade-offs between time spent versus money saved, because they stand to
benefit the most as these consumers begin to actively engage themselves in e-
commerce. (Girish Punj Aug 2010)
2. Impact of the factors like availability of favorite brands, social status, buying
behavior during discounts, influence of family and friends over the organized and
unorganized retail also responsible to attract consumer towards e-retailing.
Acceptability of online retail varies by different class, age groups, income group
etc., thats why understanding of consumer perception is very much important
factor to reach the untouched potential market. (Mandeep Singh, 2012)

3. Changing lifestyle, strong income growth and favorable demographics are the
drivers for the fast growth of this sector. Rising income level, education,
acceptance of smart and credit cards and global exposure have an impact on the
Indian consumers shopping habit by (Baseer and Laxmi Prebha, 2007).

4. In this environment, some traditional service quality dimensions that determine

customer satisfaction, such as the physical appearance of facilities, employees,
and equipment, and employees responsiveness and empathy are unobservable.
In contrast, trust may play a central role here in enhancing customer satisfaction.
Model trust as an endogenously formed entity that ultimately impacts customer
satisfaction and we elucidate the linkages between trust and other factors related
to the performance of the online service provider and to the service environment.
Balasubramanian, S., Konana, P. and Menon, N.M. (2003)

5. Online buying, the rate of diffusion and adoption of the online buying amongst
consumers is still relatively low in India. In Behavioral Business Intelligence
framework with a cohesive view of online buyer behavior. Based on literature
review, four predominant psychographic parameters namely attitude, motivation,
personality and trust were studied with respect to online buying. The online
buying decision process models based on all the four parameters were designed
after statistical analysis. Archana Shrivastava, Ujwal Lanjewar, (2011)

6. This Research has tried to explain the dismal performance of online shopping as
compared to the physical shopping format. Reasons for the lower level of Internet
sales have been cited as being perceived risk in carrying out an online
transaction, socio-psychological factors (Like - influence of friends and relatives)
and infrastructural limitations (Availability of Internet, computers, credit-cards,
cyber laws etc.). Socio-psychological factors and infrastructure have been found
influential factors while the perceived risk surprisingly is not significant as a whole
but at gender level there was significant difference between the online behavior
of male and female due to risk perception. J.SINHA 2010
7. Trust is a key factor that determines the success of Business to Consumer (B2C)
e-commerce transactions. Previous researchers have identified several critical
factors that influence trust in the context of online shopping. This research
focuses on available security measures which assure online shoppers safety and
great sales promotions and online deals which stimulate customers to shop
online. Burke, R.R. (2002)

8. This paper represents the findings of research studies that address e- commerce
design and associated consumer behavior. The innovation of e-commerce has
affected not only the marketplace through the facilitation of the exchange of
goods and services, but also human behavior in response to the mechanisms of
online services. Researchers have identified and hypothesized on relevant
subject matters ranging from Web usability, marketing channels and other factors
influencing online buying behavior. Though researchers have focused on what
appear different aspects of online buying behavior, their studies may be shown to
be interrelated and interdependent, even to the extent of revealing constructs
upon which e-commerce, in terms of future design and research, could be built.
Abel Stephen (2003)

9. The scope of these studies is rather broad, the studies appear relatively
fragmented and no unifying theoretical model is found in this research area. In
view of this, provide an exhaustive review of the literature and propose a
research framework with three key building blocks (intention, adoption, and
continuance) so as to analyze the online consumer behavior in a systematic way.
This proposed framework not only provides us with a cohesive view of online
consumer behavior, but also serves as a salient guideline for researchers in this
area. Christy M. K. Cheung, Lei Zhu, Timothy Kwong, Gloria W.W. Chan, Moez
Limayem,(2002).
10. Mayer et al. [1995] This model which combines traditional marketing
philosophy on consumer motivation to buy and the trust model. In this model,
trust propensity; which is a personality trait possessed by buyers; is an important
antecedent of trust. In Internet shopping, there is not much information available
to the buyer regarding the seller, prior to purchase. A buyer with a high
propensity to trust will more likely be a potential customer than a buyer with a
lower propensity. proposed that ability, benevolence and integrity constitute the
main elements of trustworthiness. Benevolence is the extent to which the seller is
perceived by the buyer as wanting to do well.
11. RESEARCH PROBLEMS

It is important to highlight that, despite the rigorous methodology used in the

empirical research, this study has several limitations. On one hand, the fact that this
research focuses on a specific sector could limit the generalization of the results.
However, as previously justified in the methodology section, tourism accommodation
is the sector where e-commerce adoption is most widespread and Internet becomes
an essential marketing channel. Hence, it is expected that other sectors, which are
less suitable to online transactions, will show a similar behavio ur as ecommerce
evolves. Thus, it would be very interesting to examine the role of the risk sources in
e-commerce adoption by consumers for other typologies of products and services.

On the other hand, another limitation of this study is related to the measurement of
two variables: online purchasing intention and user involvement. Intention was
measured, in a subjective way, through the individuals perceptions of their future
behaviour. Even though this is a common method used in research on e-commerce
adoption, some authors suggest the use of objective measures such as actual
conduct. Therefore, it would be interesting to conduct future research examining the
influence of risk sources on the intention and actual behaviour, comparing the results
for each dependent variable.

For its part, the capture of involvement on the basis of the number of websites
visited may be a limited measurement of this motivational concept since this indirect
measure may be also an indicator of other interests or restrictions of users during
the purchasing processes. Thus, further research should try to directly measure
involvement through the users perceptions of their levels of interest, importance and
effort regarding a specific purchasing situation.
OBJECTIVES:

1. To study the differences in perception of different income groups regarding online

shopping.

2. To study the impact of Demographic factors on on-line shopping behaviour of

consumers in India.

3. To study if there is any relationship between attitude and online shopping intention .

4. To study if demographic profiles influence consumers attitude towards online

shopping.

5. To study if the perceived benefits (time, cost, conveniences & etc) of online shopping
influence consumers attitude towards online shopping.

6. To study if prior e-commerce experience affect consumers attitude towards online

shopping.

7. To study if the consumers lifestyle affect consumers attitude towards online

shopping.

8. To study if the perceived merchant trustworthiness influence consumers attitude

towards online.

HYPOYHESIS:

We found a strong inter-dependence between a few variables affecting online buying

behavior. For example, we found that owning a credit card has a significant impact on
the frequency of online purchases as credit card is the most popular mode of payment
on the Internet. Apart from the credit card, E-Banking is also slowly becoming a popular
mode of payment and we found a relationship between people who use E-Banking and
their frequency of online purchases too. Interestingly, we found that gender does not
have any major impact on the average amount spent over the Internet in a month, but it
does have a relationship with the frequency of purchases. Also, the income of an
individual does not have shown any significant relationship with the frequency of
purchases. These findings are starkly similar to the findings of Changing Consumer
Perceptions towards Online shopping in India.

Intention to buy online does not vary according to gender

Secure shopping across internet does not vary according to gender.
Intention to buy online does not vary according to age group
Secure shopping across internet does not vary according to age group.
RESEARCH DESIGN

TYPE OF RESEARCH
Basic + Qualitative research

SOURCES OF DATA
Primary + Secondary data

POPULATION OF STUDY
The research consists of 63 no. of people.

SAMPLE SIZE
16 responses are taken as a sample size for brief study.

SAMPLING METHOD
Probability sampling is been taken under which random sampling is been adopted.

DATA MEASUREMENT SCALES

Nominal, ordinal and interval data scales are used for measurement.

RESEACH TECHNIQUE
Qualitative method is been applied to get the research data under which research tools
like interviews, surveys, and observations are used.

DATA COLLECIION PLAN

Personal data been collected from the questionnaires filled by respondents using face to
face interaction and email responses.
REFERANCES

1. Ramaswami Namakumari, Marketing Management-Planning, Implementation

and Control, MacMillan India Ltd, New Delhi.
2. Bhatnagar, A, Misra, S., and Rao, H. R., Online risk, convenience, and Internet
shopping behavior, Communications of the ACM 2000.

3. Ali S S, Models in Consumer Buying Behaviour, Deep Deep Publications.

4. Kothari C. R., Research Methodology Methods and Techniques, Wishwa

Prakashan, New Delhi

5. Alexandru M. Degeratu, Arvind Rangaswamy and Jianan Wu (2000) Consumer

Choice Behaviour in Online and Traditional Supermarkets: The Effects of Brand
Name, Price, and other Search Attributes, International Journal of Research in
Marketing, Vol. 17, No.
1, p. 55-78. Available
at: http://www.smeal.psu.edu/ebrc/publications/res_papers/1999_03.pdf

6. Aron M. Levin, Irwin P. Levin, and C. Edward Heath (2003) PRODUCT

CATEGORY DEPENDENT CONSUMER PREFERENCES FOR ONLINE AND
OFFLINE SHOPPING FEATURES AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON MULTI-
CHANNEL RETAIL ALLIANCES, Journal of Electronic Commerce Research,
VOL. 4, No. 3. Available at:
http://www.csulb.edu/web/journals/jecr/issues/20033/paper1.pdf
 QUESTIONAIRE

Kindly highlight/bold your answers.

1. Do you use Internet?

Yes No

2. How long have you been using Internet?

Less than 1 year 3 5 years

1 3 years More than 5 years

3. On the average, how much time (per week) do you spend in surfing the Web?

0 5 hours 16 20 hours

6 10 hours More than 20 hours

11 15 hours

4. Have you purchased anything online ever?

Yes No

5. Which category (ies) of goods have you bought through

Internet?

Books Railway tickets Electronic Gadgets

Airline tickets CD/Videos Computer Hardware

Accessories apparel Computer Software Gifts

Magazines Event Tickets Movies tickets

Hotel Rooms/Car Rental Office Supplies Jewellery

Food / Groceries Infant / Child items

6. When did u shop for the first time?

Last 6 months

6 months- 1year

1-3 year

3-5 year

More than 5 year

7. How frequently did you purchase online?

Only once

2-4 times

More than 5 times

More than 6 times

8. Overall, were you satisfied with your experience of online shopping?

Highly Satisfied

Satisfied

Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

Dissatisfied

Highly Dissatisfied
9. Where do you most often access the Internet?

Home Cyber-cafes

Office / College Any other, specify

10. What are the activities that you use Internet for? (Kindly rank them between 1 to
5,with 1=most used, 2=used to a large extent, 3=used to a good extent, 4=used
sometimes, 5=rarely used)

Communication (E-mail, Instant Messaging, Bulletin Boards, News Groups, Chat, etc.)

Information Gathering (Research, News, Sports scores, Search for employment, etc.)

ntertainment (Games, Adult entertainment, Entertainment sites, Sports, Music, Web

page design, etc.)

Finance (Investment portfolio, financial research, online banking, check stock/fund

quotes, trading, etc.)

Shopping (Researching purchases, purchasing, auctions, Selling, Classifieds, etc.)

11. Which category (ies) of goods are you planning to buy through internet in the near
future?

Books Railway tickets Electronic Gadgets

Airline tickets CD/Videos Computer Hardware

Accessories apparel Computer Software Gifts

Magazines Event Tickets Beauty products

Movies tickets Health and fitness products

Hotel Rooms/Car Rental Office Supplies Jewellery

Food / Groceries Apparel gift certificates Pharmaceuticals

Infant / Child items Home tools and products Sporting goods

Home appliances Toys

Any other, specify

12. What is your main motivation for buying through Internet?

Convenience (ease of purchase, home delivery, ability to shop 24x7)

Price

Saves time

Superior selection/Availability

Product comparison

Any other, specify

13. What, according to you, are the most important barriers to purchase online?

I am worried about giving out my credit card number

I dont have a credit card

I dont like providing personal information

I dont want to purchase from someone with whom I am not familiar

I enjoy going out to do my shopping

I like to see/touch the product in person, before I buy it

Internet is too slow / Pages take too long to load

I am worried about the cost/hassle of returning the product

Delivery costs are too high

Prices are too high

Technical foul-ups prevent transactions from going through

I cant find anything that I want to purchase on the Internet

I dont know how but I am uncomfortable about purchasing through Internet

The process is expensive due to cost of access

Any other, specify

PERSONAL DETAILS

14. Age:

Below 18 yrs 18 - 30 yrs 31 - 40 yrs

41 50 yrs bove 50 yrs

15. Educational Background:

Non-Matriculate Matriculate Graduate Postgraduate

16. Occupation:

Business/Self Employed Service/Executive Student

Any other, specify

17. Gender:

Male Female

18. Average Monthly Income:

Less than Rs. 5,000 Rs. 5,000 Rs. 10,000 Rs. 10,000 Rs. 25,000
Rs. 25,000 Rs. 50,000 Above Rs. 50,000
Name: _____________________________

Contact No.: ______________________________

City: ______________________________