Commercial studies Department

A comparative study on online retail business vs. traditional

retail shops

Prepared by:
Rania Almuagizi
Khulood Almakladi

Supervisor: Mohiden Abdul kamal

2019-2020 June
 Abstract
Online shopping is concerned with e-commerce. The act of purchasing products or services over
the internet is known as online shopping. Despite the advent of online shopping, the traditional
shopping still prevails. But there has been a controversy as to which is better in comparison
which the researcher himself has not been able to find. The survey, thus, conducted shows that
people are not likely to use it every time but only prefer it sometime. The dilate is still on the
pros and cons of online shopping, type of e-commerce threats that society poses using online
shopping and also its advantages over traditional Shopping.
 Acknowledgment

Would like to thanks Allah for bestowing diving blessing on us to do this project. Also I would
like to take this opportunity to express our profound gratitude and deed regards to my supervisor
My. Mohideen Abdul Kamal, this exemplary guidance, monitoring and constant encouragement
the course of this project.

Also, thank Mr. Mohammed Attia for the continuous support and kind communication, which
had a great effects regarding to feel interesting about what I was working on. However, it would
not have been possible without the kind support and help of all would like to extend my sincere
thanks to all of them. Finally, express my sincere thanks and deep sense of gratitude to my
family and friend for giving timely advice in all the ways and in all aspects doing the project.
 Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
 Abstract………………………………………………………………………

 Definition……………………………………………………………………

 Online retail shops………………………………………………………….

 Traditional retail shops………………………………………………………

 Objectives of the study………………………………………………………

 Limitations of the study……………………………………………………..

Chapter 2: literature review

 Review of literature review

Chapter 3: theoretical aspects of online retail; shops and traditional retail shops

Chapter 4: Research methodology

 Analysis and interpretation

Chapter5: Conclusion and recommendation

 Conclusion
 Recommendation
 References
 Chapter 1
Introduction
 Introduction
Traditional shopping is called real – time shopping. It is the process of purchasing and selling
products or services physically person’s personal interaction with a sales person is required for the
product under consideration intention to shop. It is possible to feel, touch, smell or try the product.
If we want a product just now, we can buy it from retail store immediately. A traditional retailer
bestows the personalized human contact. Shopping with many people is a source of entertainment,
almost a social rite. People like to handle things, especially clothes. Texture and more over they
want to try it.
Online shopping is the process of purchasing and selling products or services over internet. Online
shopping uses computer technology to purchase products from retailers and stores. Online
shopping is the large part of electronic commerce. This form of shopping has revolutionized the
traditional process of consumers buying goods from a retailer of mall that they must actually to
into. Online shopping popularized of its speed and the efficiency with which it can be done.

Statement of the Problem

Oman, as we all know, is one of the most backward states in the country where the economic
status of the people is not good as compared to the other states. It is important to look into the
situation from an academic research point of view so as to question the reasons behind the
condition of the shopping in the Oman. This research may fill the gap between the choice of online
shopping and offline shopping. This study reflect the problems and factors of online and offline
shopping. There are certain problems, why people do not do online shopping and go for market to
shop things? What are the major reasons behind the online and offline shopping? This study helps
the consumer to get an idea about the online shopping. In Oman, there is less number of people
who do shopping online as compared to the other states. The study makes the consumer clear about
which option should be taken by the consumer to get more benefit out of it.
Significance of the study:
Over the last few years online shopping has exploded; physical market places are being challenged
by marketplaces created by internet technology (Gummesson, 2008). As mobile devices become
the de-facto tools to shop. Consumers to meet their moment-to-moment shopping needs are willing
to go back and forth, from one vendor to another or from online to offline environments. They not
only check products at traditional outlets but also try them out, at times asking sales personnel for
information and advice. Sometimes they take product snapshots, scan product bar codes and access
online search engines like Google, to get additional information or compare prices (Bachrach et
al., 2016).
Lately, the smartphone is no longer only a tool that helps consumers to make the right purchase
decision at the point of sale but has become the default point of sale for many products and
services. It started with music downloads, app sales and videos. Consumers are now using mobile
phones not only to buy books, clothing and electronics but also to book bus, train, air tickets and
hotel rooms or share homes through apps like Airbnb or even book taxi rides through Uber.
As more and more people are opting for the convenience of online shopping through Mcommerce.
Combining brick-and-mortar, e-tailing and mobile seem to be the future of commerce. Retailers
need to rethink and redefine their strategies around their consumers, as shopping through mobile
phones slowly takes over. It is of paramount importance for retailers to strive and create coherently
integrated organisations to cope with these connected consumers. These consumers demand a
consistent shopping experience regardless of the channel through which they shop, whether online
or offline or a mix of both channels. Muscat is taken as area of study because no study is being
done in the context of Muscat not even in the context of Oman. As Muscat is a steel city in Oman,
I like to take this city as the study area. This study will give the idea about which shopping will be
best for the consumer point of view? Which option would be preferred by the consumer to shop
whether online or offline? This study will give the clear idea about the internet shopping.

Scope of the study

The study has been made to find out the customer satisfaction towards traditional shopping and
online shopping with special reference to Oman. The study also gives information about the
theoretical aspects of traditional shopping and online shopping.
Objectives of the study:
 To study the factors influencing young consumers to choose between online and offline
channels.
 To understand how has online and offline channel purchase behaviour impacted young
consumers purchase journey.
 To determine Which value dimension’s influence online and offline channel purchase
behavior and generate additional value for young consumers through their purchase
journey.

Need for the study

The present study seeks to understand young consumers online and offline channel purchase
behaviour for their shopping purposes. For young consumers to choose between online and offline
channels they firstly need to consider certain factors that could influence their channel preferences
and secondly the role of value dimensions in motivating their channel choices in their purchase
journey. Thus, making it even more important to understand what influences and motivates young
consumers to choose between certain online and offline channels during their purchase journey.

Limitations of the study:

 The research study is confined only online shops and traditional shops.
 The sample was chosen randomly which might not be actual representative of the total
population due to which there may be can error.
 Information is partially based on secondary data and hence authenticity of the study can be
visualized and is measurable.
 Chapter-2
Review of Literature
1. Consumer behavior has changed greatly over the past decades, but it has been evolutionary
and the seeds of change have been apparent for generations (Kar, 2010). Piyush K. Sinha,
Arindam Banerjee, and Dwarika Prasad Uniyal,( 2002), identified major drivers behind choice
of stores for various shopping needs as exhibited by a typical Indian consumer, by conducting
study on 293 participates recruited by e-mail.

2. Tony Ahn، Seewon Ryu and Ingoo Han،(2004), explored online and offline features of
Internet shopping malls and their relationships with the acceptance behaviors of customers.
Web survey with 932 users was conducted in 6 shopping malls of korea. The study validate
technology acceptance model (TAM) in predicting the acceptance of the Internet shopping
malls. Online and offline features have positive effects on the user acceptance, usefulness,
attitude and intention to use.

3. Aron M. Levin، Irwin P. Levin and Joshua A. Weller،(2005), For the study two samples of
size 199 were used from a large mid-western American university and an online survey panel.
The study found that the preferences for shopping online or offline were shown to vary across
products, consumers, and stages of the shopping experience. When attributes such as large
selection and shopping quickly were predominant, online shopping was preferred. When
attributes such as personal service and ability to see-touch-handle the product were
predominant, offline shopping was preferred.

4. Junhong Chu et.al. (2010), explored the moderating effects of household (e.g., shopping
frequency) and product (e.g., sensory nature) characteristics on brand loyalty, size loyalty and
price sensitivity across online and offline channels for grocery products. Data was collected
from one of the five leading grocery chains in Spain. The study of found that the households
were more brand loyal and size loyal but less price sensitive in the online channel than in the
offline channel.
5. Rick L.AndrewsOurso and Imran S. Currim,(2004), examined behavioral differences
between consumers attracted to online shopping and traditional supermarket shopping using
actual choice data from an online supermarket and traditional scanner panel data. The study
found that as Compared to traditional supermarket consumers, online consumers prefer larger
sizes to smaller sizes, do more screening on the basis of brand names, do less screening on the
basis of sizes, have stronger choice set effects.

6. Koen Pauwels et.al., (2011), found that the offline revenue impact of the informational
website critically depends on the product category and customer segment. The lower online
search costs were especially beneficial for sensory products and for customers distant from the
store. In contrast, customers in a particular segment reduce their shopping trips, suggesting
their online actions partially substitute for experiential shopping in the physical store.

7. Dong-Mo Koo, Ji-Hoon Lee (2011), proposed an interrelationship among dominance،

energetic and tense arousal، pleasure and their impact on intention. Results from a survey of
406 consumers (217 from offline store customers and 189 online store users) demonstrated
that dominance had a significant positive and/or negative effect on both energetic and tense
arousal, it has no impact on pleasure and intention under both offline and online environment;
8. Yaobin Lu (2011), focused on factors that influence users' intention to transfer their usage
from the offline to the online channel that offer similar services. The study revealed that
innovativeness in new technology and relative benefit had positive effects on users' intention
to transfer usage. Moreover, the findings of the study also indicated that internet experience
moderates the relationship between relative benefit and consumers' intention to transfer usage
from offline to online services.

9. Isabel P. Riquelme and Sergio Román, (2014), examined the role of several consumers'
cognitive and psychographic traits in their perceptions of retailers' deceptive practices
(perceived deception) and the different effects on perceived deception associated with online
vis-à-vis in-store shopping.
 Chapter-3
Theoretical aspect of online retail shops vs. traditional retail
shops
3.1 Types of E-commerce:
We can be more specific and actually divide e-commerce into six major types, all with different
characteristics.
1. Business-to-Business
Business-to-Business e-commerce encompasses all electronic transactions of goods or services
conducted between companies. Producers and traditional commerce wholesalers typically operate
with this type of electronic commerce.
2. Business-to-Consumer
The Business-to-Consumer type of e-commerce is distinguished by the establishment of electronic
business relationships between businesses and final consumers. It corresponds to the retail section
of e-commerce, where traditional retail trade normally operates4.
3. Consumer-to-Consumer
Consumer-to-Consumer type e-commerce encompasses all electronic transactions of goods or
services conducted between consumers. Generally, these transactions are conducted through a
third party, which provides the online platform where the transactions are actually carried out5.
4. Consumer-to-Business
In Consumer to business, here is a complete reversal of the traditional sense of exchanging goods.
This type of e-commerce is very common in crowdsourcing-based projects. A large number of
individuals make their services or products available for purchase for companies seeking precisely
these types of services or products.
5. Business-to-Administration
This part of e-commerce encompasses all transactions conducted online between companies and
public administration. This is an area that involves a large amount and a variety of services,
particularly in areas such as fiscal, social security, employment, legal documents and registers, etc.
These types of services have increased considerably in recent years with investments made in e-
government7.
6. Consumer-to-Administration
The Consumer-to-Administration model encompasses all electronic transactions conducted
between individuals and public administration.

3.2 Advantages and disadvantages of E-Commerce:

1. Every product is at the tip of your fingers on the internet, literally. Type in the product you
are looking for into your favorite search engine and every option will appear in a well-organized
list in a matter of seconds.
2. Side by side comparisons are readily available and easy to do. When products are placed
online, they come with all the specifics, and they want you to compare them with others, know
they have the best options and come back for more.
3. With every online business wanting you, more and more coupons and deals can’t be
avoided, which are totally great for customers. With major sites that act as department store,
you may find items up to 80% off! Take advantage of the competition and find the best price
available.
4. With e-commerce there is no driving in circles while looking and digging in hopes of
finding what you need. Stores online offer their full line as well as use warehouses instead of
store fronts products are easy to locate and can be delivered to your door in just days.
5. Without driving from store to store the consumer can easily compare and contrast
products. See who offers the best pricing and have more options to choose from. While a physical
store has limited space, the same store on the internet will have full stock.

Disadvantage of E-commerce:
1. Before making instant transactions online, be sure to check the sites certificates of security.
While it may be easy and convenient to shop, no one wants their personal information to be stolen.
While many sites are reputable, always do your research for those with less than sufficient security.
2. When making purchases, the consumer is aware of the product cost, shipping, handling
and possible taxes. Be advised: there may be hidden fees that won’t show up on your purchasing
bill but will show up on your form of payment. Extra handling fees may occur, especially with
international purchases.
3. Although delivery of products is often quicker than expected, be prepared for delays. A
snow storm in one place may throw off the shipping system across the board. There is also a chance
that your product may be lost or delivered to the wrong address.
4. While e-commerce makes everything easily accessible, a consumer cannot actually touch
products until they are delivered to the door. It is important to view the return policy before
buying. Always make sure returning goods is an option.
5. While the rules and regulations of each e-commerce business is laid out for you to read,
there is a lot to read and it may be confusing when it comes to the legalities. With large or important
orders, there is no one you can talk to face to face when you have questions and concern.
Concept of onIine marketing
Online shopping is a form of e-commerce which allows consumer to directly buy goods or services
from a seller over the internet using web browsers. It has become increasingly popular due to
convenience people are often preferring it over traditional shopping.

3.3Factors Affecting Online Shopping online shopping:

The kind of business online retailer are doing is proof enough that they are providing some benefits
to customer which offline shopping does not give to the customer.
These are the factors affecting online shopping:
Risk: When customer buy products from online shopping they do not touch or feel the product in
a physical sense .Hence we understand that lot of risk is involve while buying an online product
whether it will reach us on proper time or not is also a concern and also there may arise a risk of
product size and colour as it may differ in real view or sense. Sometimes the product ordered is
kind of damaged.
Convenience: Online shopping is much more convenient than offline shopping. Instead of taking
out your vehicle and visit, shop to shop you can just sit at your home and do the shopping. It is
convenient to sit at one place and shop the product of our choice without moving from place to
place. Once you have decided on what you want to buy the payment, process is seamless and the
order is delivered to your place. Online shopping makes things more convenient. We can have a
lot of choice over there in any kind of material we want to deal with that too without any fear of
dealing with any dealer or distributers. Online shopping is convenient in its real sense as it do
not carry any dealing with issues of asking for wanted items or issues of asking for desired kind
of items which helps in avoiding the part of waiting, asking, questioning about the product.
Anxiety: People’s anxiety of exploring the sites and experimenting over them is also a matter of
concern. Sometimes people those who are not very known to any sites like flip kart ,myntra or any
sites they just feel like it’s a tough kind of activity over net and its complicated in there sense as
they are not very fond of doing online shopping as it takes a time to even understand the product
about its details. This particular activity makes them irritated and anxiesious over any kind of fatal
online dealing.
Previous online experience: How has been a person’s experience in past as far as online shopping
is concerned is a major story of concern. Previous experience is what matters actually as its hamper
or sometime it keep good view or mood of people. There are two experiences one is about good
and another is about bad. Both has its own and different affect in the mind of buyers. so these
factors also influence online shopping or e shopping.
Pricing Policy: Online retailers gets an inherent advantage in pricing as they don’t have to bear
expenses like store rent، bills etc. They can pass their price directly to customer and generally offer
a lower price to customer than offline market. Even when shipping charges are included than, also
it is better than the offline shopping. Hence, determines the level of online shopping. Lower the
price- higher the mood to demand, higher the price –lower the demand. Price of any commodity
also influences the purchasing power of any specific buyer. Consumer generally prefer mild or
normal price with good quality and do not want to spend or expense lot for any kind of stuff. So
buying and selling both are simultaneously affected by the price of product.
Quality: The quality of product at online sites and offline stores vary a lot and then this determines
the frequency of online shopping. Quality also carries good affecting nature over any kind of
shopping. As consumer or buyer want to have a good quality of product as they spent their huge
sum of money. In general, qualities is a primary need over any kind of purchasing as it somewhat
secure or give a good sense of buying or kind of guarantee about the product preferred.
Online trust: It depends on customer perception whether they trust a particular site and its product
and services. Hence, the frequency of online shopping also depends upon whether they trust a
particular site or not. People are different in there nature and thoughts, some kind of people trust
online dealing some kind of people are in fear of online dealing. Trust carry a lot of points
examples- trust about the same product size quantity weight and security etc.
Tangibility of the product: At the store the customer gets to touch and feel the product they
purchase before buying which help the customer to take the decision to buy the product or not
whether the product will suit the customer need or not. Whether, we can and see feel a product is
also a reason which determines whether a person’s wants to go for shopping or not. Tangibility of
any product also determines the online shopping. Without touching the preferred or desired
substance, nobody can get its security about the worthiness or quality or sense of any preferred
product.
Delivery time: The product ordered by the customer in online shopping takes a minimum of six
to seven days to deliver the product to the customer. But in offline shopping the possession of the
goods is immediately transferred to the buyer. So this is a major factor, which affects the online
shopping. People want a good delivery time; they prefer to get a product in a desired time or in
short time of duration. Duration is the second major factor affecting the demand of product.
Income: The person whose income is more, do more online shopping as compared to the person
whose income is less. Income plays a major role to purchase online products. Higher income
people prefers to purchase online more than offline as it gives them reliability and convenient.
Higher the income higher wills the purchasing of online product and vise-versa.
Taste and preference: The taste and preference of the customer vary from customer to customer
and time-to-time, taste and preference also a factor, which influences online shopping. Taste and
preference of age group also matters in online shopping. Old people buy or purchase product for
their kind of use. Young generation or teenagers use to purchase their taste of product. Taste and
preference move in tend of ages and choices. Every customer or buyer choices are different in
nature as per their ages.
Information: The information given in the site may not be correct or may not be appropriate
information. The full information about the quality of the product may not reach to the customer.
Hence, it will affect the online buying of the customer. Information provided by the preferred sites
may be not the same about the detail of the product. May be with the provided Information and
details customers are not very satisfied. Sometimes it happens that even many customers use to
buy the product after their full knowledge of details as they prefers the detail are accurate and good
in sense. Information related to product may vary in its real sense when it arrives or delivered to
relevant customer.
Variety: The kind of variety that a customer gets online is hard to match any product purchased
offline. The online retailer’s stock products from the entire major brand and a customer can find
any product in their listing no matter how hard to find it is in the offline store. Online and offline
both shopping provide variety of range from various brands. Variety in it itself is the foremost
dealing factor which influence the market. Larger the variety of product in shop higher the selling
and vice-versa. People generally prefer to move where they get more variety of products.
Discreet shopping: While buying some products like lingerie customers don’t feel comfortable to
purchase it in offline store. Shopping online is discreet and some online portals also provide
discreet shopping. Purchase of girly material are very convenient in offline shopping, as it is not
dealt with any kind of uncomfortable situation. There is no person to who is to ask for any kind of
intimate product, customer can easily cope with offline as they can go and purchase their usable
items without any kind of hesitations.
Offers: Apart from offering products at lower price most online shopping regularly come up with
discount offers in association with bank, brand etc. Which entail customer to get additional saving
while buying products online? Offline stores only give offer or discount during stock clearance or
when the manufactures gives the discount on the products. Online shopping always provides offers
at all the time and day. In every purchase, we get some offers even if there is no festival or
carnivals. Offers are a great factor, which attract customer to purchase online. Offer carry a great
influence in shopping.
Instant gratification: Customer buying offline gets their products as soon as they pay for it but
in online shopping customer have to wait for their product to get their product. Under normal
circumstances, waiting a day or two does not matter much but when a customer want to get the
product instantly than offline shopping become necessary.
Available product and services: Online shopping offer customers more benefit by providing
more variety of goods and services that they can choose from. There are some goods, which a
customer can only find online.

Factors Affecting Offline Shopping Offline shopping has existence since the existence of mankind.
Offline shopping gives different types of benefits to the customer.
There are some factors, which affect the shopping offline those are as follow:
Less number of choices: There are limited numbers of choices when it comes to offline shopping.
The numbers of varieties are limited. The ranges of products available in the shops are limited.
Sometimes, the stocks are old and are up for discount and sale. In offline or any shop, we get less
numbers of choices as it consists of manual work. We have to choice in that less number of
materials due to manual factor.

Time consuming: It takes a lot of time to go shopping to a store. Distance from home or workplace
to the store is time consuming. It is also time-consuming while trying out the outfits in a store or
even going through other products. In off-line shopping customer move one place to another and
one shop to another in search of their desired product.
Information: What generally happens is that the information provided by a shopkeeper isn’t
correct. Also, this information doesn’t always suit our needs. And we buy products according to
what they say when we ourselves don’t have adequate knowledge about the products. Such
purchases are based on goodwill when we happen to know the shopkeepers.
Authenticity: Offline shopping is more authentic than online shopping. While buying the product
we can feel the texture of it and know what it’s like. We exactly know what we are buying while
buying anything offline. But in online shopping, we don’t always know what exactly we are
buying. This is because what we see on the websites is not always, what we buy when the product
reaches us.
Taste and preference: The taste and preferences of the customer change from time to time. While
buying any product from a store we have the flexibility and the choice to try out
Outfits. But while buying any product from a website we don’t have this facility. Therefore,
buying offline caters more to the changing taste and preferences of the customers.
Bargaining: In offline store, a customer can do physical bargaining to the seller unlike shopping
online. In online shopping, a customer cannot do bargaining as the price of the product is fixed.
Some of the customer purchased products depending upon bargaining so they do not go for online
shopping as they feel shopping online is more costly than the market.
English entrepreneur Michael Aldrich was a pioneer online shopping in 1979. His system
connected a modified domestic TV to a real time transaction-processing computer via a domestic
telephone line. During 1980 he designed manufactured, sold, installed, maintained and supported
many online shopping system using videotext technology.
The first worldwide hub server and browser created by Tim Berres Lee in 1990 opened for
commerce use in 1991.
Thereafter, subsequent technological innovation emerged in 1994 online banking, the opening of
an online pizza shop by pizza hut, etc. The first secure retail transaction ova the web was either by
Net Market or Internet Shopping Network in 1994 Amazon.com launched its online shopping site
in 1995 and eBay was also introduced in 1995.
Retailers are increasingly selling goods and services. Not only in USA and other developed
countries, online shopping is now becoming too popular to all nations and all kinds of people.

3.4Online Shopping VS Traditional Shopping

Many people wonder where they can find the better deal, online or in the nearby stores. These are
people who prefer to do their shopping online and then there are those that do not so when it comes
to online shopping vs traditional shopping, both sides have their advantages and disadvantages.
When compared to online shopping, traditional shopping is a secure option to shop. You know
from where does the things come, nobody can steal your data, even you can feel the desired quality
and can see the product as simply seeing pictures doesn’t work every time. These things make over
online shopping.
Also, there is disadvantage that online stores ship within a certain area for free but many times, if
you are located outside of city or area you need to pay hefty shipping prices.
Advantage of online shopping is that finding things are pretty easy as they are available just at a
click but then quality becomes biggest issue for example if some shops that sell cake online there
is no way you will know what are you purchasing but when you for traditional shopping you get
to smell and in some cases even taste the cakes.

3.5Difference between online and offline channels

As innovation in information technology leads a shift from hierarchies towards markets, product
prices are now being actively determined by market forces which were previously based on
managerial decisions. Over the last two decade’s consumer shopping habits have gradually
changed, which has influenced the way goods are traded these days over different channels (Trenz,
2015).
As online channels become more prominent due to high-speed mobile internet connectivity, offline
channels cannot be ignored. Both these channel categories have their pros and cons, at times they
even complement each other. These channels are vital for each other’s existence even though they
are based on different transactional structures. These differences and their implications are
classified on the bases of “information transparency, interactions and cost” and are further
discussed in table 1 (Trenz, 2015).

Consumer purchase journey

Consumers decision journey has been altered as consumers now have endless online and offline
options for researching or buying at their fingertips twenty-four hours a day seven days a week.
But businesses are still struggling to provide consumers with products and services in an effective
and seamless way across channels. The digital channels not only represent a way to get in touch
with consumers, they also play an important role in promotion, sales and marketing. Consumers
will soon use image, voice and gesture control to hunt products. To keep up with advancing
technology cycles, companies need to re-approach and redesign the way they manage their
consumers journey in the age of augmented reality (Bommel, Edelman and Ungerman, 2014).
Global integration is transforming economies around the world and for companies to be able to
survive and compete in this complex environment, they need to be present for their consumers at
every stage of their buying behaviour. Academics opine that organisations to be successful need
to understand their consumers decision-making process. They need to understand their consumers
needs and wants to be able to meet their expectations (Armstrong, Kotler and Opresnik, 2016). No
matter how consumers choose to engage, it is important to provide experiences that encourage the
consumers to return time and again (Hopkins and Turner, 2012).
Technology has enabled the consumer and changed his buying behaviour. The mobile phone has
emerged as a mix of a computer, camera and phone – it has enabled the consumer to communicate
with family, friends and peers through the internet twenty-four hours a day seven days a week,
with access to anyone and everything on the web. This technology is highly visual and aural,
removing various barriers along channels across eographies aided by dedicated apps (Mullins and
Harper, 2014). Brands need to adapt to the changing scenario, as means of engagement for
smartphone users continuously multiply (Hopkins and Turner, 2012).
 Chapter-4
Analysis and Interpretation
Research methodology
Methodology of the Study This part of study defines all the process of data collection. When it
comes to data collection, there are two methods in general used by researcher to collect data,
primary and secondary.
Method. Primary method includes observation method, interview/questionnaire method, and case
study method. Secondary method is the method in which already collected data. The present study
is based on combination of both qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data is collected
through the sampling from the consumer. Random consumer is selected for the sampling purpose.
The sample individual is selected from different age group, different sex and from different
location of Muscat. The different group of people including student, employee and unemployed,
homemakers, etc are considered as sample for the study.
a) Sampling: The target group is of different age, different age group people are considered
because to know whether which group of people are involved more in the online shopping and
which group of people is not confined to shop online. There are four division of age group in the
questionnaire to examine which group is going for more online shopping and which group is going
for more offline shopping.
b) Sample size: Determining the size of sample that is needed for a particular piece of research.
For this research 30 sample, size is taken for the interviews. From this sample size the calculation
of simple percentages for each variable is done.
Research is a systematic method of finding solutions to problems. It is essentially an investigation,
a recording and an analysis of evidence for the purpose of gaining knowledge. According to
Clifford woody, “research comprises of defining and redefining problem, formulating hypothesis
or suggested solutions, collecting, organizing and evaluating data, reaching conclusions, testing
conclusions to determine whether they fit the formulated hypothesis”.
Sampling Design: A sample design is a finite plan for obtaining a sample from a given population.
Simple random sampling is used for this study.
Sample Size: Number of the sampling units selected from the population is called the size of the
sample. Sample of 30 respondents were obtained from the population.
Sampling Procedure: The procedure adopted in the present study is random sampling, which is
also known as chance sampling. Under this sampling design, every item of the frame has an equal
chance of inclusion in the sample.
Methods of Data Collection: The data’s were collected through Primary and secondary sources.
Primary Sources: Primary data are in the form of “raw material” to which statistical methods are
applied for the purpose of analysis and interpretations. The primary sources are discussion with
employees, data’s collected through questionnaire.
Secondary Sources: Secondary data’s are in the form of finished products as they have already
been treated statistically in some form or other. The secondary data mainly consists of data and
information collected from records, company websites and also discussion with the management
of the organization. Secondary data was also collected from journals, magazines and books.
Nature of research descriptive research, also known as statistical research, describes data and
characteristics about the population or phenomenon being studied. Descriptive research answers
the questions who, what, where, when and how. Although the data description is factual, accurate
and systematic, the research cannot describe what caused a situation. Thus, descriptive research
cannot be used to create a causal relationship, where one variable affects another. In other words,
descriptive research can be said to have a low requirement for internal validity.
Questionnaire A well-defined questionnaire that is used effectively can gather information on both
overall performance of the test system as well as information on specific components of the system.
A defeated questionnaire was carefully prepared and specially numbered. The questions were
arranged in proper order, in accordance with the relevance
Analysis and Interoperation
Analysis and Interpretation Turnover: Retailers over a period of three years under study has
noticed a considerable decline in their turnover as compared to years back. Some has reported if
not decline but stagnancy in their growth which is a warning signal for the enterprise. Profit
margin: Online shops has brought in a price war in the market and the main sufferers of this price
war are the retailers. In order to survive, most of these retailers too has made an attempt to lower
their prices but considering their high cost of operation these reatilers has to sacrifice on their
margin. Discount: The retailers are at an alarming rate increasing their discounts in order to stand
with the online stores who woes the customers with unbelievable discounts. Although the
retailers cannot compete with the online stores in terms of discount but it has to lower its prices
to a relative extent to survive the market. Variety of stocks: Online stores maintain a wide variety
of stocks and retailers fail in this context to the e-stores by a wide margin but most of the
retailers as found by the survey has no inclination to compete with the online stores in this
regard. The defeat is accepted. Retailers cannot maintain a large stock as that might have a
negative impact of unsold stock at the end of the year which in turn might bring in huge loses to
the concern. Customer services: More and more retailers are now opting for customer services to
build upon a loyalty. Repair and maintenance to installation and insurance, retailers are leaving
no stones unturned to specialize in areas in which online shops fail. Retailers are now starting up
with home delivery services in the same line of the online shops. Also after sale services are
provided with a smile. Window shopping: There has been a trend in recent years for customers to
browse the products in a physical store and buy it from an online store at a reduced price.
Retailers now have more prospective customers than actual ones. Advertisement: The retailers
now-a-days are more involved in advertisement campaign than ever before in order to increase
their sales. Retailers leave no occasions to take advantage of the situation to advertise their firm.
The table and the diagram highlight the fact about all these aspects and it shows that there is a
negative trend on all these aspects with regard to the retailers.
 Chapter-5
Summary, Finding and Suggestion
Summary:
Online shopping is concerned with e-commerce. The act of purchasing products or services over
the internet is known as online shopping. Despite the advent of online shopping, the traditional
shopping still prevails. But there has been a controversy as to which is better in comparison
which the researcher himself has not been able to find. The survey, thus, conducted shows that
people are not likely to use it every time but only prefer it sometime. The dilate is still on the
pros and cons of online shopping, type of e-commerce threats that society poses using online
shopping and also its advantages over traditional Shopping.

Finding:

Suggestions:
 The online sellers must provide clear and sufficient information about online shopping to
the online shoppers.

 Use secure e- commerce transaction system with fair, timely and affordable methods to
resolve transaction problems.

 To take reasonable steps to ensure the consumer choice is informed and intentional.
  Reduce the costs like traditional shopping.

 To increase the credit facility in online shopping.

 Due to our time consume traditional shopping is neglected.

Conclusion:
The face of retail has changed. The advent of technology in recent period being the primary
reason for it.Today, retailing means going into shopping centers, going online and going mobile.
In all these, small retailers miss out somewhere. But the nearby store is always the most
important concern for all reason and seasons. It needs to revive not just survive. The retail stores
needs to simply uplift its pattern of business and face the competitive world with a more positive
outlook. E-stores and retail stores both have to survive, none at the cost of the other. It’s not just
about the livelihood it gives to the thousands of people but also the convenience and the
steadfastness of a fixed retail store.
References:
 Bhatngar. A, Misra.s and Rao.H.R, Online risk, convenience, and Internet shopping
behaviour, communications of the ACM 2000.

 Aron M. Levin, Irwin P. Levin, Joshua A. Weller, (2005).” A Multi-Attribute Analysis of

Preferences for Online and Offline Shopping: Differences across Products, Consumers,
and Shopping Stages”,Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, VOL 6, NO.4.

 Kar, M. (2010), Consumer behaviour over the last 25 years,Oxirm Research Themes,
Oxford Institute of Retail Management, The Retail Digest, pp 46-53.

 Tony Ahn, Seewon Ryu, Ingoo Han, (2004),” The Impact of the Online and Offline
Features on the User Acceptance of Internet Shopping Malls”, Electronic Commerce
Research and Applications 3,pp 405420.

 Richard Dobbs, Yougang Chen, Gordon Orr, James Manyika, Micheal Chui, Elsie
Chang, China’s e-tail revolution: Online shopping as a catalyst for growth, McKinsey &
Co, March 2013
Appendix
Please could you kindly spare some time and answer the following questionnaire. This
questionnaire is restated to my master's thesis at ARCADA the purpose of this survey is to
consumer behavior during information provided by you will be used only for fulfilling the
research purpose your opinion is valuable to me.

Q1.Your gender?
Female Male

Q2.Your age?
____________ Year old?

Q3.in what kind of store do you generally prefer to shop?

I prefer to shop a traditional store

I prefer to shop online

Q4.Which is your most preferred tool for online shopping?

 Computer/Laptop
Tablet
Smartphone

Q5.Which of these statements best describe your shopping habits in general?

I usually research and buy products in a traditional store
I usually products online but buy the product in a traditional store
I usually research products in a traditional store but buy the product online.
I usually research and buy products online.

Q6.How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statements?

Mark with X the number char repressive your following about each of the statement? Strongly agree agree neutral disagree strongly agree

I buy in a traditional store because I trust the seller

5
5
I buy in a traditional store because l can check the quality of the product 5
‫ب‬
7
I do not mind visiting traditional stores even through it is time consuming
8
‫ز‬
I buy in traditional stores so I can get better deals and offers ‫ز‬
‫ز‬
7
I buy online because it is time saving 7
1
Shopping online offers better prices than shopping in traditional stores 5
5
0
I buy online only when I am sure about the product quality
3
5
I buy when I trust the seller 5

Q7. Which is the most important factor influencing your choice of where to buy ?

Product quality
 Product price

Time to acquire the product

Trusting the seller

Other, factor:________________________________________

Q8. Which is the most important factor influencing your purchase decision?

To be able to see, touch and try the product

To be to buy at the lowest price

To be to shop at my own convenience

Tobe able to trust the seller

Other, factor_____________________

Q9.Which of the following buying process descriptions best describe your way of purchasing?

Awareness, familiarity, consideration, purchase, loyalty

Awareness, consideration, preference, action, loyalty

Consideration. Evaluation. Purchase, loyalty

Consider, buy, enjoy, advocate, band

Q10. Which of the following statements best describe the you buy a product?

I always know product I want to buy

I check many similar products before I decide which product to buy

I choose the product I want to buy after reading reviews

I usually and advice and opinions from family and friends before I buy a product

I buy a product based on past experiences which similar products

I buy product which have been to me by recommended the seller

Q11.How often do you buy the following products in a traditional store?

Daily weekly Monthly Quatharl 3month Never

Books & Magazines

Music & Videos

Electronics

Clothing & Footwear

Other products:__________________________________________________

Q12. How often do you buy the following products online?

Daily weekly Monthly Quatharl 3month Never

Books & Magazines

Music & Videos

Electronics

Clothing & Footwear

Other products:__________________________________________________