A Study on Customer Perception Towards Online Shopping

A Study on Customer Perception Towards Online Shopping

Taruna1

Abstract Internet has changed the traditional way of customers shopping and buying goods and services. In this rapidly changing age and time, going digital is the new trend. Every brick and mortar shop is now trying to create its online presence to stay ahead of the competition. Consumers use the internet not only for online shopping, but also to compare prices, product features and after sale service facilities. Online shopping also known as e-shopping is a form of electronic Commerce which allows Consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser. Customers are purchasing the goods and services online because it saves time, and more selection, for goods is available as compare to offline shopping. And most important thing there is no need to go anywhere one can receive goods at his / her home. The main objective of this research study is to explore & investigate consumer perception towards online shopping. The present research paper has used Quantitative method to study the consumer preferences towards online shopping. The data was collected through Questionnaires. This research also aims to find out the key factors like age, gender, and various payment method that affects the consumer behavior towards online shopping.

Index Terms Age, cash on delivery, debit card, credit card, price

1. INTRODUCTION

   Online shopping refers to the shopping behavior of consumer in an online store or a website used for online purchasing purpose (Monsuwe et al. 2004). Online shopping is the consumers shopping behavior to shop online. The people who find it easy to use, useful and enjoyable can accept online shopping. Online shopping has experienced a rapid growth during the recent years due to its unique advantages for both consumers and retailers, such as shopping at round the clock facilities, decreasing dependence to store visits, saving travel costs, increasing market area and offering a wide range of products. Online shopping is the consumers shopping behavior to shop online. Not only in urban area but also in villages also people are loving to do shop online.

2. CUSTOMER PREFERENCE TOWARDS ONLINE SHOPPING

   Stupendous & enormous expansion of Internet in India, the people are taking interest in online shopping. They can do online shopping while they are sitting in their homes and

   work place, after getting good service response, quality of product, competitive price and on time delivery through online shopping, they always try to recommend their friends and family members for online shopping.

   At present More and more customers are doing shopping online because in urban area Eg. in NCR itself mostly people are working that s why they are not having so much time to go for offline shopping, they used to prefer online shopping. The convenience of online shopping is the main attraction of customers. Unique online payment system offer easy and safe purchasing from other individuals. Various demographic factors like age, income, gender, education background also affect the customer behavior. Earlier consumer used to pay with cash but now a days number of payment options are available for like debit card, credit card, internet banking and cash on delivery also. These payment methods also makes online shopping easy.There are various online promotional tools which attract most of the customers to shop online. In the era of internet technology, wi-fi services and smart-phone gadgets provides so much facility for the consumers to do shopping from anywhere. Many retailers engage their customers in impulsebehavior through the usage of visuals and information and through the usage of colored pictures and images of the entire product and offered discount on various products. In description of the entire product and service, online promotions can serve an excellent purpose.

   Advantages of online shopping:-

   • Online shops give us the opportunity to shop 24/7, and also reward us with a no pollution shopping experience.

   • Cheap dealsand better prices are available online, because products come to you direct from the manufacturer or seller without middleman being involved.

   • You can shop from retailers in other parts of the country, or even the world, all without being limited by geography. The choices online are amazing.

   • Many times, when we opt for conventional shopping, we tend to spend a lot more than planned. There are other outside expenses on things like eating out, transportation, and let's not forget impulse buys! So there are less expenditure incurred in online shopping

   • Comparing and researching products and their prices is so much easier online

   • No crowd is their when you prefer to do shop online.

     Disadvantages of online shopping:-

   • If an item comes damaged or not as described, you will want to return the item or be refunded your money. Depending on where you purchased your item, there can be different policies for refunds and returns;

   • Unlike buying at retail stores, you are able to use the product instantly after you buy it, which can be satisfying. However, online shopping requires patience to wait for the item to arrive at your door step about 2 to 3 days or even longer depending on the location you've ordered it from.

   • Lack of touch-feel-try creates concerns over the quality of the product on offer. Online shopping is not quite suitable for clothes as the customers cannot try them on.

   • Customers have to be careful in revealing their personal information. Some of the e-retailers are unreliable.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW

   Kim and Park (1991) stated that the consumers spend more time online for information search and they also found that the Internet is easily accessible Price which is a part of the marketing mix is a factor used to stimulate the consumer and is also communicator, to negotiate and a competitive weapon. The consumer can use price as a means to compare products, judge relative value for the money, and the judge quality of products. It is estimated that this factor has a considerable influence on the consumers during their online shopping Brassington & Pettitt (2000).

   Wang and Emuian (2004) defined online shopping as buying stuff through the internet. The items are usually sent to the buyers door step that you have purchased online.

   Sharma and Mittal (2009) said that India is showing tremendous growth in the Ecommerce, in their study Prospects of e-commerce in India. Online shopping shows unlimited potential in India with the population of millions of people. E-commerce has become an integral part of our daily life and it is a common word in Indian society with websites providing a number of goods and services. Some of these portals provide specific product along with its allied services. Solomon, 1998 in his study Consumer behavior is the study of the processes involved when an individual selects, purchases, uses or disposes of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and desires.

4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

   The study was to examine the attitude of the 100 of people to fill questionnaire on online shopping based on various questions. Data was gathered through different population of various people from different institutions and from the general public with different professions. Questionnaires were circulated among 100 teachers & people working in MNCS AND from the general public inDelhi/NCR region. They ave been asked to give the answer. Various suggestions for the study of the conclusion of reduction in delay strategy and

   consumers online decision to support the hesitation near them. It should be ensured that responses are the validity of the research.

   Table 1.

   Illustrates this survey results 70 % of male and 30 % of female respondents participated in the online shopping survey. At the same time as 25 % of the respondents in the survey plunge into the category of 0-30 years age, 60 % participants plunge into the category of 30-55 years age group, while rest of the respondents 15% plunge into the category of above 55 years age. The results of the survey reveal that investigation on online shopping attracting mostly young population age group of 30-55 years old. 90% of the respondents belonged to working class.

   	Category	Frequency	Percentage
   GENDER	MALE	70	70%
   	FEMALE	30	30%
   	TOTAL	100	100%
   AGE	BELOW 30	25	25%
   	30-55	60	60%
   	55 & ABOVE	15	15%
   PROFESS ION	WORKING	90	90%
   	BUSINESS	0	0
   	ANY OTHER	10	10%
   EDUC ATION BACKGR OUND	Less that 12th	0	0
   	Graduatio n	0	0
   	Above graduation	100%	100%

   CHART 4 :IF YOU NEVER HAD ONLINE SHOPPING PLEASE SPECIFY THE REASON

   57%

   0% 0%

   29%

   14%

   According to the survey results chart 2 show that Price is the most important factor that affects users when they shop online as per this survey. According to the survey results about 55% of the respondent replied that they price is the important factor that attract users when they shop and 25 % people said that display and how a website used to show their product online that attract them when they shop online and 10

   % people said that they used to prefer product according to brand name.

   I DON KNOW ABOUT ONLINESHOPPING

   RISK OF CREDIT CARD OR DEBITCARD TRANSACTION

   INTERNET ILLITRACY

   ANY OTHER REASON

   other

   Online shopping is growing rapidly in India. According to the survey results chart 3 show that about 65% of the respondent replied that they preferred amazon while doing online shopping and 15% and 20% respondents said that Jabong and any other company respectively.

   According to the survey results chart 4 show that 29% people said that they feel it risky while doing payment in online shopping. 14% people said they don t have proper knowledge of internet. 57 % people said there is any other reason thats why they don prefer online shopping.

   According to the survey results chart 5 show that 45 % people said that they prefer to pay by using debit card , 25% and 20% respondents said that prefer to pay cash on delivery and credit card respectively . 5 % respondent said they use to prefer any other mode of payment.

5. CONCLUSION

Online shopping is extremely convenient and has become extremely popular. Consumers have shown different buying behaviors when shopping online as compared to when they are shopping in a physical store. Online shopping is very convenient and beneficial. People who come from villages and are living in cities are prone to use online options. Service class is more interested in doing shopping online. Customersage,online transaction security, personal

privacy, convenience, price transparency, accessibility, time saving, trust etc. are several factors which doesnt remain same all the time but they cannot be ignored. Customer should be given a free orientation for how to use debit card, credit card and inter banking fund transfer so that most of people can use digital mode of payment while doing online shopping and they would not feel any risk with online transaction.

The online promotion tools are very effective in reaching out to the target audience, in the era of internet technology, wi-fi services and smart-phone gadgets as they are perceived to be effective, informative and credible. To engage the audience in an impulsive behavior online promotions have the potential. Through the usage of visuals and information the beauty of technology can be seen so the companies should use this feature of internet through the usage of colored pictures and images of the entire product. In description of the entire product and service, online promotions can serve an excellent purpose. Since all types of products and services have the potential to be promoted and to be sold over the internet, companies must ensure that they promote their products on the internet effectively.

Limitations:

• It is always a matter of chance, how much true information is provided by the respondents. Their opinion may be biased by the virtue of their or their known ones perception or experience. Sometimes respondents dont really understand what specific information would infer. The study is conducted only in restricted areas. So, it might not give the exact picture of the Customer behaviour in NCR.

• Respondents could be biased sometimes when information is being extracted.

• Because of time constrain, a sample size of only 100 respondents was being included in the study. This number is not sufficient to reflect the exact picture.

REFERENCES

1. Sharma and Mittal (2009).Prospects of ecommerce in India, Asian Journal of management and research. 3(2), 396-408

2. Kim and Park (1991) Research paper

3. Solomon (1998).A study of factors affecting online shopping behavior of consumers, International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications 3(6), 201-212

4. Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2000). Marketing Management (5th

Ed.), Prentice-Hall: Pearson.