FACTORS INFLUENCING ONLINE SHOPPING BEHAVIOUR’: A STUDY WITH RESPECT TO PG STUDENTS IN TIRUVALLA

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‘FACTORS INFLUENCING ONLINE SHOPPING BEHAVIOUR’: A STUDY
WITH RESPECT TO PG STUDENTS IN TIRUVALLA
Dr. Neethu Ann Georgie, Associate Professor, MACFAST
Mr. Chinthu Vinayak.S, MBA S2, MACFAST
Mr. Nikhil Varghese, MBA S2, MACFAST
ABSTRACT
Consumer behaviour act as a key determinant in the success or failure of any
business. The companies use varied strategies to attract the consumers. The evolution
of technology has paved scope for the use of internet as one such strategy to attract
consumers worldwide. And hence the firms try to encourage online shopping along
with their trade in brick and mortar sector. This an online shopping requires a medium
for buying and selling, that is internet and there are many factors that can influence
consumers response towards this medium. The current study aims in establishing a
preliminary assessment and evaluation with regard to the online shopping behaviour of
consumers. The study proceeds with analysing the influence of demographic factors
like gender and also the website related factors like privacy of information, variety of
products and availability of offers with regard to online buying behaviour and
correlation and chi square using SPSS is used for the same. The study shows that
availability of privacy with regard to the information fed into online sites and also the
availability of offers have positive influence where variety or choice of product never
influence online buying behaviour. And mean while male group shows optimistic
approach towards online shopping than their female counterpart.
Keywords: Online shopping, Consumer behaviour, Socio demographic factor, Privacy
of information, Availability of information’s.

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1. INTRODUCTION
Consumer behaviour is the study of how consumers make decisions about what
they need, want, and desire and how do they buy, use, and dispose of goods.
Consumer behaviour is very important to understand what influences the buying
decisions of the consumers and why does it so. By understanding how consumers
decide on a product it is possible for marketers to fill in the gap and identify which
product is needed and which products are obsolete in the market. It also helps
marketers decide how to present their products such that they have maximum
impact on consumers. A major aspect of consumer buying behaviour is the
decision-making process. This is the systematic approach thoughtful, purposeful
and logical buyers use to make all purchase decisions. It begins with a functional or
emotional need recognition.
Marketing existed as an important part of our lives. Due to the continuous
developments in technology surrounding us, marketing has been changing
drastically along the way. Although many changes occurred, the basics of
marketing remain unchanged. Online marketing does almost everything traditional
marketing does, except it is cheaper, more effective and reaches a much bigger
market. The most important digital technology nowadays is the internet; the reason
for this is that it is not only a tool, but a medium as well. The digital age has
resulted in a remarkable phenomenon in marketing. It has revolutionized the way
businesses connected with customers and competitors. More customers are
spending most of their time in the virtual world. They are using automated devices
such as mobile phones to find the products that best meet their needs. Marketing
has developed tremendously with the evolution of technology. The internet, which
is continuing to grow rapidly, is one of the most important technologies that have
affected marketing. It has destroyed all boundaries such as time and distance. Every
industry sector now a days gave more priority towards digital marketing for their
day to day activities.

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2. OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the study is to analysis the influence of various factors on
online shopping behaviour. The work aims in examining the influence of
independent variables, socio demographic factors – Gender, Income of the family
and online store related factors like privacy of information, variety of choice and
availability of offers on the dependent variables online shopping behaviour.
3. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
India has crossed 100 million Internet users, out of which Youngsters in India are
the majority users (IAMAI, 2011). More than 75% of Internet Usage is still driven
by youngsters that include young men, school and college going students
Kiyici (2011) in his study of internet shopping behavior of college of education
students, tried to find out the role of familiarity and income and possession of credit
card on online shopping. His results found out that that male students teacher are
more familiar and have more positive attitude than female student teacher. Teacher
students, who have more monthly income and have more internet self-efficacy have
positive attitude and intension to shop online. Participants, who have credit card,
have more familiarity and less anxiety concerning internet shopping.
Delafrooz, Paim, and Khatibi, (2010), tried to find out the factors influencing
students’ attitudes towards online shopping in Malaysia through a five-level Likert
scale self-administered questionnaire, which was developed based on prior
literature. The multiple regression analysis demonstrated the most significant
determinants of consumers’ attitudes towards online shopping. The results
indicated that utilitarian orientation, convenience, price, and a wider selection
influenced consumers’ attitudes towards online shopping. Therefore, e-retailers
should emphasize a more userfriendly function in order to provide utilitarian
customers a way to find what they need efficiently.

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Sultan et.al. (May 2009), revealed that Consumers, all over the world, are
increasingly shifting from the crowded stores to the one-click online shopping
format. However, in spite of the convenience offered, online shopping is far from
being the most preferred form of shopping in India. A survey among 150 internet
users, including both users and non-users of online shopping, was carried out to
understand why some purchase online while others do not. The results suggested
that convenience and saving of time drive Indian consumers to shop online; while
security and privacy concerns dissuade them from doing so.
Bhatnagar and Rao (2000) analysed about the various factors that can influence
electronic exchange behaviour and came to conclusion that vendor
characteristics, security of transactions, content for privacy and customer
characteristics stands to be the main factors that can influence consumers who
undergo online shopping.
Donthu and Garcia (1999) proposed that risk aversion, innovativeness, brand
consciousness, price consciousness, importance of convenience, variety-seeking
propensity, impulsiveness, attitude toward adverting, would influence online
shopping behavior
4. PROPOSED MODEL
More than twenty literatures were reviewed and based on the variables identifies
from the analysed works, a model has been proposed for the study. The model
includes gender, privacy of information, variety of product and availability of offer
as independent variables and the online behaviour of consumer’s as the dependent
factor

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Fig.1) Model proposed for the study
5. METHODOLOGY
The study is analytical in nature and the research try to analyse the relationship
between different independent factors on the dependent variables, online consumer
behaviour. The study is conducted among 75 PG students in Thiruvalla and
convenience sampling was used to select respondents. 90 questionnaires were
circulated and 75 were chosen based on completeness.
Correlation and Chi-square using SPSS was used to analyse the relationship between
the factors and the hypothesis formulated the study include:
H1: There is association between gender and preference towards online shopping
H2: Privacy of information is positively correlated to online shopping.
H3: Variety of products positively influence online shopping.
H4: Offers positively influence online Shopping.
Demographic variables
• Gender
Website related factors
• Privacy of information
• Product variety
• Availability of Offers
ONLINE SHOPPING
BEHAVIOUR

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6. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSION
The study was conducted among 75 PG students in thiruvalla, who were aware about
online shopping. The sample include the two Gender groups and also students
belonging to different income class.
Table 1 : Background Characteristics of the sample
Independent Variable No. of respondents Percentage
Gender
Male 37 49
Female 38 51
Chi square and correlation using SPSS were used to determine the relationship between
various independent factors – Gender, Privacy, Variety, Offers with respect to online
shopping behaviour.
Fig.2) Purchase frequency with respect to gender
10
0
30 30
10
21
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Male Female
Frequent Regularly Never

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Table.2 Chi-square between Gender and Preference to online shopping
Variable Test P value Test Value Result
Gender v/s
Preference to
online shopping
Chi-Square 0.02 10.018
There is relation
between gender and
Preference to online
shopping
The table given above shows that preference to online shopping differs with regard to
male and female students. As the P value is less than 0.05, the hypothesis, H1 is
accepted. From the figure 2 it is evident that male students have more preference in
visiting online stores and hence it can be concluded that they show more optimistic
approach towards online shopping.
Table.3 Correlation between website related factors and preference to online shopping
Independent
variables
Dependent
variables
Test
conducted
Significance
value / P
value
Test
value
Result
Privacy
Preference to
online
shopping
Correlation
0.012 0.877 Privacy and
preference to
online
shopping is
positively
correlated
Variety
0.126 -0.266 Reject
hypothesis
Offers
0.001 0.67 Relationship
with preference
to online
shopping

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Correlation using SPSS was used to check the relationship between website related
factors and respondent’s preference to online shopping. Table.3 shows that the
respondents give importance to privacy of there information and also the offers like
discounts, or extra products while going for online shopping. Both the variables have
positive influences with respect to consumers behaviour in which privacy is having
highest influence 88% of the respondents gave importance to privacy of there
information while going for online shopping.
The study conducted shows that variety is not at all instrumental in influencing online
shopping. The sample selected didn’t choose online shopping because of the variety
available. The significance value or P value obtained being 0.126 leads to the
conclusion that variety of product and performance to online shopping have no
relation.
7. CONCLUSION & SUGGESTION
The study aims in analysing the influence of selected factors on online shopping
behaviour and the same was conducted among P.G students in thiruvalla. The analysis
shows that male and female shows varied preference to online shopping were by male
shows more positive preference towards online shopping. As male shows more
preference, the firms engaged in online shopping can give priority to their products as
the male have more frequency in opting for online shopping.
Various website related factors were subjected to study and among the three, two
factors – Privacy of information and availability of offers were instrumental in
influencing on online shopping behaviour. The respondents didn’t consider variety/
choice of product as a factor for choosing online shopping. Hence the firms should be
keen in maintain the privacy with respect to information’s fedby consumers and those
sites that have developed best privacy practices can showcase it as a competitive
advantage. In addition to the privacy, online shoppers also prefer to enjoy different
kinds of offers like discounts bundled products etc.

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8. IMPLICATION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
The works on online shopping with respect to Kerala are highly limited and hence
amble scope for the same. The current study is limited with one demographic factor
and three website related factors and that to limited with 75 P.G students in thiruvalla.
Hence there is wide scope in performing the same study either in other parts of kerala
or with different group of population. There is also wide scope for the researchers to
conduct the analysis by including more socio-demographic variables, economic
variables, geographic variables or by incorporating more website related variables.
9. REFERENCES
i. Bhatnagar, A, Misra, S., Rao, H. R (2000), “Online risk, convenience, and
Internet shopping behavior”, Communications of the ACM (43:11), pp. 98-105.
ii. Delafrooz, N., Paim, H. L., and Khatibi, A., 2010. Students’ Online Shopping
Behavior: An Empirical Study. Journal of American Science, 6 (1), 137-147.
iii. Donthu , N.; Garcia, A (1999), “The Internet shopper”, Journal of Advertising
Research, Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 52-58.
iv. IAMAI (2011). 100 Million Internet Users In India, Cybercafe Usage on
Decline. Internet and Mobile Association of India
v. Kiyici, M. (2011). Internet Shopping Behavior Of College Of Education
Students,TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology,
11(3), 202-214.
vi. Solomon, Michael R. (2007). Consumer behavior: buying, having, and being.
Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.
vii. Sultan, F ; Henrichs, R.B; Sai Vijay, T (2009), "Consumer preferences for
Internet services over time: initial explorations", The Journal of Consumer
Marketing, 17(5), pp. 386-403.