Impact of Online Marketing on Purchasing Behavior in Retail Industry

This article discusses the impact of online marketing on purchasing behavior in retail industry with a special focus on Myer, Australia. It includes research questions, research design and methodology, and limitations of the study. The article also provides a time schedule for the project and references used.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The Impact of Online Marketing in Purchasing Behaviour of Customers in Retail Industry
“A Case Study Of MYER Australia”
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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1. Introduction (Will be same from student’s assignment)
2. Project Objective (Will be same from student’s assignment)
3. Project Scope (Will be same from student’s assignment)
4. Literature Review (Will be same from student’s assignment)
5.a) Research hypothesis
H0: online marketing techniques do not have significant impact on the purchasing behavior of
the consumers of Myer Australia.
H1: online marketing techniques have significant impact on the purchasing behavior of the
consumers of Myer Australia.
5.b) Research questions
Primary question
1) What is the role of online marketing techniques of Myer Australia that influences the
purchasing behavior of the consumers?
Secondary questions
1) What are the factors that affect the purchasing behavior the consumers of retail industry
in Australia?
2) What type marketing is most effective in influencing the purchasing behavior of the
consumers?

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6. Research design and methodology
Research methodology describes the steps that would be followed by the researcher to
collect the information and analyze it using proper techniques to answer the research questions in
the most logical manner. The appropriate research design and methods are chosen on the basis of
the origin and nature of the information and the type of analysis procedure (Mackey & Gass,
2015). In the given research study, the researcher will explore the factors of consumer’s
purchasing behavior, impact of online marketing and other marketing techniques on the
purchasing decision of the consumers of retail industry, with a special focus on Myer, Australia.
The topic has both qualitative and quantitative aspects. Thus, both the qualitative and
quantitative research methods will be applied to address both types of facets of the topic.
Qualitative research process
Qualitative research process includes informal, semi systematic and subjective research
methods, which emphasize more on the human aspects than on the numerical data, gathered
through the process of data collection. This research process is inductive in nature, which enables
the researcher to generate new inferences from the data or explore a new phenomenon Silverman
(2016).
The main steps of the qualitative research methods are:
1. Formulation of research questions
2. Design of the research study
3. Data collection process
4. Analysis and interpretation of data
5. Validation of the data

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6. Reporting and representation of the findings
The steps are explained below:
Formulation of research questions is the first and most important section in any type of
research study. The research questions are helpful in determining the vision and thought process
of the researcher and subsequently the direction of the study. As stated by Merriam & Tisdell
(2015), research questions present the topic in the most comprehensive manner. In the given
study, the primary and secondary research questions are designed to explore the factors
influencing purchasing behavior in retail and their impact on the consumers. These questions will
also explore people’s perception regarding the influencing factors, which are qualitative in
nature.
Design of the research study is based on the research questions. Its purpose is to obtain
significant input from the subjects of research and not just focus on the internal investigation
(Saxena et al., 2013). The most commonly research designs are case study, descriptive, survey
and experiments. In this study, the researcher will apply the case study research design, as the
topic aims to explore the impact of online marketing on the purchasing behavior, with a special
focus on the Myer, Australia. Thus, Myer is the case study organization. This type of research
design helps in analyze the research topic based on real scenario and get the most practical
outcomes (Panneerselvam, 2014). The researcher will choose some of the consumers of Myer
for data collection and focus on specific marketing techniques and their impact on those sample
customers.
Data collection process includes primary and secondary data, depending on the
requirement of the study. Primary data is collected directly from the field of study, while

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secondary data are those, which are collected from authentic and published sources, such as,
books, journal articles, news paper articles, government reports and publications, company
reports etc. (Lewis, 2015). In this research, the researcher will focus on the secondary data for
qualitative study. The annual reports of Myer will be consulted for the annual sales and various
other publications will be consulted to get information on the factors affecting consumer’s
purchasing decisions in retail.
Qualitative data analysis process will be applied on the secondary data. The researcher
will follow thematic analysis process for analyzing the secondary information. Under this
process, various themes are chosen based on the research topic, and the findings are presented
under those themes to check if they are satisfying the research objectives (Vaismoradi, Turunen
& Bondas, 2013).
The variables for this study are the online marketing techniques, and consumer’s
purchasing behavior in retail industry. The impact of online marketing technique is independent
variable and purchasing behavior of consumers is the dependent variable.
Reliability refers to the internal consistency of the data and validity refers to the concept
of examining whether the indicator is measuring the variables accurately. According to Bryman
& Bell (2015), self-reflection, triangulation, member checking, and external audits are some
common tests for validity and reliability of the data used in qualitative research process.
Reporting of the findings is done after the data analysis is complete. This includes
comprehensive representation and description of data collection and analysis process, findings
and interpretation of whether the research objectives have been met.

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Quantitative research process
Quantitative research process includes systematic, formal and objective research
procedures, which deals with numeric data. The numeric data is collected and analyzed by
applying statistical tools in this type of research, which is mostly deductive in nature. Research
hypotheses are formulated and tested using statistical methods against already established
theories to obtain the findings (Neuman, 2013).
The fundamental steps of this research process are as follows:
1. Formulation of research hypothesis
2. Research study design
3. Sampling techniques and data collection
4. Data analysis and interpretation
5. Conclusion and recommendations
6. Reporting
Research hypothesis represents a predictive statement on the relationship between two or more
variables. It is a definite statement, which is based on the knowledge, observations and test
outcomes (Walter & Andersen, 2013). In this study, one research hypothesis was formulated to
examine the relationship between online marketing techniques and purchasing behavior of the
retail consumers, with an emphasis on Myer, Australia.
The research design under quantitative research process consists of the purpose
statement, research rationale, theory and research questions and/or hypothesis. The most
commonly used research designs are case study, correlational, experimental, quasi-experimental
and descriptive (Neuman, 2013). In this study, the researcher will adopt correlational design, as

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the relationship between the variables, that is, impact of independent variable on the dependent
variable will be examined by applying statistics. Myer, Australia is also the case study
organization under quantitative process.
The data collection process will include primary data collection by using survey
questionnaire. Hence, a survey questionnaire will be developed as research instrument and it
will focus on different aspects of consumer’s purchasing behavior and impact of online
marketing technique. The questions will be close ended and the responses will be collected on 5
point rating scales, such as, likert scale. It will contain a demographic and a non-demographic
part. The questionnaire will be circulated among the few chosen consumers via their emails.
They will be asked for their consent during the check out at the counter and then only their email
Id will be collected.
Sampling is necessary for primary data collection. Since entire population cannot be
studied due to budget and time constraints, a small subset is drawn by applying a relevant
sampling technique, that has the similar characteristics (Lane, 2014). The researcher will apply
simple random sampling technique on the consumers and draw a sample of size 50 for the study.
Data analysis process will include statistical tests, that is, cross tabulations, correlations,
regressions, and descriptive analysis, as per the requirements. All these tests are aimed at
examining the relationships between the independent variable, that is, online marketing and
dependent variable, that is, purchasing behavior of the consumers of Myer, Australia.
Reliability of the data will be examined using reliability test and Cronbach’s alpha
measure. A score of 0.7 or more indicates an acceptable or good reliability (Heale & Twycross,

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2015). Validity will be evaluated from the outcomes and its relevance with the research
objectives.
At the end of the study reporting of the findings and its explanations are presented,
which will also include the concluding remarks and recommendations to handle any particular
issue, found through the study.
7. Research limitation
The limitations of the study are the time and budget constraints. Due to these, a small
sample size is considered, which may generate sampling error. Moreover, only the online
marketing is considered in this study, although other factors would also have impact on the
consumer behavior. If those are considered with online marketing, the study would generate a
different outcome.
8. Time schedule

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Figure 1: Gantt chart
(Source: Author)
9. Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that, the researcher will apply mixed
methodology for this study. Both primary and secondary data will be collected and based on the
nature, both the qualitative and quantitative analysis process will be applied. The primary data
will be analyzed using quantitative methods and the secondary data will be interpreted and
presented using thematic analysis under qualitative methods. The findings from the secondary
data will be used to validate the findings from the primary data analysis. The project will
continue for 65 days and the potential outcome of the project aims to provide an insight about the
impact of online marketing technique on the purchasing behavior of the consumers in retail
industry.

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References
Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2015). Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.
Heale, R., & Twycross, A. (2015). Validity and reliability in quantitative studies. Evidence-
based nursing, ebnurs-2015.
Lane, D. M. (2014). Introduction to statistics.
Lewis, S. (2015). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five
approaches. Health promotion practice, 16(4), 473-475.
Mackey, A., & Gass, S. M. (2015). Second language research: Methodology and design.
Routledge.
Merriam, S.B. & Tisdell, E.J. (2015). Qualitative research: A guide to design and
implementation. John Wiley & Sons.
Neuman, W. L. (2013). Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches.
Pearson education.
Panneerselvam, R. (2014). Research methodology. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd..
Saxena, P., Prakash, A., Acharya, A. S., & Nigam, A. (2013). Selecting a study design for
research. Indian Journal of Medical Specialities, 4(2), 335.
Silverman, D. (Ed.). (2016). Qualitative research. Sage.

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Vaismoradi, M., Turunen, H., & Bondas, T. (2013). Content analysis and thematic analysis:
Implications for conducting a qualitative descriptive study. Nursing & health
sciences, 15(3), 398-405.
Walter, M., & Andersen, C. (2013). Indigenous statistics: A quantitative research methodology.
Left Coast Press.