Online Shopping and Customer Behaviour

This paper explores customer behaviour and preference in online shopping and e-commerce usage. It analyzes the sense of security, purchasing factors, and customer choice. The study was conducted on school students, with a sample size of 20. The findings suggest the need for better security measures and product availability.

Online Shopping and Customer Behaviour
Name of the Student
Name of the University
ABSTRACT
Online usage for purchasing operation and
marketing has been increased significantly in last
10 years. The purpose of this paper is to measure
the customer behaviour and their preference while
using the e-commerce user for either purchasing
or searching insertions. In this research a survey
has been conducted. The sample size was 20 and
the target population were mainly school students.
To analyse the raw survey report through
statistical distribution and one way ANOVA
analysis has been used. From the study it has been
found that the most significant purchasing factor
before purchasing online is the sense of security.
Apart from that, customer choice and pre-
purchasing factors have been also identified.
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1Background literature
Along with the development of Web 2.0 the
dynamic usage of online web pages has been
increased significantly. From social media to e-
commerce website, online platform is becoming
more popular in every day[1]. From 2015 to 2017
the online usage has been increased 128%, as per
the measurement online traffic. The two most
essential filed of online activities are online
shopping and social-media [2]. Today, more than
92% of small to medium level enterprises depend
on online based platform for marketing,
promotional activity and even for financial
transaction [3]. Online promotion has become one
of the most emerging ways of marketing activities
that include the pay per click advertisement,
promotional hyperlinks, social media blogging,
Video advertisement and many others. In 2015
Google claims that 34% of online searchers or
browsing activities occur for purchasing intentions
[4]. These searchers often comprise Electronics,
Accessories, Beauty and personal care, baby
products, Healthcare products, food products and
others.
Along with the increasing amount utilisation of
smart phone the software developers realised that
featuring a phone with online platform based
application would be beneficial. As it should be,
now 82% of online traffic comes from smart
phone users [5]. Huge amount of applications are
available in application stores, which allow the
users to use online platform for social media or e-
commerce based activity. At the same time it is
also true that 74% e-commerce users or customers
prefer cash on delivery payment. E-commerce
facilities fail to provide complete assurance of
monetary security to their users [6]. At the same
time, less dependency on online payment is
causing several potential discrepancies in payment
procedures. Today online e-commerce platforms
are also used for developing healthy consumer
relationship through multiple mode of
communication. Potential customers are now able
to choose the most beneficial products through
reviewing customer ratings and feedback. E-
commerce website based customer feedback
system enables the companies to change their
business policies and to make them more
favourable to customers.
1.2 Aims Objective
Currently measuring the trends and preference of
e-commerce users and their behaviours is
becoming more important for any business
industry. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to
measure the customer behaviour and their
preference while using the e-commerce user for
either purchasing or searching insertions. This
study also examine how much the sense of
security during online activity can change the
frequency of using ecommerce websites.
Therefore, the objectives are:
 To examining if the frequency of online
shopping depends on the sense of cyber
security
 To explore the preference of e-commerce
customers in terms of product selection
 To explore the cause of using online
purchasing facility in spite of offline shopping
2. RESEARCH DESIGN
The research design holds the structure or
foundation of any study that determines the
development of the findings. Design also
emphasises the interpretation style of any
research. The purpose of this research is to
explore the consumer behaviour while measuring
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the dependency of internal factors like security,
purchasing preference, frequency of usage and
others. This study requires real time data
collection and analysis involving numeric
measurement and identification of data pattern.
Therefore for this positivist research three
research design were available namely
exploratory, explanatory and descriptive. This
research is aimed to explore values for multiples
dependent and independent variables. Therefore,
for this research the exploratory research design
has been chosen.
3. RESEARCH METHOD
3.1 data collection
Data collection enables this research to collect the
data from various resources and to analyse the
components for formulating the concussion. Data
collection can be either primary or secondary. In
this research the major data collection method is
primary data collection method through semi
structured survey. The survey questioner consists
of both multiple choice and open ended questions.
The aim of this questioner is to collect the data
regarding customer behaviour and their preference
while using the online e-commerce websites for
purchasing or other similar operations.
3.2 Sampling
The target population for this primary data
collection process was mainly school students.
Therefore, the target population belonged from the
age group of 18 to 26 year. Most of the
participants are students. The sampling strategy of
this research was non-probability or selective
sampling. For selecting the participants the basic
criteria were they must be interested in this study
and they must satisfy the age restriction of the
target population. Therefore, the sampling style
was partially volunteer sampling.
3.4 Data analysis
Data analysis can be either qualitative or
quantitative data analysis. For this research mainly
quantitative data analysis has been used. The
quantitative data analysis allowed the research to
analyse the raw survey report through statistical
distribution and one way ANOVA analysis. One
way ANOVA is used to determine the impact of
sense of cyber security on the frequency of e-
commerce usage and the descriptive statistics is
used for analysing the preference of the customers
and their purpose. The data analysis has been done
by using SPSS software.
4. RESULTS
Table 4.1 Descriptive statistics of frequency of
using e-commerce websites and the sense of
security
Statistics
Interest Preference App_count
N Valid 20 20 20
Missing 0 0 0
Mean 1.30 1.60 1.70
Std. Deviation 1.081 1.142 1.081
As per the value and level selection the for
frequency measure 0 was dedicated for Never and
3 was dedicated for Always. Here the mean
frequency value is 2.85, which is very near to the
3. Therefore, most of the participants are frequent
user of e-commerce website. The mean value of
application count is 1.70. Therefore, the
respondents uses at least 1 online purchasing
application in their phone.
Table 4.2 Prediction and correction
Model Summary
M
od
el R
R
Squar
e
Adju
sted
R
Squ
are
Std.
Error
of the
Estima
te
Change Statistics
R Square
Change
F
Change df1 df2
1 .692a .479 .451 .732 .479 16.578 1 18
a. Predictors: (Constant), Dependency
As per the predictive analysis the adjusted R
squire value is 0.451, which is numerically very
near to the original R squire 0.479. Therefore, the
predictive error of this analysis is minimum that
indicates the study results and variable
dependencies are highly reliable.
Table 4.3 ANOVA Test
ANOVAa
Model
Sum of
Squares df
Mean
Squar
e F Sig.
2

1 Regression
8.894 1 8.894 16.5
78 .001b
Residual
9.656 18 .536
Total
18.550 19
a. Dependent Variable: Frequency
b. Predictors: (Constant), Dependency
Coefficientsa
Model
Unstandardized
Coefficients
Standardi
zed
Coefficien
ts
t Sig.B
Std.
Error Beta
1 (Constant) 1.840 .297 6.19
1 .000
Dependency .652 .160 .692 4.07
2 .001
a. Dependent Variable: Frequency
As per the one way ANOVA analysis the
significant value is 0.001. This value is very less
than the testing probability value 0.05. Therefore
the result highly supports that the dependent
variable Frequency is highly dependent on the
independent variable Dependency. Therefore it is
proved that the sense of safety for e-commerce
usage influences the frequency of online
purchasing.
Table 4.4 Descriptive statistics of Interest users
Interest
Frequency Percent
Valid
Percent
Cumulative
Percent
Offers 6 30.0 30.0 30.0
Lazy to go for
shopping 5 25.0 25.0 55.0
Lack of time 6 30.0 30.0 85.0
Others 3 15.0 15.0 100.0
Total 20 100.0 100.0
Figure 4.1 Graphical presentations of mean
values of interests
From the descriptive statistical analysis of interest
of online customers it has been found that the
most common reasons of using e-commerce
websites are lack of time and offers. 30% of
participants replied they shop online because of
the offers and other 30% replied they shop online
because of the lack of time. 25% of the total
participants said that they purchase online because
it needs less effort than offline shopping.
Table 4.5 Descriptive statistics of Preference of
users Preference
Frequency Percent
Valid
Percent
Cumulative
Percent
Clothing 5 25.0 25.0 25.0
Groceries 3 15.0 15.0 40.0
Electronics 7 35.0 35.0 75.0
Accessories 5 25.0 25.0 100.0
Total 20 100.0 100.0
Figure 4.2 Graphical presentations of mean
values of customer preference
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From the descriptive statistical analysis o
preferences of online customers, it has been found
that the most of the customers uses online e-
commerce websites to purchase electronics. About
35% of participants replied they shop online to
purchase electronics product. Besides, 25% of the
total participants said that they purchase
accessories and other 25 % said they purchase
clothes from online purchasing websites. Only
15% customers purchase groceries from online e-
commerce websites.
5. DISCUSSION
In this part, the outcomes from the above
quantitative analysis have been discussed.
Besides, some of the open ended answers were not
analysed numerically, which have been also
analysed ad discussed in this section of the report.
5.1 Customer’s choice
As per the analytical outcomes most of the
consumer uses online shopping app for purchasing
electronic devices. As per Google declared, about
35% of total online purchasing based searches
occur to purchase electronic devices. At the same
time, online purchasing of cosmetics materials has
increased 25% from 2013 to 2015 [5]. As per the
reply of the online customers the most common e-
commerce websites are Amazon, e-bay, Argos,
Tesco and others. The lack of online purchasing
for grocery products also shows that the retail
companies should offer better opportunity and
financial benefits to their customers for
purchasing groceries.
5.2 Purchasing factors
As per the critical analysis, the most significant
purchasing factor is the sense of security.
Customer who feels exposed it terms of monetary
transaction and other privacy during online
purchasing is less likely to use online shopping
websites and applications. As per the result at
least 1 online shopping based application is
installed in every mobile. This quantity can be
increased if the e-commerce companies can
provide more security assurance to their users.
Making peer-to-peer connectivity with the banks
during monetary transaction and better privacy
measures can secure the purchasing facilities
batter [7]. A large group customer also supported
that availability of the products is another driver
for their online shopping. Therefore, it can be said
that the online retailer or other e-commerce
companies should ensures the availability of their
products in order to increase their customers as
well as profitability.
6. CONCLUSION
From above analysis and discussion it has been
found that, online promotion is the most effective
ways of marketing activities that should include
the pay per click advertisement, promotional
hyperlinks, social media blogging, Video
advertisement and many others focusing on
diverse products like groceries. It can be also
conclude the online retailer and other e-commerce
companies should make their servers and
monetary transaction process safer to provide
more security assurance to their users. The
companies should also increase the dependency
on online in order to reduce the number of
discrepancies in offline or “cash on delivery”
payment procedure.
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