Research Proposal: Consumer's Behavior in UK Online Purchase on Amazon

This research proposal examines consumer behavior towards online purchases in the UK, specifically focusing on Amazon. It begins with an introduction, including the project's aim and objectives, which is to understand consumer behavior and the factors that influence online purchasing decisions. The literature review explores key themes such as consumer behavior, internal and external stimuli, and the factors impacting online purchases, drawing on various academic sources. The methodology section outlines the research philosophy (interpretivism), research approach (inductive), data collection methods (interviews and questionnaires), sampling techniques (random sampling), and data analysis methods (thematic analysis). The study anticipates that online purchase will grow at a booming rate in the future. The reflection section highlights the researcher's enhanced knowledge of consumer behavior, online purchase methods, and technical skills, along with an understanding of the problems associated with online purchases.

RESEARCH
PROPOSAL

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PROJECT TITLE.............................................................................................................................1
AIM AND OBJECTIVES................................................................................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................1
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................3
SUMMARISING OUTCOME AND REFLECTION.....................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

PROJECT TITLE
“Examine consumer's behaviour towards the online purchase in UK: A study on Amazon”
AIM AND OBJECTIVES
Aim
“To examine consumer's behaviour towards the online purchase in UK: A study on
Amazon”
Objectives
 To understand the conceptual framework of consumer's behaviour.
 To evaluate the factors that impact consumer's behaviour towards online
purchase.
 To evaluate the components that motivate consumers to buy online
LITERATURE REVIEW
Theme 1: consumer's behaviour
Slade And et.al., (2015) argued that consumer behaviour is to study of how the customer,
organisation or any group used to first select ideas, buy ideas, and also dispose ideas of goods as
well services in order to satisfy the needs and wants of the consumer. It includes the actions
which is of the consumers in the market place and then underlying what are the motives of those
actions. It is a very new concept under which consumer's sociology, anthropology, and social
psychology is studied. Consumer behaviour includes actions as well as reactions of the
consumers and responses towards the products and services bought by the consumers.
As per the view of Djafarova, and Rushworth, (2017) .Consumer behaviour plays a
dominant role in describing the mutual beneficial relationship which is played by the consumer
in the economy. Consumer behaviour is purely a marketing function. In the consumer behaviour
the producer of the goods and services have to understand in detail the taste and preferences of
the consumer which is very necessary in order to satisfy the needs and wants of the consumers.
The concept of consumer behaviour is not at all easy to understand but the concept is very
essential to understand in order to achieve effective and efficient result. The reaction of the
consumer towards the marketing is passive.
Theme 2: factors that impact consumer's behaviour towards online purchase
According to Bigne, Llinares, and Torrecilla, (2016) there two stimuli factors are
considered in the consumer behaviour which are internal and external stimuli. The internal
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stimuli are derived from one's self, which can be personal demand of food and its need, or any
need which arrives from inside. In the external stimuli an individual demand for the product
arises from outside factors which can be Social factors, Economic and political factors, and
technological factors.
Agag, and El-Masry, (2017)) argued that There are various characteristics of buyers on
the basis of which the buying process of the consumers are decided and some of them are
mentioned is such as occupation. There are different needs of the consumers as per the
occupation. For example, the One who is in the occupation of farming will be needing Tractor,
the one who is indulge in office work will be needing the official clothes, so the online search of
the product will help in finding the related search over the internet.
Ghazali, and et.al., (2016 ) argued that The lifestyle of an individual totally depends upon
the standard of living, interest and activities. So purchasing online will result in buying of clothes
for example as per the customised need of the consumer. Nowadays online purchase is very
popular among the buyers, there are heterogeneous factors having stimulus effect towards the
online purchase of consumers and which are as follows:
As per the view of Karimi, Papamichail, and Holland, (2015 ) The online purchase is
very convenient because it saves a lot of time of the customers. The online purchase can be done
at the comfort of the customer by just sitting at your home and by just clicking the mouse sitting
in front of the computer. The return policy is very good in the online purchase and it results
encouraging the customers to purchase online the products. The products which are purchased
online can be returned very quickly and some products can be returned without any additional
cost in the form of delivery charges of the product.
As per the view of Aschemann‐Witzel, and Zielke, (2017) involves ease in making
payment makes consumers positive towards online purchase. The purchase of product online
involve ease in making payment and the customer can make payment using various non cash
methods such as by credit cards, debit cards, internet banking, etc. as per the comfort of the
consumers. Purchasing online gives the option to compare the products from different websites.
This is very beneficial for the customers to buy to the best product and at the best price.
As per the view of Bianchi, and Mortimer, (2015 ) The benefit of purchasing online is,
there is more and more variety of products which are available at single platform. This will help
the customers because in spite with the less efforts of the consumers the consumers can find
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different products such as healthcare products, furniture products, safety products, kitchen and
appliance products etc. at a single place.
As per the view of Bos, and Owen, (2016) Sorting and filter option a customer can search
the product doing filtering as per his choice which may be lower to higher price, branded
products and which category of the product, etc. Sorting is a very powerful tool which saves a lot
of time of the customer when he is searching the product online.
According to Stephen, (2016) There are also some risk associated with the online
purchase of the product and some risks are mentioned as Risk related to finance. It is the risk
which involves perception of the loss of money due online purchase. The old generation are very
much concerned about this risk then the younger generation. Aschemann‐Witzel, and Zielke,
(2017) argued that Risk related to product is another element that impact on their choice. In the
online purchase the product is presented to the customer online and which involves details of the
product to be presented online and also facility for the customer to view the product in more
detail by zooming the image of the product. But if the information is not sufficient of the product
then it can lead to poor evaluation by the customer about the product.
Yeo, Goh, and Rezaei, (2017) .stated that Risk of hacking is major factor that impact on
behaviour of consumers. There is always a risk hacking of website and the websites are having
confidential information of the customer which can be the bank details of the customers, if the
website is hacked the hacker can steal the data and this will lead to loss of money in the bank.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Philosophy
Research Philosophy lays down the ways of collecting the data to be collected and
analysed. It involves two main methods which are used for research and are interpretivism and
positivism. The interpretivism is used for qualitative research and the positivism is used for
quantitative research. Here the researcher will be using the interpretivism method because the
samples used for the consumer behaviour are small and in depth (Kumar, 2019).
Research Approach
The meaning of research methodology is the procedure which is meant for selecting,
analysing, information on any topic. The research methodology mainly focuses on two questions
which are how the data was collected and how the data was analysed. There are mainly two
methods used in research methodology one is inductive method and it is used for qualitative
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research and another one is deductive method which is used for quantitative research. Here in the
research the scholar will use Inductive method because trial and error is required to identify the
customer needs and requirements.
Data collection
Data collection means the process in which the data is gathered and also measured. The
information is collected from the relevant sources and which are used for answering the
problems related to the research. There are two ways of collecting the data known as primary and
secondary data collection. In primary collection of data, the method used by the researcher will
be interviews and questioner in which interview will be conducted of the customers and asked
the relevant questions on online purchasing and the interests of the customer in purchasing online
of a product (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault, 2015). The another method is secondary method of
data collection in which second hand data is collected and which save a lot of time of the
researcher. In secondary data the authencity of the data can be questioned because the sources
from which the data is collected may be inaccurate.
Sampling
In sampling the observation which is predetermined observation is taken from a large
number of data or population. There are two types of sampling which is widely used in sampling
and are random sampling which is used in the qualitative research and another one is purposive
technique which is used in doing quantitative research. Here the researcher will use Random
sampling in which a sample of 20 customers are taken as a respondent which is 10% of the data
gathered from the research. The benefit of using random sampling is it leads to lack of biasness
in the data because group is selected from the large data which is random. The another benefit of
random sampling is simplicity of data and avoids complexity of data (Bresler and Stake, 2017).
Data analysis
It's a process of cleansing, transforming and inspecting the data with the aim of getting
the useful conclusion which is used for the making of decision. There are two methods used for
analysing data for qualitative research thematic method is used and for quantitative research
SPSS method is used (Ledford and Gast, 2018). The thematic method will be used to help the
students for education and also it can be used by the community which want to learn on
consumer behaviour towards online
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SUMMARISING OUTCOME AND REFLECTION
Outcome
According to the study it is found that the consumer behaviour towards the online
purchase of the product is increasing beauteously and bountifully. It is because of the various
benefits which is availed to the consumers. As per the research the public is very much interested
purchasing the product online. There are various methods used in the research which is an
indicative factor that the online purchase will grow at a booming rate in the future. The
company’s having a website and are having product and the details of the products available
online will grow at a rapid pace. The researcher has found that the companies which are going
digital will be giving a great competition in the future. The various factors such as lifestyle of the
customer, the age of the customers, the internal and external stimuli of the customers, are taken
for the finding of heterogeneous interests of the consumer and how the consumer is effected by
these various factors. All consumers are not same and all consumers have their own personal
interests which is foud in the research which will help in determining which product can drive
more in the market in the form of high profitability and meeting the customer needs.
Reflection
As per the study it will reflect the researcher in the form of overall growth of the
researcher. Researcher will learn various impact of the consumer behaviour. Study will increase
the knowledge of the scholar and the scholar will feel more confident on discussing on
consumer's behaviour. Enhencing the knowledge about how to make online purchase, what are
the payment method used in the purchase of the product online, how going digital by the
company can help them growing will be known. The research on consumer behaviour have also
enhensed the technical skills of the researcher in which I have learned the internet searching
skills and how to operate different websites of the different companies. Problems which are
associated with online purchase will also be known by the scholar and this will help to plan in
advance about the problems faced by the consumers to help the consumers, so that the consumer
will not face the problems again in the future. What is the truth and the lies of the consumer
behaviour will be known to the scholar and which will help him in scrutinising the factors which
are necessary or are having a true reflection of consumer doing online purchasing. The study will
help the scholar to find what are the target audiences for the online purchase and what are the
medium to connect to the targeted audiences which can be personal email to the customers,
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social media marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, personal selling, templete distrution etc.
Researcher will become more problem solving person and which will help him solve the
problems, problems which are associated with how to go digital by the companies, how to get the
traffic etc.
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REFERENCES
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Alalwan, A.A. And et.al., 2015. Consumer adoption of Internet banking in Jordan: Examining
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Bresler, L. and Stake, R.E., 2017. Qualitative research methodology in music education.
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decision-making style on the online purchase decision-making process: A typology of
consumer shopping behaviour. Decision Support Systems. 77. pp.137-147.
Kumar, R., 2019. Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage Publications
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Stephen, A.T., 2016. The role of digital and social media marketing in consumer
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Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R. and DeVault, M., 2015. Introduction to qualitative research methods: A
guidebook and resource. John Wiley & Sons.
Yeo, V.C.S., Goh, S.K. and Rezaei, S., 2017. Consumer experiences, attitude and behavioral
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