MA619 Accounting Research: Online Shopping Impact on Business

This accounting research report investigates the impact of online shopping on the current business environment. It covers various aspects of online shopping, including its increasing popularity due to technological advancements and convenience for consumers. The research explores the benefits of online shopping, such as time and money savings, discounts, and ease of payment. It also delves into the aims and objectives of the research, which include identifying the scope and trends of online shopping and analyzing its influence on the business environment. The literature review discusses the role of the internet in business growth, the importance of online platforms for businesses, and the advantages and disadvantages of online shopping from both customer and business perspectives. The report also touches upon the significance of marketing strategies, SWOT analysis, and the competitive landscape of online stores. The document concludes by highlighting both the conveniences and potential drawbacks of online shopping, emphasizing its growing significance in modern consumer behavior.

Accounting Research
Accounting Research
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Accounting Research
Abstract
The below presented research is developed on the concept of online shopping and impacts of
the same on current business environment. The below presented research proposal comprise
of various segments that are describing the various aspects of the topic.An online shopping
system is a service which allows the customers to purchase anything from their desired stores
by sitting at their through their mobile. This system is getting more popular these days
because of the technology people prefer to do most of their work online which their time and
efforts of going physically to the stores. The online shopping gives them an ease and comfort
to shop and use the services in better way. Through online shopping people saves lot of time,
efforts and also save money due to the discounts and promotions available on the products.
At the time of festivals and different occasion these E commerce platforms provide their
customer some deals and offers which increase their purchasing rates and attracts more and
more customers to shop online.
In the process of shopping online the ecommerce platforms display the product on their
platform with its pictures, price, the delivery time and a tutorial video as well for some of the
products. On the same page the discount coupons are also available which makes it easier for
the user to get complete details of the products? People are getting depending on the online
shopping more nowadays and it has became a great source of income for the business persons
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Accounting Research
Contents
Abstract......................................................................................................................................2
Contents......................................................................................................................................3
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Literature review........................................................................................................................4
Research questions...................................................................................................................10
Methodology............................................................................................................................10
Data analysis............................................................................................................................14
Conclusion................................................................................................................................15
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................16
Appendix: 1..........................................................................................................................18
Appendix: 2..........................................................................................................................19
Appendix: 3..........................................................................................................................20
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Accounting Research
Introduction
With the advancement of technology every individual is addicted to mobile phones and want
their work to be done over the phone whether it is food, taxi booking or online shopping. The
online shopping reduces time and efforts as by sitting at one place people can visit various
stores at the same time and can also compare the prices of goods and services they want and
through a single click from their phones the products will be delivered to their doorstep at
their desired date and time.
With the evolution of various online shopping applications, people spend most of their time
browsing the products online as they love to check the ratings and reviews before purchasing
the products. Also, many customers prefer to visit the stores online before visiting the shop
itself. Also, online shopping gives the customer's facility or a number of discounts and cash-
backs while purchasing online which makes people happy and tempted to purchase more.
Payment is also an easy task while shopping online; customers can use their cards, net
banking, and many more methods while they proceed to checkout when placing an order.
Even they can use an option to pay through cash at the time of delivery. These are some of
the reasons that are why people love online shopping. The below presented are the aim and
objectives of the research on which the proposal will be developed:
Aims
 To identify the scope, trend, and use of online shopping for the long run
Objectives
 To analyse the business environment for identifying the scope of online shopping
 To determine the current trend of online shopping
 To examine the influence of online shopping on the business environment
Literature review
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Accounting Research
According to Bacik, Gavurova and Fedorko, (2015), the evaluation of the Internet has given
birth to thousands of new ways to expend the businesses online which plays a major role in
the growth of the business. Because of the busy schedules, people prefer to use the services
online and get the products and services at their home which saves their time and efforts.
Most of the people prefer to use the services online to buy stuff, to order food, to book a taxi,
to pay their bills and many more services to save their time and to get better offers at any
time. Customers even love to do window shopping on online stores to get updated with the
latest trends and fashion with the prices they are offering and the advertising, offers, and
marketing of online services attract people more to use them.
The Internet has changed the way people do business and compete in the market for online
shopping or e-commerce. Online business is becoming a great source of earnings and
covering a remarkable portion of GDP across the globe. Even cyberspace is gaining more
significance rather than the offline stores in markets. Business around the world are getting
greatly attracted towards this virtual market which does not limit their reach, they can avail a
variety of products with various offers, details, and specifications and can also adopt a
number of marketing strategies to increase the customer's visit and reach. The operational
exercises and the functionalities which are outfitted by using the online instruments and
apparatuses and this can be considered as the procedure of web based business. Quick
improvements have been seen in the idea of web based business and furthermore the greater
part of the global partnerships is getting related with this idea for making achievements of the
hierarchical objectives and goals. Online shopping plays a leading roe in development and
advancement of a business corporation with a rapid speed.
Moreover, the author also observed that customer's like to visit and use the services on online
stores. They love the facilities they get while they are sitting at one place, they can have a
look at the products and services available on any far away shop in the real market. The
customer also enjoys the convenience of the home delivery with the speed, ease of transport
which they get in just a single click through the mobile application. Customers always prefer
to compare the prices and qualities of their desired products with a number of choices and
also without the pressure of the sales-person. This provides much greater significance and
offers advantages for small and medium-size businesses.
As per the view point of Eisend, (2015), the real market dealers should move their business
towards online platforms for better growth and development. The business person must
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Accounting Research
consider all the points and they should take the right decision for the solution required for the
development of the business online. The salesperson should take care of the accountancy
package and inventory system of their business. The business person will have a database to
store the information related to the products, pricing, customer details for login so that they
do not face any issue while they purchase something next time. The making plays a vital role
in the growth of any organization, for whatever e-commerce business the sales-person
decides to launch should focus on planning a marketing strategy. SWOT analysis is also
important for the development of the business; the business person should know the strengths
and weaknesses of their organization and should also consider the opportunities and
challenges they need to face in upcoming years with the competition in the market.
The Internet is one of the great sources for the business persons to expand their business to
provide the number of choice in their products with reasonable prices, offers, and discounts
and is an irreplaceable technique to save and earn more money. The online stores are highly
in competition in the market nowadays not only the other online stores but also with the price
comparison websites which makes the bargaining easiest for the customers and also enhances
the reputation of the online stores of the shoppers because of the reviews posted by the
customers and the other shoppers. Customers search for the ratings and reviews of the
product as well as stores and then compares the price before selecting any product or book
any service online.
On the other hand Kuvykaitė and Tarutė, (2015), analyzed the other techniques which make
more customers to visit and use the shopper's stores are good deals, point of sale advantage
which offers the facility of free shipping stores options and the cash-back or discount offers
to purchase more than one product at the same time. Also, some stores do not apply the sales
tax it is not required by the state to their customers, which increase the chances of savings for
the people who prefer to go online for even small things.
As per the opinion of the author there are always two sides of every coin similarly every
business also have its own pros and cons which need to be considered and focused by the
shoppers for the benefit of their business. Some of the advantages of online shopping are:
The online stores are always open 24/7, the customer does not need to face parking hassles,
the customer does not need to face crowd purchase certain products. they do not need to wait
in long lines to check out, customers can shop freely without any salespeople's pressure or
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Accounting Research
aggressiveness, they do not need to bargain as they can compare prices her, customers can
share their reviews about their experience the product, customer can check reviews from the
customers who have used that product before, they can purchase the refurbished products as
well, the sales representatives also have flexibility with applying coupons, check competitor's
prices and imposing shipping charges.
Sometimes online shopping also becomes hectic for the customers as the problem solving
with the employees or shopkeepers at the local store is easier, faster and more satisfying than
the online stores. Contemporary consumers are mostly found attracted towards online
shopping by the various advantages offered by this concept of marketing. On the basis of the
research it is also observed that there will be a rise in the generation of the overall revenue
from online shopping in the coming years and this will be due to increase or greater
availability of choices for the consumers and reductions in pricing of the products and
services.
Apart from all of the above mentioned advantages Samiee, Leonidou, Aykol, Stöttinger and
Christodoulides, (2016), identified some of the disadvantages of online shopping include, the
customers are unable to check the product physically and try the items before purchase, the
customers are unable to bargain and negotiate the prices of the products, the return and refund
is a time taking task in online shopping, many people do not trust the products and services
by just seeing the advertisement for the product, some people do not agree with the payment
methods and payment details of the product or service they want, customer is unable to talk
to the same person for the problem he/she was dealing with before.
The online shopping has become a significant part of many people across the world. The
people whether they are students or employees who have a busy lifestyle and tight schedules
they rely on the internet for most of their day-to-day to be done. The students and parents
prefer to sell and purchase books at reasonable prices and to save time. As these virtual stores
give the facility to shop without any salespersons pressure and comfort without facing any
crowd and with ease of shopping (Wu, 2013). The online stores provide more convenience to
customers for purchasing, watching reviews and exchanging all type of products and services.
The customers and the sales persons both prefer online sales as a more convenient and easy
technique to shop and use services but anything associated with the internet has their own
benefits as well as risks. That's why they need to consider all the points while using this kind
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of handy resource. Today, no one needs to buy or sell the product in the traditional way, the
people can simply just on their arm-chair, by clicking the mouse a few times, entering the
card details and just need to wait for the products to get delivered on their doorstep on their
preferred date and time.
According to Sherry and Fischer, (2017), the steps that buyers need to follow while
purchasing online are, search the product, ordering the product, check out for payment:
Searching the product: When customer intends to purchase any product online, he/she starts
by searching the product on the website or over the application in their mobile phones. If the
customer is not aware of any of the store that has a particular product he or she is searching
for and also would like to compare the prices over other platforms, they can always use the
search engines and can compare the results on most of the company websites they will have
the pictures, prices and features description of the product (Sigurdsson, Larsen and Menon,
2016). If some company does not want to have their own website or online platform then they
will prefer to display their products on any of the popular e-commerce platforms like-
Amazon, Flipkart, etc. These stores also have their virtual customer service centers on their
platforms, so that customer can call, email or chat with a live customer support executive
regarding their query for any of the product.
Ordering the product: After selecting the particular product customer was searching for, he
will then chose the option to proceed to checkout (Soopramanien, 2010). If a customer wants
to buy more than one product they will have the option to add to cart the product and then the
customer can proceed. While checking out the user will get a list of shipping and payment
options. In that shipping will include standard, expedited and overnight shipping and these
options will be available as per the delivery location (Wilson, 2014). And these different
shipping options have their own delivery charges and timings for delivery to the customer's
desired location.
Check-out for payment: After selecting the shipping option user will get a list of payment
methods he/she can use for payment of purchasing their product (Solomon, Dahl, White,
Zaichkowsky and Polegato, 2014). These payment methods can include credit/debit card, net
banking, UPI or cash on delivery, etc. depending on the platform customer is using. After
selecting the payment method and filling the details customer will get the notification of
order confirmation. This is how online shopping works.
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Accounting Research
E-commerce trends to enhance the Earnings
The trends and fads are two different words and people are getting confused as fads with the
e-commerce trends. But the fads are like craze which starts and ends like trends on twitter but
the genuine trends stay for a longer time (Mohammed, 2014). The fads can be ignored but
trends should not be ignored. The trends in the business of E-commerce appear from the
number of things. When the customer's purchase products online, the things that they
purchase and the way they respond to those products are the marketing strategies
implemented by the businesses. The well-known E-commerce platforms like, Amazon,
Flipkart and Alibaba have been focusing on such trends since a long time for the benefit of
their business. The trends are basically to understand the customers’ demands and their
lifestyles so that it can help the business to plan the strategies for marketing accordingly.
According to Akroushand Al-Debei, (2015), some of the latest e-commerce trends that may
arise in 2019 are, Intensified Shipping options: In the past years Shipping has become one of
the reasons for the growth of e-commerce businesses. Free shipping is the source for small
improvements but then the option of same-day delivery came into action in 2013. Amazon
which is a renowned name in the e-commerce industry uses drones to search the shortest
routes possible for fast delivery. As technology improves these trends also grow in the
corporation and this is how the shipping option is considered a trend (Sreejesh, Mohapatra
and Anusree, 2014).
Voice search for the lead: In the advancement of technology with the artificial intelligence a
new option of voice search has been introduced in the daily life of people which has its own
impact on the E-commerce business (Al-Debei, Akroush and Ashouri, 2015). The voice
search has opened a platform to search for the people who do not know how to type, now
they can also use mobile phones to search anything over the internet. As per the Google
guidelines, the voice search option should also include more textual content so that more
people can visit and enjoy online shopping.
Personal assistants are available as chat-bots: From some recent years, every industry is
using the chat-bots for various communication purposes. The chat-bots are getting cheaper,
smarter and widespread worldwide in the upcoming years. The chat-bots are smart enough to
communicate in real time and provides a response way faster and reduces time (Buchanan,
2011). For example, Starbucks is using the chat-bots for users to place the orders through
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Accounting Research
voice commands. They also communicate with users by telling the time taken and the total
cost of their order.
Have various payment options: online shopping is an easy task nowadays with also ease
with the payment methods. Users can select the method of their choices such as credit or
debit card, net banking or cash on delivery and many more. E-commerce stores are now also
accepting the crypto-currenciesand also providing the digital wallets in the application of
their stores which makes the payment process simpler for the online shoppers (Crawford,
2012). Localize and Customise Customer Experience: Localization is just a form of
customization. The customization allows the business to use some of the data points of
customers to personalize the website to know more about the lifestyle and customer demands
to deliver the products accordingly (Cai and Krishnamoorthy, 2015) The data points include
customer's purchase history, search history, their social behaviour with the help of these
points the salesperson can deliver best to the customers.
Huge diversity is found in terms of products and services in online shopping in comparison to
the real market and also offers better prices that are why it is more convenient for users. The
online shopping has one negative impact on the environment because of the packaging
process which uses plastic and cardboards to pack their products (Chung and Austria, 2012).
Also sometimes the product gets damaged during the shipping and delivery of the products.
Online shopping also faces an issue with a high possibility of fraud actions as there are no
local retailers available. Some people spend most of their time browsing products online at
various stores (Merriam and Tisdell, 2015).
Research Methodology
This research evaluates at evaluating Australian population impressions and perceptions
towards online retail shopping, and exploratory kind of research suits best to highlight the
most crucial factors which could affect the online shopping and to assure and refute the
hypothesis of the research (Zikmund, Babin, Carr and Griffin, 2013).
The main questions are descriptive in nature and its main objective to collect the data by
using primary data method along with the quantitative research design (Explorable 2018).
100 respondents are taken from different locations of Australia by using random sampling
method. The age group of respondents ranging from 15 from 45 years as these are the real
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potential consumers who could buy money. The demographic characteristics of the sample is
given:
Gender
Male 45.5
Female 54.5
Gender
Male 45.5
Female 54.5
Marital Status
Married 68.2
Single 31.8
AGE
Year Percentage
18-25 45.6
26-35 35.1
36-40 15.1
41-45 4.2
Research questions
The research prepare numerous hypothesis which investigate the influences of diverse factors
on the online retail shopping. These are mentioned as under:
Primary Question (Dependent variable)
1. Online shopping system meets your expectation
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Accounting Research
Secondary Question (Independent variable)
2. Online shopping limits travel needs
a. Strongly Agree
b. Agree
c. Neutral
d. Strongly disagree
3. Online shopping helps to lowering down the energy consumption.
a. Strongly Agree
b. Agree
c. Neutral
d. Strongly disagree
4. Online shopping saves time
a. Strongly Agree
b. Agree
c. Neutral
d. Strongly disagree
5. Product can be available at a cheaper price.
a. Strongly Agree
b. Agree
c. Neutral
d. Strongly disagree
6. Variety of product range is vast in online shopping.
a. Strongly Agree
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