Research Proposal: Website Quality and Purchasing Decision Analysis

This research proposal investigates the correlation between website quality and consumer purchasing decisions in the context of e-business. The study aims to determine the factors that influence website quality, particularly for business-to-consumer websites, and assess their impact on consumer purchase intentions. The research focuses on analyzing the websites of ASOS and Zara to evaluate their persuasiveness and identify strengths and weaknesses. The methodology involves an inductive approach with a quantitative research design, utilizing surveys among London students, and analyzing data with SPSS. The proposal outlines the research questions, literature review, methodological approach, and a detailed research plan including a Gantt chart and network diagram. The research will explore website quality aspects like usability, design, trust, and perceived risk, applying the Black box model to analyze buyer behavior. The anticipated outcome is to provide insights into how website quality influences online purchasing decisions.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
“To analyse the relationship between quality of website and
purchasing decision”

TABLE OF CONTENTS
RESEARCH TOPIC........................................................................................................................1
Background of the study.........................................................................................................1
Research aims and objectives.................................................................................................1
Research questions.................................................................................................................1
Review of literature................................................................................................................2
Methodological Approach......................................................................................................2
Research plan..........................................................................................................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Gantt chart.......................................................................................................................4
Figure 2: Network Diagram............................................................................................................4

RESEARCH TOPIC
“The relationship between quality of website and purchasing decision”
Background of the study
E-business operations have become an integral part of the global economy. The
competitive business functions and technological growth has enhanced the use of internet based
digital presence of an organisation (Langville and Meyer, 2011). Websites are digital
representation of the company which provides overall information about company, its
operations, products and services. Increasing trends of online purchase has enhanced the demand
of quality websites (Berman and Katona, 2013). Purchase intension of consumers refers to
probability that whether products will be purchased or not by the buyer (Goseva-Popstojanova
and et.al., 2014). The present study will analyse the relationship between website quality and
purchasing decisions of consumers. The research will focus on discussing the factors which
influences website quality for a business (Killoran, 2013). It will critically analyse the different
quality aspects of website and evaluate its influence on consumer purchasing intension. For the
present study, the websites of Asos and Zara will be analysed and compared to evaluate how
persuasive they are for potential customers. It will determine the strengths and weaknesses of the
websites to focus on analysing whether website would influence the purchasing decision or not.
A detailed analysis of the subject will be done by applying different models and tools.
Research aim and objectives
The aim of the present research is to analyse the relationship between quality of website
and purchasing decisions of the consumers. The objectives for attaining research aim will be:
 To determine different quality factors for websites.
 To evaluate quality aspects that influence buying decisions for business to consumer
websites.
 To analyse the relationship between quality of website and purchase intention of buyers.
Research questions
The research questions which will help in attaining the stated objectives are:
 What are quality factors of ASOS and ZARA websites?
 Does quality of website influence buying decisions for ASOS and ZARA?
 What quality factors lead to consumer satisfaction for the selected companies?
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 What is the relationship between quality of website and purchase intention of buyers?
Review of literature
This section of the research will conduct secondary research for analysing the past
researches conducted on the current topic or similar research topics. Data will be collected from
different sources which will include books, journals, internet, organisational reports and articles.
This will help in providing significant and reliable information for the present study (Marek,
2011). The quality aspects related to website are usability, design, trust, information quality,
perceived risk and empathy to the consumers that will be analysed in the present study. Factors
affecting buyer's buying behaviour will be analysed by application of Black box model. Hence,
the overall analysis will help in examining the relationship between quality of website and
purchase intention of buyers (Killoran, 2013). Different themes will be developed for analysing
different aspects of research analysis. These themes will help in developing an effective
structured study for the subject.
Methodological Approach
This section of the study will analyse the different tools and techniques for the research
study in order to attain effective and valid result. It will also help in structuring the report to
achieve appropriate result for the analysis. The study will adopt inductive research approach as
the research questions will help in developing research results on the basis of study that will be
carried from general to specific level. Quantitative research design will be adopted by the
researcher as it will help in attaining specific results through data collection. The data will be
collected by using primary source which will implement the survey method for the study. A well
structured questionnaire will be developed by using closed ended questions (Flick, 2015). The
data collected will then be converted into quantitative results. The survey will be collected from
the students of London. A sample size of 40 students will be collected through convenience
sampling technique. For this, list of student’s names will be collected form prominent colleges of
the London. The questionnaire will be mailed to the student and first 40 questionnaires which are
completed in every sense will be taken for the study. Data will be analysed by using SPSS tool
for attaining the reliable quantitative results.
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Research plan
Research plan for the present study has been explained in the Gantt chart below:
SR.
NO.
ACTIVI
TIES
LIST OF ACTIVITIES WEEK
S
PRECEDING
ACTIVITIES
1 A Meeting with supervisor 1
2 B Completion of proposal 1 A
3 C Submission of proposal 2 B
4 D Approval of supervisor 1 C
5 E Review of previous literature 5 D
6 F Collection of data 4 D
7 G Analysis of data 4 E,F
8 H Interpretation of data 3 G
9 I Drafting the complete project 4 E,G
10 J Reviewing the completed project 2 I
11 K Finalising the project 1 J
12 L Submission of the project 1 K
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Figure 1: Gantt chart
Figure 2: Network Diagram
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Berman, R. and Katona, Z., 2013. The role of search engine optimization in search marketing.
Marketing Science. 32(4). pp.644-651.
Flick, U., 2015. Introducing research methodology: A beginner's guide to doing a research
project. Sage.
Goseva-Popstojanova, K., and et.al., 2014. Characterization and classification of malicious Web
traffic. Computers & Security. 42. pp.92-115.
Killoran, J. B., 2013. How to use search engine optimization techniques to increase website
visibility. Professional Communication, IEEE Transactions on. 56(1). pp.50-66.
Langville, A. N. and Meyer, C. D., 2011. Google's PageRank and beyond: The science of search
engine rankings. Princeton University Press.
Marek, K., 2011. Web analytics overview. Library Technology Reports. 47(5). pp.5.
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