A STUDY OF PERCEPTION OF YOUNG PEOPLE TOWARDS ONLINE SHOPPING IN PUNJAB

Pooja Kansra Diksha Rajiva

Assistant Professor BBA(Hons)
School of Commerce and Economics Lovely Professional University,
Lovely Professional University, Phagwara Phagwara

ABSTRACT
Online shopping is a process of buying and selling of products and services through the Internet.
Online shopping has become the fastest-growing industry and Internet users have reported that online
shopping is one of their primary uses of Internet. With the help of online shopping, the consumers can
purchase clothing, shoes, books, airline and events tickets, foods, computers hardware and so on. In the
present study an attempt have been made to analyze the perception of the young people towards online
shopping in Punjab. For the analysis of data descriptive statistics have been applied. Majority of the
a)
respondents assumed that transaction security, personal privacy, product price, product quality,
b)
convenience, accessibility, promotions and advertisement, delivery time, quality comparison and
reputation of the company are the important variables in online shopping. With the growth of online
shopping, there are various opportunities and challenges to online business retailers and consumers. If the
online business retailers want to grow then they have to consider all these factors.

Keywords: Online shopping, Convenience, Transaction security, Young consumers

Introduction:
Increasing numbers of people are gravitating towards more intensive use of the Internet as the
accessibility of technology, the availability of information, and the ability to interact through the Internet
increase and evolve. Obvious capabilities of the Internet include avenues for gathering information,
purchasing a product, or rendering a service. These advances in Internet technology allow for the expansion of
shopping options beyond traditional methods that may be more time consuming. Issues with having to
physically gather information with offline shopping methods are alleviated, and customers are better able to
efficiently use their time. For instance, instead of having to physically visit different stores to compare prices
or rely on circular pamphlets in newspapers, a consumer is able to search and retrieve needed information
through the Internet (Changchiz, 2006).
The development of internet has created a paradigm shift of the traditional way people shop. A
consumer is no longer bound to opening times for specific locations; he can become active at virtually any
time and place and purchase of products or services. The number of internet users is constantly increasing
which also which also signifies that online purchasing is increasing. The previous primary reason for shopping
online was price, which has now changed to convenience.
The importance of analyzing and identifying factors that influence the consumer when he or she
decides to buy on the internet is crucial Since the internet is a new medium for there have been new demands
set by the consumer. That is why it is crucial for the online retailers to know what influences the online
consumer.
Internet is changing the way consumers shop and buy goods and services, and has rapidly evolved
into a global phenomenon. Many companies have started using the Internet with the aim of cutting marketing
costs, thereby reducing the price of their products and services in order to stay ahead in highly competitive
markets. Customers use the Internet not only to buy the product online, but also to compare prices, product
features and after sale service facilities they will receive if they purchase the product from a particular store.
Many experts are optimistic about the prospect of online business (Shergill and Chen, 2005).
Consumers have different personalities, which may influence their perception and how they perceive
their online shopping behaviours that can be classified in two main orientations of utilitarian and hedonic.
Consumers who are utilitarian have goal-oriented shopping behaviours. Utilitarian shoppers shop
online based on rational necessity which is related to a specific goal. They look for task-oriented, efficient,
rational, deliberate online shopping rather than an entertaining experience. What they expect most from online
shopping is to purchase in an efficient and timely way and to achieve their goals with the least amount of
irritation. Since customers attach greater importance to the transaction related features of the website rather
than the entertainment features. Consumers who are hedonist have experiential shopping behaviour. Hedonists
not only gather information by shopping online but also seek fun, excitement, arousal, joy, festive, escapism,
fantasy, adventure, etc. These experiential shoppers want to be immersed in the experience rather than to
achieve their goals by shopping online and their perceived experiences also depend on the medium
characteristics that induce enjoyable experiences. Hedonic (or experiential) shoppers are more attracted to
well-designed online shopping sites that are easy-to-navigate and visually appealing (Narges,2009).

Objective of the Paper

The purpose of the research is primarily to identify and get insight into the factors that affect online
shopping behaviour of consumers.

Research Methodology
The data has been collected through a survey. In the present study 100 respondents have been
consulted form Jalandhar district according to convenience sampling. For the analysis of data descriptive
statistics have been applied.

Review of Literature
Delafrooz, Narges et al. (2010) analyzed that there were four main factors which influenced
consumers’ attitude towards online shopping. Those factors were utilitarian orientation, convenience, price
and wider selection. He discussed that there were three more things which affected the sales of e-retailers.
Those were personalities of consumers, online shopping perceived benefits and material of shopping sites. if a
e-marketer wanted to utilitarian’s as their consumers then they should be task oriented and if they wanted
hedonics as their consumers, they should focus on the attractiveness and user friendly attributes of their
shopping sites.
Saprikis, Vaggelis et al. (2010) analyzed the perceptions of Greek university Student’s on online
shopping in terms of demographic profile, expectations of online stores, advantages and problems related to
online purchases. He found that there were lot of differences regarding online purchases due to the various
consumers’ characteristics and the types of products and services. The results showed significant differences
between the two groups of respondents, the adopters who were involved in the online shopping and the non-
adopters who were not interested in online shopping. Adopters were having higher expectations from e-
marketers on issues related to privacy policy and risk. The differences found were related to their particular
perceptions on advantages and problems of online shopping.
Syed et al. (2008) analyzed that there were four key factors which influenced the young consumers’
perceptions towards online shopping. They found that those factors were website design, website reliability,
customer service and privacy. They also discussed that there was no difference among the perceptions of
various races towards online shopping in Malaysia. The most consistent factor that influenced buyer’s
behavior towards online shopping was found to be Trust. E-retailers need to add trust and reliability which is
everything for the buyers.
Asakawa and Okano (2007) analyzed the factors influencing consumers’ perception of online
shopping and explained how this perception affects their online-shopping behaviour. From the research, they
found that those factors were convenience, anxiety regarding security and poor navigation. He found that
convenience had a positive influence on online shopping whereas anxiety regarding security and poor
navigation had a negative influence.
Shergill and Chen.(2005), discussed the relationship between the factors affecting the buyers’
behavior towards online shopping and the type of online buyers. They also investigated the different
perceptions of different types of online buyers towards the online shopping. They found website design,
website reliability, website customer service and website security or privacy were the factors which were
influencing their buying behavior of different people. This research also found the different perceptions and
evaluation criteria of the four types of online buyers; i.e., trial, occasional, frequent and regular online buyers.
Khalifa and Liu (2007), analyzed a model named the information systems continuance model in the
field of online shopping with the use of contingency theory which showed the roles of online shopping habit
and experience of the same and found that they both were having positive effects, if there was satisfaction in
the e-buyers due to these two factors. They analyzed that the effects of online shopping habit on online
repurchase intention were mediated through satisfaction. The final outcome of this research was online
repurchase intention was not only an outcome of a rational analysis of satisfaction, both habit and experience
were also the factors which attracted the buyers.
Adams et al. (2004) discussed the underlying factors related to personal online shopping in the
workplace. They also gave the reasons for online shopping at work and those were boredom, connection
speed, convenience, work life balance, efficiency etc. In their study they found that Americans were more
fond of shopping online at workplace than Canadians. The main reason that they realized was faster
connection. They said that corporate monitoring had an average effect on online shopping at workplace as job
satisfaction was less or average at the place where monitoring was there.
 Changchit (2006), examined the perception of customers towards online shopping and the various
factors which were perceived in different manners by those who were e-buyers and those who were not in
online shopping. By this study he found that there were five factors which were perceived differently by the
above mentioned two groups of consumers. Those factors were perceived risk with online shopping, past
experience with online shopping, perceived benefits of online shopping, perceived ease of online shopping,
perceived uncertainty of online shopping.

Analysis and Interpretation

The following table analyzes the demographic profile of the respondents.

Table 1: Personal Profile of the Respondent

Gender Frequency
Male 32
Female 68
Age
15-20 35
20-25 45
25-30 10
30-40 10
Occupation
Student 78
Business 5
Service 17

In the present study 100 respondents were surveyed. Out of 100 respondents 32 were male and 68
were female. As far as the age group is concerned 15-20 age respondents were 34 in number and majority of
the respondents are of 20-25 age group. In the present study there were 78 students, 5 businessmen and 17
service people are there.
Following are some of the basics questions pertaining to online shopping. Fig 2 show the number of
times shopping by the respondents in a month. 67% of the respondents shop less than five times in a month.
And only 5% of the respondents were shop more than 10 times in a month.

Figure 1: Average time of shopping in a month

Table 2 indicates that 49% of the respondents want to shop through high street retailer and 31% of
the respondents prefer to purchase through online mode and 20% do not care about the mode of shopping.

Table 2: Preference of Shopping through Different Modes

Modes Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
High street retailer 49 49.0 49.0
Internet 31 31.0 80.0
I do not really care 20 20.0 100.0

From the table 3 it is clear that out of 100 respondents 83% of the respondents had visited the online
shopping website. Only 17 % have not yet visited any shopping website.

Table3: Visit of Online Shopping Website

Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
Yes 83 83.0 83.0
No 17 16.0 99.0

From the table no 4, 34% of the respondents having perception that online shopping is complex and
only 4% of the respondents says that online shopping is very easy.58% of them take online shopping easy and
simple.

Table4: Complexity towards Online Shopping

Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
Very complex 4 4.0 4.0
Complex 34 34.0 38.0
Easy and simple 58 58.0 96.0
Very easy 4 4.0 100.0

Table no 5 helps to examine the maximum amount of money that people like to spend on a single
online purchase. Majority of the people prefer to spend Rs. 500-1500 on a single online purchase followed by
Rs. 1500-2500 and only 20% of the people would like to spend 2500 and above on a online purchase.

Table5: Amount of Money People Can Spend Through Online Shopping

Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
Below Rs. 500 10 10.0 10.0
Rs. 500-1500 43 43.0 53.0
Rs. 1500-2500 27 27.0 80.0
Rs. 2500 and above 16 16.0 96.0

The following are the list of factors influencing online shopping behaviour considered in the present
study. The responses have been measured through a five point likert scale (Strongly disagree, disagree,
indifferent, agree and strongly agree)

Table 6: List of Factors Influencing Online Shopping Decision

 S. No. Factors Influencing Online Shopping Decision
1 Transaction security
2 Personal Privacy
3 Product Price
4 Product Quality
5 Convenience
6 All Time Shopping Accessibility
7 Promotion and Advertisement
8 Delivery Time
9 Ease of Quality Comparison
10 Risk in Giving Credit Card Number
11 Reputation of Company
12 Good Description of Goods
13 Difficulty in Returning Products
14 After – Sales Service
15 Not being able to touch products

From the table 7, it is examined that 45% of the people are agree that transaction security is important
, 34% of the people strong agree regarding transaction security as an important factor affecting online
shopping, and only 2% of the people are strongly disagree with respect to transaction security as an important
factor.

Table 7: Perception of People towards Transaction Security

Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
Strongly disagree 2 2.0 2.0
Disagree 11 11.0 13.0
Indifferent 8 8.0 21.0
Agree 45 45.0 66.0
Strongly agree 34 34.0 100.0

In case of personal privacy 49% of the respondents shown an agreement and 23% of the respondents
seems to be strongly agree and only 3% of the respondents are strongly disagree in case of personal privacy.

Table 8: Perception of People towards Personal Privacy

Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

Strongly disagree 3 3.0 3.0
Disagree 6 6.0 9.1
Indifferent 18 18.0 27.3
Agree 49 49.0 76.8
Strongly Agree 24 23.0 100.0

Product price: 57 % of the respondents shown an agreement as the product price is concerned. And
20% of the respondents are indifferent as far as the product price is concerned, 17% of the respondents are
strongly agree that product price is important in case of online shopping.
 Table 9: Perception of People towards Product Price

Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

Strongly disagree 2 2.0 2.0
Disagree 4 4.0 6.0
Indifferent 20 20.0 26.0
Agree 57 57.0 83.0
Strongly agree 17 17.0 100.0

It has been examined from table 10 that of online shopping 40% of the respondents are agree that
product quality is important where as only 9% of the respondents shows a disagreement as far as the product
quality is conceded and 24% of the total respondents are indifferent for the product quality.

Table 10: Perception of people towards Product Quality

Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

Strongly disagree 1 1.0 1.0
Disagree 9 9.0 10.0
Indifferent 24 24.0 34.0
Agree 40 40.0 74.0
Strongly agree 26 26.0 100.0

From the table 11, it can be analyzed that convenience is important variable as the online shopping is
concerned. 47% of the respondents are agree for the convenience as an important variable where as 5 % of the
respondents are disagree for the consideration of convenience as an important variable.

Table 11: Perception of People towards Convenience through Online Shopping

Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
Disagree 5 5.0 5.0
Indifferent 20 20.0 25.0
Agree 47 47.0 72.0
Strongly agree 28 28.0 100.0

From table no 12, as the all time shopping accessibility is concerned 48% of the respondents agree
that all time shopping accessibility is important and only 5% of them are disagree for the all time shopping
accessibility is concerned.

Table 12: Perception of People towards Accessibility of Online Shopping

Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
Disagree 5 5.0 5.0
Indifferent 20 20.0 25.0
Agree 48 48.0 73.0
Strongly agree 27 27.0 100.0
 In table no 13, it has been examined that promotion and advertisement are important to influence the
shoppers. 41% of the total respondents shown agreement as far as promotion and advertisement are concerned.
Only7% of the respondents shown disagreement for the promotion and advertisement.

Table 13: Perception of People towards the Role of Promotions and Advertisements

Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

Strongly disagree 1 1.0 1.0
Disagree 7 7.0 8.0
Indifferent 26 26.0 34.0
Agree 41 41.0 75.0
Strongly agree 25 25.0 100.0

For 39% of the respondents delivery time of the commodity through online is important. But 11% of
the respondents are disagreeing as far as the delivery time is concerned.

Table 14: Perception of People towards Delivery Time of the Commodity

Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
Strongly disagree 2 2.0 2.0
Disagree 11 11.0 13.0
Indifferent 22 22.0 35.0
Agree 39 39.0 74.0
Strongly agree 26 26.0 100.0

From table no 15, it is examined that 44% of the respondents are agree on the point that ease of
quality comparison can be possible in case of online shopping. Only 12% of the respondents are showing a
disagreement on this.
Table 15: Perception of People towards Quality Comparison
Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
Strongly disagree 3 3.0 3.0
Disagree 12 11.0 14.0
Indifferent 25 25.0 39.0
Agree 44 44.0 83.0
Strongly agree 16 16.0 99.0

From the table 16, it is examined that 35% of the respondents agree that quality comparison can be
possible through online shopping, whereas 31% of the respondents strongly agree that about the ease of
quality comparison through online shopping.

Table 16: Perception of People towards Risk in Giving the Credit Card Number
Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
Valid Strongly disagree 7 7.0 7.0
Disagree 11 11.0 18.0
Indifferent 16 16.0 34.0
Agree 35 35.0 69.0
 Strongly agree 31 30.0 100.0

For 49% agree on that reputation is important point as online shopping are and only 7% of the
respondents are disagree for the variable reputation of the family.

Table 17: Perception of people towards of Reputation of the Company

Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
Strongly disagree 1 1.0 1.0
Disagree 7 7.0 8.0
Indifferent 20 20.0 28.0
Agree 49 49.0 77.0
Strongly agree 23 21.0 98.0

47% of the respondents shown an agreement on the importance of description of goods on line
whereas 18% of them are indifferent and 12% disagree on the description of goods.

Table 18: Perception of People towards Description of Goods

Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
Strongly disagree 1 1.0 1.0
Disagree 12 12.0 13.0
Indifferent 18 18.0 31.0
Agree 47 47.0 78.0
Strongly agree 22 22.0 100.0

44% of the respondents shown agreement that there is difficulty in returning goods through online
mode whereas 11% of the respondents are disagrees on the point of returning goods.

Table 19: Perception of People towards Returning Goods through online shopping
Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
Strongly disagree 8 8.0 8.0
Disagree 11 11.0 19.0
Indifferent 16 16.0 35.0
Agree 44 44.0 79.0
Strongly agree 21 21.0 100.0

41% of the respondents are agree that after sales services are not provided in case of online shopping
whereas 7 of disagree on the same.
 Table 20: Perception of People towards After Sales Services
Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
Strongly disagree 3 3.0 3.0
Disagree 7 7.0 10.0
Indifferent 31 31.0 41.0
Agree 41 41.0 82.0
Strongly agree 18 18.0 100.0

From the table 21 it is clear that 18% of the respondents strongly agree that they are not able to touch
the products, 11% of them disagree, 7% of them strongly disagree and 48% of them are agree.

Table 21: Difficulty of touching the Products in Online Shopping

Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
Strongly disagree 7 7.0 7.0
Disagree 11 11.0 18.0
Indifferent 16 16.0 34.0
Agree 48 48.0 82.0
Strongly agree 18 18.0 100.0

Conclusion:
From the above discussion it is clear that majority of the people shop 5-7 times in a month. Out of the
total population only 17% of the people have not visited any shopping website. Of out the total respondents
49% prefer to shop through high street retailer and 31% of them prefer to shop through internet. As the
complexity of the online shopping is concerned 34% of the residents assume it a complex task. In case of
online shopping willingness to pay ranges from Rs. 500-Rs. 1500.there are many factors that affect online
shopping but in the present study we have limited the number of factors to --. Majority of the people were
agreed that transaction security, personal privacy, product price, product quality, convenience, accessibility,
promotions and advertisements, delivery time, quality comparison, reputation of the company are important
parameters in the context of online shopping. If the online sellers want to grow they have to provide more
convenience, competitive price, more variety, after sales Services in order to attract more people to make an
online purchase decision.

References :
1. Changchit, Chuleeporn (2006), Consumer Perceptions of Online Shopping, Issues in Information
Systems, Volume VII, No. 2, 2006.
2. Gurvinder S Shergill, Zhaobin Chen (2005), Web-based Shopping: Consumers’ Attitudes towards
Online Shopping in New Zealand, Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, Volume 6, NO.2, 2005.
3. Masami Asakawa and Masao Okano (2007), A Causal Model to Evaluate the Influence of
Consumer’s Perceptions of Online Shopping on their Shopping Behavior,
http://www.bunkyo.ac.jp/faculty/lib/slib/kiyo/Inf/if40/if4002.pdf
4. Mohamed Khalifa and Vanessa Liu(2007), Online Consumer Retention: Contingent Effects of Online
Shopping Habit and Online Shopping Experience, European Journal of Information Systems (2007)
16, 780–792.
5. Narges Delafrooz, Laily Hj. Paim and Ali Khatibi (2010), Students’ Online Shopping Behavior: An
Empirical Study, Journal of American Science, 2010;6(1)
6. Susan M. Adams, Bruce D. Weinberg, Jaci Jerrett Masztal, Diane M. Surette(2004). This time it is
personal-employee online shopping at work, http://www.palgrave-
journals.com/dddmp/journal/v6/n4/abs/4340301a.html
7. Syed Shah Alam, Zaharah Bakar, Hishamuddin Bin Ismail, Mst. Nilufar Ahsan(2008), Young
Consumers Online Shopping: An Empirical Study, Journal of Internet Business Issue 5 – 2008.
8. Vaggelis Saprikis, Adamantia Chouliara and Maro Vlachopoulou (2010), Perceptions Towards
Online Shopping: Analyzing the Greek University Students’ Attitude, Communications of the IBIMA
Vol. 2010 (2010), Article ID 854516.