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1. Literature Review
1.1. Evolution of Online Shopping in the UK
Consumer Motivation to shop online and their buying in UK, Understanding the concept of consumer behaviour and motivations is of keen importance to any organization. Consumers invest significant amounts of time, energy and resources on buying decisions both offline and online. However, consumers using the internet for shopping of goods and services online are increasing rapidly.
According to new figures given by the Office of National Statistics, around 76% of adults use the internet in the UK on daily basis. Around 74% of adults in the UK use the internet to buy goods and services online. (Office of National Statistics, 2014). Consumer Motivation to shop online and their buying in UK Among goods purchased, clothing is the highest selling product online which grew up to 49% in 2014 whereas, 55% of consumers use internet for reading and downloading news, magazines and newspapers in 2014 which was 20% in 2007 (Office of National Statistics, 2014).
1.2. Varying Perspectives of Online and Traditional Shoppers in the UK
Recent retailing trends indicate an obvious shift from the traditional, store based shopping towards online shopping. Businesses recently have started facing challenges of integrating e-commerce in the range of services provided to serve the customer around the clock. In order to establish the online presence along with the physical store, Consumer Motivation to shop online and their buying in UK retailers fail to utilize a similar format for both traditional and online stores (Kim & Martinez, 2012). Also, online sellers like amazon.co.uk have established themselves as leading sellers since 2013.
Though many consumers have diverse informational needs and different themes of mind while shopping in a traditional manner compared to online shopping (Kim & Martinez, 2012). However, it is important for retailers to have a clear understanding of the differences and similarities between the features of online shopping and traditional shopping before planning and implementing the setup.
The major difference between the two channels is that consumers want the tactile experience that is gained while shopping in traditional way like touching the products before purchasing, Consumer Motivation to shop online and their buying in UK Consumer Motivation to shop online and their buying in UK interacting with people and feeling the environment. In places where these characteristics are significant, the consumers will always prefer traditional shopping to online shopping. (Kim & Martinez, 2012). Consumer Motivation to shop online and their buying in UK Equally worthy of notice is the fact that, clothing materials also need physical existence at the time of making buying decision which stimulates the consumers perceived perception about the product compared to online shopping, where physical evidence is less likely to occur. (LAUDON & TRAVER, 2013).
Nonetheless, online shopping accomplishes consumer needs more efficiently than the traditional shopping .Firstly, in online shopping; consumers can easily browse the whole product catalogue without much effort and time. Secondly, Consumer Motivation to shop online and their buying in UK Consumer Motivation to shop online and their buying in UK buyers gather desired knowledge about the products, firms and required brands from reviews of earlier purchases available online, which helps improve their competencies and trustworthiness while making decisions during online shopping.
In view of the above remarks, Consumer Motivation to shop online and their buying in UK it is interesting to note that comparing features, prices and availability of the product become easier in online shopping (LAUDON, & TRAVER, 2013). Furthermore, online shopping gives you a chance for anonymity that helps you while shopping for sensitive products. Furthermore, shopping online provides convenience especially to those who do not have time to spend on conventional shopping.
In the light of the above remarks, Consumer Motivation to shop online and their buying in UK it is obvious that there exist places where consumers prefer online shopping (Kim & Park, 2010). The advantages might persuade consumers to shop online but it doesn’t prove that online shopping is preferred over traditional shopping. Rather, consumers shop whenever and wherever it is convenient to them, whether it is through online source, store or catalogue (LAUDON, & TRAVER, 2013).
1.3. Online Consumer Buying Behavior
1.3.1. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)
Utilitarian and hedonic dimensions would together come into play to determine motivations of consumers to shop online. (Franz, 2014) Some online shoppers have been referred to as “problem solvers”, Consumer Motivation to shop online and their buying in UK whereas others have been described as seeking “sensory stimulation, arousal, enjoyment, fun, and fantasy”. Consumer Motivation to shop online and their buying in UK The first category of problem solvers (utilitarian) simply shops online to obtain a product or a service which in their case is considered as a task to them. They are only concerned to buy products in most effective and efficient manner in less time without any sort of complexity and irritation (LAUDON, & TRAVER, 2013). However, the other category, also termed as hedonic, views online shopping as fun and looks for the entertainment elements that can arise from their online shopping experience (LAUDON, & TRAVER, 2013).
Be that as it may, for better understanding of the new media, we develop Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to have a better understanding of the adoption of new technology. The determinants of TAM include “usefulness” of technology. “Ease of use” and “enjoyment” The hedonic shoppers, look for product experience when shopping, Consumer Motivation to shop online and their buying in UK otherwise termed as ‘enjoyment’. Consumer Motivation to shop online and their buying in UK Utilitarian shoppers have four motives for shopping online namely selection, convenience and ability to control the experience of shopping. However, Utilitarian seeks for “usefulness” and “Ease of use”. Usefulness is a person’s perception that utilizing internet for shopping will improve their performance. Whereas, “Ease of use” is the perception of shoppers that online shopping will cause them less effort.
This classification of adopting technology is aligned with the research on shopping behaviour which has so far sustained the presence of hedonic as well as utilitarian motivation. The utilitarian factors predict that the consumers’ Consumer Motivation to shop online and their buying in UK are assessing product related information before purchasing versus hedonic factor or the fun part of shopping experience (Clark & Green, 2013)
In the TAM framework, the usefulness factor can be taken of as demonstrating the instrumental side of shopping, whereas, enjoyment depicts hedonic aspect. However, some consumers might be shopping for the instrumental purpose and others might be enjoying interactive media and hence, both the aspects can affect the consumer attitudes for utilizing interactive form of shopping.
It leads to the following hypothesis:
H1: Attitude towards online stores will become more positive if it is used for a more interactive purpose
H2: Attitude towards online stores will become more positive as the ease of using new interactive media increases.
H3: Attitude towards online stores will become more positive if there is more enjoyment in using this medium
The outcomes of the studies on TAM show that usefulness is the main cause of behavioural purpose to make use of technology, and at the same time, ease of use and enjoyment work as secondary determinants. In comparison to prior work contexts using TAM framework, the shopping context gives a chance to study the issues in more hedonic environment.
Hence, we assume that enjoyment will play a wider role in predicting the adoption of interactive ways of shopping than has
Been established in some performance oriented situations employed in past researches (JONES, 2013). However, this difference can be prolonged by some consumers who might be shopping for hedonic reasons while others might be motivated to gain more instrumentally oriented objectives (SUEN, 2013). Thus, context might be significant in differentiating the significance of the antecedents of adoption of technology. Consumers enjoy online shopping sites that establish more hedonic design features (JONES, 2013). In comparison, instrumental setting is used in context of online grocery order and delivery system.
This leads to the following predictions:
H4: The usefulness of new interactive media will be a stronger predictor of attitude towards media in utilitarian shopping situations.
H5: The Enjoyment of new interactive media will be a stronger predictor of attitude towards media in hedonic shopping situations.
1.4. Perceived Risks of Online Shopping
There are a number of barriers identified by consumers for not engaging in shopping online. Although, the benefits of online shopping are numerous, it does not help to overcome various uncertainties and risks related to it compared with traditional shopping. Researchers have investigated risks involved and found three major types of risks: financial risk, product performance risk and convenience risk, all related to number of times online searches are made with the intent of purchase (Aiken, Wang & Wibogo, 2013).
Financial risks arise due to the cases reported on loss of money and users’ insecurity on usage of online credit cards. Product performance risks occur when product does not perform as per the expectations or description mentioned online. This is merely because users fail to evaluate the quality of product purchased online.
Convenience risks can be described as potential risks which occur during transactions often resulting from difficulty while browsing for the product, navigating through a web page, submitting the orders, checking out or delays in getting the online purchase beyond the mentioned time frame (MOLENAAR, 2010). However, it will be difficult to assess which of these risks have greater impact on the online shopping consumer behaviour, but it will assist to determine consumers’ perceived risks to make better and convenient online shopping model.
1.5.Association Model:
The renowned AIDA Model (“Attention-Interest-Desire-Action”) as originated in late 1800s by St. Elmo Lewis has evolved to the new hierarchy of effects “Association Model”. The traditional AIDA model framework emphasizes on consumers’ response to communication messages in a disciplined manner in which consumers move step-by-step from unawareness about the product or actual trial purchase. The researchers’ understanding of the hierarchy is covertly a direct relationship from “cognition to affect” and “from affect to conation”. “Association Model” supports the traditional AIDA hierarchy model and takes into account the complete process along with the research techniques including surveys, syndicated data and experimentation. This is in line with the “behavioral intention models”.
Theoretically, cognition has been defined as “a system of beliefs structured into some kind of semantic network”. Affect has been viewed as psychological, feelings and emotional component. Conation has been referred to as the actual behaviour or intention to perform a behavioural action.
Although there has been agreement on the three stages of association model among researchers there has been tremendous divergence among them on the sequence of the three stages. Krugman in 2008, Consumer Motivation to shop online and their in UK states that the best relationship model can be constructed out of “cognition-conation-effect” sequence in low-involvement conditions. Whereas, Markus in 2010 recommended an “affect-conation-cognition” sequence, in which preferences are not on the cognitive basis. Another alternative sequence has been suggested by which states “conation-affect-cognition” in which product or service is purchased first, attitudes are then formed to support their choice and “selective learning” follows to further strengthen purchase decision.
In order to attract consumers to purchase online, the association model is the most effective and efficient to follow. An attractive animated online ad for instance, can divert users’ attention towards it and would lead to the trial view of the web page which may result to the actual purchase. Consumer Motivation to shop online and their in UK However, other empirical factors as convenience on navigation across page ease of use, simplicity and easy check-out also come into play when online purchase is to be made (YILMAZ, 2010).
1.5. Key Findings from literature review
The literature review reveals that the shopping trend has evolved greatly in the UK in recent years from traditional, to online shopping.
Consumers engage in online shopping simply because they see it as fun, convenient and time saving. The fact of the matter is that online purchasing channels could provide many benefits which can stimulate more online purchases. Online shopping saves time; provide convenience, availability of goods round the clock, and online price and quality comparison conveniently. The online retailers like Amazon have been running successfully in UK and worldwide. These benefits are especially valuable in context with the recent economic downturn. Aside from the rewards, it also highlights risk related to online shopping like product category risk (where the merchandise was complex technically, high priced and sold based on its feel and touch) and economic risk (defined by fears concerning the safety of consumers’ economic information online).
1.6. Conclusion
Consumers in Europe are frequently involved in shopping online and a framework has been developed to enhance the understanding of the researcher for attitudes of consumers towards shopping online. Consumer Motivation to shop online and their in UK The framework defined emphasizes TAM as the basis and applies the model to the online shopper context. The attitude towards shopping online is not only influenced by enjoyment, ease of use and usefulness, rather it is also affected by exogenous factors like consumer traits, previous shopping experiences and product specification. Moreover, it also brings to the forefront the renowned AIDA Model (“Attention-Interest-Desire-Action”) that has now evolved to the new hierarchy of effects “Association Model”. Hence, these factors help establish consumer motivation to shop online and their buying behavior in UK. This is much relevant to evolving clothes shopping trend in UK from traditional to online shopping.
Research Methodology
3.0. Research Philosophy
The purpose of the study is to explore the attitudes of respondents towards purchasing products (Clothing) and aims at supporting the process by conducting a primary study that outlines certain buying behaviour patterns related to online purchasing. When undertaking the research, it is important to consider different research paradigms and to understand the process by which the research is being carried out. Furthermore, these research approaches,
Describe perceptions, beliefs, assumption. At this juncture, it is important to understand and discuss the design through which the conclusions are to be drawn. All other relevant approaches are to be adopted which are congruent to the nature and aims of the particular inquiry. There are three types of research philosophies related to the research: (Kadhi, 2009: 63).
I. Positivism,
II. realism and
III. Interpretivism
Be that as it may, this research is based upon the positivistic approach because the distinctive need for survey studies occurs because of the desire to investigate complex social phenomena” since this method permits to retain the holistic and meaningful characteristics of real-life events,” such as Consumer behavior and new shopping trends Furthermore, the research relies on multiple sources of evidence, with data needing to converge in a triangulating fashion, to achieve logical results and benefits from the prior development of theoretical propositions to guide data collection and analysis
Source: Saunders et al. (2003)
Research Approach
There are two unique approaches which can be implemented within a methodological framework and they comprise inductive (An approach of developing overall conclusions on the basis of specific findings (Saunders et al, 2003) and deductive(An approach of enhancing certain interpretations from an overall set of findings research approach (Easterby-Smith et al, 2002). However, this dissertation utilizes these two research approaches to achieve the bigger research benefit and credibility from all features which these approaches encompass Ghauri and Gribhaung, 2002.
It is worth noting that most often, qualitative research usually follows an inductive approach. (Recognizing deductive processes in qualitative research: Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal: Vol 3, No 2, 2015).
3.2 Research Strategy
It is worth noting that when carrying out a research, the main concern is to collect primary data. In this study, the methodology involves both primary and secondary research. In addition, the primary data would be collected from students of Coventry University using questionnaires. As time goes on, customers’ online shopping habits and behaviour are likely to change with the development of information and technology.
Against this backdrop, only depend on secondary data from literatures as the evidence is not sufficient to analyze the research questions accordingly. In this research, primary data is collected through questionnaires in order to determine the factors involved in motivating consumers to engage in online shopping and how these factors are related to consumers’ behaviour. The primary data is conducted in a way that will be parallel to the research an
Sample:
Previous Researches suggest that the college students are the major users of technologies and are likely to buy products online (de Leeuw et al., 2014). If the research aims to determine new trends in online shopping, these trends would most likely originate from students and other demographics within the ages of 18-29 years. A significant aspect of the e-buying customers is being represented at that level and they are also a long-term potential market for investors. There are two major types of sampling namely probability and non-probability sampling which have different aspects.
However, this dissertation would focus on two aspects of non-probability sampling (Purposive and convenience sampling) because unlike probability sampling technique, the units (Coventry university students) that are being investigated are based on the judgement of the researcher and the sample size is relatively smaller (Dissertation.laerd.com, 2015). Furthermore, convenience sampling is also utilized in this dissertation because it is a statistical method of illustrating data by choosing people because of their availability and easy access. (BusinessDictionary.com, 2015). It follows then that, the researcher being a student of Coventry University can select and access fellow students from the university as a result of their availability.
3.1 Development of Survey Questionnaire
Based on literature reviews, a research instrument is developed. Most of the questions in the questionnaires are based on previous research, some questions are modified as per requirement of the research while others are being used in their original form. In the light of these remarks, some of the questions are created specifically for this survey to address specific factors not used in previous studies
The variables include age, gender, levels of education, occupations and monthly income of the respondent. The first five questions measure the respondent’s previous personal experience with shopping for products online. Questions 6-20 are related to consumers’ attitudes, intentions and behaviours about shopping online for products like clothing and groceries and the Likert scale of the measurement which uses five points liker (a= strongly disagree, b= disagree, c= neutral, d= agree, and e= strongly agree). Several items on each subscale may be asked from a negative perspective in order to encourage the respondent to carefully read each question.
Also, questions 21-30 seeks to discover the importance of the factors which motivate certain consumers while making buying decisions and further sorts to explore respondent’s online shopping motivation. These questions will help the researchers to draw logical conclusion based in the buying pattern of the consumers and also helps to explore the attitudes of respondents towards purchasing products online.
3.2 Data Analysis:
Data will be imported to SPSS calculations and examination. Data will be collected from 80 respondents. Also, data will be reduced by deleting those surveys where incomplete information is provided regarding some important questions such as respondent’s intention to purchase products online and method of payment used by respondents. During the reduction phase, some will be rejected as they fail to complete more than half of the survey.
The data analysis involves measuring the factors that motivate the customers to purchase online, and what factors prevent them from doing so. It also involves the prediction of online buying behavior based on respondents’ consumer and marketing attitudes. Furthermore, the differences in attitudes and intentions of respondents to purchase products online will be examined. The analysis involved comparison of online shoppers, classified as per their most common purchase, either experience goods or search goods and demographic characteristics. The results will be presented in the form of graphs and percentages out of total respondents.
Limitation of methodology
The biggest limitation of this methodology is insufficient sample sizes for accurately analyzing results because of the shortage of time. Also, the collected samples are mainly from one university’s demographic within the ages of 18-29 years old. Thus, the gathered data can only represent a part of UK’s online customers’ perspective, and it may or may not as accurate and objective enough for the final result which is likely to differ if the research was conducted on a different sample size, location and demographic.
Chapter Four: Data Analysis
1. Introduction
This chapter of the dissertation aims to analyze the data collected through primary research conducted by the researcher and the data has been collected through questionnaires. There were 80 respondents who were given a questionnaire of 30 questions for the data collection. In the view of Thomas, Nelson and Silverman (2011), the data analysis is most important chapter of a dissertation as researchers cannot achieve the results of data analysis without statistical analysis of the data collected. For the purpose of data analysis for this research,
Different statistical tests have been applied on data collected through the statistical tool named SPSS. The statistical tests have been applied to 26 questions as last four questions were open ended and cannot be interpreted using statistical techniques. The statistical tests applied include frequency, reliability analysis, Chi Square Analysis and one-way ANOVA Analysis.
2. Reliability Analysis
The reliability of the data is analyzed to identify whether the data collected is reliable for analysis or not; it analyzes the consistency and reliability of data. The data collected provides reliable and steady results only if the data collected is reliable. When the Cronbach’s Alpha is higher than 0.4, it shows that the data is moderately reliable and when the value is higher than 0.6 this means that the data is highly reliable (Wells and Wollack, 2003).
Reliability Statistics
Cronbach’s Alpha N of Items
.457 19
The reliability analysis of the data collected shows that the Cronbach’s Alpha value for this data set is 0.457 which means that the data is moderately reliable and the results generated will be sufficiently reliable to make conclusions.
3. Data Analysis
As discussed earlier, data analysis for this research is based on the statistical tools and techniques. The results through different tools are discussed below:
3.1 Demographics Analysis
First few questions of the questionnaire were focused on the demographics of the respondents; the questions focused on gender, age, education level and income of the respondents.
3.1.1 Gender
The pie-chart below shows the division of respondents with respect to their genders. It can be analyzed that out of 80 respondents 44 were males, 35 were females and 1 did not want to tell its gender; this indicates that the sample was slightly male dominated.
3.1.2 Age
The pie chart below shows the break-up of respondents with respect to their ages. There were only two age groups targeted for the purpose of this research; the age groups were 18 to 23 years and 23 to 28 years. Out of 80 respondents, 35 belonged to age group 18 to 23 years, 34 belonged to age group 23 to 28 years and 11 respondents did not disclose their age as they considered it as confidential.
3.1.3 Education Level
Most of the respondents were at-least bachelor qualified as 75 out of 80 respondents answered that they are either bachelors or master degree holders. Other respondents stated that they are less qualified; some of them did not prefer to disclose their classification.
3.1.4 Annual Income
It can be observed from the pie chart below that majority of the respondents did not disclose their annual income; only 44 respondents disclosed their income. Out of those 44 respondents, 35 have annual income lower than £12,000 a year; only 9 respondents have a higher income level. It follows then, that income levels can affect the buying behaviour of consumers who engage in online shopping.
3.1.5. Occupation
As per the requirements of the research, the target audience were Coventry university students. The graph below, illustrates that 74% were non-working and 24% are working students. This would most likely affect online buying behaviour especially with non-working students because their spending habits would vary due to limited resources as compared to working students.
3.2 Analysis of Responses
The responses were collected by variety of questions that focused on analyzing the motivation of consumers behind online shopping and how the needs of consumers and their buying behavior can affect online shopping in UK. The results of one important question asked in questionnaire are shown in the graph below:
The graph clearly indicates that majority of the respondents go for online shopping either regularly or quite often. Only few respondents responded that they do not buy products online or they do so very rarely. This clearly shows that people are motivated enough to shop for products online and they do so often on a convenience basis and variety of product choices.
Another important question in questionnaire focused on what is consumers’ main concern when going for online shopping. The responses were as follows:
It is evident from the graph above that quality of the product is considered most important concern by the respondents even though; the product can neither be seen nor touched before the purchase, perceived quality is an important factor which motivates consumers to engage in online shopping.
There is a wide argument over the time saved by online shopping; the responses associated with time savings due to online shopping are shown in the graph below:
It is evident from the graph above that most of the respondents strongly agreed or agreed with the statement that online shopping saves time. Only 4 respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed to the statement; this clearly shows that online shopping saves times as consumers can not only switch between online retail stores while searching for a variety of products but also make buying decisions which ultimately motivates consumers to engage in online shopping
The preceding question is associated with the foregoing question which deals with risky nature of online shopping as there is high chance of fraud and privacy breach especially when the business is not operating physically as compared to traditional shopping. The results of the question associated with risks are shown in the graph below:
Most of the respondents agreed to the statement that online shopping is risky, whereas some of them disagreed as well. This clearly indicates that most consumers perceive online shopping as risky and it is one of the important issues faced by the E-commerce businesses as their sales are lower due to perception of the consumers regarding online shopping.
The next question coincides with the preceding question and was associated with the privacy breach associated with credit card/debit card information; the responses are showed in the graph below:
Most of the respondents again agreed with the question that they hesitate while giving their credit or debit card information for online shopping because there have been many frauds in the past due to online shopping which can mitigate the motivation of consumers to shop online. Approximately 50% of the respondents were indifferent or disagreed to the statement as they do not hesitate to give their credit card information while shopping online.
Another widely argued statement associated with online shopping is whether it saves costs such as parking costs, fuel expense or not. The responses of 80 respondents are illustrated in the graph below:
Judging from the graph above, it can be observed that approximately 75% of 80 respondents agreed or strongly agreed to the statement that online shopping reduces cost as compared traditional shopping, whereas some of the respondents disagreed. Many prior researchers also reveal the findings that online shopping saves the costs for both consumers and manufacturers.
Furthermore, the respondents were asked about their confidence level that their personal information is kept confidential; their responses are shown in the graph below:
As can be observed from the graph above, most of the respondents are confident that their personal information is kept confidential when buying products online which influences their buying behaviour. Only 8 respondents did not have any confidence that their information is kept confidential. There have been many cases in the past when the information has been leaked from the sellers but most of the sellers do not leak information as they want to retain as well as gain new customers in the long term.
Next question focused on the types of product usually purchased online; the responses are as follows:
It ca be observed from the results illustrated in the graph that most of the respondents have selected multiple options but clothing is most commonly selected alternative among all. This shows that most consumers within a certain age (18-29) buy clothing products from the online stores, compared to other products. This could be because of the changes in fashion trends, weather, event and time of the year. For example number of Jackets/Coats purchased during the winter in the UK and these trends ultimately motivate consumers to shop online.
Another important question was related to the retail stores which the consumers choose while shopping online; the responses were as follows:
It is evident from the graph above that consumers buy goods from different retail stores depending on the nature of goods being purchased. The respondents selected Amazon and eBay more than other options. It is well known that Amazon (Amazon.co.uk) is one of the biggest online stores in the UK, which is a motivational factor that encourages consumers to shop online at these retail store more than others like Asos, River Island and more.
3.2.1 One – Way ANOVA
One way ANOVA is a statistical test used to analyze if there is a difference in responses for respondents from different demographics or not. In this case, one way ANOVA has been applied on the basis of all five demographics in the questionnaire separately. At 95% confidence level; when the sig. level in the test is less than 0.05 it indicates that there is a difference in responses due to the demographics; whereas when the ANOVA is higher than 0.05 it indicates that there is not a statistically significant difference in responses due to the demographics (Wells and Wollack, 2003).
3.2.1.1 ANOVA based on Gender
The results of ANOVA based on gender are shown in the appendix; it can be noticed that the Sig. level of the test is higher than 0.05 for most of the questions. This means that there is not statistically significant difference in the responses provided by two genders at 95% confidence level; the responses were same regardless of the gender of the respondent (See appendix for complete results).
3.2.1.2 ANOVA based on Age
When comparing the results for different age groups, the ANOVA test has sig. value of more than 0.05 for more than 60% questions. The sig. value is lower than 0.05 for remaining questions; this shows that responses for some questions vary significantly at 95% confidence level due to difference in age group but responses for majority of the questions were not significantly different due to the age of respondents (See appendix for complete results).
3.2.1.3 ANOVA based on Income Groups
The results for ANOVA based on income groups are shown in the appendix section of the dissertation. It has been found that the sig. level for all questions are not statistically significant at 95% to conclude that there is not a significant difference between the responses provided by respondents from different income groups as the sig. level for all the questions is higher than 0.05. One of the reasons behind the results is that majority of the respondents belonged to same income group or did not prefer to disclose their income group (See appendix for complete results).
3.2.1.4 ANOVA based on Education Level
As shown in the appendix, the results of ANOVA based on education level reveal that there is not a significant difference in responses provided by respondents with different education levels sig. value for all questions other than last one is higher than 0.05. This clearly indicates that the results are statistically insignificant at 95% confidence interval to conclude that responses vary due to the education level of respondents. The results are similar because most of the respondents were at-least bachelor qualified; which means that all were literate people (See appendix for complete results).
4. Overall Results / Discussion
The results of the questionnaire analyzed through SPSS reveal that the respondents were well diversified in terms of gender, age and occupation. Whereas, there was lower diversification in annual income and education level of the respondents. The analysis of responses of questions asked in the questionnaire reveals that most of the respondents prefer online shopping and they realize the advantages associated with online shopping such as lower cost of purchase etc.
On the other hand, respondents also realize the disadvantages associated with online shopping such as breach of privacy etc. It is also found that most critical issue faced by respondents while making online shopping is the quality of the product as the product cannot be tested or touched. It has also been found that responses provided by respondents for most of the questions do not vary due to the changes in demographics of respondents as indicate by One Way ANOVA results in the chapter.
5. Chapter Summary
The chapter focused on the primary data analysis of data collected by questionnaire. Firstly, the reliability of the data was checked in order to test whether the results will be consistent and reliable or not. The reliability of data collected was 0.457 which means that the data is moderately reliable and the results provided by data will be moderately consistent and reliable. Secondly, the analysis of responses provided by 80 respondents was performed to analyze what motivates consumers to go for online shopping and why they do not prefer it. It was analyzed that most of the consumers go for online shopping regularly or very often due to variety of reasons; results of all important questions were analyzed in the chapter. One Way ANOVA test was also applied to analyze the difference in responses due to difference in the demographics of the respondents.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION
This is the final chapter and draws conclusions from the study, where reflections on the research objectives are presented. It also highlights the effects of research outcomes for marketing researchers and practitioners, the constraint of the research and the directions for improved research.
Reflecting on the research objectives
• To examine the modern theories on online shopping and determine how the phenomenon applies to consumers in the UK.
• To compare different perspectives between consumers who engage in online and non-online shopping.
• To understand what motivates consumers to shop online and what factors can mitigate them from shopping online
• To explore what marketing strategies online shops engage in, to entice consumers to shop online
Reflecting on the above objectives, it can be anticipated and suggested from the findings that consumers’ willingness to shop online is motivated by availability of resourceful information.
Furthermore, it is cost saving, convenient and time saving and the integrity and reliability of the websites motivates and helps consumers to overcome the security risks of online shopping. It is important to recognize that though there are motivators for online shopping, there are also demotivators such as perceived product quality and lack of physical interaction between the consumer and the online retail store. Against this backdrop, online retailers like EBay and Amazon concentrate on tackling these intricate issues and have had broad focus on security via the incorporation of different technical systems/methods such as visa verification and PayPal. (Chaffey, 2010a, 2010b). Lastly, the outcomes of the study reveals that trends in consumer buying behaviour would be dependent on the opportunity of e-commerce companies to improve the motivators of online shopping and avert the demotivators.
It follows then that online retailers have to improve selling propositions that syndicate the gathering of broad information though at the same time permit consumer emotionality.
Implications of Research
The outcomes from the primary research have demonstrated a reasonable support and consistency to the current body of understanding of the literature. Consumers were observed to be motivated because shopping online offers them the luxury and opportunity to gather information, compare prices and save time.
A significant feature here is that, online shopping is perceived as a medium/channel which offers consumers more buying security in relation to mitigating the threats of opportunity cost. Be that as it may, the platforms for online shopping are beyond perfect and most consumers perceive them as a possible foundation of risking their security and financial information.
Implications for Practice
The effects for marketing practice especially online channels is that, it is necessary to generate and maintain trust while offering consumers the prospect to discover other alternatives. Online shopping would be converted into an environment where consumers can be efficient and sustain shopping habits, thereby making online shopping not only a practice approach towards acquiring products but also an exhilarating lifestyle. From the outset, the marketing creativities and initiatives should target a combination of customer needs such as customized goods, security and credibility.
Reviewing the Limitations
The fact of the matter is that the primary research in this study is founded on limited sampling which ultimately confines the statistical strength of the research. A point of interest here is that no specific consumer segment is approached and the sampling is based upon convenient sampling. It follows then that the outcomes may have generated more thorough results on certain trends and different demographic aspects of online shopping if the survey was conducted according to segments. To further support this claim,
Tthe research is limited by the fact that it was created and conducted under university guidelines and requirements which enacted specific time frame restrictions. Also, other research approaches and strategies such as bigger sample size could have been established and utilized to improve the statistical value of the research outcomes, if the study had been conducted over a longer period.
Directions for Impending Research
It is worth noting that the study of online consumer behaviour is immense and still unsatisfactorily explored/investigated. In light of these remarks, there is an increasing amount of literature which investigates this study demonstrating that further research is required. For example, research methods need to focus on categorizing specific consumer segments that utilize online channels to purchase. Although, the current outcomes revealed that there is high diversity in demographics but clearer details in this characteristic would offer marketing professionals with better understanding on customer relationships and the targeting approaches/strategies which can be implemented.
Chapter Summary
Conclusively, consumer buying behaviour is of a complex nature. Hence, it is influenced by multiple factors and the academic literature sketches various aspects of buying behaviour. The outcomes of the primary research of this dissertation revealed a number of motivational factors which ultimately influence consumers to purchase online such as Price comparisons, Product comparisons and diversity, time saving, cost saving on a basis of saving money for fuel and parking and convenience on a basis of delivery time. It follows then that trends in consumer buying behaviour are dependent on the opportunity of e-commerce organisations/companies to improve the motivators of online shopping trends in the UK and mitigate the demotivators…
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