Online consumer buying behavior in shopping

Introduction
The invention of the Internet has created a paradigm shift of the traditional way people
shop. A consumer is no longer bound to opening times or specific locations; he can become
active at virtually any time and place and purchase products or services. The Internet is a
relatively new medium for communication and information exchange that has become present in
our everyday life. The number of Internet users is constantly increasing which also signifies that
online purchasing is increasing. The rapid increase is explained by the growth in the use of
broadband technology combined with a change in consumer behavior. The Internet is considered
a mass medium that provides the consumer with purchase characteristics as no other medium.
Certain characteristics are making it more convenient for the consumer, compared to the
traditional way of shopping, such as the ability to at any time view and purchase products,
visualize their needs with products, and discuss products with other consumers. The primary
reason people shop over the Internet is the convenience.
Online shopping is the process consumers go through when they decide to shop on the
Internet. The Internet has developed into a “new” distribution channel and the evolution of this
channel, ecommerce, has been identified to be the most significant contribution of the
information revolution. Using the Internet to shop online has become one of the primary reasons
to use the Internet, combined with searching for products and finding information about them.
Consumers have never had access to so many suppliers and product/service opinions. Therefore,
the Internet has developed to a highly competitive market, where the competition over the
consumer is fierce. In order to have an impact on and retain consumers in a competitive market,
it is important to
identify certain influencing aspects when purchasing online, these can be regarded as factors.
Online retailing is a new retailing medium and online consumer behavior is diverse from
traditional consumer behavior, one must identify what influences the online consumer.
Analyzing the process that the online consumer goes through when deciding and making a
purchase over the Internet, shows some factors that consumers consider. These factors need to be
identified and taken into account by online retailers in order to satisfy consumer demands and
compete in the online market. To further understand how these factors influence different types
of consumers, we must identify segments which will enable us to make comparisons.

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 Online consumer buying behavior in shopping
Objective
1) To identify the factors that consumer takes into account while purchasing online.
2) To study the impact of the influencing factors on the customer buying behavior.
3) To study the perception of consumer towards online purchasing.
Limitations
There are a number of factors influencing the online consumer. However, this research
will try to identify the main factors influencing the online consumer and will, therefore, try to
limit these to a few in order to be able to investigate the effect on the online consumer. Within
the field of consumer behavior there are many theories and models that identify the consumer.
This research will limit itself to identifying the consumer through his/her consumer
characteristics and the consumer buying process.
Consumer behavior differs depending on what product or service is bought. Hence,
different factors are of different importance to consumers depending on the product or service.
Therefore this research will limit itself to some products like tickets, study material, electronic
goods and movies and music, since these are the product that is most widely bought on the
Internet.
We will also limit our research to peoples living in Trichy mainly students, as students
are a population that frequently has to buy course literature. This seemed to be the most
appropriate choice considering the limitations in both time and resources.
Literature review
The topic of consumer behavior while purchasing online has been examined under
various contexts over the years. Although researchers from a variety of business disciplines have
made significant progress over the past few years, the scope of these studies is rather broad. The
studies appear relatively fragmented and no unifying theoretical model is found in this research
area. In view of this, I try to give an exhaustive review of the literature and propose a research
framework with three key building blocks (intention, adoption, and continuance) so as to analyze
the online consumer behavior in a systematic way. This proposed framework not only provides
us with a cohesive view of online consumer behavior, but also serves as a salient guideline for
researchers in this area.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between the online

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 Online consumer buying behavior in shopping
Consumer behavior constructs of attitude, motivations and information search in order to
develop an online consumer behavior framework (International journal of retail & distribution
management, 2009) the results provide empirical support that attitude is an antecedent variable,
and that motivation variables have a significant causal relationship with information search
variables.
Despite several attempts have been made to understand online consumer behavior across
from different situational settings, little is known of referring website's functionality on
purchasing behavior. The purpose of the present study is two-folds. Firstly, the study defines
different behavior patterns when consumers visit an online store through a referring website
versus when consumers directly enter to an online store sans a referring website. Secondly, they
investigated on the types of products (i.e. high-involvement product vs. low involvement
product) purchased by access manner. Total number of 3,885 online consumers was used to
conduct the study based on their detailed transaction activities (Role of Referring Website on
Online Shopping Behavior)
Online shopping has taken three broad and divergent approaches viz, human-computer
interaction, behavioral, and consumerist approaches to examine online
Consumer behavior, Assimilating these three approaches, this study proposes an integrated
model of online shopping behavior, with four major antecedents influencing online purchase
intent: Web site quality, customer concerns in online shopping, self-efficacy, and past online
shopping experience. These antecedents were modeled as second-order constructs with
subsuming first order constituent factors. The model was tested using data from a questionnaire
survey of 214 online shoppers. Statistical analyses using structural equation modeling was used
to validate the model, and identify the relative importance of the key antecedents to online
purchase intent. Past online shopping experience was found to have the strongest association
with online purchase intent, followed by customer concerns, Web site quality, and computer self
efficacy (Online Purchase Intentions in B2C E-Commerce-Oct-Dec2007)
As the Internet evolves into a medium for communication, commerce and
Information gathering, marketers need to focus on creating an experience for a given task that is
intuitive to users. Marketing on the Internet requires an explicit knowledge of not only the user's
needs, but also the information necessary to meet those needs. Understanding and applying
different models of presenting information, the ways in which the information will be used and

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 Online consumer buying behavior in shopping
the processes by which people think about that information will enable a more intuitive and
compelling online experience. The current paper applies relevant research in economics,
psychology and marketing to establish a method for analyzing and critiquing different cognitive
paradigms. (Online consumer behavior Apr2005)
Consumer behavior
Donald Rogan explains the relationship between consumer behavior and marketing
strategy. He states that “strategy is about increasing the probability and frequency of buyer
behavior. Requirements for succeeding in doing this are to know the customer and understand
the consumer’s needs and wants.” Chisnall points out that human needs and motives are
inextricably linked and that the relationship between them is so very close that it becomes
difficult to identify the precise difference which may characterize them. People may buy new
coats because it protects them against the weather, but their real underlying dominant need may
be to follow the latest fashion trend. Buyers’ characteristics are important theories from Kotler
and it explains the way that the consumer interprets and receives stimuli from advertisements.
The decisions of consumers are influenced by a number of individual characteristics that are
linked to the consumer’s specific needs.
Online Consumer Characteristics
More specific identifications of the online consumer need to be made in order to
understand the online purchase behavior. The identified characteristics are some key
characteristics in regard to the online consumer. These key characteristics were made in order to
identify online consumers and to be able to segment them.
Cultural Online Characteristics
Smith and Rupp identify that the difference in social class creates a difference in
purchasing Online Behavior. Consumers from a higher social class generally purchase more and
have a higher intention to purchase online because there is a higher probability that they possess
a computer and also have greater access to the Internet. Consumers from lower social classes
would not have the same properties. The authors also point out that consumers with lower social
class, and thereby not having the same properties, would not have the needed computer literacy
to be able to leverage a computer.
Social Online characteristics

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 Online consumer buying behavior in shopping
The social influence on the online consumer comes from new Reference Groups
compared to the traditional way. For the online consumer new Reference Groups were identified
as virtual communities, consisting of discussion groups on a web site. The consumer can read
about other people’s experiences and opinions which have shown to have the effect of Reference
Groups. Other Reference Groups, which are identified by Christopher and Huarng, are links to
product related web sites, which encourages product selection and contact information.
Personal Online characteristics
Monsuwé, Dellaert and Ruyter explored the personal online consumer characteristics and
concluded that income has a vital role for online purchasing behavior. The authors discussed
Lohse who pointed out that consumers with higher household income would have a more
positive attitude towards online shopping. This conclusion was explained by the fact that
households with higher income would have a positive correlation with the possession of a
computer, Internet access, and higher education. Smith and Rupp also identified the age factor as
a determinant for online purchase intentions. They argued that older people who had no frequent
interactions with the Internet and the computer would not use the Internet as a medium for
purchases, while young adults would. This was concluded by that the young adults used the
Internet and computers more frequently. Younger people were also identified to have more
technical knowledge. Monsuwé also supported this judgment by concluding that younger adults
usually have greater interest in using new technologies to browse for information and evaluate
alternatives.
Psychological Online Characteristics
Smith and Rupp identified the psychological characteristics of consumer behavior as
questions the online consumer would ask himself before making a purchase online.
Motivation - The consumers is reasoning for incentives to engage in a particular behavior. He
may ask himself questions like: should I look around for better price? If online shopping saves
me time, should I shop online more often? How much do I really need this product?
Perception - The consumer is interpreting acquired information by classing it. Questions such as
the following may come about: I feel that this site seems pretty secure. It seems that this site has
a good product but how can I be sure?
Personality - The consumer is adapting to influences of his cognitions. He may ask himself,
what types of Web sites are best suited for his personal buying preferences.

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 Online consumer buying behavior in shopping
Attitude - The consumer is working out what his likes and dislikes are in respect to a particular
situation. He may ask himself: I am pretty unsure about extra costs, should I really be buying
items from the Internet? If I do not buy the item online, how else can I get it?
Emotions - The consumer is without conscious effort detecting how he is being affected by his
cognitive choice. He may ask himself: The last time I ordered from the Internet I had a really bad
experience. Should I try buying online again? What is the future of buying online? If Web sites
get better should I invest more time in buying online?
Specific Consumer Traits and Online B behavior
The online consumer’s characteristics that we have identified to be the most important
ones to have an effect on the online consumer, will be referred to as specific Consumer Traits
and how the consumer uses the Internet will be referred to as Online Behavior. The online
consumer characteristics such as personal, social, and psychological characteristics need to be
identified in order to understand what is important for the online consumer. These characteristics
reveal the consumers’ lifestyle and identify who the consumer is and what attitudes he has
towards online shopping.
Therefore, we will be using the following characteristics to segment the online consumer,
by analyzing:
· The consumer’s demographics.
· Life patterns concerning Online Behavior, such as how much the consumer uses the
Internet.
· For what purposes, Internet Usage.
· How much the online consumer shops online, Online Shopping Patterns, can be
used in order to find out what impact certain factors have on different type of
consumers.
· Prior experiences have also been identified to be relevant for what Beliefs and
Attitudes the consumer has towards online shopping and are therefore also important
for the research.
· Social influences have an effect on the consumer in the early decision making
stage and these were referred to as Reference Groups.
These are the consumer characteristics that are relevant for this research and need to be
identified in order to find out who the online consumer is and what affects him when shopping

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 Online consumer buying behavior in shopping
online. These we will be referred to as Consumer Traits and Online Behavior. To summarize the
prior text and to answer the question what identifies an Online Consumer, one can draw the
conclusion that for this research the important consumer characteristics that need to be identified
are:
Consumer Traits
· Demographics
· Attitude and Beliefs
· Impact of Reference Groups
Online Behavior
· Webographics
· Online Shopping Patterns
· Internet Usage
Identified Factors affecting Online Consumer Behavior Price
The Internet has become a global marketplace on which consumers can gather and
compare information such as product information and prices. The technologies and innovative
business ideas of the Internet allow sellers to discriminate between buyers and buyers to
discriminate between vendors. Historically, however, prices have been set by negotiations after
having examined the product. The Internet facilitates the scenario that comparisons can be
achieved with ease, overlooking several digital attributes (which can be communicated through
the web) and possibilities with several different vendors simultaneously. On the Internet it is
after all the price comparison prospect that interests price sensitive consumers, whilst another
category of consumers focuses on finding unique products with specialized features that might
be difficult to find offline and who, therefore, perhaps even consider the price as secondary.
Trust
Monsuwé conclude that because the Internet is a relatively new way of shopping, it is
challenging for the consumers and therefore perceived by the consumer as risky. They further
identify the salesperson to be a silent source of trust for the consumer, and that the consumer is
dependent on the salespersons’ expertise. But since the sales person has been removed in online
shopping, the authors argue that the basis of consumer trust has disappeared. They further
explain that the consumer is not able to check the quality of an item, nor is he able to monitor the
safety of the security when revealing personal data. The authors, therefore, conclude that if a

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high level of security and privacy is communicated to the consumer the result would have a
positive effect on consumer trust and the intention to buy online.
Convenience
Convenience is anything that is intended to save time and frustration according to the
Swedish National Encyclopedia. Further definitions of the concept of convenience are:
· The quality of being suitable to ones comfort, purpose or need.
· Personal comfort or advantage.
· Something that increases comfort or saves work at a suitable or agreeable time
Online shopping as a new medium for retailing creates a number of different advantages.
One of these is that it is considered to be more convenient to shop online compared to the
traditional way of shopping.
Research Methodology
This study started out as an exploratory study but developed into an explanatory study
since we start out with first gaining knowledge about consumer behavior to further being able to
gain knowledge about online consumer behavior. Having this knowledge we continue to identify
specific factors that are of importance when the online consumer is making online purchases.
This information is then used in order to find relationships and correlations between these
variables. The respondents are selected randomly, so we can say that random sampling has
been done. It is an exploratory research study. These respondents comprise of the persons who
purchase some material from the online retailer. The people have been interviewed using
questionnaire and asked to give their feedback.
The sample size was restricted to only 50 respondents. Primary data for our research was
collected through questionnaires secondary data has been the data collected through different
types of research conducted within the topic, articles, and books that are written on consumer
behavior and ecommerce. The multiple source data that we have used has been in order to
choose which product we would use for our research in order to be able to find the product that is
most widely bought over the Internet.
Conclusion
The consumer purchases online, he or she is affected by various factors. The main
influencing factors have been identified as Price, Trust, and Convenience. The Price factor exists
because prices are often lower on Internet stores compared to physical stores due to lower costs.

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 Online consumer buying behavior in shopping
Purchasing online can greatly benefit the consumer in terms of convenience and saving money. It
is also convenient to shop on various sites with different assortments, from the home. Trust is
evidently needed since the consumer must share detailed personal and financial information
when purchasing a book online. These types of data include the full name, delivery address and
credit card number for example, which makes Trust an important factor. To be able to see how
these factors affect consumers, we conducted a survey. We found that the factor Price is of the
highest concern to the people and that the factors Trust and Convenience had lower impact on
the people. We found that tickets are the most purchased items on internet and people spend
around Rs. 500 – Rs 2500 on an average monthly on online shopping. In this way we first
identified the factors that influence the online purchase behavior and find how the attributes of
these factors influence the online purchase behavior. We have found that the overall perception
of the people towards online purchasing is positive. In this way we fulfill our research objective.

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