ONLINE SHOPPING BEHAVIOUR IN THE DIGITAL ERA, NEW TRENDS AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES

1. STUDY ON ONLINE SHOPPING BEHAVIOUR IN THE
DIGITAL ERA, NEW TRENDS AND CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCES
Submitted by
Areeba Naseem
A7528713001
BJ&MC 3
Under the guidance of
Areena Mirza
ASCO Lucknow
AMITY SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION
AMITY UNIVERSITY LUCKNOW

2. ABSTRACT
Online shopping is emerging as a new trend all over the world. It refers to buying of goods or
services from the seller over the internet using a web browser. The developing prospect for
online shopping is the growing use of internet in India. The online shopping behavior and its
future respective are changing the way consumer shop and buy goods. In India also the
phenomenon of online shopping is becoming a reality. The study attempt to explore the online
shopping scenario in India and comes up with interesting consumer insights with the help of a
survey. It will be significant in highlighting whether consumer prefer online shopping or not and
the new trends in the online shopping.
KEYWORDS: Online shopping e-commerce, consumers, online stores, payment mode.

3. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
As a part of our course curriculum, I had to make a project report on a study on online shopping
behavior in the digital era, new trends and customer experiences to get the right exposure to
the practical aspects of Journalism & Mass Communication.
I extend my heartiest thanks to everybody who helped me through the successful completion of
my project, which has been a great source of learning and experience for me.
I am also indebted to my teachers, my guide Areena Mirza, my family and friends for their
valuable support guidance in carrying out this study.
Student’s Signature
Name: Areeba Naseem
Date: 30th June ’14

4. CERTIFICATE BY PROJECT GUIDE
Certified that the project study on online shopping behavior in the digital era, new trends
and customer experiences is prepared by Areeba Naseem, student of BJ&MC 3, AMITY
SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION, in partial fulfillment of award of degree of Bachelors of
Journalism and Mass Communication from AMITY UNIVERSITY UTTAR PRADESH,
LUCKNOW CAMPUS.
FACULTY GUIDE
Areena Mirza
Designation
Amity School of Communication
DIRECTOR
S. M. Johri
Professor-Director
Amity School of Communication

5. Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1. Online shopping
1.2. Growth of online shopping
1.3. Key drivers of online shopping
1.4. Challenges to online shopping
1.5. Online retailing trends
2. Projectdesign
2.1. Questionnaire
2.2. Objective of the study
2.3. Researchmethodology
2.4. Limitation of the study
3. Literature review
4. Result and Discussion
5. References
6. Annexure
7. PlagiarismReport

6. INTRODUCTION
Online shopping
Online shopping or e-shopping is a form of e-commerce where the consumers directly buy goods
or services from the seller over internet using a web browser and also with any other
intermediary service. There can be some alternative names for those web browsers like e-web
store, e-shop, e-store, internet-shop, web-shop and virtual store. Over network transaction
through computers and conduction of business communication is called online shopping. It is
communicated through digital communication to buy and sell the goods and services transferring
through funds. Establishment of online store expands the retailer market and reaches the
consumer which usually does not like to go to the physical stores. An online shop aims to make
shopping an altogether different experience from buying products or services at a bricks-and-
mortar retailer or shopping centre. The largest of these online retailing corporations are alibaba,
amazon.com and eBay. Viewing the history of online shopping (the economic times, 2013)
Michael Aldrich an English Entrepreneur was the pioneer of online shopping in the 1980a. his
system connected a modified domestic TV to a real-time transaction processing computer via
domestic telephone line. This enabled closed corporate information systems to be opened to
outside correspondents not just for transaction processing but also for e-messaging and
information retrieval and dissemination, later known as e-business. In future improvement in
technology of these online stores is expected to be tremendous, which will allow more easier and
realistic shopping experience.

7. Growth of online shopping in India
In United Kingdom Michael Aldrich pioneered and invented online shopping and now it is
gaining grounds in India. Retail sector of India is shifting from brick-and-mortar model to click-
and-mortar. Reason for the same is growing use of internet by the major part of the population.
Online shopping has become necessity from fad. It has gained media coverage because of the
increasing number of browsing and shopping. Online consumers are buying almost everything
from diapers to household furniture, books, cloths, shoes etc.
Online shopping became popular in 1999-2000. Amazon.com, the online bookstore founded by
Jezz Bezos, created history by becoming the first bookstore with a presence only on the internet.
Following the success of amazon, many bookstores with a physical presence also created an
online presence on the internet. Later, portals such as Yahoo.com and MSN.com also started
online shopping channels where people could buy more than just books. Closer home, portals
such as Indiatimes.com and rediff.com came up with similar options for the Indian consumers.
According to ASSOCHAM, “India’s e-commerce market is at an early stage but is expected to
see huge growth over next four to five years. Over the past 12 months, venture capitalists have
invested heavily in India’s e-commerce market, new players have emerged and the e-commerce
eco-system has developed, presenting huge opportunities for companies willing to work through
same of the logistics and payment challenges in India. E-business professionals with an interest
in the online retail market in India must understand how India differs from other leading e-
commerce markets and where hurdles do and don’t exists” (this report is provided by Forrester
research as the “Research Partner” for ASSOCHAM’S 2nd National Conference on e0-commerce
2012). In the similar vein a recent report by Google India indicates that Online Shopping in India
registered an impressive growth of 128 percent in 2012 as compared to 40 percent growth in
2011. Around 59 percent of online consumer in metropolitan India already makes purchases
online at a monthly. E-commerce revenues in India are expected to increase by more than 5times
by 2016, jumping from US$1.6billion in 2012 to US$8.8 billion in 2916.
India is expected to witness change in online shopping trends in next few year, reported by ‘India
Online Retail Market Forecast and Opportunities 2016.’ It is also set to become the third largest

8. nation of internet users in next 2 years. Growth in India’s rising middle class, busy life and
growing disposable income will make the online retail market prosper.

9. Key driversofonline shopping
 Increase in internet usage.
 Increase broadband penetration.
 Rising of the middle class families and their improving standard of living and power of
buying.
 Use of online classified and auction portals are growing and hence increasing in their
awareness
 Marketing and sales on social networking sites such as facebook, twitter are used as a
strong tool by the vendors. Online retail is much influenced by social networking sites
such as- facebook, twitter.
 With time, lifestyle of the people is changing as well. Lifestyle is turning busy and
shifting so shopping through traditional means is becoming difficult.
 Most important drivers of online shopping growth are the features provided by these
sites. Features can be faster delivery, one day delivery, try and buy, access to branded
products, discounts and huge.

10. Challengesto Online Shopping
 Slow buying behavior of Indian consumer.
 No proper brand image is created.
 Advertising and marketing is not proper.
 Website maintenance lacks seriousness.
 Not all modes of online transaction are supported, resulting in transaction frauds.
 Lot of option to compare and search and there consuming more time to buy a product.
 Longer wait for special deals and discounts.
 More wait before buying by t he less finance buyer.

11. Online RetailingTrends
Tier 2 and tier 3 cities’ contribution in increasing demands- since a couple of year there is
increase in participation from non-metropolitican cities. Almost the half of the total sales at some
leading online shopping sites comes from the consumers from these cities.
Strategy of multi-channel- challenges in front of the retailers is the India’s diverse online
buying population around the different parts of the country. Multi channel commerce strategy is
needed as the use of Smartphone and tablets are increasing day by day.
Online retail overlap with social networking- Social networking has an aggressive marketing
in context of online retail. For product development and customer care social networking sites
such as facebook and twitter are tracked.
Buying behavior- Online retailers get a huge amount of data on both of their customer potential
and existing based on users habit of browsing.
Integrated through mobiles- among top three priorities also lie mobiles and tablets. And hence
these online shopping sites are coming with mobile optimized site or dedicated app. In the
market strategies of these online sites included these new and improved mobile optimized sites,
mobile app, analytics, traffic and also growth conversions.

12. PROJECT DESIGN
QUESTIONARE
NAME-
AGE-
GENDER-
Q1. Are you a regular internet user???
o Yes
o No
Q2. Do you prefer online shopping?
o Yes
o No
o Sometimes
Q3. Does online shopping provide you latest products that are available in the market?
o Yes
o No
o Sometimes
Q4.Which of the following purchases do you intend to buy online?
o Apparels and accessories
o Electronics
o Baby products
o Healthcare
o Book/CDs
o Beauty and personal care
o Home furnishing
o Airline tickets
Q5.which online shopping you prefer?
(Rate the sites out of 10)
 Flipkart ___________

13.  Amazone___________
 Ebay ___________
 Snapdeal___________
 Myntra___________
 Homeshop18___________
 Yebhi___________
 Tradus___________
 Jabong___________
Q6. Do you prefer to research on other sites and traditional markets before buying?
o Yes
o No
o Sometimes
Q7.Can you wait for the delivery of your order for 5days or more?
o Yes
o No
o Sometimes
Q8. Can you wait for additional days in order to qualify free shipping?
o Yes
o No
o Sometimes
Q9. With your past experience what can you say about your trust?
o Increase
o Decease
o Remains the same
Q10. If you find some item out of stock, what will you do?
o Check other website
o Go to the physical store

14. Q11.Which feature attract you to online shopping?
o Saving time and petrol
o Discounts and offers
o Try and buy
o Huge variety
o Easy availability
o Timely delivery
o Quality of products
o Each of them
Q12.Which payment mode do you prefer?
o Cash on delivery
o Debit card
o Credit card
Q13.Do you go through the promotional mails of the websites?
o Yes
o No
o Sometimes
Q14. Do you approach online shopping sites through social networking sites ad and posts?
o Yes
o No
o Sometimes
Q15. Are you satisfied by the service provided of the online sites?
o Yes
o No
o Sometimes

15. Objectivesof the study
 To find whether prefer online shopping.
 To identify the most preferred online shopping websites.
 To determine the product category where people go in for online shopping.
 To find out if people are satisfied with their shopping experiences.
 To find out latest trends of online shopping.
 To know the preferred mode of payment.
 Understand the buying behavior of the people.
ResearchMethodology
Survey was conducted to examine the online shopping experience of the customers. To analyze
the opinion and reaction towards different online shopping websites general public from
Lucknow was selected. The sample size was of 100 Respondents. The questionnaire consisted of
closed ended question which focused on gauging opinion of consumers on their online shopping
experiences.
Demographic profile: Gender-57% male, 43% female. Age group- 63% (18-30 years), 37 %
(30-50 years). 89% heavy internet user. 69% had access to someone else’s money and 31% to
their own money.
Limitationof study
 Due to paucity of time and cost constraint the study was confined to Lucknow city only.
 The study has been conducted based on the responses of the selected respondents in
Lucknow city. Hence, the inferences, findings of the analysis need not hold good totally
for the lucknow city as a whole if the country at large.
 The study was limited to the 100 responses of consumers in Lucknow. More responses
would have made an extensive study properly

16. LITERATURE REVIEW
Bellman, Lohse and Johnson (1999) examine the relationship among demographic personal
characteristic, and attitudes towards online shopping. These authors find that people who have
weirder lifestyle and who are more time constrained tend to buy online more frequently, i.e.,
those who use the internet as a routine tool and/or those who are more times starved prefer
shopping on internet. Bhatnagar, Misra and Rao (2000) measure how demographics,
vender/service/product characteristics, and website quality influence the consumer attitude
towards online shopping and consequently their online behavior. They report that the
convenience the internet affords and the risk perceived by the consumers are related to the two
dependent variables (attitude and behavior) positively and negatively, respectively.

17. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Regular online user- Broadband penetration in most of the households is one of the major
reasons in the increment of online shopping.
In my study I found 94percent of the people are regular internet user out of which 89percent is
heavy users of internet.
Prefer Online shopping- With the changing
lifetime, changing is the way of shopping. As
from the data in fig.1 we analyze that 55percent
people prefer online shopping, whereas still
12percent are not in favour of the same.
33percent are the not as regular online shopper,
so they are not the loyal consumer. It there is a
scope for this section to move towards the loyal
category if t he services improves.
Does online shopping provide you with latest
products that are available in the market?
From the data analyzed (fig 2) it is found that
50% people are in favour of online websites
providing them with latest products available in
the market.
55%
12%
33%
Do you preferonline
shopping?
Yes No Sometime
Fig.1
54%34%
12%
Does online shopping
provide you with the
latest product in the
market
Yes
No
Sometimes
Fig.1
Fig.2

18. Top product categories: in the top product
category, the lion share is taken by the apparels
and accessories with 34percent followed by
electronics with 29percent, books with
15percent, beauty and personal care 12percent,
home and furnishing 5percent, baby products
3percent, and 2percent to book airline ticket.
Frequent repeat purchases were also higher for
apparels and accessories, personal care
categories as compared to electronics.
Mode of Payment: form the analyzed data,
mode of payment which is preferred the most is
cash on delivery 76%, debit card 17% and credit
card 5%.
Also cash on delivery is another feature that
motivates online shopping.
34%
29%
12%
5%
3%
2% 15%
Which of the following
purchasesdo you intend
to buy online?
Apparels and
accessories
Electronics
Beauty and
personal care
Home and
furnishing
Baby products
Airline tickets
Books
78%
17%
5%
Which mode of
payment you prefer?
Cash on
delivery
Debit card
Credit card

19. Delivery options, Shipping, Checkouts: when comes to
delivers consumer’s patience is a surprise here 52percent
consumers are willing to wait 5days or more for their shopped
products’ delivery.
And when it comes to offers or free shipping 69percent
can wait for few days more for their online purchases.
Consumer Trust: Online shopping has gained
more trust in last few years, with 68percent of the
consumer says their trust level remains the same
whereas 32% trust level has increased.
52%23%
25%
Can you wait for
the delivery of
your order for 5
days or more?
Yes
No
Sometimes
68%
18%
14%
Can you wait for
additional days in
order to qualify
free shipping?
Yes
No
Sometimes
68%
32%
With the past
experience what can
you say about your
trust?
Increase
Decrease

20. Loyalty of the customers towards online
shopping: when certain product is out of stock,
the online shopper will visit the competitor’s
website for the same item, survey report that
61percent of the consumer does so, on the other
hand rest of the people prefer going to the
market for it.
Features that attract towards online
shopping: 29percent of the online shopper
agreed that they were attracted to the discounts
and low prices.
With increase in prices of petrol and changing
lifestyle of the people, make online shopping
more convenient and therefore 22percent of the
consumers attracted by the saving of time and
petrol.
Easy availability 7percent, timely delivery,
quality of product 8percent respectively.
Huge varieties of the products are the second
most attractive features preferred by 26percent
correspondent.
Customer Satisfaction: Customer satisfactions encourage
more and more online shopping. From the data we get to
know 75percent of the online shoppers are satisfied by the
services provided.
61%
39%
If you find something
out of stock,what will
you do?
Check
competitor's
website
Go to the
physical store
29%
22%
26%
7%
8%
8%
Which feature attract
you to online
shopping?
Discounts and
low price
Saving of time
and Petrol
Huge variety
Availability
Quality of
product
Timely
delivery
75%
25%
Are you satisfied
by the services
provided by the
oline sites?
Yes
No

21. Top online shopping sites: Ranking is based on the average points each site got from the
respondents of the survey.
Flipkart.com- Score (5.99) - largest player of e-shopping in India. From flipkart you can shop
everything from apparels to electronic gadgets.
Amazone.in-Score (5.68)- it is leader of e-commerce in the world market. Here you can buy
products on lesser prices. Amazone guarantees 1 day delivery.
Jabong.com – Score (5.44) - India’s leading retailer of lifestyle and fashion products online.
They offer a wide range of products apparel.
Myntra.com- Score (5.12)- on this online shopping site you get huge discounts and offers.
Myntra is a house of all leading brands.
Yebhi.com- Score (5.1)- this site has latest brands, cloths, bags, jewellery,shoes. It’s also ruler
for mention categories.
EBay. In-Score (4.97)-
Snapdeal.com-Score (4.88) - this sites offer deals in almost everything from restaurants to
traveling and online purchases.
Homeshop18.com-Score (4.86) - it is a venture of the network18 group; It has also launches
India’s first 24 hours home shopping channel. In 2008 PC world magazine awarded it as the
“best shopping site”.
Tradus.com-Score (4.84) - ibibo is the owner of tradus. They sell everything from book to
mobiles, cameras, apparels, watches and many more things at low price and provide free
shipping. But they don’t ship all over India.
5.99 5.68 5.44 5.12 5.1 4.97 4.88 4.86 4.84
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Top online shopping sites
Top online shopping sites

22. CONCLUSION
The findings of the study especially where 55percent of the respondents admit that
they prefer online shopping prove that this trend is here to make a mark. A
majority said that they have not received any defective productwhen they resorted
to online shopping. These numbers speak for themselves. All the features are
contributing to the success ofonline shopping in India. Numbers of online sites are
increasing in India and therefore giving though competition to each other.
75percent of respondents are satisfied with the consumer care service of this online
shopping website. E-commerce section of India is developing, and gasping the eye
balls of the people. Special discounts, deals and coupons encourage online
shopping in India. This leads the researcher to conclude that online shopping has a
presence for the Indian consumer.

23. REFERENCES
 The Economics, March 23, 2013. “The Alibaba Phenomenon”
 The Economic Times, December 2006. “What is online shopping?”
 Bellman, S., Lohse G., and Johnson, E.Predictors of online buying Behavior,
Communications of the ACM (42:1), 1999, pp.32-38.
 Bhavnagar, A, Misra,S., and Rao, H.R. Online risk, convince and internet
shopping behavior,. Communications of the ACM(43:11), 2000, pp. 98-
105.s
 “Jump up” 1982 Videotex Communications, Collected Papers Aldrich
Archive, and University of Brighton December 1982.

24. ANNEXURE
QUESTIONARE
NAME-
AGE-
GENDER-
Q1. Are you a regular internet user???
o Yes
o No
Q2. Do you prefer online shopping?
o Yes
o No
o Sometimes
Q3. Does online shopping provide you latest products that are available in the market?
o Yes
o No
o Sometimes
Q4.Which of the following purchases do you intend to buy online?
o Apparels and accessories
o Electronics
o Baby products
o Healthcare
o Book/CDs
o Beauty and personal care
o Home furnishing
o Airline tickets
Q5.which online shopping you prefer?

25. (Rate the sites out of 10)
 Flipkart ___________
 Amazone___________
 Ebay ___________
 Snapdeal___________
 Myntra___________
 Homeshop18___________
 Yebhi___________
 Tradus___________
 Jabong___________
Q6. Do you prefer to research on other sites and traditional markets before buying?
o Yes
o No
o Sometimes
Q7.Can you wait for the delivery of your order for 5days or more?
o Yes
o No
o Sometimes
Q8. Can you wait for additional days in order to qualify free shipping?
o Yes
o No
o Sometimes
Q9. With your past experience what can you say about your trust?
o Increase
o Decease
o Remains the same
Q10. If you find some item out of stock, what will you do?

26. o Check other website
o Go to the physical store
Q11.Which feature attract you to online shopping?
o Saving time and petrol
o Discounts and offers
o Try and buy
o Huge variety
o Easy availability
o Timely delivery
o Quality of products
o Each of them
Q12.Which payment mode do you prefer?
o Cash on delivery
o Debit card
o Credit card
Q13.Do you go through the promotional mails of the websites?
o Yes
o No
o Sometimes
Q14. Do you approach online shopping sites through social networking sites ad and posts?
o Yes
o No
o Sometimes

27. Q15. Are you satisfied by the service provided of the online sites?
o Yes
o No
o Sometimes

28. Plagiarism Report