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STRM059 Business Management Research In Practice
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STRM059 Business Management Research In Practice
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Course Code: STRM059
University: University Of Northampton
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Country: United Kingdom
Questions:
What is the setting/context for your project?• What are the aims of your project?• Describe how your project will assist the organization, if relevant.• Describe the consultation process you have undertaken with the organization, if appropriate.What are the key themes that emerge from your literature review.• How do these inform your project proposal?
Answer:
Introduction
It is identified that Electronic Commerce is relatively new business channel entailing sells and purchasing goods and services through technology based network. The recent development of technology such as advancement of online business channels have made it possible for the marketers to target and reach a wide market within a short precise time period. The most influential factors for online shopping from existing studies mainly pay attention to convenience and time saving, while the growth of online shopping industry is persistently stable, there are many more factor influencing the online shoppers that are investigated in the study. The use of internet technology has been rapidly developing in Thailand since 1998. In addition to this, any sort of business that is perform through internet channels tend to receive good opportunities for the success of the business as the key customers are already there. The major purpose of the research is to investigate behavioural intentions of Thai students of University of Northampton toward online shopping and simultaneously the study also examine the factors that impact them to shop online.
Background to the research
As put forward by Lim et al. (2016), several number of factors could affect a consumer’s repurchase intention on shopping website repurchase intention on shopping websites and some of these could be interactive and may attract consumers to repurchase. On the other side, Akbar, and James (2014) performed a study and found that besides websites’ interactivity, the other factors such as repurchase intentions, trust, customer satisfaction, privacy and perceived interactivity. It is identified that there have been several articles have been written on the issue of online shopping including trust, customer satisfaction and privacy which remain at the core of many studies. On the other side, Ludin and Cheng (2014) defined privacy and secrecy of consumers’ information which the websites keep confidential and according to the author, an individual is more likely to perform a continued usage when such usage is considered to be relevant. Notwithstanding, as the market keep enhancing and the information technology keeps on changing gradually, the perceived usefulness need to be timely examined as should the repurchase online intentions of the shoppers. The existing studies have particularly focussed on some particular online channels such as eBay.com to examine the repurchase intentions of online shoppers. However, the present study identifies and examines the major factors impacting the online behaviour of Thai students of University of Northampton. The University of Northampton is working in partnership with the Village international Education Centre in Thailand. Students of many foreign nations pursue education in Northampton University and the quality of campus life is improving which is reflected on their lifestyle such as increasing attachment to online trends and technology.
Problem Statement
It has been identified that internet users have been increasingly growing in Thailand since 1999 and there are almost 11.9 million Thai users at present who use the internet on a regular basis and almost 20% of whom have experienced online shopping (Vaidehi 2014). Nonetheless, due to changing market environment, growing risk of online shopping such as privacy of consumers and increasing number of ecommerce vendors, online shopping activities have largely been affected. Thus, to understand the impact of this influential factors, the study particularly investigates the attitudes of the students of University of Northampton toward online shopping.
Research aim and Questions
The aim of the research is to examine influential factors creating impact on online shopping of the students of University of Northampton. The following are the potential research questions of the thesis.
What are the factors that are impacting Thai’s students purchase behaviour toward online shopping activities?
How do Thai students react to the dynamic trends of online shopping?
Research Objectives
To identify the factors influencing Thai student’s purchase behaviour towards online shopping?
To review the existing theories and models of online shopping directly influencing online shoppers
To evaluate the attitude of shoppers towards the online shopping activities in Thailand
Significance of the study
Due to technology advancement, conventional marketers find new ways to reach the wide target market. On the other side, consumers also find it easy to make selection of the products they want to buy, as they have multiple options of retailers online. Nonetheless, there are a number of factors such as market trends, privacy and security in online purchasing, reliability of online products have significant impact on the purchasers. Thus, this study helps to learn the impact of the stated concern on the shoppers. The study particularly measures the impact on Thai Students of University of Northampton, as Thailand particularly observed a set of dynamic trends in ecommerce sector caused by increasing development of technology. Study also helps to forecast the future impact of the stated factors on consumers. In addition to this, the study helps Northampton University to learn about the recent market trends and strategies in ecommerce sector, which could further help the organization to shape their marketing and management courses.
This study has helped to identify the different social media factors affecting the purchasing behaviour of the Thai students. The market in United Kingdom is highly saturated and it is difficult for companies to gain competitive advantage for a longer period of time. Findings of the study have been helpful for the companies in ecommerce industry to develop strategies to meet the current needs of consumers. The rationale behind this is, e-commerce sector is most likely to face dynamic trends which often causes failure or leads to a moderate success; thereby, businesses require more knowledge regarding market trends, economies and services to deal with the overall nature of market. So, finding of this study provides an authentic guidance in terms of handling the trends, economies and services.
Number of students migrating to study in United Kingdom has increased and there have been a significant increase in Asian population as well, so addressing the needs of these consumer segment can definitely increase the market share of retailers by examining their online shopping behaviour and develop offers and products based on their needs. Furthermore, this study also helps the ongoing research projects being undertaken in e-commerce by presenting the findings that involve market drivers, scale of economies creating impact on the sector, current needs of consumers and market trends. So that the ongoing studies performs the investigation with relevant data and generate a suitable outcome.
Outlining research methodology
Research methodology or the selection of research techniques are one of the significant aspects of the research; this means the selection and the application of chosen techniques determine the outcome of the research. The present study includes primary data analysis. So, to perform the analysis, research paradigm has been chosen aligning with these two types of data collection processes. Positivism research philosophy has been selected because the research findings are normally judged against the criteria of validity, reliability as well as generalizability. Primary data has been collected by performing a survey among the Thai Students of University of Northampton, while the secondary data has been collected from books, journal articles and websites of some particular e-commerce channels in Thailand.
Consultation process undertaken with the organization
For the purpose of performing the study on the chosen context, the university has been informed about the process and significance of performing the study. The board members of the university has been requested to authorize the data collection process for the study. The entities involved in the study are decided by the University Authority.
Summary
This chapter presents and introduces the topic along with a detailed background to online shopping and the influential factors associated with the topic. It is learnt that advancement in technology and dynamic market trends have a strong impact on the shoppers. Simultaneously, the factors of privacy and security of online payment, reliability of items also remain as the barrier to online shopping. Thus, the research questions set in the chapter revolve around the potential factors impacting online shoppers and their attitudes. Research objectives and questions are aligned based on which a review of existing papers have been performed in the following chapter.
Literature Review
Analysing the existing papers
“Factors affecting consumers’ attitude toward online shopping and online shopping intention in Bangkok”
As put forward by Hsu et al. (2014), due to evolution of globalization in different sectors, business from one region linked to others and the customers remain across the boundary. Due to such business entities, the exchange of information about the products and services become much quicker than ever. Presently, internet has become a significant way of carrying out all sort of business transactions. A study performed by Jadhav and Khanna (2016) highlights the fact that the evolution of internet plays a great role in the establishment of e-commerce. This study reveals that online shopping becomes third most popular internet activity after instant messaging, web browsing and emails. However, Akar and Nasir (2015) arguably mentioned that although there is clear progress in e-commerce caused by the development of internet activities, the industry as a whole is yet to pay attention to convenience in e-commerce activities. This means it is true that consumers prefer online trends or shopping but their preferences are also driven by factors like security of transactions, reliability of the products and knowledge. On the basis of this argumentative fact, it is worth stating that the internet activities and online shopping are yet to reach the convenience level. Conversely, a study conducted by Gao and Bai (2014) mentions that tremendous growth of internet demonstrates that there exists a wide market where e-commerce could play a significant role and to make e-commerce activities more prominent organizations should understand different factors that influence customers to perform online shopping activities. Nonetheless, this finding is superficial compared to the above concern. Hsu et al. (2014) provided the following statistics which demonstrates the growth scenario of internet in Thailand compared to the growth of population.
Theme 2: “Internet revolution and Online Shopping”
Internationally, the consumption of internet is rapidly increasing but the growth observed a rapid pace in the developed nations. Undoubtedly, due to the arrival of internet, business observed a significant shift and consumer behaviour has also changed due to such industrial revolution. Lian and Yen (2014) in their study of web evolution, has mentioned that the growth of the activities usually performed in internet marketing are estimated to remain faster as the availability of ubiquitous information platform might help to maximize the efficiencies. In this context, Dai, Forsythe and Kwon (2014) commented that mobile marketing plays a great role in the development of online shopping activities. According to the author, mobile marketing which is a set is of practices enabling business to interact with their audience in an efficient and effective manner. Bilgihan (2016) particularly mentioned that there is a significant driver derived from the growth in smartphone adoption and mobile tablets. The expanding growth and dispersal of mobile phones across the world have steadily changed the marketing activities and marketing related to this mobile in particular. Notwithstanding, Akbar and James (2014) commented that when it comes to mobile marketing, there is always a question of privacy on any network; savvy mobile marketers should understand and respect the fact that users would always seek privacy. Thus, they need to offer clear instructions for choosing marketing communications to validate if users want to do it. The findings of a study performed by Liaukonyte, Teixeira and Wilbur (2015) indicates the fact that marketers should understand how consumers are using their smartphones and how they access the internet each day. The authors also state that consumers’ positive attitude display more favourable behavioural outcomes of mobile marketing activities.
Theme 3: “Online Shopping”
Online shopping or shopping falls under a category of shopping which could enable customers to receive products directly by a third party retailer internet. According to Dai, Forsythe and Kwon (2014), online shopping has gained a tremendous popularity among the growing internet users. Today’s developing era of technology has made it possible to search the unavailable items by simply putting the name of the item in the search bar. People in Thailand are quite accustomed to online shopping due to the growing development of technology in the nation. However, Anaza (2014) criticized that the fact that more and more customers become savvy online shoppers, so their expectation of how easy a website is to use is growing. Here, user expectation is fundamental to growing conversation rate as well as reduction card abandonment. In this context, Bilgihan (2016) commented that logistic firms play a major role in establishing the trend of online by ensuring product delivery on time. There are several benefits and advantages of online shopping and based on this factor individual tends to choose to such kind of shopping over conventional shopping.
Theme 4: “Technology influencing online shopping intentions of shoppers”
A study performed on online shopping by Ashraf, Thongpapanl and Auh (2014) imply the fact that a set of significant constructs are found to be directly and indirectly influencing behavioural intentions. Such constructs may include perceived risks, perceived price, brand identity and perceived value. Another significant fact found in this study is that as the use of internet is increasing in unexpected rate, the scholars of marketing and management information system made several attempts to make analysis of the use of technology and the application of computer programs, services that are provided online as well as few self- service technology such as banking and online shopping. Nonetheless, Bhatiasevi and Yoopetch (2015) argued that even though technology is developing and enabling many businesses to focus on their target market and businesses through technology has not been so convenient yet. The authors found that 71% of people in Thailand tend to regret their online purchase and 48% were dissatisfied because of mismatched expectations and 29% were disappointed with poor product quality. Moreover, customers also consider it as a hassle when they face difficulty to log into the account. According to Chen, and Lu (2015), a most suitable and accepted technology based model is “Technology Accepted Model” proposed by Davis. The model is widely used for the studies and different behavioural intentions.
Behavioural Intention (BI) is defined as an individual’s intention to conduct multiple behaviours. According to Liaukonyte, Teixeira and Wilbur (2015), behavioural intentions are mainly the motivational factors that cover how interested a person is, to perform a particular behaviour. This sort of construction was first founded in the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) as well as the “Theory of Reason Action”. These two are mostly used in many research models that are linked to acceptance of technology.
Perceived Risk: According to Pappas (2016) “perceived risk” is usually referred to the nature and state of uncertainty or the consequence experienced by consumers in making purchases. The author of this study has mentioned that uncertainty could be subjective as well as it may come from the identification of buying goals and matching of the goals with the offering of the brands and products. Rouibah, Lowry and Hwang (2016) stated that customers might search for information to address uncertainty and standardize the outcome of a purchase decision which is perceived to be challenging.
Perceived Price: As put forward by Al-Debei, Akroush and Ashouri (2015), perceived price is the price of products or services which the consumers tend to perceive when they are evaluating online purchase. Before customers decide to buy items online, they tend to search for alternative price options of the brands they wish to buy. The author of this study has also mentioned that people trend to shop online as they perceive that online products could be cheaper compared to the products sold in the conventional stores.
Theme 5: “Factors influencing online shopping behaviour of consumers”
As put forward by Dai,, Forsythe and Kwon (2014), the mysteries of decisions of online purchasers are speculative at best because proceeding with the thought process of each individual consumer is difficult to forecast. Similarly, Wu et al. (2014) also mentioned that online consumer behaviour is a complicated socio-technical phenomenon and has been the core areas of scholar for the last ten years. Existing studies show that purchasing behaviour is also affected by the demographics, channel knowledge as well as shopping orientation; nonetheless, there are some factors identified by Zhang et al. (2014) that could lead to having higher transaction rate as well as having a partial view of the shopping behaviour.
Financial Risk: As put forward by Pappas et al. (2014), financial challenge or risk is always a significant concern of individual who tend to shop online and according to the author, financial challenge is the perception that a stipulated amount of money may go wasted while buying a product work appropriately from an online purchase. Some particular age groups are more concerned about their privacy and security of their bank account. Wu and Ke (2015) argued that millennial are less likely to be concerned compared to the older generation who tend to behave more sceptical in making online purchases. Notwithstanding, in a general sense, the potential to have confidential financial information disclosed from a transaction online could be a significant concern. It is certain that online shoppers tend to experience perceived risks for potential loss they could experience while making purchases online.
Concern of product reliability: According to Chiu et al. (2014), the bonus of shopping in a conventional shopping brick and mortar outlet is able to have the product in front of the consumers and such opportunity helps to manage the expectation that a buyer has when they are buying a product online. According to the author of this article, shoppers usually skip the option of buying a product online because as they do not have the opportunity to check and try the product just like a conventional store. However, advancement of technology has made it possible for the marketers to provide accurate information along with clear images of the items.
Theme 6: “Purchase Intention and Consumer Behaviour”
Erkan and Evans (2016) mentioned that intentions are perceived to be an indicator to the extent where people wish to behave in a particular way. The degree determines the attempts that individuals make to perform a certain behaviour. On the other side, Teng and Wang (2015) mentioned that e-commerce vendors find the challenge when customers have limited intentions to make purchase, which means they are not particularly interested. Anaza (2014) performed a study and implemented ” Theory of Planned Behaviour” on the consumers living in Thailand and discovered that perceived behavioural control, subjective norms and attitude of people surrounding them could affect the purchase intention of consumers. As purchase intention can be influenced by such factors, which even influences their behaviour toward online shopping, this eventually lead to actual action of buying items. As put forward by Daliri, Rezaei and Ismail (2014), buying intention as an element of buying behaviour need to be explored. Although, purchase intention is usually determined as noticeable predictor of actual behaviour to purchase items, it is worth mentioning that purchase intention can be transformed into purchase action. As mentioned by Jiradilok et al. (2014), e-commerce merchandise should have a proper understanding about the purchase behaviour of the customers to build an effective and long-term business relationship. Daliri, Rezaei and Ismail (2014) proposed that purchase intention may create a positive impact on actual purchasing action online; thereby, suggested to further examine relationship.
Theme 7: “Technology Acceptance Model”:
A study performed by Maranguni? and Grani? (2015), “Technology Acceptance Model” is usually applied to evaluate people’s computer knowledge or acceptance derived from the “Theory of Reason Action (TRA)”. This is usually measured by the attitude and intention but perceived relevancy plays a great role in measuring the impact of attitude and intention. The result demonstrates that the intention to use can be influenced by the perceived usefulness but the perceived use of ease does not have much impact on the intention to use. Ashraf, Thongpapanl and Auh (2014) critically mentioned that according to the assumption of this model, impact of external variables like the past behaviour on intention and behaviour should be mediated by TRA. Nonetheless, this study demonstrated that there is a residual impact of past behaviour on target behaviour. In this context, Abdullah and Ward (2016) effect of perceived usefulness can be facilitated and there is a state of ease in the intention to use. Ke (2015) argued that TAM model is not appropriate to explain consumer behaviour as perceived usefulness as well as perceived ease of use may not properly investigate user behaviour. A study performed by Bhatiasevi and Yoopetch (2015) recommend that future research should examine as well as develop new models that should pay attention to strength of TAM and lessen the flaws.
Theme 8: “Domain specific innovation”
Luo and Toubia (2015) performed a study on e-commerce evolution and found that Domain Specific Innovativeness is a degree to which an individual comparatively adopts innovation compared to other fellows of his/her system. According to the author of this study, generally, people love continuousness in their regular routine and inclusive of the shopping routine. Hasanov and Khalid (2015) commented that online shopping practice suggest customers an extensive range and specific goods; likewise, it also enable the consumers get rid of their usual shopping habits and experience the innovation. Due to the innovation in technology, options for adopting such trends are optimally available to the shoppers. Even though, there is a significant number of studies assessing DSI, yet there is no consensus about the impact of the constructs on its possible consequents both in a positively and negatively as well as sometimes neutrally but it is worth stating that tendency to embrace new products does not depend on individual perceptions. On the other hand, Akar and Nasir (2015) mentioned that customers still prefer to shop conventionally rather they do not consider e-shopping as an ease. A study performed by Lin and Lekhawipat (2014) mentions the fact that innovativeness of e-shopping remains as the function of approach towards the online channel. It has further been identified that acceptance of ecommerce is the representation of customers’ innovative attribute; Lian and Yen (2014) mentions that flexibility in adopting technology is the function of individual’ approach toward it. Author of this study has also mentioned that it is estimated that a person domain specific innovativeness carries the tendency to do e-shopping.
Theme 9: “Shopping orientations”
According to Clemes, Gan and Zhang (2014), shopping orientation are linked to the general tendency towards the shopping acts and such tendency could exhibit in varied methods such as alternative judgement and the selection of product. Orientation of shopping are a particular part of living style as well as relative with the action of shopping. As there is a development in online shopping orientation, customers’ online shopping conduct could be unique with respect to shopping operations and hence, customers’ online shopping activities might appear unique in respect to shopping orientation they possess (Chen et al. 2015). Existing studies have demonstrated that demographics play a great role in shopping behaviour and this has been somewhat certain in the field of online shopping. It can be mentioned that studies that have examined the relationship between demographics and internet shopping have found Internet shoppers are conventionally affluent. Nonetheless, it is worth stating that some of these relationship are neither conclusive nor estimated to endure over time. There is a growing competition in the market due to the presence of several retailers or the outlets and thereby, the web retailers should recognize the shopping orientations of the clients to cascade online shopping intentions of the consumers. Many studies in the same context validated that there is a positive influence of shopping orientation on customer online buying intentions but the findings of the studies suggest that adequate emphasis should be given to the type of shopping orientation, brand orientation as well as impulse purchase orientation along with perceived benefits.
Theme 10: “Impulse purchase orientation”
A study performed by Hsu, Chang and Chuang (2015), impulse purchase is unplanned as well as the result of any particular stimulus and author mentions that impulse purchase occurs when consumers tend to exercise an instant wish to buy anything instantly. Despite lacking supplementary review, the person takes decisions and apply actions on the basis of the urge. Another study has determined that consumers do not consider impulsive purchasing decisions as bad, instead, customers retroactively express an evaluation of their attitude. Chen and Hung (2015) arguably stated that impulse buying attitude appears as a realistic spontaneous conduct while associated to impartial assessment as well as emotive inclinations to buy products. However, in response to this statement of the author, Kalla (2016) mentioned that impulsiveness is a psychological characteristic which result in relation to a stimulation. This means impulse purchase is conventionally generated from buying situations which control less mental control, higher emotive activation and much reactive behaviour.
Gap in the existing research papers
It is identified that existing papers have paid much attention to the trends and practices of online shopping but limited attention has been given to key factors that directly influence the customers and their purchasing decisions. In addition to this, Theory of Planned Action (TPA) has been discussed by scholars in the context of purchase intention of shoppers but as the market has become dynamic, market trends are changing rapidly. Therefore, the principles of Theory of Planned Action does not remain applicable to all cases. On the other hand, literature have less findings regarding the technology development of Thailand. Technology is rapidly developing in Thailand and people are becoming accustomed to technology but the emergence of online shopping in Thailand has received limited attention from the scholars.
Research Methodlogy
Research Paradigm (Research Philosophy)
As put forward by Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault (2015), research paradigm or philosophy appears as the belief about the ways in which data about a specific phenomenon should be arranged. Research philosophies can be divided into three different types namely positivism, realism and interpretivism. Positivists believe that the reality remains stable and can be observed from an objective viewpoint with intervening the phenomena which is being studied. They believe that the phenomena needs to be isolated and that observations could be repeatable. Conversely, interpretivism perceives the world little different from natural world and socially structured where organizations remain as the product of dialogue and negotiation. (Mackey and Gass 2015). Apart from these two core research philosophies, pragmatism philosophy includes an approach that evaluates theories of beliefs with respect to the success of their practical application. However, the present study includes positivism research philosophy.
Justification for selecting positivism research philosophy
Positivism research philosophy has been chosen in the present study because it insists on numbers as well as statistical modelling to generate outcomes that can be quantified. This means by using positivism research philosophy, the impact of the factors on online shopping behaviour can be measured and quantified as it provides statistical modelling and digits. On the other side, interpretivism research philosophy has not been considered as the research findings are typically judged against the criteria of meaningful and casual adequacy. Thus, it would be difficult to present a descriptive findings of factors affecting online shopping behaviours of the users. Similarly, pragmatism research philosophy has also been rejected as in pragmatism, research findings are based on researcher’s values and interests.
Research Questions
What are the factors that are impacting Thai’s students purchase behaviour toward online shopping activities?
How do Thai students react to the dynamic trends of online shopping?
Data Collection Method
According to Lewis (2015), data collection is the process of collecting information from all useful sources to generate answers to the research problems, verify the hypothesis and review the outcomes. Data collection methods can be divided into two different categories such as secondary data collection and primary data collection methods.
Secondary data: Secondary data is the data that has already been published in books, newspapers, online portals, journals and other reliable sources. The availability of secondary sources is always high. Nonetheless, even though, the availability of secondary data is high, but it is highly important to select an appropriate set of criteria in the research which plays a great role in terms of increasing the range of research validity and reliability. In the present study, secondary data has been collected from books, journal articles, newspaper articles and the library materials of Northampton University.
Primary data: Primary data is the data that a particular authority gathers particularly for the purpose of the study and it is particularly collected from the original sources first hand. The primary data collection method is categorized into two different groups namely quantitative and qualitative. As stated by Smith (2015), quantitative data collection techniques are particularly based in mathematical calculation in different formats and the techniques of qualitative data collection and analysis may include questionnaire with the close-ended questions, techniques of regression and other related methods. However, in the present study, quantitative data has been collected by performing a survey among the students of Northampton University.
Research Setting and Instruments:
To respond to the research questions, the study uses both secondary and primary data collection methods. The primary methods include survey among the students of Northampton University. The survey includes 100 Thai students of the University. For performing the survey among the students, a close ended questionnaire has been prepared and sent to the students through their personal email. However, by taking the consent from the University, personal email address of the students has been collected. For performing the thematic analysis, journal from the University library have been collected.
Sampling methods:
Sampling is usually known as a specific principle which is used to choose members of population to be involved in the research. In other words, because of the large size of target population, the researchers have no option but to investigate a number of case elements. According to Flick (2015) target population represents some particular segments within a larger population that completely remain in place to meet the needs of primary data sources for the research. Likewise, sampling frame is explained as the list of people within the target population who take part in the research. In the present study, target population includes the students of Northampton University and from this specified target population, 100 students have been selected, which means the sampling frame is 100. There are two different types of sampling methods namely probability sampling and non- probability but in the present study, random probability sampling method has been selected all students are eligible to take part in the study. Non-probability sampling method has been rejected because this method creates a criteria of selecting people who have much or in-depth knowledge regarding the context.
Ethical Consideration
In order to avoid the ethical issues, all ethical grounds have been appropriately followed. Before starting the work on the project, university consent has been taken in an adequate manner. Particularly, when collecting the primary data, students’ identity has been accessed under the authority of the University. The researcher ensures that all students have the right to withdraw their participation at any moment and no student has been forced to take part in the study.
Process of analysing the data
The quantitative data that has been collected with the help of a survey are usually the raw numbers or digits that have been transformed into meaningful data through the application of rational as well as critical thinking. Thereafter, the data has been represented with graph and tables. In addition, the primary data has also been analysed as well as appropriately interpreted by comparing the findings. Moreover, the review of literature findings performed at the earlier stage of the study should be referred to reflect researcher’s viewpoints.
Process of interpreting the data
The conversion of the raw data into meaningful numbers and percentage. This means that the interpretation of the quantitative data in the study include critical analysis as well as interpretation of the figures , numbers and attempts to apply the rationale behind the emergence of the major findings.
Findings
Quantitative Questionnaire
Are you male or female?
Options
No. of responses
Percentage of the responses
Total respondents
Male
59
59%
100
Female
39
39%
100
How often do you do online shopping?
Options
No. of responses
Percentage of the responses
Total respondents
Once in 15 days
21
21%
100
Once in a month
31
31%
100
Once in 3 months
19
19%
100
Rare
9
18%
100
Table 2: Frequency of Online Shopping
What are the crucial factors which affect your decision making in final election of the product online?
Options
No. of responses
Percentage of the responses
Total respondents
Best Price
25
25%
100
Convenience- fast shopping and time shaving
20
20%
100
Product review and description
9
9%
100
Website presentation
7
7%
100
Unavailability in stores
13
13%
100
Referral
10
10%
100
Customer Service
6
6%
100
Trust
10
10%
100
Table 3: Factors affecting decision making in final election of the products
Discussion and Evaluation
The above presented findings indicate that trends of online shopping has gained an enormous popularity in the recent time in Thailand. According to the responses provided by the Thai students, people are much accustomed to online shopping with the exception of some influential factors such as safety of payment, inconvenience in delivery and lack of reliability of products. Some shoppers have a strong faith on online products while some shoppers due to lack of privacy and security of their personal information, hesitate to buy products online. One significant fact derived from the findings is that frequency of buying products online is not much high as the percentage of buying products online in every 15 days is only 21%. This figure implies that shoppers are yet to get rid of security and privacy risk in online shopping. On the other side, another concern is that price; when it comes to online shopping, people always look for a best price available in the e-commerce channel. Availability of price options is linked to factor of perceived price found in the literature review. This means before making a purchase decision online, shoppers tend to look for an alternative price options of the brands. Therefore, online selling channels provide several alternative price options.
Due to advancement of technology, shoppers have many options of e-commerce platforms; thereby, when a customer needs an item, he/she can come across many channels, which is one of the reasons for the sustainability of online shopping trend. However, existing studies talk about reliability of products purchased online but primary findings indicate that shoppers presently in Thailand have probably got rid of the feeling reliability, factors that influence the decision making in e-commerce do not include the concern of reliability of products. In general, it is a concern that shoppers are wary of the reliability and quality of the items as they cannot touch and try the item like they do in a conventional shopping outlet. Nonetheless, due to increasing availability of online shopping channels worldwide, customers tend to develop a sense of trust on the channels and end up making a purchase decision. Moreover, as found in the primary findings, many of the shoppers get influenced by friend referral or family and some shoppers tend to get influenced by online advertisements. This means even though there is a state of concern regarding the reliability of products but increasing number of e-commerce channels, referrals from friends and online advertisements play a big role in influencing the shoppers. Notwithstanding, existing studies did not pay required attention to such factors. Therefore, it is clear that there is a discrepancy between the existing papers and the primary findings.
Likewise, the findings of the literature talk about the impulse purchase intention which is unplanned and the result of any particular stimulus. Such impulse purchase occurs when the consumers prefer to exercise an intention to purchase anything on an instant basis. Moreover, according to the existing papers, consumers do not tend to consider impulsive purchase decision as bad, rather they express an evaluation of their attitude. Nonetheless, the primary data findings do not have much to say about the impulsive purchase intention, individuals rather make the purchase decisions learnt from their friends and some are more influenced by online advertisements. In the literature review, it was found that the major barriers negatively influencing the shoppers may include safety of payment and safety of the information they share with the ecommerce vendors while, the primary data findings insist more on the low trust level of online store, inappropriate refund policy, customer service and high shipping cost. However, in a general sense, it is worth stating that high shipping cost, refund and try and buy options are recently evolved by the marketers in the e-commerce platforms. Therefore, as all these are emerging trends which are not found in existing papers but appearing as crucial factors that create enormous impact on the buyers. The graph 7 indicates some other factors such as deliveries; almost 11% of the shoppers are worried about the deliveries of the products in which shoppers have significant doubt whether their purchased items are supposed to be delivered or not.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is worth mentioning that online shopping trends are evolving in a rapid pace with different emerging trends. As technology is developing rapidly, online shopping could gain more popularity in the coming days. However, the e-commerce vendors need to think of the innovation and development in terms of the shopping related activities. According to the findings, certain factors such as payment method in e-commerce channels, convenient deliveries of items are still a significant concern. Thus, organizations or the marketers need to enhance the quality of online purchase practices by increasing more conveniences to the services. Particularly, due to the loophole in technology, anonymous users are still able access the account of customers.
Therefore, payment mode in online purchasing should be developed. In addition, the factors like trust and convenience in customer service needs to be in place, which means that the service provided to the customers need to be transparent; eventually, customers should receive what they see in the websites. To gain customers’ loyalty and build effective customer relationship, the quality of service and products should not be compromised. To enhance the quality of services, marketers running businesses in ecommerce platforms should collect customers’ feedback and ideas. This process might help e-commerce vendors to design the services as per the market needs and influence the customers to grow their habit of buying products online.
However, as the study includes multiple chapters, each chapter helps to derive a particular idea regarding how online shopping trends appear in and how it has started influencing people. For example, the introductory chapter helps to understand the significance of performing a research on the chosen context. It is learnt that online shopping in the recent time has gained a tremendous popularity due to the technological advancement and it strongly influences the buyers who would shop in the conventional stores. With its growing presence, the number of shoppers in e-commerce platforms is rapidly increasing which creates an urge to know how and why customers are shifting towards the online shopping and why some are rejecting the option of online shopping despite the growing popularity of shopping practice. The chapter also helps to learn that growing risk of online shopping such as privacy of consumers and increasing number of ecommerce vendors, online shopping activities have largely been affected. On this basis of such fact, research objectives have been formed that revolve around the purchase behaviour of the shoppers online towards online shopping.
Research Limitations
The present study is limited to primary analysis, which includes quantitative data analysis only. However, the study lacks a qualitative data analysis, which would have increased the relevancy of the outcome to a greater scale. In addition, the population chosen for the quantitative data analysis are Thai students only but e-commerce is a vast platform which involves people across the world. Therefore, surveying the Thai students may not provide adequate result regarding the factors that influence the purchasing behaviour.
Recommendation
The host organization- University of Northampton needs to focus on the outcome found in the study, which means when undertaking a project on online shopping and the impact of the factors associated with this should be measured and based on which learning program needs to developed. For example, the outcome indicates that online shopping gain popularity as it has been developing facilities and functions for the convenience of the customers. So, the according to the data findings, customers tend to look for the best price when it comes to buying a product. This means that organization needs to associate some unique services with the business that are convenient and reliable. The service might include 24 hours delivery facility for certain product items, “Try and buy” facility at zero monetary cost and order confirmation call for each purchase. These services can positively influence the customers.
Strategy for implementing the recommendation
24 hours delivery: The organization needs to smoothen its supply chain network by creating special terms of delivery under which the authority of supply and delivery should provide and delivery the item within 24 hours. However, this service is applicable for certain products only. This means that entire supply chain network is not supposed to work under such policy. The terms should initially be developed for a certain products. When customers experience the commitment of delivery for their purchase, service gains popularity.
Try and Buy: This is one of the innovative service in e-commerce channel; just like the conventional shopping practices, consumers can order the product and try them at the doorstep and then make their final purchase decision. However, this service should also be applicable for certain products above certain amount of purchase.
Order confirmation call: This service will help the consumers to be assured that the products they order are sure to come. However, when processing this service, the customer executive department should call the consumer to confirm the order and the call should be manual instead of auto-generated because auto-generated calls do not win customers’ trust.
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