Consumer Behavior towards Online Shopping: An Empirical Study from Delhi

Abstract

In today's era of internet proliferation, the prevalence of online shopping has increased. Internet has made the transactions smoother, quicker, faster and easier and both the buyers and sellers get benefited by his technology. The growing use of internet in India has created a basis for tremendous prospects for online retailers; knowledge of factors affecting consumer buying behavior can help retailers develop their marketing strategies to convert their potential consumers into active one. In this study four dimensions of online shopping as perceived by consumers in India are identified and the different demographic factors are also studied which are the primary basis of market segmentation for retailers. The main objective of this research is to study the impact of Perceived Risk, Perceived enjoyment, Perceived usefulness and Perceived ease of use factors on online shopping behavior of consumers in Delhi. The population of this research consisted of online shoppers from Delhi. The sample of the study comprised of 160 online shoppers. Respondents belonged to different age groups, income groups and occupations and have a prior experience in online shopping. A pre - structured questionnaire was used with a 5 point Likert rating scale to measure the factors influencing the respondent's behavior to shop online. The empirical results revealed that only one factor, namely Perceived Risk significantly affected online shopping behavior of consumers in Delhi while Perceived enjoyment, Perceived ease of use and Perceived enjoyment hinders the consumers to shop online so the researchers suggests that the companies must focus on Perceived risks to develop consumers trust towards online shopping. The recommendations presented in this research may help foster growth of Indian online retailing in future. The research findings revealed that perceived risk negatively impact consumers attitude towards online shopping while perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyment has no impact on consumers' attitude towards online shopping.