CONSUMER PREFERENCE TOWARDS ONLINE RETAILING

Abstract

Online retailing is the process whereby consumers directly buy goods or services from a seller in real-time, without an intermediary service, over the Internet. On-line shopping preferences differ with respect to different age groups. So the study focuses on collecting data by means of an on-line survey in which different age groups on-line shoppers rank the importance of various features that have an impact on their shopping experience. The result shows significant results in the preference of consumer among different age groups. Also, while comparing the ranking of individual features some statistically significant differences exist. Consumers within the age group of 25-35 are more interested in doing online shopping followed by less than 25 age group consumers in Chennai. The factors opted by the consumers has also been derived as a part of the research. The implications for research are twofold. First, the study provides additional insights into on-line shopping preferences from age perspective. Second, the study demonstrates that significant differences might not show on the construct level but only when features are individually compared with each other. The implication for practice is to help businesses enhance their on-line shopping platforms to better consider the particular needs of different age group on-line shoppers. This research is validated using chi square test.