Factors Determining online Purchase behaviour of The Consumers in Punjab (A study of Urban and Rural Consumers)

Abstract

Shopping has gone to a new dimension with the presence of stores selling products and services through internet. E-commerce and online shopping has expanded like a forest fire in last few years. Most of the traditional retailers have become e-tailers along with traditional brick and mortar business houses. There are several factors which motivate the consumers to shift from the physical stores to online stores. Since, likes and preferences varies from person to person, it's not necessary that same factors affect the consumers buying behaviour in the same manner. What needs to be answered is-how the behaviour and expectations of the consumers will change when they shift from traditional physical markets to virtual markets. What's more challenging is to compare the two different sets of consumers with regards to their preferences towards online shopping. The present study was conducted among the rural and urban consumers of Punjab. Two cities and two villages falling under the districts of the selected cities were selected as per the convenience of the researcher for the purpose of the study. A hypothesis was tested to understand the impact of motivating factors on the online purchase behaviour of the rural and urban consumers in Punjab. The collected data was analyzed using KMO factor analysis, Pearson's correlation and stepwise multiple regression analysis. The results indicated that rural consumers in Punjab have better online behaviour as compared to their urban counterparts i.e. rural consumers are more satisfied with their online purchases.