Online Buying Behaviour of Homemakers in Western Suburbs of Mumbai and Social Media Influence

Abstract

Online shopping is a growing phenomenon worldwide and with increase in internet penetration India too is witnessing a surge in online shopping. Consumer buying behaviour is a widely researched area but online buying behaviour is a relatively new field of study. Marketers are trying to understand the online buying behaviour of Indian consumers so that they can look out for new ways of identifying distinct profitable customer segments and targeting them better. Marketers need to know who are the online customers , what are they buying online and why, what prevents them from buying online , what other factors affect their online buying behaviour, does social media have any influence on their buying behaviour. Although very few studies have currently been done on Indian consumer-buying behaviour, and especially on the role of gender, there are indicators that different findings from those from the West may evolve. This paper aims to identify the factors that affect the online buying behaviour of women particularly homemakers in Western suburbs of Mumbai .Educated, urban homemakers form a significant prospect for traditional retailers. The question that arises is whether this segment is also buying online or has remained untapped by the e-retailers? Research has examined the role of different factors on individuals ecommerce adoption, such as geography and store accessibility, perceived risk and online shopping benefits, typology of online stores, enjoyment and trust in Web sites , gender differences in attitudes toward online shopping ,and impact of consumers socio-economic conditions (Sorce, Perotti, and Widrick 2005; Farag et) .Dennis, Morgan, Wright and Jayawardhena in the article, “The influences of social e-shopping in enhancing young women’s online shopping behaviour”, in the Journal of Customer Behaviour states that in the traditional world, women do most of the shopping but online, it is the reverse . Why should this be? Could it be that that online shopping (e-shopping) lacks the social experience of brick and mortar shopping. An empirical study through online survey was conducted on 56 homemakers in western suburbs of Mumbai across the age group of 25-45 yrs. The quantitative and qualitative research aimed to analyse the buying attitudes of homemakers, influence of social media on their buying behaviour and other factors that effect their purchase decision online. It also attempts to explore the brick and mortar buying behaviour vs. online buying behaviour of the target audience. The study has its limitations as the sample size is too small to provide definitive information for marketing strategies to be developed, however it provides cues on which marketers can go into further depth to commission large scale research, given the opportunity that obviously exists.