CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR TOWARDS ONLINE SHOPPING

Internet has propelled its diversity over the past few decades with e- commerce constituting about 2.29 trillion dollar market and is expected to reach 4 trillion dollar by the end of 2020. In the past decade, there had been a massive change in the way of customer’s shopping. Despite consumers continuation to buy from a physical store, the users or buyers feel very convenient to online shopping.

Modern generation gives more privilege to online shopping over those traditional methods of shopping because of their hectic schedules.In the twenty-first century, trade and commerce have been so diversified that multi channel has taken place and online shopping has increased significantly throughout the world. With more and more consumers become increasingly familiar with the internet and its benefit, online shopping is becoming popular and getting preference among a group of consumers seeking better value proposition regarding information, convenience, cost, choice. Unlike a physical store, all the goods in online stores described through text, with photos, and with multimedia files. Many online stores provide links for much extra information about their product. On the other hand, some online consumers are keen adventurous explorer, fun seeker, shopping lover, and on the other hand some are technology meddler who are not habitual of waiting for shipment to take place. Consequently, online consumer behavior is a contemporary research area for an increasing number of researchers to understand this unique nature of online shopping.The primary goal of a business is to offer product and services that best serve their consumer needs. A business which fulfills the customer needs with satisfaction very well is more successful than its competitors as satisfied buyers tend to make a repetitive purchase. Online shopping has been evolving fast and has the potential to grow exponentially in times to come, as internet penetration reaches far and wide across the rural areas. However, it is also true that there are people who are traditionally conservative in their approach to online shopping due to modernization and fast-paced life.

Online shopping indicates electronic commerce to buy products or services directly from the seller through the internet. More people than before are using the web to shop for a wide variety of items, from house to shoes to airplane tickets. Now people have multiple options to choose their products and services while they are shopping through an online platform.

Consumer attitudes toward online shopping usually been determined by two factors, one is trust, and another is perceived benefits Therefore, trust and perceived benefits seem to be the critical conjectures of consumer behavior toward online shopping. Moreover, information quality, merchandise attribute, website design, transaction capability, payment, security/privacy, delivery, self-consciousness, state of mind, the consumer’s time sense and customer service are strongly predictive of online shopping satisfaction. On the contrary, brand image and quality of products, goodwill of country of origin also influence significantly on purchase intention of online products. Online data extraction about the products, services along with the historical data for individual customers is ingredient element to choose an online store or make re-purchase decision. Information quality and purchase quality linked with the post-purchase quality are statistically significant in the case of customer satisfaction. Research states that shopping enjoyment can increase the intent of new customers but does not influence customers to return. In fact, the web store which utilizes value-added mechanisms in the search engine and providing customers a challenging experience may increase customers’ shopping enjoyment. Furthermore, if there are more often customers back to the web store, their shopping enjoyment then be determined by their involvement with the product. Also, demographic variables such as age, gender, and level of income play a facilitating role because they influence consumer perception and consumer behavior that drives them towards online shopping. In China, online shopping intention depends on consumers’ age, income, and education as well as marital status most importantly their perceived usefulness. Research found that 62.5% were male, and 37.5% were female online purchasers. Both male and female respondents assured that there are specific reasons for choosing online shopping. 38.75% respondents  mentioned saving time is their primary reason for choosing online shopping and about 29.38% of the interviewees prefer online shopping because of availability of the varieties of products. Nearly, 19% of the respondents prefer online shopping because product comparison is much easier in online shopping and 13.13% choose for a comfortable reason.

Onlineshopping gives consumers the access to the world market, enabling them to compare price across the region and various sites, finding out whether price varies by order fragmentation, get awareness about alternative products. Consequently, the sellers ensure that they portrayed themselves in the cyber world through websites and portals. The sellers like consumers also benefit from the increase and more efficient access to the global market through the internet.The online user typically starts by using email, social networking gradually moves on to browsing for news, information, entertainment, and finally, graduate to do shopping and conducting business online. Today there are more than 7000 e-commerce firms are operating through the website and social media and among these most dominating are chaldal.com, ekhanei.com, bikroy.com, rokomari.com pickaboo.com and daraz.pk, Asanbuy.pk

Time-saving and available varieties of products are the main grounds for shopping online. All these factors motivate an online shopper to buy over the internet. Therefore, companies should design strategies and develop varieties of products to attract and retain online shopper.

WRITER: RAHAYMA RASHID