Online Shopping Behaviour of Customers in Tier III Cities of India: A Study of Bareilly Region.

Today, internet has developed to a highly competitive market. The size of e-commerce market in India is worth around Rs 9,500 crore, out of which the pure play online shopping market is worth Rs 1,300 crore. While online shopping globally is growing at around 8-10%, in India the growth rate is upwards of 30%. With the growing importance of the online retail industry in India, it becomes imperative for Eretailers and internet marketers to understand the determinants of online purchase behaviour of customers to understand what is important to the Indian online customer. Purpose: The main purpose of the research is to understand the behavior of customer while purchasing online and to analyze the impact of various demographic factors that affect the behaviour of online shoppers in India. Design/methodology/approach: A broad range of published works in the field of online retail industry especially in India have been reviewed to analyze the factors behind increase in growth of the industry. The author also conducted an empirical study which uses primary data collected through survey of 220 online shoppers. A structured-non-disguised questionnaire has been employed for collecting the information from the respondents about their demographics, security and privacy concerns, technological familiarity, past online shopping experiences and intentions to buy various types of products through internet in future. The collected data was analyzed with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS18.0) for windows. Practical Implications: Study findings entail interesting implications for the marketers. They need to give adequate attention to consumer characteristics while designing their e-marketing strategies. Online marketers should target their products to young and more educated customers earning higher income and ensure about the high security of personal information of customers and financial transactions along with providing good experience of online shopping so that customer may continue purchasing online in future also. Major findings: The findings of the study indicate that customer online purchase behaviour is significantly related to their gender, education, age, and income. It is found that both the gender are likely to purchase goods/services online with same frequency. People who have higher income are more engaged in purchasing goods over internet. As per the results of the study, it is found that convenience, perceived usefulness of medium, internet expertise; product risk, security risk, convenience risk, non-delivery risk and return/shipment policy are the factors which influenced the decision of customers while purchasing online. Originality/value: The framework of the research enhances understanding of the factors affecting customer online shopping behaviour, helps in profiling typical Indian online shoppers and may help e-marketers developing more specific marketing strategies to increase e-commerce sales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]