Analysis of the Prospects of Online Shopping - Research Proposal Example

Research proposal (Online shopping) Contents 2 3 Introduction 3 Literature Review 4 Research Objectives 7 Research philosophies, research approaches and Research Methods 8 Timetable 10 Research ethics and Practical issues related to the research 11 References 12 Title The present position and the future prospects of online shopping as an evolving trend in management and marketing studied from a perspective of the global consumers. Introduction The study will put forward the prospects of online shopping which can replace the traditional formula of door to door shopping in the era to come. Many consumers are showing increasing preference towards buying from the virtual stores rather than from the physical stores especially due to the high degree of convenience associated with this mode of shopping. The major companies in the world are trying to leverage on the fact that a higher percentage of the global population in shifting towards electronic commerce as a major medium of shopping. Therefore, most of the brick and mortar companies have also developed an electronic commerce site to facilitate the online shopping activities of the customers. Also, new companies completely dedicated to the click and buy shopping system have opened up their online websites either by selling their own products or by selling a vast range of products from different sellers across the globe. The advent of these new companies and the entrance of the physical businesses into the online domain have increased the popularity of online shopping. All these factors have created a surge in the demands for electronic commerce and the last few years have seen a boom in the global electronic commerce activities with huge volumes of electronic commerce transactions being conducted by customers across the globe. The development of a highly tech savvy net generation and the increasing trends of electronic buying indicates that online shopping has a huge potential as major business domain in the future and is also likely to emerge as a mainstream consumer buying trend within a very short span of time. In this background, online shopping as a part of marketing and management is a critical area of study with more and more researchers focusing on evaluating and predicting the possible success factors, reasons for popularity and the associated threats and drawbacks of online shopping activities from the perspective of the businesses as well as from the perspective of the global customers. Thesis Statement: The research seeks to investigate the current and the future prospects of online shopping from the consumer’s perspective. Key Terms: Online shopping: Online shopping or electronic commerce is an evolving area of management and is also an area of technology which is becoming exceedingly critical in the modern business world. Marketing: Process of communication regarding a value of a product or service between purchaser and seller. Consumers: The purchasers of the product. Literature Review According to the work of Angehrn (2001), the internet has emerged as a global medium of exchanging and transferring information and of facilitating the communication between vast ranges of interconnected computers across every corner of the globe (Angehrn, 2001, pp.44-48). The World Wide Web has become a major source of new activities and possibilities emerging with the improvement in modern Information and Communication technologies. As identified by Schneider (2008), since the internet offers a number of versatile and quick communication capabilities, it has given rise to an increased level of electronic activities, among which electronic commerce has developed as a mainstream activity among the consumers in different parts of the world (Schneider, 2008, p.50). Online Shopping-Current status Online shopping has received the attention from many companies and consumers as a major form of shopping that is likely to change the trends and styles of shopping by the customers. Choi (2000) has identified that the next generation being extremely oriented to the use of internet for their educational entertainment and social activities, the use of internet has become widespread among most of the people across the globe (Choi, 2000, p.78). The electronic commerce has also emerged a major new mode of shopping facilitated by the access and knowhow of the internet. Internet shopping is considered by many researchers to be the destined future of the popular mode of in home shopping. It can be established from the work of Chaffey (2007) that the high level of sales and profitability generated by the existing online shopping sites are encouraging more companies to enter into this preferable new medium of business (Chaffey, 2007, pp.120-124). According to Carton (2009), the extensive range of price offerings, the associated convenience, the time saving aspect and the robust level of customer services offered by different online stores have influenced more customers to take up online shopping as a replacement of visiting the stores and buying goods form the physical stores (Carton, 2009, p.212). Internet has acted as a major linkage between the global consumers and businesses across various industry domains. According to the work of Ames (2001), online shopping is also gaining popularity among the customers because they are assisted by the internet in every step of their buying process and the internet acting as an important communication medium for the customers which facilitate gathering relevant information about the online shopping sites (Ames, 2001, pp.119-120). This information help the customers in their overall buying process by supporting their comparing and decision making process related to online buying activities. Online shopping has become the major mode of shopping among the shoppers. Babbie and Mouton (1999) have identified that most customers prefer shipping over the internet because access to the internet is wide found and the activity of online shopping is a hassle free and convenient option of getting the order being delivered to the doorsteps of the customer through a simple click on the internet (Babbie and Mouton, 1999, p.150). Also, the online shopping sites have introduced convenience for the customers though the different options of online payment systems including paying from debit card or credit card, net banking as well as cash on delivery or cash before delivery. The range of unique payment systems and different modes of payment helps the customers to buy with ease and encourage the customers to buy from the online websites. Characteristics of online shopping Online shopping is characterised by repeat sales where a customer often becomes dedicated to buy from a preferred website. The electronic consumers have specific buying behaviours like cart abandonment in which they often add products to the cart but leave without completing the transaction. The introduction of suitable payment systems, offers and discounts like easy equal monthly instalments (EMIs) often encourage the customers to buy products as well as services from online shopping sites. Online shopping is fast emerging as major type of consumer buying pattern and has already replaced buying from physical stores to a wide extent. According to Bothma (2008), the technology of online buying is expected to grow multiple times and benefit the customers in different corners of the globe in the future years (Bothma, 2008, pp.60-62). Research Objectives The research objectives of the study include evaluating the importance of online shopping among the consumers as well as from the perspectives of the online businesses. Also, the research aims to answer the potential of online shopping as a major form of marketing in future and the benefits and drawbacks associated with online shopping from the point of view of the customers. The research objectives are designed by keeping in mind the relevant assumptions and limitations associated with online shopping. The research process is aimed to understand the present status of online shopping and the unleashed future potential of the trend of online shopping studied from the perspective of the global consumers. Also, the trend of online shopping in the backdrop of the evolution of online shopping in the last few years is studied to answer the question of the future scopes, customer buying behaviours displayed in online buying and the associated advantages and disadvantages of online shopping which will help in framing the future of online shopping as a mode of buying among the consumers. Therefore, the main research questions are: What are the factors affecting the attitudes and behaviours of the customers in online purchasing? What are the associated benefits and drawbacks of online shopping? What are the proper ways of overcoming the drawbacks related to online shopping? What are the future scopes of online shopping? Research philosophies, research approaches and Research Methods The research philosophy applied will be interpretivism because the research would follow a more qualitative approach than a quantitative approach. Social interpretations and subjective constructions are used as a part of the interpretivism approach for the research. The research is mainly aimed to understand the behaviour of the consumers which is the main factor influencing the future trends of the online shopping activities. Since an inductive approach is taken therefore the interpretivism would be the most suitable philosophy for the research. There may be two major approaches towards conducting a research based study. These two approaches are induction and deduction. The research method carried out after setting up a theory or hypothesis follows an inductive approach whereas if a theory is developed in the beginning followed by the research study then the process is deductive (Bryman and Bell, 2003, p.160). The selected study takes an inductive approach of research in which sufficient secondary data is collected to apply an inductive approach and establish suitable theories related to the study. However some aspects of consumer behaviour related to online buying activities are considered in the research process. The study moves from a general to a more focused approach which is why an inductive approach is more suitable for the research (Creswell, 2003, p.190). The research methods include the collection of quantitative and qualitative data through the use of primary and secondary sources of information. The primary data is collected through the use of focus groups to study the behaviours and attitudes of the customers of online shopping activities. The focus group is used for qualitative analysis of the customer perceptions, views and attitudes that for the underlying principles for consumer behaviour with respect to online shopping. The sample size will range from 50 to 100 and stratified random sampling will be followed. The respondents can be contacted through e-mails or telephones. Separate questionnaires can be made for this purpose. Mostly secondary data related to the consumer buying patterns, the boosts and drops in online site sales, online shopping as a dominant part of the consumer behaviour and the influential factors guiding the online shopping behaviours are collected in order to conduct the research process. Mostly secondary data collection techniques are used to collect relevant information relating to the study. The main sources of secondary data are authentic publications and other literary sources like academic journals, books articles and websites. Research methods can be quantitative research methods and qualitative research methods. As mentioned earlier, the research process includes the use of both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. Quantitative research processes are used to collect and interpret the numerical or quantifiable data associated with online shopping like online sales volumes, number of transactions, conversion of customers, figures of online sales in last few years etc. On the other hand, the qualitative research methods are applied to answer the research questions which apply to the behavioural aspects of the consumers guiding the decision making process of the consumers in the online shopping processes. The quantitative research methods are used to collect and interpret quantifiable data in order to make a statistical and numerical analysis while the qualitative research process is used to understand the abstract behavioural patterns of the consumer behaviour. Both the quantitative and qualitative research approaches are used in this study to have a micro as well as micro view related to the different dynamics of the study. However, the research is mainly based on qualitative research methodologies due to the extensive focus on the customer behaviour and attitudes as a major predictor of the future prospects of online shopping. Timetable The estimated total time required for the project is 10 months which will take up one fourth of the total work time of the researcher. This would be equivalent to 300 working hours dedicated by the researcher in the research process. The timetable of the research is given below in the form of a Gantt chart. Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Identification of area of research Formulation of research objectives Collection of background information Consideration of the options for research Selection of the research methods Implementation of the selected research methods Secondary data collection and setting of assumptions Analysis of the collected data Learning outcomes and findings from the research Research ethics and Practical issues related to the research The practical issues concerning the project are that there may not be sufficient information available from the secondary sources of data. Previous literary works related to consumer behaviour patterns dominating the online shopping behaviours may be less profound as the concept of online shopping is a comparatively newer area of study. It may be difficult to find suitable literary works for consideration with respect to the recent online behaviour patterns displayed in online shopping. Another limitation of the study is that it is difficult to evaluate the dynamics of online shopping because online shopping involves complex and fast changing processes and a complex consumer behaviour underlies the processes of online shopping. Also, the collected data may not provide accurate results with respect to the major factors affecting the online shopping activities. The collected data may not be sufficient for understanding the future potential of online shopping as a major part of management and marketing because of the highly volatile structure and systems underlying the trends of online shopping. Therefore, a lack of sufficient information and the fast evolving and volatile dynamics of the online shopping trends may act as hindrances in attaining the accurate research objectives. Therefore, the practical limitations related to the probable drawbacks and limitations of the research with respect to the selection of research methodologies, selection of sources of data, collection of data and interpretation of the data are taken into consideration while embarking in the research process for the successful and accurate completion of the research work. References Ames, S. 2001. Dot-coms making a comeback. Cape Town: Oxford University Press. Angehrn, A. A. 2001. The Strategic Implication of the Internet. London: Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Information Systems. Babbie, E. & Mouton, J. 1999. The practice of social research in e-commerce. Cape Town: Oxford University Press. Bothma, H. 2008. Managing e-commerce in business. London: Routlegde. Bryman, A. & Bell, E. 2003. Business Research Methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Carton, S. 2009. The Dot. Bomb Survival Guide: Surviving (and Thriving) in the Dot.Com Implosion. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Chaffey, D. 2007. E-business and E-commerce Management: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. New York: Prentice Hall. Choi, K. 2000. The Economics of Electronic Commerce. New Jersey: Macmillan Technical Publications. Creswell, J. W. 2003. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. California: SAGE. Schneider, G. 2008. Electronic Commerce. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Read More