The Consumer Value from Online Shopping - Research Proposal Example

Research Proposal to Examine the Consumer Value from Online Shopping Internet users perform variety of activities on intern like seeking information, entertainment, communication etc (Schlosser Kanfer p12, 1995). The emergence of Internet and e commerce has given momentum to the concept of online shopping also. Online shopping is “a process consumer goes through to purchase products or services over the Internet from different e-shops, e-stores, Internet shops, web shops, online store, or virtual stores” (Miles, Howes, Davies, p131, 2002). As the trend of e commerce is getting popularity, the satisfaction of the consumers is also becoming an important issue for the businesses, researchers and the consumers. (Wen Hsiung Wu, p527, 1999) however the consumer value attached with the products may varies and play a defining role in the success of online marketing plans. Consumer value basically refers to the satisfaction that the buyers get after purchasing a product (Burke, R., 2002). People belong to different localities and different age groups might have different views about the consumer value from online shopping and to prepare a marketing strategy for people of different ages and localities it is crucial to understand the differences in their thinking because an effective and adequate online marketing plan must cover some essential components like market analysis, marketing strategies specifically for internet, Design and Contents plan for the website and consumer behavior analysis (Wen-Hsiung Wu, p527, 1999) This paper proposes a research through a combination of qualitative and quantitative method aiming at exploring the consumer value attached with the products shopped online so that a marketing plan could be presented for the products intended to sell via internet. Problem Statement/Research Question To present a marketing plan for the online selling of products while keeping in view the consumer value that people of different age groups get from online shopping Need for the Research Along with the spread of internet the trend of shopping online is also rising steadily (Andrade, E., 2000) and in this context it is very necessary to understand that how much the consumers are getting value for the products that they shop online. The understanding of this issue is crucial because in the highly competitive market place of today, internet has emerged as an effective marketing tool (Miles, Howes, Davies, p131, 2002) but to run the businesses online it is very necessary to have deep insight of the behaviors and psychographics of the online buyers so that marketing strategies could be designed according to the consumer behaviors. Berthon, Pitt, Watson (1996) discovered that online consumer is not an easy target for the marketers. and to be successful the marketing plan must possess the value factor as a leading device that should be used in the advertisements, promotional messages, information about the products etc and the value should be expressed in a way that the consumer can notice the value attached with the product. Before designing a marketing plan for online shopping it is again very important that there should be a comprehensive research that unfolds all the issues that how the people belonging to different age groups people view the idea of shopping online, how they are attracted towards products online and how do they view the product value that they shop online (Ducoffe, p43, 1996). In this regard it is also important to understand the thinking style and opinions of the people belonging to different age groups like teen 15-20, 21-29, 30-39, and 40 and above. Hence in this study opinions will be gathered from the people belonging to these different groups so that their behavior could be interpreted in the marketing plan. Research Objectives There are following main objectives of the research To understand the role and importance of consumer value of products attached with online shopping To understand consumer behavior of online users in order to get an insight of their perspective regarding the product value of online sold goods To understand the difference in the perception of the people belonging to different age groups To collect the opinions of the people belonging to different age group regarding their view of consumer value from shopping online To present a marketing plan for the selling of product online Research Design The study will be conducted through a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methodology because it can bring higher level of credibility and validity. Johnson and Onwuegbuzie (p14, 2004) revealed that “Mixed Method kind of research draws upon the strengths of both quantitative and qualitative analysis, which enables the researcher to draw upon several methodologies in measuring the variables of the study”. The study will present a review of the related available secondary material to present the qualitative analysis of the issue moreover interviews will be conducted to get the quantitative support for the research findings. The solution to the problem statement will be obtained by analyzing and interpreting the findings of both secondary and primary research. Sources for Data Collection The data for the research will be collected through interviews that will be conducted through a structured questionnaire that will be distributed among the respondents by post to achieve geographical feasibility and to access a large sample of people. People were send the questionnaires prior to the actual interviews to allow them get prepare for the interviews. The actual interviews will be conducted via telephone or internet after deciding with the interviewee. Mostly the close ended questions will be included in the questionnaire to get statistical quantitative results for the study. The sample for the questionnaire will be drawn by using telephone directory of the city and every the people will be randomly selected from each area so that every are can get representation and then people from different age group will be contacted from these areas. Moreover the review of the secondary literature will also be conducted and information will be gathered through different secondary resources including journals, magazines, books, research reports, electronic journals, newspapers and web portals. Research Structure The dissertation will be divided in to following chapters Introduction: This chapter will introduce the main concept and theme of the dissertation and along with providing background information about the issue, this chapter will also describe the need and significance of conducting the study. Literature Review: The early researched done around this topic will be reviewed in the section to get some qualitative information about the topic. Research Methodology: This chapter will provide complete information about the methods selected for conducting the research; the research questions, research type and sources for data collection. Moreover this chapter will also explain the sampling frame for the interviews and the construction of the questionnaire for conducting the interviews. Research Results: The data collected through the interviews will be collected and calculated in this section to provide statistical results, also the opinions gathered through the open-ended questions will be put together to draw some combines views. Analysis and Discussion: In this chapter the results of the study will be analyzed and the information gather through the review of the secondary literature will also be interpreted along with the primary findings to discuss different aspects of the topic. Presentation of Marketing Plan: In the light of the analysis and discussion of the research findings, finally the dissertation will present a marketing plan that will be designed while keeping in view the entire issues and their solutions rose during the research study. Conclusion: The entire research study will be summarized is this chapter to provide concrete information that what the study was aimed at, how the objective are achieved, what are the limitations of the study, what are the final results and what is the answers obtained for the research question that enabled to design a marketing plan. Proposed References The study will be conducted after getting complete understanding of the related issues and for this purpose following books and material will be accessed: Andrade, E. —identifying discriminating variables of online and offline buyers: A perceived-risk approach, “Proceedings of the 6th Americas Conference on Information Systems, 2000, pp. 1386-1392 B. Cude and M. Morganosky, 2000. "Online Grocery Shopping: An Analysis of Current Opportunities and Future Potential," Consumer Interests Annual, volume 46, pp. 95-100 Berg, B. (1989), Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, p57 Bowman, C. and Ambrosini, U. (2000) Value creation versus value capture: Towards a coherent definition of value in strategy. British Journal of Management 11, 1-15. Burke, R. (2002) Technology and the customer interface: What customers want in the physical and virtual store? Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 30 (4), 411- 432 Brynjolfsson, E. and Smith, M (2000), “Frictionless Commerce? A Comparison of internet and Conventional Retailers Management Science” Vol. 46, No. 4, pp. 563–585, April 2000 Berthon, P., L. F. Pitt, and R. T. Watson (1996), “The World Wide Web as An Advertising Medium,” Journal of Advertising Research, 36(1), 43-55 Choudhury, A.; Mallick, D. N., and Rao, H. R. —Web channels in e-commerce, “Communications of the ACM (44:1), 2001, pp.99-104 Chaudhuri, A., & Buck, R. (1995). The Elaboration Likelihood Model: A basic Framework. Human Communication Research21, 422-41 Christy M. K. Cheung, Matthew K. O. Lee (2006), Understanding consumer trust in Internet shopping: A multidisciplinary approach, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Volume 57 ,  Issue 4  (February 2006), Pages: 479 – 492, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.   New York, NY, USA Ducoffe, R. H. (1996). “Advertising value and Advertising on the Web.” Journal of Advertising Research, 36,p 43-55 Eighmey, J. —profiling user responses to commercial Web sites, “Journal of Advertising Research (37:3), 1997, pp. 59-66 Han, H., Ocker, R., and Fjermestad, J. —An investigation of university students‘ on-line shopping behavior,‘ Proceedings of the 7th Americas Conference on Information Systems, 2001, pp.930-933 Haubl, G., and Trifts, V. —Consumer decision making in online shopping environments: the effects of interactive decision aids,“Marketing Science (19:1), 2000, pp. 4-21 Muthitacharoen, A. (1999), Investigating consumer’s attitude toward Internet shopping, “Proceedings of the 5th Americas Conference on Information Systems, pp. 532-534 Marquez, F. T. (1997). “Advertising Content: Persuasion, Information or Intimidation?” Journalism Quarterly, 54(3), 482-491. Miles, G. E., Howes, A., and Davies, A. —A framework for understanding human factors in web-based electronic commerce, “International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (52:1). 2000, pp. 131-163 Oz, E. (2004). Management Information Systems (2nd Ed.), Cambridge, PA: The Pennsylvania State University, Great Valley, p34 Wen-Hsiung Wu (1999), Antecedents of Customer Satisfaction on the Internet: An Empirical Study of Online Shopping, Proceedings of the Thirty-second Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences-Volume 5 - , Page: 5027, IEEE Computer Society   Washington, DC, USA, ISBN:0-7695-0001-3 Yin, R. (1994), Case study research: Design and methods (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishing Yang, Z. and Peterson, R. (2004) Customer perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty: The role of switching costs. Psychology & Marketing 29 (10), 799-822. Work Cited Andrade, E. —identifying discriminating variables of online and offline buyers: A perceived-risk approach, “Proceedings of the 6th Americas Conference on Information Systems, 2000, pp. 1386-1392 Burke, R. (2002) Technology and the customer interface: What customers want in the physical and virtual store? Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 30 (4), 411- 432 Johnson, R. B. & Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2004), Mixed Methods Research: A Research Paradigm Whose Time Has Come. Educational Researcher, 33 (7), 14-26 Lee, E.-J. and Overby, J. W. (2004) Creating value for online shoppers: Implications for satisfactions and loyalty, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior (17), 54-67 Miles, G. E., Howes, A., and Davies, A. —A framework for understanding human factors in web-based electronic commerce, “International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (52:1). 2000, pp. 131-163 Schlosser, A. E. and A. Kanfer (1995), Current Advertising On The Internet: The Benefits and Usage of Mixed-Media Advertising Strategies. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois, p12-19 Wen-Hsiung Wu (1999), Antecedents of Customer Satisfaction on the Internet: An Empirical Study of Online Shopping, Proceedings of the Thirty-second Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences-Volume 5 - , Page: 527, IEEE Computer Society Washington, DC, USA, ISBN:0-7695-0001-3 Read More