Online Shopping and Traditional Shopping Behavior - Research Proposal Example

Comparisons Between Online Shopping and Traditional Shopping Behavior Exploring Foreign Students’ Satisfaction about Smartphone in the UK Table of contents Introduction 2 Statement of the problem 2 Research objectives 3 General 3 Specific 3 Literature review 4 Advantages of online shopping 5 Disadvantages of online shopping 6 Consumer needs and expectations 6 According to Forrester Research (May 17, 2011), online shopping is highly considered in UK because of its convenient and a broader selection as well as a good opportunity to get more information describing the goods and services. It has great advantages not only on the consumers but also on the suppliers and manufactures, the only expenses are on creating the websites and delivering the commodities to the consumers. 8 Shopping cart systems 8 Research design and methodology 9 Target population 9 Data collection procedures 9 Questionnaires 10 Hypothesis of the study 10 Scope and limitation of the study 11 Post purchase behavior 11 Conclusion 12 Bibliography 13 Introduction Online shopping is a kind of electronic commerce in which the consumers buy goods and services from the source through the internet in the absence of an intermediary service. These shops are referred to as: E-store, Online shop, E-shop, Internet shop, Webstore, Virtual store and Online store. There are two common kinds of online shopping: business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B) online shopping. There are high volumes of websites which provide online shopping websites, for example Yahoo, Amazon and eBay all presented in an integrated navigation framework. A collection of many e-Stores are known as online marketplaces or virtual shopping malls. The online shopping stores are preferred than the traditional shops especially by the foreign students in UK. The study is aimed to discover whether the above hypothesis is true. Statement of the problem With the increased activities in the learning institutions as well as the rapid changes in the lifestyle of the young people especially in United Kingdom, the marketing techniques are advancing to meet the expectations of the students in UK. It is therefore assumed that these young people are opting for the online shopping instead of the traditional system of shopping facilitated by diverse use of Iphone. This study is investigating the comparison between the systems of shopping and the most preferred by the foreign students. Research objectives General The general objective of the study is to find the comparisons between online and traditional shopping behavior through the exploration of foreign student’s satisfaction about smart phone in the UK. Specific There are a number of specific objectives which will guide in the attainment of the aims and goals of the research work. These include: To understand whether or not foreign students consider online or traditional shopping To identify whether or not foreign students in UK shop online The determine the major services which are bought by the consumers in both traditional and online shopping To find out the motivation influencing the shopping post-purchase behavior of people in UK Literature review Tim Berners- Lee created the first World Wide server and browser which was later opened for commercial use the following year. In 1994 much advancement like online banking and an online pizza shop by Pizza Hut were implemented. German company Intershop also introduced its online system of shopping. The other marketers like Amazon and eBay launched their online shops later. All the students are active and heavy users of internet thus any activity taking place online has become part of their lifestyle. In UK, college students spent most of their money online than any other demographic group. The foreign students spend their holidays making money to spend when they resume their semesters (Falk, Sockel & Chen, 2005). The higher levels of education, occupation of head of household and income in The United Kingdom correspond positively to the perceptions of this form of shopping. The increased exposure to technology with the increase in the number of computers and other internet accessory devices has facilitated the development of favorable perceptions of these new channels of shopping (Palmer, 2007). In December last year, the study of Equation Research found that 87% of tablet users were mostly interested with the online shopping especially during the early season of their holiday. The foreign students in United Kingdom have embraced this form of shopping especially because they are new to the place and not aware of the traditional shopping joints. They also prefer it because different variety of goods and services are displayed on a single website hence it is easier to compare their prices and quality without having to spend a lot of time and energy walking around. The students find the products they are interested with by visiting the websites of the retailer directly from the shopping search engine. Majority of the online sellers consider the shopping cart software for the shoppers to hoard multiple items or change the quantity that they want. This is followed by a checkout process whereby the payment and delivery information is agreed. These shoppers open a permanent account thus their particulars are stored thus limiting the amount of time spent. These shoppers are required to pay their commodities using credit cards although majority of the students in UK prefer billing because they use the Smart phones. This helps to minimize the risks of carrying cash in bulk. Advantages of online shopping The following are some of the benefits which distinguish online from traditional shopping systems. Convenience: The system is available 24 hours a day and almost every student can access internet in school or at home by use of their smart phones thus they can order for commodities any time (Bluschke, 2011). Information and reviews: good description of goods and services is available through texts, photos or multimedia files. Some sites also give opportunity for the customers to comment on the item thus expressing their feeling on the products. Prices and selection: it is easier for the online shoppers to compare the prices of comparative products on different websites. The commodities sold on e-Stores are cheaper than those on online stores because of the reduced costs of marketing and distribution (Stone & Desmond, 2007). Fast and convenient: it is possible for the students to carry out online shopping as well as other duties because they are not expected to be physically present at the stores. Instead of walking to the stores the students can spend time doing other duties (Gay, Charlesworth & Esen, 2007). Disadvantages of online shopping Fraud and security concerns: it is not possible to inspect the merchandise before purchasing thus the online shoppers are at fraud than traditional shoppers. The students shopping online may use stolen credit cards although the Secure Sockets Layer encryption is introduced to tackle the issue of interception of the numbers of credit cards. The problem steals exists when the hackers access the accounts and steals addresses, names and numbers of cards. This is common when the shoppers lose their Smartphone (Jarvis & Yull, 2005). Privacy: this is an issue with the websites which retains tracks of habits of the shoppers so as to leave their comment on personal opinions. Anyone visiting the website is able to access this information thus there is no privacy. Lack of full cost disclosure: most of the prices indicated on products are not the final because they do not include other charges like delivery. The shoppers are disappointed on the last stage of purchasing goods online because they mostly make unwise decision on the commodities to purchase guided by the prices indicated and end up paying more than expected. Consumer needs and expectations The success of meeting the needs and expectations of the online shoppers depends on the type of website. The online sellers consider and understand the customer’s wants and needs so as to live up to the promises as well as offer them the reasons to shop online so as to satisfy their expectations. They ensure that the information on the websites communicates to the consumers that the manufacturing companies and personnel cares about them. The needs and expectations of the students in UK differs based on their Gender, Experience and culture as well as interests in their career and professional world. The interests of the foreign students is depended on the cultures of their original countries as well as the needs of their career, for example, the cultures of the Japanese may force them to consider their privacy thus they prefer having their personal accounts to shop online they are particularly emotionally involved on the sites of financial pension (Huang, 2000). The students with more experience on online shopping mostly lay their focus on the variables which are likely to have direct influence on their individual tasks especially on the academic and social life while minority of the population focus on acquiring the information provided on the websites. According to Ian & Gralla (2001), the marketers on the online businesses are able to capture the attention of the shoppers by well designing, defining, implementing and maintaining their e-stores thus the students do not get back to the traditional shopping systems. It is easier to lose the clients for example if the sellers do not consider common etiquette like efficiently replying the emails or being honest in their deals. The success of the common online shopping in UK is associated with the fact that the marketers have well researched on the interests and expectations of the shoppers and considering them in their market plan. The shopping sites are made ease to use by considering user-friendly features (Bigne E, 2005). The exercise of usability testing is regularly done with the intention of finding out the possible problems and making the necessary improvements on the site. The mostly considered evaluation methods include: heuristic evaluation, cognitive walk through as well as user testing. According to Forrester Research (May 17, 2011), online shopping is highly considered in UK because of its convenient and a broader selection as well as a good opportunity to get more information describing the goods and services. It has great advantages not only on the consumers but also on the suppliers and manufactures, the only expenses are on creating the websites and delivering the commodities to the consumers. The designers of the online shops are concern about the information loaded for the commodities on market. The information displayed for the commodities is the spatial and temporal arrangements of stimuli in the e-shop (Steve and Fowell, 323–336). Different from the traditional shop, the information environment of an online shop is improved by the provision of extra information of products especially with the comparative goods and services like books. Payment of the online shoppers is a bit tricky especially for the foreign students because some of the sites do not recognize international credits cards but might require the buyer’s address of billing and shipping to be in the country that the sites does its business (Krug, 2009). After the payments are made, the commodities can be delivered through various ways like: downloading, in-store pick, drop shipping, printing, shipping or will-call. Shopping cart systems The online shops are created as HTML graphics and files which can be uploaded into a web space. These allow the users to create and register an online account on a portal which hosts majority of online shops at the same time. The packages of shopping carts includes an advanced platforms like the interchange and other solutions which are off the shelf like Satchmo, Avactis, Magento and many others (Kornum & Bjerre, 2005). Research design and methodology Research design The research design will be in form of group survey. The effectiveness of this design will lie in the fact that the respondent (students in UK) will be in a position to release the required information for the study. A sample of the 250 students from UK, both local and foreign will be used and the findings will be used to distinguish the shopping behaviors of the two groups.The sampled students will also be required to fill in a structured questionnaire as well as respond to face to face interview questions. Target population The target population of the study is students of United Kingdom which is estimated to 250 and grouped in four. Data collection procedures Data will be collected from both primary and secondary sources. Questionnaires and interviews will be considered to gather the primary data while books, journals, magazines and periodicals containing the relevant information will considered. The sampled group will be divided into four focus groups, each group will be required to carry out both online and traditional shopping and give their views on each system. They will also be expected to answer the questionnaires and interview questions on the system that they prefer and the advantages and demerits of each. Questionnaires The questionnaires will be formulated with relevant questions based on the research objectives. They will be self administered and divided into sections, both open ended and closed ended questions. They will be similar for all the focus groups. The interview questions will also be well structured so as to capture and maintain the attention of the interviewee as well as facilitate them to give relevant response. Hypothesis of the study These are some of the assumptions which will guide the researcher to carry out the study. The researcher will work to justify whether these assumptions are true or false. Students in UK prefer spending their free time shopping Students prefer shopping online than through the traditional system Online shopping is more advantageous than traditional Majority of the students use Smartphone to shop online Scope and limitation of the study The research study will be carried out only to 250 students in UK and majority of them would be foreigners. The limitation of this study pertains to the fact that upon completion of the research, the findings will be generalized to all the students especially the foreigners from any origin seeing that only a small percentage would be analyzed. There would be need to carry out a further study to involve more students for absolute generalization. The researchers would encounter some problems like lack of commitments from the respondents thus they are not likely to achieve the expected results. It would be difficult to gather representatives of students from all walks of world for absolute findings. Lack of enough finances would also be an issue. The funds are required for transport, buying stationeries like books, printing materials for questionnaires. This means that if the sponsorship is not enough, the researchers may be forced to borrow. The time allocated for the study may not be enough compared to the activities to be undertaken. The study requires enough time for data collection; primary and secondary as well as time to do the analysis for better findings. However despite of the inadequate time the researchers are expected to work hard to meet the deadline for the completion. Post purchase behavior This is that which drives the students to purchase goods and services online. According to the response of students in the focus groups, there are many factors which influence them to make the choices of the goods and services that they buy online. The figure below shows the factors and how they follow each other. Conclusion It is assumed that most of the students in UK prefer online shopping due to the advancements in styles of living with the rapid changes in technology. The major services that they shop online are lectures and financial services like bank accounts and credit cards. Others are for the leisure times like movies, games and music. The factors influencing the shopping post-purchase behavior of people in UK includes: problem or individual needs, information search on commodities, evaluation of purchase options and wise decisions of commodities to be purchased. The study above is carried out to research on the comparisons between online and traditional shopping behavior exploring foreign students’ satisfaction about Smartphone in the UK. Bibliography Palmer, Kimberly, 2007, News & World Report. Ian E & Gralla P, 2001, Complete Idiots Guide To Online Shopping Uk 2001 Pearson Education, London. Krug, S, 2009, Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Pearson, London. Huang, M., 2000, Information load: its relationship to online exploratory and shopping behavior: International Journal of Information Management 20: 337–347 Czerniawska, F. & May, P, 2004, Management consulting in practice: award-winning international case studies, Kogan Page, Cambridge Forrester Research, Understanding Online Shopper Behaviors, US 2011, May 17, 2011 Falk K., Sockel H., & Chen K, 2005, "E-Commerce and Consumer's Expectations: What Makes a Website Work.": Journal of Website Promotion, 1(1) (65–75) Ross, D, Shamieh, C & McComb G., 2010, Electronics For Dummies® John Wiley & Sons, London. Bluschke N., 2011, Factors Influencing Consumers' Intention to Purchase Clothing Online, GRIN Verlag, Birmingham. Stone M. & Desmond J., 2007, Fundamentals of Markets: A Critical Evaluation, Taylor & Francis, Bristol. Bigne, Enrique, 2005, "The Impact of Internet User Shopping Patterns and Demographics on Consumer Mobile Buying Behavior". Journal of Electronic Commerce Research Gay R., Charlesworth A. & Esen R., 2007, Online marketing: a customer-led approach, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Jarvis A. & Yull S., 2005, Applied ICT: AS level for Edexcel, Heinemann, Birmingham. Steve Elliot and Sue Fowell, "Expectations versus reality: a snapshot of consumer experiences with Internet retailing", International Journal of Information Management 20 (2000): 323–336 Kornum, N. & Bjerre M., 2005, Grocery e-commerce: consumer behaviour and business strategies, Edward Elgar Publishing, England. Read More