Impacts of online shopping

as perceived by the Indian

consumer

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Submitted by

Adya- 176801
Divya Rajan- 176807
Shivanshi Mahapatra- 176826
Shruti Soman- 176828
Somya Rustagi- 176829

Abstract

The aim of this research paper “IMPACTS OF ONLINE SHOPPING AS PERCEIVED BY THE INDIAN
CONSUMER” is to summarize and present the opinions and impacts of online shopping as perceived by a
customer, an as individual as well as in a whole. The purpose is to examine and analyze the impact of online
shopping on consumers by considering its positive and negative aspects. We began by collecting opinions of
the average consumer through a survey of 163 respondents, which contained the demographic details as well
as the aspects which affect the choice of customers. Then we analyzed each question through graphical
examination and the statements were analyzed through the Likert scale and the conclusion was drawn. The
study resulted in specifying that online shopping has more or less a neutral impact as perceived by consumers
i.e. it contained both negative and positive points. The survey was done taking a heterogeneous sample of the
population.

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Index

Contents
Introduction

 Emergence of E-commerce
 When did it come to India?
 Brief history of E-commerce sector or online shopping

Literature Review

 Past researches done by 7 authors on the topic and the related studies

Rationale behind the study

 Why did we choose this topic?

Research question

Data and Methodology

 Questionnaire of the survey

 Statements explanation
 Likert scale

Result and data analysis

 Graphical analysis of the demographic details

 Likert scale statement wise analysis
 Descriptive statistics

Conclusion

References

 Sites used and research papers

Appendix

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Introduction
Emergence of E-Commerce

Technology has reached new advents over the last few decades, especially in India, which, being a developing
economy with a large population, offers a vast consumer base to both domestic and international players
looking for markets. E-commerce is one of many arenas where domestic and international players (like Flipkart
and Amazon, to name a few) are taking advantage of the Indian market. This paper, however, focuses on the
Indian consumers – their response to online shopping (of both products and services) in the current scenario,
their views and opinions, and whether they possess a positive or negative attitude towards this promising entrant
into the Indian market – rather than the sellers. It is, after all, the consumers that decide the potential success or
failure of any new step in the economy. Hence, it is foremost to study what impacts the Indian consumers have
faced in today’s emerging economy, with respect to online shopping and the e-commerce sector.

When did it come to India?

E-Commerce was first introduced in India in 1999 when Rediff added online shopping to its portal. After
Rediff, India Times entered the e-commerce market but both the companies failed to convince the country to
shop online. In 2000, Baazee.com had a flawless market place model where users could buy and sell pre-owned
products. It was later acquired by the e-commerce giant eBay. In the following years MakeMyTrip.com,
Yatra.com and BookMyShow.com established their business in India.

Brief history of E-commerce sector or online shopping

India first came into interaction with the online E-Commerce via the IRCTC in 2002. The government of India
experimented this online strategy to make it convenient for its public to book the train tickets. Hence, the
government came forward with the IRCTC Online Passenger Reservation System, which for the first time
encountered the online ticket booking from anywhere at any time. This was a boon to the common people as
now they don’t have to wait for long in line, faced no issues of wastage of time during unavailability of the
trains. There was also no burden on the ticket bookers, along with other advantages.

After the unpredicted success of the IRCTC, the online ticket booking system was followed by the airlines.
Airline Agencies encouraged web booking to save the commission given to agents and thus in a way made a
major population of the country to try E- Commerce for the first time. Today, the booking system is not just
limited to the transportation rather hotel bookings, bus bookings etc. are being done using the websites like
MakeMyTrip.com and Yatra.com.

Given this brief history of the entrance of e-commerce into the Indian market, we can deduce that overall, it has
been a success story. India is a very promising market – only 500 million people (of the total population of over
1.3 billion – only about 37%) have access to the internet, out of which just about 120 million people use any
form of online shopping (as of 2018). At the rate at which India’s economy is growing, we can accept a boom in
online shopping of all kinds in the coming years. All of this obviously depends on how well – or not – the
consumers receive e-commerce and its advancements.

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Literature review

There were many past research works done on the impact of online shopping or E-commerce on the behavior of
consumers in an economy by various and well-known authors. Some of their works are mentioned below-

RANJAN RICHA and SINGH and ANKUR KUKRETI (2018) – effect of online shopping on consumer
buying behavior –

This study investigated numerous factors that impact buyer's behavior during online purchase at any E-
commerce business site. In this paper author had used Exploratory Factor Analysis to determine the factor that
put a significant impact on customer buying behavior during online purchase. Under this repost authors had
examined 20 factors and tried to find out their impact on buying behavior by the means of a self-designed
questionnaire. Author examined 200 potential online customers with respect to trust and innovation and their
mentalities furthermore, expectations to shop online at specific sites. They found that Customer benefits, Fast
economic and secured purchase, Trend with technology, Easy availability were showing significant impact on
consumer buying behavior.

DEEPJYOTI CHOUDHURY and ABHIJIT DEY (2014) – online shopping attitude among the youth-a study
on university students-

Online shopping has become a new trend of shopping nowadays and is quickly becoming an important part of
lifestyle. Due to wide spread internet access by people and e-commerce usage by traders, online shopping has
seen a massive growth in recent years. Young people have been the majority shoppers online and thus this study
finds out the attitude of youth towards online shopping. This particular paper attempted to find out whether
there is any impact of five factors like internet literacy, gender, educational qualification, website usability and
online product price on online shopping. The study was undertaken among the students of Assam University.
The results of the study highlighted that there is a significant relationship of online shopping with gender,
internet literacy, and online product price. Similarly the study also highlighted that there is no significant
relationship of online shopping with education and website usability.

KANUPRIYA and DR. RITA and ANUPREET KAUR (2016) – a study on behavior of consumers towards
online shopping-

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, refers to the buying and selling of products or services
over electronic systems such as the internet and other computer networks. Internet is the rapidest growing media
during the past decade. Especially, online shopping is a rapidly growing ecommerce area. Online stores are
usually available 24 hours a day, and many consumers have internet access both at work and at home. A
successful web store is not just a good-looking website with dynamic technical features, listed in many search
engines. This study aimed to establish a preliminary assessment, evaluation and understanding of the
characteristics of online shopping. An effort has been made to investigate online consumer behavior, which in
turn provides E-marketers with a constructional framework for fine-tuning their E-businesses’ strategies.

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MUHAMMAD UMAR SULTAN and MD NASIR UDDIN (2011) – consumer’s attitude towards online
shopping –

This study involves study of consumer’s attitudes towards online shopping and specifically studying the factors
influencing consumers to shop online. The sample size selected for this research is 100 and used convenience
sampling technique. Their findings indicated that among the four factors selected for this research the most
attractive and influencing factor for online shoppers in Gotland is Website Design/Features, following
convenience the second most influencing and thirdly time saving. Results showed that security is of important
concern among online shoppers in Gotland. The research found that there are some other factors which
influence online shoppers including, less price, discount, feedback from previous customers and quality of
product. For the second research question i.e. who are online shoppers in term of demography: the correlation
results for the age and attitudes towards online shopping has showed that elderly people are not so keen to shop
online. Whereas for education it is concluded that higher education makes online shopping less attractive, for
the income the correlation results are weak.

DR. GAGANDEEP NAGRA and DR. R. GOPAL (2013) – a study of factors affecting on online shopping
behavior of consumers –

This research paper has used Qualitative and Quantitative research methods to study the impact of Demographic
factors of consumers on on-line shopping parameters like satisfaction with on-line shopping, future purchase
intention, frequency of on-line shopping, numbers of items purchased, and overall spend on on-line shopping.
The data was collected through Questionnaires. The results of study reveal that on-line shopping in India is
significantly affected by various Demographic factors like age, gender, marital status, family size and income.
The results of the study could be further used by the researchers and practitioners for conducting future studies
in the similar area.

DEVENDERA AGARWAL (2014) – E-commerce: true Indian picture –

This research paper talked about the insight of e-commerce and highlights the present scenario of e-commerce
in India. It presents the surfing pattern of Indian public, to give the critical review on truth of various reports
being published from time to time. It also critically analyses the e-commerce with major focus on electronic
commerce. The paper concluded that potential for growth of e-commerce in India is tremendous. They have
also seen that amount of interest that is there for travel industry is not seen in other services. Professional e-
commerce, websites are doing excellent job but what are the factors that are inhibiting users from purchasing
online need to be ascertained.

SHEBAZBANO SALIM KHAN and S.N. BORHADE and MAINUDDIN S. SHAIKH (2016) – impact of
E-commerce on Indian market: social and economic impact –

This research paper is about how Electronic commerce (e-commerce) as part of IT insurrection became major
part in the world deal in general and Indian economy in exacting. The Paper discovers the economic and social
impact of e-commerce.

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AFFREENARA and DR. KISHORE KUMAR DAS (2015) – growth of E-commerce in India –

This research paper is about E-commerce has become one of the highest growing business, with India having
great market potential for investments. There has been huge surge in investment since and more is expected in
coming years. The rapid growth in use of mobile and internet users has facilitated e-commerce business in both
urban and rural cities. The topics covered includes the terms study of commerce, key drivers of growth, market
growth potential, investment, retail market, logistics infrastructure, internet regulations, key challenges and
future of ecommerce.

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Rationale behind the study
The purpose of this research paper is to study the impact of online shopping as perceived by the Indian
consumer. Over the last 10 years, the way of buying and selling of goods and services has been altered by the
internet. With the stable growth of Indian economy in the last decade, living standard of Indians has also gone
up considerably. Along with wider internet access, easy and safer online payment options and above all, the
feature of Cash on Delivery, contributed to the rapid growth of online commerce in India. E-commerce has
transformed the way business is done in India. It has the potential to reshape the Indian economy by the next
decade.

However, these speculations all depend on the consumers. Usage of smartphones has increased manifold in the
Indian population, giving people more and more access to tons of online sites that have acknowledged the
potential of a digital market in India. India is already the world’s second largest smartphone user market in the
world after China, with more than 300 million users. Smartphone penetration in India looks set to rise further,
given the government’s policy of raising digital literacy and internet access.

At the same time, the government has cautiously opened up its retail and e-commerce sectors to FDI
participation. Given these factors, and notwithstanding the existing retail FDI restrictions and entry barriers,
India presents plenty of business opportunities to major global and domestic companies that are prepared to tap
into the country’s booming e-commerce market, by jumping on the online sales bandwagon and/or leveraging
the online platforms that are emerging there.

Thus, it is important to recognize the mentality and attitude of present-day consumers towards online shopping
and e-commerce in general. Today, a majority of the population uses online platforms for one or the other kind
of service – shopping for clothes, grocery, home appliances, food items, travel bookings etc. What is the
temperament of the consumers behind each purchase they make online? Do they trust the sites completely? Or
do they still have some inhibitions? Are they comfortable sharing their personal details online? Have they
welcomed e-commerce into the economy with open arms? Or is the majority of the population still embedded in
the history of conventional shopping habits in India?

We hope to find the answers to some of these questions – and some more – at the end of this paper.

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Research question
Research question – What are the major impacts of online shopping as perceived by consumers, given
its positives and negative aspects?

As we all know, online shopping’s craze is increasing day by day, but also causing considerable harm to the
local economy, not only because it results in losses to the local retailers but also because the revenue is
collected by the international companies and does not get added up in the local economy. However, this paper
focuses on how the consumers perceive the dawn of online shopping. Everything has some positives and
negatives, which is the same in case of online shopping.

 Online shopping has many benefits –

Convenience- the major reason that attracts people towards online shopping is that it is convenient in terms of
time, payment etc.

Better prices- the products are provided at lesser price and feature better deals as compared to the retail stores.

More variety- there is a wide variety of products that helps the customer make better choices.

Easy price comparison- online shopping makes it easier to compare the products in terms of prices, offers and
the reviews given by other customers.

Easy return, cancellation and exchange policies- these policies enable the customers to shop, book tickets,
order food etc. more freely.

 It has certain disadvantages as well –

Lack of tangibility- one cannot touch or closely examine the product before buying it.

Lack of interactivity- it does not allow further price negotiations between sales attendant and customers.

Fraud in online shopping- online shopping can result in frauds on payments or delivery of products as people
share their account details for shopping.

And not just these, there are many other aspects of online shopping – both positive and negative – which are
considered by the consumers while making any purchase online. It is hoped that all these aspects have been
measured while answering the questions in the survey to determine the impact of online shopping as perceived
by the customers.

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Data and methodology
Questionnaire of the survey

The research paper makes use of a questionnaire that asks for some basic demographic details, as well as
consumers’ opinions on various aspects of online shopping. Qualitative data has been used to gather consumers’
opinions, which has later been analyzed using the Likert Scale. Following is a copy of the questionnaire that had
been passed around for the paper:

Online shopping survey

A questionnaire on the impact of online shopping on consumers.

* Required

Name

1. Age * Mark only one oval.

15-25 years

25-35 years

35-45 years

45 years and above

2. Gender * Mark only one oval.

Male

Female

3. Education * Mark only one oval.

High school

Under graduate

Graduation

Post-graduation

PhD

Any other professional degree

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 4. Monthly family income * Mark
only one oval.

Below 10000

10000-30000

30000-50000

50000-70000

70000
and above

5. Marital status * Mark only one

oval.

Single

Married

6. Living status * Mark only one oval.

Nuclear family

Joint family

Living in a PG

7. On average, how often have you shopped online in past 1 month? * Mark only
one oval.

Everyday

Once in a week

Once in 2 weeks

Once in a month

Never

8. For which product do you mostly visit the online sites? (Choose a maximum of 4 options) * Check
all that apply.

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 Clothing

Groceries

Electrical appliances

Hotel room bookings

Travel tickets

Online food delivery

Cosmetics

Policies like insurance etc.

All of the above

Any other

Other:

9. Which of these is important to you while shopping online? (Choose a maximum of 3 options) *
Check all that apply.

Price

Brand loyalty

Options

Delivery speed

Customer care services

10. Select an approximate maximum amount you would spend on a single online purchase? *
Mark only one oval.

Below 500

500-1000

1000-3000

3000 and above

Select the best and appropriate answer for the following statements * Mark only one oval per row

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Statements Explanation

Respondents marked details about their age, gender, education levels, marital status, living status, income
levels, etc. in the questionnaire, after which they answered some basic questions regarding their usual online
shopping habits, like how much they spend on one purchase, what they prefer shopping for most online and the
like. These questions were followed by some statements. For each statement, the respondent had to mark her/his
level of agreement/disagreement.

The form was generated and shared online via Google forms to an attempted diverse group of people.
Consumers were asked to answer honestly. The ‘Name’ tab was optional in the questionnaire so the consumer
did not feel mandated to reveal her/his identity.

For the ease of analysis and to meet the purpose of the research question, we classified the statements in the
questionnaire as positive and negative i.e. separated them as per their direction. The following tables categorize
the statements in a tabulated form that is easily comprehensible:

POSITIVE STATEMENTS NEGATIVE STATEMENTS

I think online shopping is time saving. I prefer conventional shopping to online shopping.

I think online shopping provides wide variety of I will prefer online shopping only if prices are low
products.

Online shopping provides heavy discounts and Online shopping is more expensive than traditional
offers. shopping.

I get the products at lesser prices. I feel there is a risk of not getting what I paid for
online.

Online shopping is very easy in terms of payments. There is a huge difference between the expected
and the delivered product.

Anyone can shop online even when the person is

not educated enough to operate the sites.

People never hesitate even once to share their

account details on every site.

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 Online shopping is as secure as traditional
shopping.

I always get A-one quality products online.

Description shown is always accurate.

Online shopping provides easy return, exchange

and cancellation policies.

Online I always receive perfect food items and

delivery from the restaurants.

While booking online, I always receive the same

room as shown on the website.

I am assured of on time speedy delivery.

Likert Scale

The questionnaire circulated has two basic structures – one is in question form, which asks the consumer to
choose basic details about themselves and their shopping habits, and the second part asks for their opinions
about some statements regarding online shopping, which have options ranging from strongly disagree to
Strongly Agree. Consumers were asked to choose any one option.

This qualitative data was scored using the Likert scale in quantifiable terms so that it could be analyzed
conclusively.

Likert scales are widely used to measure attitudes and opinions with a greater degree of nuance than a simple
“yes/no” question. The Likert Scale is a 5- or 7-point scale that offers a range of answer options — from one
extreme attitude to another, like “extremely likely” to “not at all likely.” Typically, they include a moderate or
neutral midpoint. In this questionnaire, a 5-point scale has been used having options “Strongly disagree”,
“Disagree”, “Neither Agree nor disagree”, “Agree” and “Strongly agree”.
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The scale is named after its inventor, psychologist Rennes Likert. Likert distinguished between a scale proper,
which emerges from collective responses to a set of items (usually eight or more), and the format in which
responses are scored along a range. Technically speaking, a Likert scale refers only to the former. The
difference between these two concepts has to do with the distinction Likert made between the underlying
phenomenon being investigated and the means of capturing variation that points to the underlying phenomenon.

A Likert item is simply a statement that the respondent is asked to evaluate by giving it a quantitative value on
any kind of subjective or objective dimension, with level of agreement/disagreement being the dimension most
commonly used. Well-designed Likert items exhibit both "symmetry" and "balance". Symmetry means that they
contain equal numbers of positive and negative positions whose respective distances apart are bilaterally
symmetric about the "neutral"/zero value (whether or not that value is presented as a candidate). Balance means
that the distance between each candidate value is the same, allowing for quantitative comparisons such as
averaging to be valid across items containing more than two candidate values.

After the questionnaire is completed, each item may be analyzed separately or in some cases item responses
may be summed to create a score for a group of items. Hence, Likert scales are often called summative scales.

In this questionnaire, we have assigned values to each option in the statements, namely:

Strongly disagree – 1
Disagree – 2
Neither agree nor disagree – 3
Agree – 4
Strongly agree- 5

Once all the responses had been collected, we replaced each respondent’s preferred option in the statements
with these numbers. For example, a respondent who had selected the option “Disagree” for a statement, say “I
get the products at lesser prices” was given instead a score of 2. For every statement, both positive and negative,
each of the 163 responses were scored this way. The excel sheet of the same has been included in the Appendix.

Once this was done, descriptive statistics regarding the same was found out and analyzed. This has been
explained in the next section.

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Result and data analysis
Graphical analysis of the demographic details

1. AGE

About 86.5% of the respondents are from the age group of 15-25.
Maximum number of respondents were of the age 15-25, that is, the youth.
Also, rest of the respondents were in the ranges 25-35 (5.5%), 35-45 (3.7%) and 45 years and above (4.3%).

2. GENDER

Maximum number of the respondents were female

About 65 % of the respondents were female and the rest were the males 57 (35%). It includes all the age
groups of 15-25, 25-35, 35-45, 45 and above years.

.
3. EDUCATION

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 Maximum number of respondents i.e. 100 were under-graduates, that is, students – about 61.3% of the
respondents were under-graduates. The rest were graduates 28(17.2%), high school students 17(10.4%),
post graduates 10(6.1%), phDs 5(3.1%) and others 3(1.8%).

4. MONTHLY FAMILY INCOME

About 49.1% of the respondents have a family income of rupees of 70,000 and above, which means that
maximum people have a family income of 70,000 or above as most of the respondents belong to middle
or upper middle families of the urban Delhi.
Other responses were income groups – below Rs. 10,000 (4.9%), Rs. 10,000-Rs. 30,000 (14.1%), Rs.
30,000-Rs. 50,000 24(14.7%) and Rs. 50,000-Rs. 70,000 22(13.5%) and the others could have been
filled by respondents who are not earning or studying.

5. MARITAL STATUS

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 90.2% of the respondents were single as maximum number of respondents were of the age 15-25 and
most of the them are under-graduates or students.
The rest of the respondents were married and were around 16 (9.8%).

6. LIVING STATUS

From the graph we can see that 60.7% of the respondents live in nucleur families.
20.9% people live in joint families, and an almost equal number of people (18.4%) live in PG/hostel
accomodation. As we saw earlier, a majority of the respondents are college-going students, so a lot of
them may make use of PG facilities.

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 7. ON AVERAGE, HOW OFTEN HAVE YOU SHOPPED ONLINE IN PAST 1 MONTH?

60.1% (98) i.e. maximum number of the respondents have shopped once a month.
20.9% (34) of the respondents shopped once in 2 weeks.
13.5% (22) of the respondents shopped once in a week.

8. FOR WHICH PRODUCT DO YOU MOSTLY VISIT THE ONLINE SITES?

About 67.5% of the respondents visit online sites for clothes while only 4.9% of the respondents visit an
online store for policies.
Maximum number of respondents spend their time and money on clothing stores as there are a variety of
options to choose from and there are many stores available. Also, this is one of the oldest online sites
established which constitutes minimal risk (most online sites offer easy exchange/return policies as there
is a chance that the cloths won’t fit/the customer changed their minds).

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 9. WHICH OF THESE IS IMPORTANT TO YOU WHILE SHOPPING ONLINE?

For About 87% (143) of the respondents, price is the most important factor while shopping online. This
is obvious, as if the customer is getting the desired product/service at considerably lower prices in an
offline store, why would s/he spend more online only for convenience?
For about 69.9% (114) of the respondents, brand loyalty is the most important factor while shopping
online. For about 44.2% (72) of the people, more available options are the most important factor while
shopping online.

10. SELECT AN APPROXIMATE MAXIMUM AMOUNT YOU WOULD SPEND ON A SINGLE

ONLINE PURCHASE

About 49.1% of the respondents are willing to spend only 500-100 rupees online for a single purchase,
while only 8.6% are willing to spend 3000 and or above.
Maximum number of respondents choose to spend 500-1000 rupees on an online purchase, while
minimum number of people choose to spend Rs. 3000 and or above. Even though most of the
respondents belong to upper middle-class families living in metropolitan areas, price plays a major
factor while shopping online (as we saw above) and lower prices are evidently preferred.

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 ANALYSIS OF THE LIKERT SCALE STATEMENTS

1. POSITIVE STATEMENTS
Table of Statistics

Statements Mean Std. error Std. variance Sum count result

deviation

I think online shopping is 3.797546 0.0812496 1.0373251 1.0760433 619 163 4(agree)
time saving

I think online shopping 3.82208589 0.07780224 0.99331249 0.9866697 623 163 4(agree)
provides wide variety of
products.

Online shopping provides 3.56441718 0.07178532 0.91649365 0.83996062 581 163 4(agree)
heavy discounts and offers.

I get the products at lesser 3.404907975 0.072101801 0.920534177 0.84738317 555 163 3(neutral)
prices.

Online shopping is very easy 3.588957055 0.085150628 1.087130447 1.181852609 585 163 4(agree)
in terms of payments.

Anyone can shop online even 2.423312883 0.076315847 0.974335516 0.949329698 396 163 2(disagree)
when the person is not
educated enough to operate
the sites.

People never hesitate even 2.668711656 0.08733222 1.030732777 1.062410058 435 163 3(neutral)
once to share their account
details on every site.

Online shopping is as secure 2.693251534 0.083625386 1.067657458 1.139892449 439 163 3(neutral)
as traditional shopping.

I always get A-one quality 2.785276074 0.072679498 0.927909713 0.861016436 454 163 3(neutral)
products online.

Description shown is always 2.521472393 0.067039078 0.855897647 0.732560782 411 163 2(disagree)
accurate.

Online shopping provides 3.245398773 0.086194695 1.100460199 1.211012649 529 163 3(neutral)
easy return, exchange and
cancellation policies.

Online I always receive 2.969325153 0.07507895 0.95854386 0.918806332 484 163 3(neutral)
perfect food items and
delivery from the restaurants.

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While booking online, I 2.871165644 0.06344597 0.810023923 0.656138756 468 163 3(neutral)
always receive the same
room as shown on the
website.

I am assured of on time 3.331288344 0.076889077 0.981654026 0.963644626 543 163 3(neutral)

speedy delivery.

There is no tension while 2.993865031 0.079524134 1.015296177 1.030826327 488 163 3(neutral)
shopping online.

ANALYSIS

Statement 1: I think online shopping is time saving.

Mean: 3.797546; Result: 4 (agree)

As is clear from the result, we see that most respondents do believe that online shopping is more time saving.
This could be due to multiple reasons as online shopping does not involve commuting time, and all the options
are available at one place.

Statement 2: I think online shopping provides wide variety of products.

Mean: 3.82208589; Result: 4 (agree)

Here, the result shows that again, many respondents agree that online shopping provides a relatively wider
variety of products than conventional shopping. Online shopping sites often have products from many brands at
the same place, even providing items that may not be in stock at stores.

Statement 3: Online shopping provides heavy discounts and offers

Mean: 3.56441718; Result: 4 (agree)

The results show that maximum respondents agree that online shopping offers discounts and offers. Many
online sites provide discount coupons and promo codes to encourage consumers to place more orders. Everyone
likes to get big discounts on purchases, and buyers are more likely to buy products on which they get discounts.

Statement 4: I get the products at lesser prices.

Mean: 3.404907975; Results: 3(neutral)

The results show that the respondents are neutral to the statement. Even though there are offers and discounts
available online that makes shopping cheaper, companies still charge the customers for delivery, which might
make consumers neutral.

Statement 5: Online shopping is very easy in terms of payments.

Mean: 3.588957055; Result: 4(agree)

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The results show that many respondents agree that online shopping is easy in term of payments as there are
many available modes of payment – both net banking and Cash on Delivery (COD) – which makes it
convenient for a diverse group of customers.

Statement 6: Anyone can shop online even when the person is not educated enough to operate the sites.

Mean: 2.423312883; Result: 2(disagree)

The results show that respondents disagree that anyone can shop online even when the person is not educated
enough to operate sites. Respondents may believe that proper knowledge is required to manage online sites not
only to get better deals but also to avoid getting cheated on.

Statement 7: People never hesitate even once to share their account details on every site

Mean: 2.668711656; Result: 3(neutral)

The results show that respondents are neutral about this statement. Some respondents may feel comfortable
sharing their details online, as they might find the sites trustworthy, but others may not feel the same way.

Statement 8: Online shopping is as secure as traditional shopping

Mean: 2.693251534; Result: 3(neutral)

The results show that the respondents are neutral when it comes to choosing between traditional shopping and
online shopping. Some people are not be comfortable sharing certain details online while others do. Similarly,
some people might not have time for traditional shopping as they might value commuting expenses more, while
others still prefer conventional methods of shopping.

Statement 9: I always get A-one quality products online

Mean: 2.785276074; Result: 3 (neutral)

The results show the respondents are neutral when it comes getting A-quality products online because while
some sites may be trustworthy, some customers may not have gotten the quality product the sites promised
them.

Statement 10: Description shown is always accurate

Mean: 2.521472393; Result: 3 (neutral)

The results show that the respondents disagree to the statement that description shown is always accurate. Some
customers may have gotten products/services matching the description that was shown to them, but almost an
equal number may have had dissatisfactory experiences regarding the same.

Statement 11: Online shopping provides easy return, exchange and cancellation policies

Mean: 3.245398773; Result: 3(neutral)

The results show that the respondents are neutral when it comes to online shops providing easy returns,
exchange and cancellation policies. The reason can be that some online sites have a very strict return/exchange
policy and are tedious which the customers find inconvenient, however, other sites may facilitate more relaxed
policies.
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Statement 12: Online I always receive perfect food items and delivery from the restaurants.

Mean: 2.969325153; Result: 3 (neutral)

From the result it’s clear that the respondents are neutral about receiving perfect food and delivery from the
restaurants. There can be multiple reasons for this such as having issues related to payment, inconsistent food
quality and delay in delivery.

Statement 13- While booking online, I always receive the same room as shown on the website.

Mean: 2.871165644; Result: 3 (neutral)

The result shows that respondents are neutral about receiving the same room as shown in the website. While
booking rooms online, technical glitches can occur like double bookings, no cancelation (or cancelation fees) in
case of change in schedule etc. which can become inconvenient for the customer. Rooms not up to mark or not
matching the description in sites may also be a reason.

Statement 14- I am assured of on time speedy delivery.

Mean: 3.331288344; Result: 3 (neutral)

It’s clear from the above result that respondents are neutral about speedy delivery. The biggest challenge
associated with any online shopping app is the maintenance of its delivery system. We live in a metropolitan
city and as a result, the possibility of getting stuck in traffic is very high which hinders the process of a speedy
and timely delivery.

Statement 15 - There is no tension while shopping online.

Mean: 2.993865031; Result: 3 (neutral)

As we can see from the result, the respondents are neutral about having a hassle-free online shopping
experience. Many people are not comfortable with online payment because they prefer COD. Similarly, people
may have doubts trusting online sites and may prefer traditional shopping, thus may have some inhibitions due
to the same while looking up services online.

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 2. NEGATIVE STATEMENTS
Table of Statistics

Statements Mean Std. error Std. variance Sum count result

deviation

I prefer conventional 2.99386503 0.0785659 1.00306279 1.00613497 488 163 3 (neutral)

shopping to online shopping.

I will prefer online shopping 3.337423 0.089272 1.139747 1.299023 544 163 3 (neutral)
only if prices are low

Online shopping is more 2.496933 0.066493 0.848923 0.72067 407 163 2 (Disagree)
expensive than traditional
shopping.

I feel there is a risk of not 3.319018 0.081038 1.03462 1.070439 541 163 3 (neutral)
getting what I paid for
online.

There is a huge difference 2.803681 0.069546 0.887908 0.788381 457 163 3 (neutral)
between the expected and
the delivered product.

ANALYSIS

Statement 1- I prefer conventional shopping to online shopping.

Mean: 2.99386503; Result: 3 (neutral)

Here, we can see from the result that respondents are neutral between online and conventional shopping. This
could be due to multiple reasons as some customers prefer to try their products before buying it, and some
people have trust issues regarding the quality of the product bought online, so they may prefer traditional
shopping. Other customers may not worry a lot over these issues, so they are comfortable with online shopping.

Statement 2- I will prefer online shopping only if prices are low.

Mean: 3.337423; Result: 3 (neutral)

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We can see from the result that respondents are neutral about choosing online shopping only if the prices are
low. The maintenance of an offline retail store is higher than maintaining online stores. As a result offline stores
charge higher price from the consumers. Thus, consumers prefer online shopping if prices are low, because if
they are charged an equal or higher price than that offered by an offline retail store then they won’t buy the
product online. However, other people may value their time and/or commuting expenses more, thus they may
prefer shopping online even if the prices are marginally higher.

Statement 3- Online shopping is more expensive than traditional shopping.

Mean: 2.496933; Result: 2 (disagree)

Here, the result shows us that some respondents disagree with the statement. Online shopping is often cheaper
than conventional shopping because the cost of running an online store is lesser than that of the physical
establishment of an offline store. The savings by the online retailers are passed on to the customers as discounts
on products. Again, this also varies from consumer to consumer. For someone residing in an area that is far
away from any retail store, the commuting expense and time needed may be a lot more than the cost of ordering
online. So going the traditional way may be costlier for such a consumer, even if the same product is listed at a
higher price online than offline.

Statement 4- I feel there is a risk of not getting what I paid for online.

Mean: 3.319018; Result: 3 (neutral)

The result shows that the respondents are neutral towards the statement. Products bought online are not always
same as shown in the description, so there is always a risk regarding the product quality, which is why many
respondents are inclined towards feeling worried about the same.

Statement 5- There is a huge difference between the expected and the delivered product.

Mean: 2.803681; Result: 3 (neutral)

We can see from the result that the respondents are neutral about the huge difference between the expected and
the delivered product. Sometimes the images shown in the sites while shopping are misleading while sometimes
the product quality may be exceptionally good.

The following is the graph generated for all 163 responses for all the statements, where the answers vary
from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree.

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Conclusion
We began our study with circulating a simple questionnaire that asked for basic details from the respondents –
but this served a major purpose in our analysis of how well consumers today perceive e-commerce in India. We
included both positive and negative statements in the questionnaire so as to give the respondents unbiased views
to agree/disagree with, and we analyzed each statement separately based on all 163 responses from various
groups of people, as has been shown in the demographic analysis.

From the analysis of negative statements, we can see that there is no clear perception among consumers that
views online shopping undesirably. All negative statements (barring one – which pointed towards a positive
perception) gave neutral results – they show that hardly any respondents view e-commerce in negative light (we
also see a minimal deviation from the mean). Thus, it is easy to conclude that there is no perceived negative
impact of online shopping by the consumers.

As far as the positive statements go, although overall there is no overwhelming positive sentiment depicted by
the respondents, we see that only two statements are disagreed to – regarding education and knowledge required
for online shopping and about descriptions being accurate. However, the deviation from the mean is, again,
small. Plus, although most statements can be deduced as having a neutral sentiment, four statements are agreed
to, concerning factors like time-saving, easy payments, wide variety of products etc. which are facilitated while
shopping online.

Let us look at some of these factors that act as driving forces of online shopping and e-commerce in India, and
have played major roles in converting India from a consumer base of traditional buyers and buying practices to
potentially one of the fastest digitally growing economies of the world.

 Convenience & Trust: For a long time, the Indian e-commerce market was dominated by e-bay which
used to sell used products in India, operating in a marketplace environment. However, as new and
prominent players entered the market backed by a solid supply chain and great marketing &
communications, the typical Indian consumer realized the convenience of e-commerce and developed a
trust with the portal.

 Price: A typical Indian buyer is very price conscious and bargains heavily. They are always looking out
for deals. This perception is widely regarded as being true. Price has always been the trump card for
Indian e-commerce players as most of the products that are available online are cheaper than the same
products available offline.

 Payment Options: With the advent of digital wallets and UPI (Unified Payments Interface), the payment
options have grown over the years. Earlier on, most e-commerce players grew because of the success of
the Cash on Delivery (COD) model, which was rather prevalent in India, due to a large amount of Cash
being circulated in the economy. It is only in recent times, due to the demonetization drive, Indians have
moved on to the electronic payments’ bandwagon.

 Digital India: The government of India’s Digital India initiative has been a key factor in enhancing
internet penetration across the country, which has led to a whole host of services being digitally
delivered. The result of increase in internet penetration has been the fact that apart from accessing
essential services digitally, the consumer has taken to online shopping and online payments, big time.

 Domestic Consumption: The Indian growth story has been driven by domestic demand and the high
consumption of the ever-aspirational Indian consumer. The obvious macroeconomic scenario had to
play out in the e-commerce space as well.

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  Language: Most e-commerce portals in India are in English and that has played a big role in the growth
of the industry, as India has the largest English-speaking middle-class population. Moreover, the
regional language versions of popular sites have nonetheless played a critical role in the growth of large-
scale e-commerce portals.

Now that we have looked into what drives e-commerce in India today, let us also try to understand what the
future of e-commerce looks like in India based on how consumers in our study, and in general, perceive its
advent. This consists of both an optimistic outlook on the possible future of online shopping as well as potential
challenges that e-commerce players might face in India.

The potential of growth in e-commerce in India has caught the attention of several regional players like Flipkart,
Snapdeal.com and also of global giants like Amazon, Alibaba. From being worth just about $3.9 billion in 2009,
online retail was worth $38 billion in 2016 and is expected to generate about $100 billion in revenue by 2020.

India has the second largest Internet user base in the world and the fastest growing one. As of 2016, online retail
sales just represent 2% of the total retail spending in India. When it comes to shopping for clothes & jewellery,
Indian consumers like to touch and feel their products before making a purchase. This is one of the reasons why
in our survey, although consumers might have felt that online shopping is more time-saving and even that it
offers them good prices, they still inclined towards being neutral about the benefits, because they might have a
risk-averse attitude. This might also be why most respondents did not disagree when asked if they felt there was
a risk of not getting what they paid for online.

Additionally, according to demographic statistics released by Flipkart, consumers above the age group 45, have
staunchly resisted shopping online. In view of these challenges, some of the e-commerce players like Amazon,
Flipkart or Pepperfry.com are planning to or have already launched physical stores in India. Besides, Indian
consumers are highly driven to shop online by discounts and offers, which is also what we deduced from the
questionnaire. Prices not only showed up as the most important factor that consumers looked at while shopping
online (in the analysis chart of “Which of these is most important to you while shopping online”) but it also
came up again when the consumers were asked if they will only shop online if the prices were low (for which
we got a neutral – inclining towards “Agree” – result). It has become a huge challenge for e-commerce players
to attract loyal consumers since most of the consumers shop from the platform which gives them the best
discount.

It is estimated that 70% of the consumers prefer to make cash on delivery (Cod) while shopping online, since
majority of Indians are skeptical of doing e-payments. We deduced from the responses in our questionnaire that
although respondents seem to agree that online payment methods are easy, most of them feel neutral when it
came to deciding if online shopping was as secure as traditional shopping. This shows that many people still
have inhibitions regarding the same. When the government decided to demonetize Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes,
the Cod orders for the major online retailers fell by 15-30%. It is a huge challenge for the e-commerce players
to attract consumers to their platform since Cod is not only the preferred payment option but also laborious and
expensive. To dodge this problem, e-retailers are incentivizing consumers to shift to making electronic
payments. For example, Amazon allows its consumers to load their gift card balance and avail an incentive of
15% discount at the checkout.

Customer loyalty seems to be harder to earn in India where consumers are spoiled for choice. And since the cost
of acquiring a new customer is 5 times the cost of retaining one, tending to the customer relationship would be
profitable. Unfortunately, the seamless customer journey is not entirely up to the e-retailers to guarantee.
Indeed, one of its main pain points is delivery, and different carriers are used for different regions of India. All
of them are not accustomed to handling commercial value goods, thus delays, mix-ups and product damages are
not uncommon. Our survey makes it clear that many people feel the risk of not getting what they paid for

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online, and some may even have had dissatisfactory experiences where the product/service delivered may not
have matched the description.

The paper has some basic take-a ways. Upon studying and analysing the respondents’ answers, it is clear that
not many perceive e-commerce in India as only positive or only negative. While online shopping facilitates
several benefits – less time-consuming, relatively cheaper on occasion, easy payment etc. – the advent is slow
yet, and the benefits haven’t penetrated to everyone as majority of the respondents still have several doubts.
Thus, most of them are neutral to the impacts of online shopping.

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References

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Past research works

 RANJAN RICHA and SINGH and ANKUR KUKRETI (2018) – effect of online shopping on consumer
buying behavior
 DEEPJYOTI CHOUDHURY and ABHIJIT DEY (2014) – online shopping attitude among the youth-a
study on university students
 KANUPRIYA and DR. RITA and ANUPREET KAUR (2016) – a study on behavior of consumers
towards online shopping
 MUHAMMAD UMAR SULTAN and MD NASIR UDDIN (2011) – consumer’s attitude towards online
shopping
 DR. GAGANDEEP NAGRA and DR. R. GOPAL (2013) – a study of factors affecting on online
shopping behavior of consumers
 DEVENDERA AGARWAL (2014) – E-commerce: true Indian picture
 SHEBAZBANO SALIM KHAN and S.N. BORHADE and MAINUDDIN S. SHAIKH (2016) – impact
of E-commerce on Indian market: social and economic impact
 AFFREENARA and DR. KISHORE KUMAR DAS (2015) – growth of E-commerce in India

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Appendix

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