PREFACE

The growth of Internet and its user base in recent years has been truly
phenomenal. In most developed countries, the number of Internet users is 20 50 percent of total population (World Internet Users and Population Stats). As
per the report released by the Internet Advertisement and Mobile Association
of India (IAMAI), Internet penetration of people who have used the Internet,
has grown by 40 percent from 32.2 million in September 2009 to 46 million in
September 2011. The report also stated that the number of people who can use
the Internet unaided has tripled over the past seven years, and stands at 85
million.
Despite the phenomenal growth of the Internet over the past few years, the
vast potential of conducting business over the Internet rema ins largely
untapped. For example according to IRS (Indian Readership Survey) 2010,
online shopping accounted for only 1.2 percent of total Internet Usage.
Therefore, there is still much room for online shopping to grow. Perceived
risk and lack of trust is the main cited reason for consumers not purchasing
online. Developing trust in online shopping environment is especially
challenging, because of the lack of direct contacts with the physical stores,
Sales people, and physical products in the digital
world.

The literature review has revealed that most of the studies have mainly
concentrated on trust and risk independently. There have been hardly any
studies which take into account the relationship between perceived risk and
trust. Since the concept of trust is intimately related to (and often confused
with) the concept of risk, an understanding of trust that does not examine its

relationships with risk is incomplete. Whether and how trust affects perceived
risk (or vice versa) in the Internet shopping context is still very much an open
issue.
Moreover, on detailed search the researchers have not found any substantial
literature available in the Indian context delving on perceived risk and the
various components of the same. From above literature study it can be seen that
studies have been done in non Indian context. Through this research, the
researchers expect to find the different ways in which shoppers perceive
risk,
which is understood as a function of culture, in Indian context. Moreover the
relationship between intension to shop and perceived risk will also be studied i.e.
in what product categories people intend to spend more and how much amount
they intend to spend.

The thesis is divided into eight chapters. First chapter includes the basic
concepts
related to the study including Online Marketing, Online trust and online
shopping, Perceived Risk, Types of perceived risk , consumer behavior and
linkage of online
The second chapter gives information regarding internet. This chapter
includes
history of internet, history of internet in India, Web and the Internet, Internet in
India: Ushership patterns, Motivations for Internet usage and Opportunities of
Internet in India.
This chapter covers all important concepts that are useful for the study
starting
from advantages/disadvantages of online shopping to Barriers to online
shopping. This chapter explains classification of Internet sites, In-home

and models of consumer acceptance of internet shopping and barriers to online

shopping.

The review of relevant literature has been reported in chapter four. It refers
to
various research studies carried out in India as well as abroad. Extensive research
studies have been carried out on various aspects of online shopping in abroad but
as far as India is concerned, such studies are in very small number. The literature
review has been taken as base for determining objectives of the study, construction
of hypothesis, developing data collection

tools like questionnaire and

selecting
Fifth chapter describes the methodology followed to carry out the study. This
includes objectives of the study, hypothesis of the study, scope of the study,
research design, sampling plan, data collection method, data analysis strategy and
also limitations of the study.
The chapter six includes data analysis, presentation and interpretation with
the
help of tables, charts and graphs. The collected data has been analyzed through
statistical techniques like frequency distribution, chi-test, factor analysis,
and analysis of variance (ANOVA) etc wherever applicable.
Seventh chapter is devoted to major findings of the study in meaningful
and
summarized form. It also includes the conclusions drawn from the study. At
the last, eighth chapter discuss various implication of the study on various
decisional aspects of online marketing management. Finally, an attempt has
been made to
SATHISH KUMAR