LITERATURE REVIEW

Riley (2009) researched to find why the people and from where they get influence
to purchase grocery from online shopping. This research aims to know the role of
all the factors which are situational in the process of adaption of grocery shopping
from online many shopper are found that they starts discontinuing the online
shopping of grocery once there initial point of shopping of grocery created a
problem for them they stop doing online shopping. Devaraj (2006) critically
analysed an empirical study in USA regarding examination of online channel
platform preference. He examined the behavioural and economic features that add
to online consumer's satisfaction and further head to their preference of online
channel. Further, it was found that, personalization, time responsiveness, security,
and reliability are also significantly linked to the consumer satisfaction and online
channel preference. (Brynjolfsson, Hu and Rahman, 2013; Wilson and Daniel,
2007) revealed that consumers now are more technology savvy and price conscious,
on one hand, most consumers own high-end mobile gadgets and on the other hand,
they use a lot of online and offline channels which allow them to shop everywhere
and anytime.
Liu (2008) addressed an empirical study on Chinese customers for shopping online.
The wide range of commodities and competitive price is important, because online
customer can compare the price in one click. Detailed and complete product
information should be given because buying decision is only made with the decision
available online. Finally, security and privacy becomes spotlight in their findings
because ID authentication while making online transaction and credit system is not
available in china. Suki and Suki (2007) conducted their study in Malaysia. The
consumer of Malaysia of online shopping has a perception about the involvement of
risk in shopping and their risk is mostly related to the security and the privacy. It
includes the security and privacy of the personal information of customer,
transaction of online shopping, the quality of the product and the uncertainty about
the product whether the product will reach the consumer or not.
Chaing and Roy (2003) focused on the consumer choice to shop on the internet and
at the physical stores. The result shows that the consumer perceives shopping
 offline as inconvenient, online shopping intention was expected to be greater for
search products and time effective. (Bell, Gallino and Moreno, 2014) found that
depending on one access to the internet and their competency in use of technology,
social media is influencing, how consumers discover, try and buy. (Chaffey, 2009)
found in his study that online shopping is much easier and faster, consumers can
find information about the product and its availability twenty four hours a day seven
days a week and get highly personalised offers and discounts.

INTRODUCTION
The technological advancement in recent years has developed a new platform of
shopping for the consumers as online shopping. The growth in internet penetration,
rising e commerce sites, online apps and improved payment system is driving the
growth in number of online shoppers. The rising in the opting of online platform for
shopping is also affected by the strong value proposition, offers and time bound
product delivery through strengthening delivery logistics by the online merchants.1
Therefore the online shopping is becoming age trend in our society and influencing
the behaviour of the consumers in daily life. Most companies and retailers are now
using online platform to represent their product range and services so that it is
accessible to the global market and to reach out to a large public. Digital gadgets,
smart phone and internet accessibility have changed substantially the way of daily
life transaction and online shopping is one of them. The online platform has brought
many changes in the shopping habits of the people. Now the people in their comfort
of homes or office, can order and purchase the product with easy and hassle free
transaction across the world.2 Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and paytm mall in retail
sector, Zomato, Food pand, Swiggy in food sector, Byjus and Unacademy in
education sector provided online platform over traditional way of shopping in our
country and they are pulling the customer to opt the online platform. 3 But still there
is a substantial number of customer only opt traditional way of shopping because

1
The future of grocery Available at
https://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/nielsenglobal/vn/docs/Reports/2015/Nielsen%20Global%20E-Commerce
%20and%20The%20New%20Retail%20Report%20APRIL%202015%20(Digital).pdf
2
The truth about online consumer Available at https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/sg/pdf/2017/01/the-truth-
about-online-consumers.pdf
3
Joshi, D., & Achuthan, S. (2016). A study of trends in B2C online buying in India. Indian Journal of
Marketing, 46 (2), 22-35.
 they lack that level of satisfaction, confidence in online shopping in comparison to
the traditional way of offline retail stores and shops.

FACTORS AFFECTING THE CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

In today’s world, the consumers have abundant choices after evolution of online
platform of shopping and they expect customization and convenience while doing
shopping. Now, they have offline as well online platform to buy their any product
so they easily switch from platform to another platform according to the cost, offer,
time and trust factors etc. Some customer find online platform more convenient by
considering easiness in transaction, time and energy saving as there is need to go
store and shopping malls.4 The online platform for shopping is evolved in last one
decade very rapidly due to increase in internet penetration, surge in smart phone and
tablet users. There are some factors which play major role for choosing the either
offline or online platform while buying any product and guide the consumer
behaviours. It varies from individual choice, situation and goods to goods. Based on
these arguments the researcher will discuss four influencing factors, i.e. quality,
cost, time and trust and their impact on channel choice.
Quality factor
The consumer while buying any product, give more importance to the quality factor
which varies from one brand to another and product to product. Usually, the
customer used to dependent on their acquaintance for getting the product quality
information while doing offline shopping but now days they get product
information on online portal itself. The online available product information affects
the decisions of the consumers.5
Cost factor
Cost is also most influencing factor which drives the choices of the customers in
shopping. Now, the consumers have wide range of option after evolution of online
platform of shopping, they compare the price of product at available option and then

4
Bagdoniene, L., & Zemblyte, J. (2009). Online shopping motivation factors and their effect on Luthuanian
consumers. Economics & Management , 1 (1).1-9
5
Guo –Guang Lee & Hsiu-Fen Lin. (2015). Customer Perception of E-service Quality in Online Shopping:
International Journal of Retail & distribution Management, Vol.33 Issue 2 pp.161-176.
 they purchase at lowest available price. So the price of product plays important
factor in switching the platform based on price competitiveness.6
Time Factor
Time is also very important factor which influence the consumer behaviour because
it is utilised to buy any product. Some consumer who led hectic life opts to shop
online to save their time of travelling to retail stores or malls and online purchased
product can be ordered easily and even these are returnable from the doorstep. Some
consumers have to purchase the product immediately so they choose offline
platform as they cannot wait for delivery time.7
Trust Factor
Trust is one of the highly desirable traits which influence the nature of consumer
behaviour while doing shopping. Trust is one of the big constraints in the online
platform shopping as the consumers usually do not about the seller and hesitant to
share their personal & payment gateway details so the lack of direct personal
contact leads to low confidence of some consumers and affect their shopping
decisions. But now the online merchant assuring the customer for quality products
and if the customer not satisfied with the quality, they have option to return back the
product and get their refund. However still, the some consumers do not have
confidence while buying online due to concern of privacy, security and reliability of
the online platform.8

CONCLUSION
After conducting this empirical study, I will try to examine main core issue related
consumers purchase behaviour. First, the factors which influenced their behaviour
for opting either offline or online platform for shopping, secondly how their
purchase journey has been affected after the surge of E- Commerce sites and apps.
The surge of E-Commerce sites and online apps is driven by the technological
advancement which created another platform for shopping. The quiet technology
savvy people prefer online platform channel more as they think it is easy and time

6
Park, C. 2010. “A Literature Review on Online Consumer Behavior in Korea.” Journal of Consumer Studies
21 (2): 289–320.
7
De Ruyter, K., M. Wetzels, and M. Kleijnen. 2001. “Customer Adoption of E-service: An Experimental
Study.” International Journal of Service Industry Management 12 (2): 184–207.
8
Kim, D. J., D. L. Ferrin, and H. R. Rao. 2008. “A Trust-Based Consumer Decision-Making Model in
Electronic Commerce: The Role of Trust, Perceived Risk, and Their Antecedents.” Decision Support Systems
44 (2): 544–64
efficient. Now, the use of electronic gadgets has been used and many people carry
their smart phone, tablet and laptops by which they get access of the online platform
of shopping. Some customer finds the price, offers and easiness are the driving
force which cause the customer choose online platform over offline platform. Some
people still prefer offline platform whenever the stake of the goods are high and
they need inspection by hand before the purchasing the product like jewellery and
furniture.
Due to technological advancement, online market channel has been developing very
rapidly therefore the shopping style of the consumer has changed accordingly. Now,
the consumers are no longer dependent on either one channel offline or online but
they are opting blended approach. They use either channel whichever best suited to
their needs for convenience, choice and value which vary from goods to goods.
Some consumers still want to inspect goods by touching, smelling, seeing or trying
product before purchasing so this desire push them to the retail store to purchase
their item. Some consumers are simplifying the way of shopping by taking the
channel of online route after surge online retail shops and apps.