International Journal of Research in Management &
Vol. 4 Issue 3 (SPL 1) Jul. - Sept. 2017
Business Studies (IJRMBS 2017)
A Study on Problems Faced by Customers in Online Shopping
with Special Reference to Kanyakumari District
Dr. R.Sivanesan
Head and Asst. Prof. of Commerce, St.Alphonsa College of Arts & Science, Karinkal, Tamilnadu, India
Abstract
The massive Indian market is changing fast. Internet access is mainstreaming among professionals and the use of mobile is intensifying.
The pace of change continues to be rapid with digital channels constantly growing in volume and strength. More people spend more
time online in India every year, and the digital tools and sites they use play an ever-growing role in their lives. Smart marketers keep
on top of the scale of change and ensure their marketing strategies and touch point’s mirror where the consumer is spending their
time. This article shows the problems faced by customers in online shopping with special reference to Kanyakumari District.
Key words
Digital Marketing, SEO, E-Commerce, Google, Online shopping, Customers
Introduction
In the past decade, there has been a dramatic change in the
way consumers have altered their way of shopping. Although
consumers continue to purchase from a physical store, consumers
feel very convenient to shop online since it frees the customer
from personally visiting the store. Internet shopping has its own
advantages and it reduces the effort of travelling to a physical
store. Decisions can be made from home at ease looking at various
choices and prices can be easily compared with the competitor’s
products to arrive at a decision.
Online shopping offers the customer a wide range of products
and services wherein he is able to compare the price quoted by
different suppliers and choose the best deal from it. Internet
marketing is conceptually different from other marketing channels
and internet promotes a one to one communication between the
seller and the end user with round the clock customer service.
Today, business internet marketing is the fastest growing segment
of online commerce. The major difference between traditional and
online selling is the extent of interaction between the consumer
and the seller. There is much more electronic interactivity with
the consumer in the form of emails and FAQs. Through FAQs,
the consumer’s questions on shipment, payment, product, policies
and other customer concerns can be addressed effectively.
It is very important for businesses to understand the customer
satisfaction and loyalty because some the customer satisfaction
and loyalty are two required things for the well being, prophet and
long term growth of the firms. In other words we could say that
to measure how successful the businesses are it is considered in
terms of how satisfied and loyal their customers are.
With respect to Norway, e-commerce has grown tremendously in
the recent years. This is one of the reasons that motivated us to
specifically choose Norway for our research. According to OECD
Science, technology and industry scoreboard, 2007, Norway has
recorded 47% of adults using internet for online shopping.
Review of Literature
The following are the important review of literature:
“The factors that affect buying behaviour of customers”
Smith and Rupp (2003) have examined and identify the factors
in their work that affects the behaviour of consumers. These
issues have been identified as for the marketing effort, socio-
cultural influence, emotional factor, the psychological factors and
privacy factors, to the experience, the purchase and post -purchase
decisions. They also show that consumers are affected by various
© 2014, IJRMBS All Rights Reserved
22
ISSN : 2348-6503 (Online)
ISSN : 2348-893X (Print)
psychological factors, such as perception, motivation, personality,
attitudes and emotions.
“Consumer buying and shopping behaviour on online shopping
sites”
This study finds more differences between the behaviour of
frequent and occasional online shoppers, and greater similarities
between occasional shoppers and non-online shoppers. Those
consumers who shop online frequently are more confident, spend
more money when they shop online in their home country, and also
shop more cross-border. While they do worry about issues such as
delivery and returning goods, they also tend to be savvier on how
to solve problems when they do occur. Therefore encouraging and
developing online shopping at national level is likely to increase
cross-border shopping as well. The key findings of the consumer
survey are that:
Statement of The Problem
One can find numerous statistical and economic studies on
customer satisfaction and loyalty with regards to physical store
shopping. But this research on measuring the customer satisfaction
and loyalty of online shoppers in Norway is rare of its kind. This
increases the importance of our research work and the need to
study the online shopping in Norway. This study has enabled us
to gather the views of online customers in Norway with respect
to what they expect and what has made them remain loyal or
satisfied to the product or service.
The objective of this research work is to measure problems
faced by customers in online shopping. Moreover it explains the
relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty
and how it relates to retention. Here it is very important to describe,
what the difference between the customer satisfaction and loyalty
is in order to get better understanding of how customer satisfaction
changes into customer loyalty. We will add many other supporting
materials specifically for the literature review a model will be
used with which we try to link adjustment to its antecedents and
consequences. For qualitative data collection, we have used the
web survey method as this is the most quick and inexpensive
method compared to other survey methods.
Objectives of The Study
The following are the important objectives of the study:
 To study the consumer’s various problems faced towards
online shopping.
 To study the reasons for the problems.
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ISSN : 2348-6503 (Online) International Journal of Research in Management &
Vol. 4 Issue 3 (SPL 1) Jul. - Sept. 2017
ISSN : 2348-893X (Print) Business Studies (IJRMBS 2017)

 To know which is the common problems faced by customers varies form, with the use of appropriate statistical tools.
and how to overcome those problems.
 To study about the customer’s opinion towards the problems Table 1: Analysis And Intrepretation
in online shopping. Demograph- Factors No. of Re- Percentage
ic factors spondents
Scope of The Study
Gender Male 40 40
The present study is conducted in a narrow sense. From this study
researchers found why customers delay or hesitate to make decision Female 60 60
for shopping online. Researcher analyse the various problems Total 100 100
faced by the customers on online shopping. Find the reasons and Education School 05 05
gave the suggestions for the problems faced by the customers. Also
U.G 55 55
find out the ways to overcome the problems faced by customers.
Found, what are the fraud activities done on online shopping. P.G 35 35
Professional 05 05
Limitations of The Study Total 100 100
The study has got certain limitation of which a few are listed
Age Below 20 15 15
below:
 The results and findings are confined to a limited area that 20 – 30 60 60
is it covers only Kanyakumari District. 30 – 40 17 17
 The opinions of the respondents may be biased. 40 - 50 05 05
 Time and resource constraint.
Above 50 03 03
Methodology of The Study Total 100 100
1. Research Design Marital Married 40 40
Research design is the detailed plan of conducting a research study. Status Unmarried 60 60
Descriptive research design has been used in the study. Total 100 100
2. Descriptive Research Design Occupation Farmer/Daily wage 06 06
Descriptive analysis attempts to explain systematically a trend, earner
and provides data concerning attitudes and preferences towards Businessmen 25 25
a problem. Govt. Employee 12 12
Private Employee13 13
3. Sample Area
The data has been collected from Kanyakumari District as it has Dependent 44 44
a high residential density with people from all over Tamil Nadu Total 100 100
due to the high migration influx in recent years. Monthly Below Rs.5000 36 36
Income 5000 – 10000 23 23
4. Sample Technique
10000 – 15000 17 17
Sampling technique is the choice of a subset of people from
among a huge population to estimate characteristics of the 100 15000 – 20000 15 15
respondents. The simple random technique has been chosen for Above 20000 09 09
this study. Total 100 100
Frequency 1 – 2 times 45 45
5. Simple Random Sampling
of Online 2 – 4 times 24 24
Simple random sampling method, assumes that each and every
shopping
unit in the population has equal chance of occurrence or equal 4 – 6 times 26 26
(Per Month)
probability of occurrence and the sampling units are selected Above 6 times 05 05
randomly. An unbiased random selection of individuals is
Total 100 100
important to represent the population. The researcher has taken
100 samples randomly from the total population. Problems Faced by Customers in Online Shopping
Primary sources of data collected through questionnaire & Usage Mean Rank
secondary source from magazines, journals and website. Period of Score
Internet Less than one hour 43.56 IV
6. Tools and Techniques Used For Analysis
One – Two Hours 47.98 III
Tools used for the study were
 Simple percentage analysis Two – Three Hours 48.20 II
 Garrett Ranking Technique and Three – Four Hours 51.38 I
 Likert Scaling Technique Above Four Hours 42.37 V
Mean Rank
Analysis And Intrepretation
Score
In this part researcher analyse the problems of online shoppers in

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International Journal of Research in Management & ISSN : 2348-6503 (Online)
Vol. 4 Issue 3 (SPL 1) Jul. - Sept. 2017
Business Studies (IJRMBS 2017) ISSN : 2348-893X (Print)

Problems Poor Quality 48.01 IV 45 respondents (45 percent) buy the products through online
faced by Delay in Delivery 52.12 III one to two times per month, 26 respondents (26 percent) buy
Customers the products through online four to six times per month, and 24
High Delivery 47.43 V
in Online respondents (24 percent) buy the products through online two to
Charge
shopping four times per month.
Can’t touch & Seen 56.43 I Majority of the respondents spent three to four hours (Mean score
Receive wrong 32.55 IX 51.38) on internet for online shopping.
product
Receive Damaged 39.32 VI Suggestions of The Study
Product The following are the suggestions on the basis of the findings of
II the study:
Delivery point is not 54.32
The majority of the customers are faced the problems line
available
can’t touch and feel and delivery point is not available to interior
Color variation 38.34 VII are of Kanyakumari District. Therefore internet online shopping
Quantity difference 38.01 VIII companies should more attentions about the delivery point to
Mean Rank interior area of Kanyakumari District and deliver the right product
Score and right time to the customers.
Types of Books 46.23 VI The customers feel that delivery of the product is one week
Product and more than one week. So the online company should reduce
Cloths & Dresses 56.94 I the period of the product delivery within 2-3 days. Customers
purchased
Electronic Product 47.21 V should be made aware about the varied sales promotion schemes,
Cosmetics 53.09 II which make this online buying more attractive and popular among
Foot wares 49.23 IV the buyers. Proper awareness must be made available to all persons
of different occupation.
Mobile 53.02 III Online websites must ensure about the quality and right of the
Laptop 44.93 VI information to their customers. Since transaction is online the
Food items 39.02 VII customers must be ensured of web security and confidential
Medicine 23.94 VIII card information. The online shopping could be made successful
only by making the delivery of undamaged goods and proper
No. of Re- Percentage delivery time.
spondent
Level of Very High 20 20 Conclusion
Satisfaction High 34 34 This research has shown the problems towards online shopping.
of online Online shopping is gaining popularity among people specially
Neutral 22 22
shopping the younger generation but in today scenario to become equally
Low 15 15
popular among all age groups online shopping will have to cover a
Very Low 09 09 longer distance. The study has revealed that most of the customers
Total 100 100 have favourable attitude towards online shopping and also majority
of the customers suffer due to unnecessary delay. So they should
Source: Primary & Calculated data take care to improve their environment to avoid delay.
It is clear from Table 1 that, 60 respondents (60 percent) are female
and the remining 40 respondents (40 percent) are male. References
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ISSN : 2348-6503 (Online) International Journal of Research in Management &
Vol. 4 Issue 3 (SPL 1) Jul. - Sept. 2017
ISSN : 2348-893X (Print) Business Studies (IJRMBS 2017)

pp.9-30.
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