UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

PROJECT REPORT

ON

“STUDY OF CONSUMERS PERCEPTION TOWARDS ONLINE SHOPPING”

SBMITTED BY

GUPTA SONAM ANILKUMAR

THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF COMMERCE (MANAGEMENT) SEM-III

EXAMINATON NO:

ACADEMIC YEAR 2021-22

GUIDED BY

PROF.AKSHAY BHOIR

PADMASHRI ANNASAHEB JADHAV BHARATIYA SAMAJ UNNATI MANDAL

B.N.N. COLLEGE, BHIWANDI

DIST. THANE 421302

1
 DECLARATION

I, Miss. GUPTA SONAM ANILKUMAR, Exam No: ____________ Student of B.N.N

College, Bhiwandi ,of MASTER OF COMMERCE (MANAGEMENT), Semester III,
hereby declare that I have completed project on “A STUDY OF CONSUMERS
PERCEPTION TOWARDS ONLINE SHOPPING” is a record of independent research
work carried by me during the academic year 2021-22 under the guidance of PROF.
AKSHAY BHOIR, The information submitted is true and original to the best of my
knowledge.

GUPTA SONAM ANILKUMAR

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Estd. June 1960

“A” NAAC Accredited

“BEST COLLEGE AWARD 2018-2019”

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that GUPTA SONAM ANILKUMAR, Seat No.:4979536 of MASTER OF
COMMERCE (MANAGEMENT), B.N.N College, Semester III (Academic Year 2021-22) has
successfully completed the project entitled “A STUDY OF CONSUMERS PERCEPTION
TOWARDS ONLINE SHOPPING” and submitted the project report in partial fulfillment
of the requirement for the award of the Degree of MASTER OF
COMMERCE(MANAGEMENT) of University of Mumbai.

Prof. AKSHAY BHOIR Prof. SUREKHA DHENDE Dr. ASHOK. D. WAGH

(Internal Guide) (Head of Department) (Principal)

Examiner: -__________

Date: -__________

College Seal

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

To list who all have helped me is difficult because they are so numerous and the depth is so enormous. I would like to
acknowledge the following as being idealistic channels and fresh dimensions in the completion of this project.
I take this opportunity to thank the University of Mumbai for giving me chance to do this project. I would like to
thank my Principal, Dr. Ashok D. Wagh for providing the necessary facilities required for completion of this project.
I would also like to express my sincere gratitude towards my project guide Prof. Akshay Bhoir whose guidance and
care made the project successful.
I would like to thank my College Library, for providing various reference books and magazines related to my project.
Lastly, I would like to thank each person who directly or indirectly helped me in the completion of the project
especially my parents and peers who supported me throughout my project.

GUPTA SONAM ANILKUMAR

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 INDEX

Sr.no. CONTENT Page No

CHAPTER 1

1.1 Introduction 08
1.2 Objective of the study 10
1.3 Significance of the study 11
1.4 History
-Consumer 12
-Consumer Protection act 13
-Consumer Rights 16
1.5 Consumer Perception 19
1.6 Shopping
-Introduction 23
-Types of shopping 24
-Online Website 31
-Flow Charts 45
CHAPTER-2
2.1 Literature Review 46
Review-1 47

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 Review-2 49
CHAPTER-3
3.1 Research Methodology 52
3.2 Research Objectives 53
3.3 Hypothesis 53
3.4 Data Collection 54
-Primary data
- Secondary data
3.5 Limitation of study 60
CHAPTER-4
4.1 Data analysis 61
4.2 Sample size 61
4.3 Graph and Interpretation of 62
Presentation
4.4 Testing of Hypothesis 77
4.5 Photographs of Survey 78
CHAPTER-5
5.1 Conclusion 80
5.2 Self-Experience 81
5.3 Suggestion 83
5.4 Bibliography 84
5.5 Webiliography 84
5.6 Annexure 85

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CHAPTER 1

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1.1 INTRODUCTION:

CONSUMER: The word ‗consumer‗ is a derivative of the Latin word ―consumer‖ which
means, ‗to eat or drink‗. The consumer is one who consumes or uses any commodity or
services available to him either from natural resources or through market.

Someone who buys goods or services for personal use

Consumers are people or organizations that purchase products or services. The term also
refers to hiring goods and services. They are humans or other economic entities that use a
good or service. Furthermore, they do not sell on that item that they bought.

They are the end users in the distribution chain of goods and services. In fact, sometimes
the consumer might not be the buyer.

For example, young children are the end users of toys, but their parents buy them.
Therefore, in the market for toys, the buyer and consumer are often different people.

Defining Consumers

A consumer is a person (or group) who pays to consume the goods and/or
services produced by a seller (i.e., company, organization).

.. By Merriam Webster

A consumer is one that buys goods for consumption and not for resale or
commercial purpose. The consumer is an individual who pays some amount of money for
the thing required to consume goods and services. As such, consumers play a vital role in
the economic system of a nation. Without consumer demand, producers would lack one
of the key motivations to produce: to sell to consumers. The consumer also forms part of
the chain of distribution.

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Recently in marketing instead of marketers generating broad demographic profiles and
Fazio-graphic profiles of market segments, marketers have started to engage
in personalized marketing, permission marketing, and mass customization.

Largely due to the rise of the Internet, consumers are shifting more and more towards
becoming presume, consumers who are also producers (often of information and media
on the social web), influence the products created (e.g. by customization, crowd
funding or publishing their preferences), actively participate in the production process, or
use interactive products. The psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select
between different alternatives (e.g., brands, products);

The psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or her environment (e.g.,
culture, family, signs, media); The behavior of consumers while shopping or making
other marketing decisions; Limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing
abilities influence decisions and marketing outcome; How consumer motivation and
decision strategies differ between products that differ in their level of importance or
interest that they entail for the consumer; and. How marketers can adapt and improve
their marketing campaigns and marketing strategies to more effectively reach the
consumer.

Understanding consumer behavior enables firms to launch products that people need and
want, thereby, increasing their sales and profitability. If a firm fails to understand what
consumers need or how they will respond to the launch of a new product, most likely it
will incur losses.

On the other hand, consumer behavior is extremely complex as it involves the individual
mindset of a person, personal preferences and attitudes, and different levels of
consumption. Especially, in times of financial crisis, consumers experience a change in
their living standard, which has an impact on their preferences and level of spending for
consumption.

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 1.2. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:

1. To identify the issues faced by the user while online shopping.

2. To find out the preferences of the customer regarding the attribute of online shopping
website.

3. To study the buying pattern of consumer while shopping online.

4. To know it provides products and services and satisfiers their customer.

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1.3. Significance of the Study:

1. Factors like easy-to-shop and easy-to compare over the online shopping have brought
the change in consumer behavior.

2. it‗s a sign for the opportunity seekers to grab the new market opportunities.

3. Convenience over the internet shopping greatly attracting the customers towards these
new methods of shopping.

4. This study reveals the perception of customers towards the E-shopping is changing in a
very fast manner.

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1.4. History

Consumer:
In ancient India, all sections of society followed Dharma-shastras (“Dharma”),
which laid out social rules and norms, and served as the guiding Principle
governing human relations.

The principles of Dharma were derived from Vedas. Vedas were considered the
words of God, and law was said to have divine Origin which was transmitted to
society through sages. Thus, Vedas were the Primary sources of law in India.

Many writers and commentators of the ancient period documented the living
Conditions of the people through their innovative and divine writings, including
Smriti (Tradition) and sruti (revelation), and also prescribed codes to guide the
kings and rulers about the method of ruling the State and its subjects. Consumer
protection was also a major concern in their writings.
Among the Dharma’s, the most authoritative texts are
a) The Manu Smriti;
b) The Yajnavalkya Smriti;
c) The Narmada Smriti
d) The Bruhaspati Smriti; and
e) The Katyayana Smriti. Among these, Manu Smriti was the most influential.

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Consumer Protection Act

Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the
public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are
often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent businesses from engaging
in fraud or specified unfair practices in order to gain an advantage over competitors or to
mislead consumers. They may also provide additional protection for the general public
which may be impacted by a product (or its production) even when they are not the direct
purchaser or consumer of that product. For example, government regulations may require
businesses to disclose detailed information about their products—particularly in areas
where public health or safety is an issue, such as with food or automobiles.

Consumer protection is linked to the idea of consumer rights and to the formation of
consumer organizations, which help consumers, make better choices in the marketplace
and pursue complaints against businesses. Entities that promote consumer protection
include government organizations (such as the Federal Trade Commission in United
States), self-regulating business organizations (such as the Better Business Bureaus in the
US, Canada, England, etc.), and non-governmental organizations that advocate for
consumer protection laws and help to ensure their enforcement (such as consumer
protection agencies and watchdog groups).

The Consumer Protection Bill, 2019 was passed by the Indian Parliament on Aug 06,
2019, and later on signed by the President of India. This new act will replace the old
Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

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Responsibilities of a Consumer

The consumer has a certain responsibility to carry as an aware consumer can bring changes
in the society and would help other consumers to fight the unfair practice or be aware of it.

Ask Yourself!

 Have you faced any problems as a consumer?

 Have you ever complained when you have had such a problem?
 Do you know that you could seek the assistance of a consumer group to protect
your interests?

Be Critically Aware

 The responsibility to be more alert and to question more – about prices, about
quantity and quality of goods bought and services used.

Be Involved

 The responsibility to be assertive – to ensure that you get a fair deal as a

consumer. Remember, if you are passive, you are likely to be exploited.

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Be Organized

 The responsibility to join hands and raise voices as consumers; to fight in a

collective and to develop the strength and influence to promote and protect
consumer interest.

Practice Sustainable Consumption

 The responsibility to be aware of the impact of your consumption on other

citizens, especially the disadvantaged or powerless groups; and to consume based
on needs – not wants.

Be Responsible to the Environment

 The responsibility to be aware and to understand the environmental consequences

of our consumption. We should recognize our individual and social responsibility
to conserve natural resources and protect the earth for future generations.

 They should be aware of their rights under the Consumer Protection Act and
should practice the same in case of need.

 They should be well aware of the product they are buying. Should act as a cautious
consumer while purchasing the product.

 If in case a product is found of anything false or not satisfactory a complaint

should be filed.

 The consumer should ask for a Cash Memo while making apurchase.

 A customer should check for the standard marks that have been introduced for the
authenticity of the quality of the product like ISI or Hallmark et

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Consumer Rights

Right to safety

Means right to be protected against the marketing of goods and services, which are
hazardous to life and property. The purchased goods and services availed of should not
only meet their immediate needs, but also fulfill long term interests. Before purchasing,
consumers should insist on the quality of the products as well as on the guarantee of the
products and services. They should preferably purchase quality marked products such as
ISI, AGMARK, etc. The assertion of this right is aimed at the defense of consumers
against injuries caused by products other than automobile vehicles, and implies that
products should cause no harm to their users if such use is executed as prescribed. The
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has jurisdiction over thousands of
commercial products, and powers that allow it to establish performance standards, require
product testing and warning labels, demand immediate notification of defective products,
and, when necessary, force product recall.

Right to choose

Means right to be assured, wherever possible of access to variety of goods and services at
competitive price. In case of monopolies, it means right to be assured of satisfactory
quality and service at a fair price. It also includes right to basic goods and services. This
is because unrestricted right of the minority to choose can mean a denial for the majority
of its fair share. This right can be better exercised in a competitive market where a variety
of goods are available at competitive prices. The right to free choice among product
offerings states that consumers should have a variety of options provided by different
companies from which to choose. The federal government has taken many steps to ensure
the availability of a healthy environment open to competition through legislation,
including limits on concept ownership through Patent Law, prevention of monopolistic
business practices through Anti-Trust Legislation, and the outlaw of price cutting and
gouging.

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Right to be informed

Means right to be informed about the quality, quantity, potency, purity, standard and
price of goods so as to protect the consumer against unfair trade practices. Consumer
should insist on getting all the information about the product or service before making a
choice or a decision. This will enable him to act wisely and responsibly and also enable
him to desist from falling prey to high pressure selling techniques. This right states that
businesses should always provide consumers with enough appropriate information to
make intelligent and informed product choices. Product information provided by a
business should always be complete and truthful. This right aims to achieve protection
against misleading information in the areas of financing, advertising, labeling, and
packaging.

Right to consumer education

Means the right to acquire the knowledge and skill to be an informed consumer
throughout life. Ignorance of consumers, particularly of rural consumers, is mainly
responsible for their exploitation. They should know their rights and must exercise them.
Only then real consumer protection can be achieved with success. his is to ensure that the
consumers understand all consumer rights and must exercise them. Consumer education
might refer to formal education through college and school curriculums as well as
consumer awareness campaigns being run by non-governmental and governmental
agencies both.

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Right to be heard

Means that consumer's interests will receive due consideration at appropriate forums. It
also includes right to be represented in various forums formed to consider the consumer's
welfare. The Consumers should form non-political and non-commercial consumer
organizations which can be given representation in various committees formed by the
Government and other bodies in matters relating to consumers. This right asserts the
ability of consumers to voice complaints and concerns about a product in order to have
the issue handled efficiently and responsively. While no federal agency is tasked with the
specific duty of providing a forum for this interaction between consumer and producer,
certain outlets exist to aid consumers if difficulty occurs in communication with an
aggrieving party. State and federal attorney generals are equipped to aid their constituents
in dealing with parties who have provided a product or service in a manner unsatisfactory
to the consumer in violation of an applicable law.

Right to Seek Redressal

Means right to seek redressal against unfair trade practices or unscrupulous exploitation
of consumers. It also includes right to fair settlement of the genuine grievances of the
consumer. Consumers must make complaint for their genuine grievances. Many a times
their complaint may be of small value but its impact on the society as a whole may be
very large. They can also take the help of consumer organization‗s in seeking redressed
of their grievances.

This right affords compensation to the consumers against unethical trade practice of the
seller. For instance, if the quantity and quality of the product do not adhere to those
guaranteed by the seller, the buyer has the right to claim compensation. The Consumer
courts like District Consumer Disputes Redressed Forums at the district level, State
Consumer Disputes Redressed Commissions, and National Consumer Disputes Redressal
Commissions have been incorporated with the help of the Consumer Protection Act., so
that consumers can see redresses.

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1.5. Consumer Perception

Customer perception plays a vital role in a company‗s ability to attract new customers
and to retain existing customers. The good news is that companies have the ability to
control many of the factors that build an individual‗s perception of the company/brand.
Customer perception refers to the customer's opinion of your business or products. It
summarizes how customers feel about your brand including every direct or indirect
experience they've had with your company. By monitoring customer perception, your
businesses can spot common user pain points and improve the customer journey.

The Concept of Consumer Perception

The Business Dictionary defines consumer perception as a ―marketing concept that

encompasses a customer‗s impression, awareness or consciousness about a company or
its offerings. Typically, customer perception is affected by advertising, reviews, public
relations, social media, personal experiences, and other channels.‖

The truth is that everything affects customer perception, from the way you position your
product vertically and horizontally on a shelf, to the colors and shapes you use in creating
your logo. Even things outside of your control, which may seem innocuous, such as the
time of the day when your customer interacts with your brand - even this will affect
consumer perception. Your customers might have a positive perception of you if they
come across your products and your niche during a certain time of the day, but they may
hold a negative perception at another time of day. This dual perception might not have
anything to do with you; some people are not morning people, and the worst time to try to
sell 'not-morning' people is in the morning hours, especially before they‗ve had breakfast
and coffee. You would do better to catch them right after dinner, when they‗re relaxed.
Other people simply can‗t concentrate on anything in the evening, and would rather that
you had caught their attention in the morning. Others somewhere in between, prefer that

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you reach them during the main part of the day. So, as you can see, something as
harmless as calling at the wrong hour or showing a potential customer the right color at
the wrong time and at the wrong place, might reward you with a significant number of
customers in at one time of day but a disappointing result at a different time of day.

Customer perception definition:

The formal definition of customer perception is, ―A marketing concept that encompasses
a customer‗s impression, awareness and/or consciousness about a company or its
offerings.‖

..By Merriam Webster

To put it simply, customer perception is what your customers and potential customers
think of your organization. This perception directly impacts the attraction of new
customers and the capacity to maintain good relationships with current customers.

Customer perception important:

In today‗s digital age, virtually everything is a Google search away. This makes your
goods and services easier to find, but the tradeoff is that your competition is easier to find
as well. That means it‗s easier for unhappy or unsatisfied customers to leave.

Consumers want good quality, but they also want to know they are getting good value.
That value isn‗t just judged by the product or service they are purchasing, but by the
availability and usability of the customer service that supports it.

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It‗s just not enough anymore to have brand recognition; consumers want to feel good
about a brand and company. They want to do business with civic-minded corporations
with positive world views.

Consumer behavior is one of the topics that marketer uses to better understanding of
consumer on how their behavior reacts when come to buying decisions. Perception is
how one view under the influence of past experience, personal opinion.

A motive is a drive which activities behaviors in order to satisfy that around need, i.e.,
the motive, motivation provides a basic influence upon buyer, while perception is
operationally critical. A motive creates disposition to act. Perception triggers or causes
the basis of our post experience to perceive is to see, hear, to touch to tats, to smell and to
sense something or events or relation and to organize, interpret and find meaning in the
experience. For example, the average CONSUMER may be exposed to 1,500 ads during
a normal day, but he consciously perceive only about 75 of them and perhaps 12 of these
could be related to his subsequent behavior.

This consumer perception towards a product is what a consumer wants from his product
and wants from his product and what actually forces or drive him to go for a product or a
service. In general, shopping has always catered to middle class and upper class women.
Shopping is fragmented and pyramid-shaped.

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The Role of Perception

The idea of perception theory is often capitalized by haunted houses and amusement
parks. The visitors are forced to walk into a dark are, which is pretty small and
claustrophobic. Visitors are led to a panoply of attractions that look and sound like like
monsters, rodents, and so on. All this to overwhelm our senses. The idea is to stimulate
an adrenaline rush, which would then surge through the patrons as they are forced to face
their fears. The people who enjoy these things usually love the idea of conquering their
fears, and they often find this experience exhilarating. However, this can be turned on its
head. If you're in the wrong neighborhood, attractions in a haunted house could easily
attract customers to a haunted house but could easily chase customers away from your
storefront.

As a business owner, you want to maximize the amount of time that customers spend in
your store. You want them to purchase an item on a whim, and to then go on a spree of
impulse buying. You want them to browse your shelves, and walk through your aisles,
discovering and exploring with each step. Whether your store is a brick-and-mortar store
or an online store, you want them to browse and buy, so that you increase your sales.

As a business owner, you should seek to improve their experience and give them the right
perception, no matter what

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1.6. Shopping

A retailer or shop is a business that presents a selection of goods or services and offers to
sell them to customers for money or other goods. Shopping is an activity in which a
customer browses the available goods or services presented by one or more retailers with
the intent to purchase a suitable selection of them. In some contexts it may be considered
a leisure activity as well as an economic one. The shopping experience can range from
delightful to terrible, based on a variety of factors including how the customer is treated,
convenience, and mood. The shopping experience can also be influenced by other
shoppers. For example, research from a field experiment found that male and female
shoppers who were accidentally touched from behind by other shoppers left a store
earlier than people who had not been touched and evaluated brands more negatively,
resulting in the Accidental Interpersonal Touch effect. According to a 2000 report, in the
U.S. state of New York, women purchase 80% of all consumer goods and influence 80%
of health-care decisions.

Shopping is an activity in which a customer browses the available goods or services

presented by one or more retailers with the potential intent to purchase a suitable
selection of them. A typology of shopper types has been developed by scholars which
identifies one group of shoppers as recreational shoppers. That is, those who enjoy
shopping and view it as a leisure activity.

Online shopping has become a major disruptor in the retail industry as consumers can
now search for product information and place product orders across different regions.
Online retailers deliver their products directly to the consumers' home, offices or
wherever they want. The B2C (business to consumer) process has made it easy for
consumers to select any product online from a retailer's website and to have it delivered
relatively quickly. Using online shopping methods, consumers do not need to consume
energy by physically visiting physical stores. This way they save time and the cost of

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travelling. A retailer or a shop is a business that presents a selection of goods and offers
to trade or sell them to customers for money or other goods.

Shoppers' shopping experiences may vary. They are based on a variety of factors
including how the customer is treated, convenience, the type of goods being purchased,
and mood.

TYPES OF SHOPPING

1. Offline Shopping

The traditional way of shopping has its pros and cons. This way of shopping is mostly
preferred by girls who dedicate one entire day as a shopping spree day and they love
doing it. Also few people, mostly the male customers feel that traveling, roaming and
tiring yourself for a pair of jeans is not worthwhile. So here I have broadly discussed the
advantages and disadvantage of offline shopping.

Advantages of Offline Shopping:

 Brings Happiness: Shopping is supposed to make you feel happy about yourself.
It is a way of bringing fun and joy while doing it. It has its own joy when you try
on clothes and ask your friends how it looks on you.

 Experience the Item: you can physically be present near the collection you want
to choose from and try out the clothes by yourself. Sometimes it is not prominent
in the images. The texture and material of the fabric can be known.

 Help and Recommendations from the Sales Staff: It is of great help when the sales
person helps you in every step from choosing the correct size to providing you
with choices of colors‗.

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  Product is with you Right Away: There is no requirement of waiting three to four
days for the item when you can get it right away and therefore use it right then
and there.

 Returning the Product: returning the product can be done by the customer
herself/himself and this will avoid delay and trust issues.

Disadvantages of Offline Shopping

 Tiring: Lots of us do not prefer walking long aisles and choosing our clothes. It
will only make us tired and we will end up making the wrong decisions with the
choice of our clothes.

 Expensive: shopping for the things we require is not the only things associated
with offline shopping. We go out to buy a stuff we will definitely spend on food
and travel as well.

 Lengthy: this process is too lengthy because it is feasibly not possible to complete
all the sections of the shop and we end up missing out something we might like.

 Crowd: we will definitely find queues outside fitting rooms and billing counters.

 Compulsive shopping: Compulsive shopping can lead the customers to end up

buying things they were not after at the first place, for example, upselling skills of
the shopkeeper can make us buy stuff we didn‗t want to buy, or sometimes
compromising with our choices and buying just what they have.

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2. Online Shopping

The ecommerce industry is the fastest growing market in today‗s generation. We cannot
ignore the fact that the online shopping business has been boomed tremendously in the
last decade. It is quite evident that online market is trending to be more and more popular
in the younger generation.

Online shopping is the process whereby consumers directly buy goods or services from a
seller in real-time, without an intermediary service, over the Internet. It is a form
of electronic commerce. An online shop, shops, e-store, Internet shop, webshop, webs
tore, online store, or virtual store evokes the physical analogy of buying products or
services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or in a shopping center. The process is called
business-to-consumer (B2C) online shopping. When a business buys from another
business, it is called business-to-business (B2B) online shopping.

Advantages of Online Shopping:

Due to rapid growth of technology, business organizations have switched over from the
traditional method of selling goods to electronic method of selling goods. Business
organizations use internet as a main vehicle to conduct commercial transactions.

1. Convenience: Convenience is the biggest perk. Where else can you comfortably
shop at midnight while in your pajamas? There are no lines to wait in or cashiers
to track down to help you with your purchases and you can do your shopping in
minutes. Online shops give us the opportunity to shop 24/7, and also reward us
with a ‗no pollution‗ shopping experience. There is no better place to buy
informational products like e-books, which are available to you instantly, as soon
as the payment goes through. Downloadable items purchased online eliminate the

26
 need for any kind of physical material at all, as well, which helps the
environment!

2. Better prices. Cheap deals and better prices are available online, because products
come to you direct from the manufacturer or seller without involving middlemen.
Plus, it's easier to compare prices and find a better deal. Many online sites offer
discount coupons and rebates, as well. Not only are prices better, but you can save
on tax as well, since online shops are only required to collect a sales tax if they
have a physical location in your state. Factor in the saved expense of gas and
parking and you have saved yourself a lot of money.

3. More variety. The choices online are amazing. You can find almost any brand or
item you're looking for. You can get in on the latest international trends without
spending money on airfare. You can shop from retailers in other parts of the state,
country, or even world instead of being limited to your own geography. A far
greater selection of colors and sizes than you will find locally are at your disposal.
Plus, the stock is much more plentiful, so you'll always be able to find your size
and color. Some online shops even accept orders for out-of-stock items and ship
when they come in.

4. You can send gifts more easily. Sending gifts to relatives and friends is easy, no
matter where they are. All the packaging and shipping is done for you.
Oftentimes, they'll even gift wrap it for you! Now, there is no need to make
distance an excuse for not sending a gift on occasions like birthdays, weddings,
anniversaries, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and so forth.

5. More control. Many times, when we opt for conventional shopping, we tend to
spend a lot more than planned and end up buying items that aren't exactly what
we wanted (but we can't find anything better in the store). Online, you don't have

27
 to let the store's inventory dictate what you buy, and you can get exactly what you
want and need.

6. Easy price comparisons. Comparing and researching products and their prices is
so much easier online. If you're shopping for appliances, for example, you can
find consumer reviews and product comparisons for all the options on the market,
with links to the best prices. We can research firsthand experience, ratings, and
reviews for most products and retailers.

7. No crowds. If you are like me, you hate crowds when you're shopping. Especially
during holidays, festivals, or on weekends, they can be such a huge headache.
Also, being crushed in the crowds of shoppers sometimes makes us feel rushed or
hurried. You don't have to battle for a parking place. All of these problems can be
avoided when you shop online.

8. No pressure. Oftentimes when we're out shopping, we end up buying things that
we don't really need, all because shopkeepers pressure us or use their selling skills
to compel us to make these purchases.

9. You can buy used or damaged items at lower prices. The marketplace on the
Internet gives us access to listings of old or damaged items at rock bottom prices.
Also, if we want to buy antiques, there's no better place to find great ones.

10. Discreet purchases are easier. Some things are better done in the privacy of your
home. Online shops are best for discreet purchases for things like adult toys, sexy
lingerie, and so on. This enables me to purchase undergarments and lingerie
without embarrassment or any paranoia that there are people watching or judging
me

28
Disadvantages of online shopping:

1. Delay in delivery
Long duration and lack of proper inventory management result in delays in shipment.
Though the duration of selecting, buying and paying for an online product may not take
more than 15 minutes; the delivery of the product to customer‗ s doorstep takes about 1-3
weeks. This frustrates the customer and prevents them from shopping online.

2. Lack of significant discounts in online shops

Physical stores offer discounts to customers and attract them so this makes it difficult for
e-tailor‗s to compete with the offline platforms.

3. Lack of touch and feel of merchandise in online shopping

Lack of touch-feel-try creates concerns over the quality of the product on offer. Online
shopping is not quite suitable for clothes as the customers cannot try them on.

4. Lack of interactivity in online shopping

Physical stores allow price negotiations between buyers and the seller. The show room
sales attendant representatives provide personal attention to customers and help them in
purchasing goods. Certain online shopping mart offers service to talk to a sales
representative,

5. Lack of shopping experience

The traditional shopping exercise provides lot of fun in the form of show-room
atmosphere, smart sales attendants, scent and sounds that cannot be experienced through
a website. Indians generally enjoy shopping. Consumers look forward to it as an
opportunity to go out and shop.

29
6. Lack of close examination in online shopping

A customer has to buy a product without seeing actually how it looks like. Customers
may click and buy some product that is not really required by them. The electronic
images of a product are sometimes misleading. The color, appearance in real may not
match with the electronic images.

People like to visit physical stores and prefer to have close examination of good, though
it consumes time. The electronic images vary from physical appearance when people buy
goods based on electronic images.

7. Frauds in online shopping

Sometimes, there is disappearance of shopping site itself. In addition to above, the online
payments are not much secured. So, it is essential for e-marketers and retailers to pay
attention to this issue to boost the growth of e-commerce. The rate of cyber crimes has
been increasing and customers‗ credit card details and bank details have been misused
which raise privacy issues.

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 Top 10 Online Shopping Website in India

1. Amazon

According to Amazon‗s Similar Web report, Amazon India is the most populous website
in India, leaving all e-commerce websites behind. After six years of Flip kart in India,
Amazon launched its website in 2013. In the past 2 years Amazon has been focusing on
bringing new products to the website, this step helps them to keep customers involved.
Apart from Amazon‗s excellent delivery service and high quality of the product, Amazon
is also very much liked by people. So on the same Amazon Prime Video has added
another category of society to the website itself. You can see your familiar video, movie
and many more here for 24 hours.

2. Flip kart

Flip kart is a true example of a startup that has increased thousand times in the last 10
years. Flip kart‗s journey is amazing, it started with a small e-commerce website which
was selling books and is currently India‗s second largest e-commerce website. Recently,
flip kart has received funding of $ 10 billion, which will be used by the company to
increase your technology, will bring new products to the delivery website.

3. Paytm

With the introduction of Patym, the third largest ecommerce company, mobile phone,
from Patiala, the facilities of online mobile recharge were made available. Two years ago,
PatyM launched e-commerce platform, Patym Mall, and entered the e-commerce
industry. Customers from Paytm Mall have the opportunity to buy apparel, electronic
products, mobile and tablets. Patym was founded on January 1, 2010 and has become an
e-commerce company within 7 years. In 2017, Paytm funded S $ S $ 4.4 billion. With

31
this step, the main shareholder of Softbank has become Paytm and has also got a seat in
the Petty Board.

4. Jabong

Jabong is the fourth largest e-commerce website. Jabong was founded in 2012. Let me
tell you that flip kart had recently acquired Jabong. Even after the merger of Jabong and
flip kart, Jabong is running his website as a separate unit. The whole theme of Jang
focuses on shopping.

5. Myntra

Myntra is another major e-commerce company that sells fashion related products. It was
established in 2007 by Mukesh Bansal. In 2014, flip kart had acquired Myntra to increase
its business. Now Flipkart, Mantra and Jabang are working on a platform and are trying
to capture the market share of e-commerce industry.

6. Zomato

Zomato is another e-commerce company, which has achieved amazing growth over the
past few years. Jomato is a platform through which you can order online food; the partner
restaurant will distribute food at your door on behalf of Zomato. Initially, Zomato was
started as a Discovery platform, which provides information about only the restaurant and
later it entered the food distribution business. Recently, Jomato has started Gold
membership in India and in which the Zomato team has established agreement with the
major restaurants of Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore. If you are a Zomato Gold member, and
you ask for food from a restaurant from Zomato, then you will get some food items free
of cost with him.

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7. Make My Trip

Make My Trip is leading the e-commerce company, which basically sells air tickets, bus
tickets, vacation packages, train tickets. Make My Trip started in the year 2000. It has its
head office in Gurgaon, founded by Deep Kalra, the Man Alumina of the Indian Institute
of Management. The company is listed in NASDAQ. Recently, Make My Trip has
acquired the ibibo group to become the largest player in the Indian travel industry. Apart
from this, the company has acquired Holiday IQ, ITC Group, Hotel Travel Group and
Mygola.

8. Swiggy

Swiggy, a Food Tech E-Commerce player, has achieved considerable growth over the
past 2 years. Swigi‗s main business base is to keep an eye on real time delivery of food.
Swigi has its own delivery setup. Swigi is providing services in all the metros of India
such as Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad etc. In recent funding, Swigi has
received US $ 100 million from Nesperas and Meteuan.

9. Shop Clues

Shop Clues is also one of India‗s leading e-commerce websites. It was started by Sandeep
and Radhika Agrawal in 2011. Shop cluse distributes products to more than 30000 zip
codes across India and 60% commercial production from Shop Clues Mobile App. More
than 5 lakhs vendors are affiliated with the company and they are selling their products in
9 different categories including Mobile, Electronics, Computer, Camera etc.

33
10. Book My Show

Book My Show has been ranked 10th in the list of Top 10 e-commerce companies in
India. Book My Show allows you to purchase ticket for movie tickets, invoice etc. Book
My Show was started in 1999. Book My Show has been at the forefront of booking film
tickets. Let us know that recently, Paytm has added ticket booking facility on the
platform. There is ongoing competition for ticket booking between the two companies.
With this fight, both companies are offering some discounts on online ticket booking and
therefore the customer has benefited. The company is headquartered in the United States
and has offices in Mumbai in India.

34
Online Shopping Steps:

For a customer, it is essential to have basic computer literacy to enter in to the world of
online shopping. Basically one needs to have a computer with an internet connection to
make an online purchase. The online shopping steps can be simply explained with the
help of an online store. More or less, every online store follows almost similar procedure
to complete an online purchase. For an easier understanding of the procedure of e
shopping, here the researcher takes one of the online stores.

Flipkart as a model to explain the online shopping steps. The steps are explained with the
help of screenshots of each window appeared during the online shopping. Flipkart.com is
one among the leading online store functioning in India through which consumers can
buy various categories of items including Electronics, Appliances, Fashion and Apparels,
Home and furniture, Books and stationary, Movies and games, Fitness and personal care
and many more. Flipkart provides the customers attractive price offers, various payment
options, EMI options including no cost EMI, effective replacement policy and prompt
delivery. Recently ‗Wal-Mart‗ the leading MNC in the retail business had purchased
flipkart.com and it becomes more powerful in online business in India.

A customer will have to go through the following stages to complete an online purchase.
The diagram shown below depicts the different stages of online shopping from product
search to delivery of the product.

Product Search:

A consumer who is in need of any particular product online, have to search for the
product in Google by typing it on the search bar. Google will provide him all links of
various online stores from where he can collect the information and to shop the product.
Consumer can click the link of a web store which offers the product he wants, to enter in

35
to their online store. While clicking the link they will get in to the official web site of the
online store Flipkart.

E Commerce Website:

The consumer can also get in to the desired web store directly by typing the name of the
web store in the search bar of Google or they can use the mobile app of the web store by
downloading it from the android play store. Here they can look for the item either by
clicking the appropriate categories shown at the top of the window or type the name of
the item in the search bar which they want to buys. The various categories shown in
Flipkart home page are Electronics, Appliances, Men, Women, Baby & Kids, Home &
Furniture and Books & More. In each product category, there will be a number of
subcategories are also there for the consumers to choose

Product Page:

While given a search, the consumer will be provided with the list of all products with its
pictures, price quoting, product ratings, user reviews and basic product details. Here the
consumer can select any of the items as per their wish by clicking on the picture of the
product.

By clicking on the product of choice, the consumer will be provided with pictures of the
product in various angles and on pointing the cursor on the product, they can see the
magnified image. In this page there will be details about the EMI options for the
consumer, PIN code checking for ensuring proper delivery of the product and detailed
specification about the product. Here the consumer can also see two buttons ―Add to
Cart‖ and ―Buy Now‖

If the consumers want to put it in their shopping cart, they can click ‗Add to Cart‗ button.
This page shows their cart details like Item, Quantity ordered, Price, Delivery details and

36
Sub Total. Here the consumers can go for new shopping by clicking ‗Continue shopping‗
button or complete transaction by clicking ‗Place order‗ button.

Customer Login:

If the consumers want to buy the item, click ‗Buy Now‗ button shown in figure 3.3. Then
the consumer will be moved to a new page. Here they need to login in to the site by
providing either their mobile number or email id. Then click ‗continue‗. Then they will
be asked to type a password and to click ‗Login‗

Then they will be moved to a new page where they have to provide their delivery
address. Then click ‗Save & Continue‗

The consumers will be taken to a new page which shows the order summery. This page
will show the details about the Item, Quantity ordered, Price to be charged, Delivery
details and the Sub Total. At the end of the page the consumers have to share their email
id for to generate their invoice. Then click ‗Continue‗

Checkout & Payment:

The customer will be taken in to the payment method window. Here they can select their
payment choice from options like Credit card, Net banking, EMI, Debit card, Cash on
delivery, Gift card and mobile wallet. Click ‗Save and Pay‗ button after providing the
card details like card number, name printed on the card, validity of the card and CVV
number.

The system will send an OTP to the registered mobile number of the consumer as SMS.
Type the OTP in the given space and click ‗Submit‗ to process the payment or click
‗Cancel‗ to drop the transaction.

37
The percentage of payment followed by e shopping consumers in India from 2015 to
2020.

An online buyer in India presently follows the cash on delivery system of payment
method in online shopping. But the trend of using this method of payment is decreasing
over the years. By 2020 it is estimated that only 45% of online buyers will choose this
method of payment. But as for the other modes of payment is concerned; it shows that the
percentage of using debit card, credit card, net banking and mobile wallet will continue to
increase over the years

Delivery:

After confirming the payment, the company delivers the product to the address provided
to the store. Normally the period of delivery will be informed to the consumer during the
process of purchase. During the process of purchase the store will verify the postal pin
code of the consumer to check the possibility of delivering the product to the given
address and will inform them the delivery period also. If the company is not delivering
the product to the pin code given, will ask him to change it and provide a new pin code.

38
Problems Customers Face While Shopping Online

It‗s easy. It‗s quick and it‗s literally a click away. That‗s online shopping for you. But is
it that simple? Not exactly. There are many issues with online shopping faced by the
consumers. And these challenges are not limited to fake products or hidden costs

Customers like to shop at websites that offer them convenience, are easy to browse
through, aesthetically appealing and provide relevant information. When the website is
not optimized right, it leads to the case of abandoned carts, order cancellations or returns.
This is being supported by a CMO.com study that while 43% of the purchases are
influenced by online information, online sales are only 9% of in-store sales

Let‗s check out some of the online shopping problems that customers face

1. Product Quality

This is the most common problem faced by customers who shop online regularly. The
quality of the product is often not up to the mark with what is presented in the pictures.
With the competition growing in the e-commerce industry, as many websites become a
marketplace for sellers to sell their products, and the issue of fraudulent sellers is
increasing. The checks on registration are poor and selling poor-quality in the name of
brands is becoming increasingly common. Even worse, quality-checks have become so
rare with the magnitude of online sales which is soaring high.

Possible Solution: Make your products undergo a usability test where they are evaluated
for their usefulness and effectiveness.

39
2. Logistics are a mess

This is another common issue faced in online shopping. Barring a few websites, delivery
and logistics is a major issue. Websites are becoming so casual about the delivery quality
of products. So many times, either the package is lost or damaged while in transit.
Customers are facing a troubled time with the tracking systems which do not accurately
locate the product. Often customers choose same-day-delivery by paying a few extra
bucks only to get their product delivered.

Many of these companies do not follow the stipulated time limit, leaving consumers
confused as the products come in too late. The issue is the same with returns. You place
an order for the returns to be picked up and there is no response. They will send the
delivery guy when they seem fit, almost never according to the promised time.
Sometimes customers receive the product after the need is over.

Possible Solution: Since logistics has become very complex, it is mandatory for
ecommerce business owners to keep tabs on it. An ecommerce platform with inventory
management solutions can give an idea to the owner about the stock status and thus,
product deliveries can be managed much more accurately

3. Delivery Time Is Not Clear

So many times, the delivery time is not clearly stated in the order process. More often
than not, consumers do not know when the product will be delivered. Consumers buy a
product and the ecommerce businesses do not even state the time of delivery. Many a
times, these orders take more time than expected to be delivered.

It‗s important for buyers to have realistic expectations and know when they can expect
their orders. It is important for people to know when their product is arriving so that they
can plan their day accordingly. Customers often complain that the delivery boys do not

40
even call them before arriving to deliver the product. The best thing is to check with the
website about the estimated time of arrival of a certain product before you place the
order.

Possible Solution: Send Message to the customer when the order is shipped and then
when it is expected to be delivered so that the customer is prepared to receive it.

4. Payment Preferences Are Limited

This is another common problem. A lot of times, consumers do not know how to make
the payment if the debit cards they use are not available as an option. More so, customers
are often stuck with the payment options when Cash on Delivery is not available. With
online frauds picking up steam, most customers prefer paying cash on delivery as they
are skeptical about sharing their card details. This is a common complaint by many
customers these days. They do not have many payment methods that they can trust

Possible Solution: An e-security seal like Trust on the website can help earn the trust of
the consumer opting for e-payments on the website. Further, use of e-payments offers
convenience to the buyers and hence leads to increase in sales.

5. Payment confirmation missing

Another challenge is to find a payment gateway that is smooth. Sometimes when the
customers are directed to the payment page, their money is deducted and suddenly, the
page shuts off without any notice to the consumer. And that‗s when the customer is in a
fix. Then chasing the company for a refund is a different challenge altogether. With bulk
sales happening at the same time, sometimes it‗s a woo commerce specialist to ensure
that the payment page is working fine.

41
Also sometimes the website asks too many secret questions or too much info before the
customer can make the payment. This too can increase the perceived inconvenience
during the purchase and leads to an abandoned cart.

Possible Solution: A quick fix is to email payment confirmation to the customer. If a

customer gets an email confirming the order, they are not worried about the outcome.
They know they are paying for an order that has been placed successfully. Also, keep the
payment process simple and easy to execute without including too many stages.

6. The trouble with Hidden costs

This is another common issue customers face even with leading e-commerce
development companies. Online marketplaces do not tell customers the hidden costs on
so many things. For instance, the customer is lured into buying something that says is
cost at a certain price. Within minutes, they are paying a lot more to get the product
delivered, tax charges, additional shipping, etc. This eventually leads the customer to pay
a lot more than he or she had expected.

Possible Solution: A simple solution is to keep the charges so apparent that the
customers do not feel cheated and buy the products of their interest for sure

7. Unclear Website Policies

Many shopping websites do not even have clear and concise website policies for return
and refund. Consumers get confused due to vague stipulations about a refund and return.
When the policies section is not defined properly, sellers reject a consumer‗s claim to
return or get a refund. This is among the biggest challenges that many customers face
online. A lot of these websites have no clear outline on the warranty and guarantee of
products. A buyer can take this to consumer court in case the demands are not met with.

42
Possible Solution: Localization is the key as the online businesses go global. The website
policies and other information should be available in different languages for people to
understand them better and clearly.

8. Problem of Plenty

The online world provides too many options and it can be overwhelming for the customer
to make a choice. The absence of support that most customers are used to in the in-store
experience is missing and this can chicken out them of a purchase decision.

Possible Solution: Give proper product specs in the same format for all products so it is
easy to compare them. Instead of overloading the customer with information, give
minimal but useful information. A shopping comparison tool can help buyers simplify
their purchases decisions. Also, a live chat option to offer queries always is comforting
for buyers to make that final click.
In addition, opt for expert magneto web development services that help you track and
understand buyer behavior so that the website can intuitively showcase the customers a
customized view of products, based on their preferences.

9. Complicated Navigation

Does your website resemble a maze of where the visitor feels lost? It‗s tempting to opt
for complex looking website structures and designs and they may also hook in many
curious customers; but this may not be a great idea to build long-term customer base.
Most visitors get frustrated with this complex monstrous website and bounce off.

Possible Solution: Keep the website structure simple and provide easy navigation tools
to the customers. Magneto ecommerce developers often use heat-map tools to analyze
where the customers spend maximum time and where do they bounce off. This analysis
can help them remove the clutter and help the visitors go to the information/page they

43
want smoothly.
Do away with long forms. Also, reduce the number of clicks required to complete a
purchase.

10. Boring Interfaces

While overwhelming site structures can be a bummer, websites with insipid interfaces
don‗t get much done either. It‗s hard to get attention of the customers, so make sure you
get it right at the first go.

Shoppers are an impatient lot. Get their attention with attractive website designs that
allure visitors and give them an enjoyable experience both on desktops and other
handheld devices like mobiles, tabs etc.

Possible Solution: Make sure your web pages don‗t take too long to load. Give
interactive product guides to keep visitors entertained and engaged at the same time.

44
SYSTEM FLOW CHART

45
CHAPTER-2

46
2.1. Literature Review

Review-1

1. Researcher: RAHUL V GULAGANJI (2SD15MBA32)

Research: ON CONSUMER PERCEPTION TOWORDS ONLINE SHOPPING

SUBMITTED TO Dr. SALEEM SONEKHAN

Abstract:

Consumer r Perception refers to how customers view a certain product based on their
own conclusions. These conclusions are derived from a number of factors, such as price
and overall experience. Online Shopping is the process of buying goods and services
from merchants over the Internet. Since the emergence of the World Wide Web,
merchants have sought to sell their products to people who spend time online. Shoppers
can visit web stores from the comfort of their homes and shop as they sit in front of the
computer.

OBJECTIVES OF THE TOPIC

• To study perception of consumers towards online shopping.

• To examine the customer service, satisfaction and relationship aspects of online durable
goods shopping.

• To find out the preferences of the consumer regarding the attributes of online shopping
website.

• To study the marketing strategies of online shopping.

47
FINDINGS

• The findings show that Internet usage has increased over the years and it is leading to an
increase in online shopping and also shows the consumers perception towards online
shopping. Communication still forms the major activity among the large number of
online shoppers as 32% of regular online shopper use Internet for communication as
compared to shopping (10%).

• Online shopping is affected by demographics as it has been seen that more males are
shopping online as compared women online shoppers.

• The most important motivating factor, which influenced the online shopping, was
convenience followed by time saving and price.

• One of the main concerns among the online shoppers was privacy and security. Another
reason that hindered online shopping was the touch factor.

CONCLUSION

• Consumers to shop online and working on factors that affect consumers to shop online
will help marketers to gain the competitive edge over others.

• The hypothesis framed for the project Consumer Perception towards Online Shopping
was online shopping is beneficial for the consumer. From the above data analysis it can
be determined that most of the respondent would agree to buy durable goods online rather
than shopping of durable goods with the traditional method.

• The above analysis we can prove the hypothesis to be positive.

• Customer still they have belief that online shopping is expensive, delayed in delivery of
products and service. Most of the customers are facing problems like return of bad /
wrong product, confusing sites and ineffective customer service.

48
Review -2

2. Researcher: Sanjay Kumar Assistant Professor

Research: ON CONSUMER PERCEPTION TOWORDS ONLINE SHOPPING

Abstract:

Marketing is basically helps the consumer‗s needs more effectively and efficiently with
good product and services with best price and delivery. A good marketer continuously
satisfying consumers‗ needs in better way. Sometimes opportunity to give the consumers
in better way is designed by marketers himself and sometimes it is offered by the
technology. Internet is changing the way consumers shop for goods and services and has
rapidly evolved into a global event. Rowley Jennifer, (1998) examined that internet is
becoming a hotbed of advertising, shopping and commercial activity. Hsieh et al., (2013)
stated that internet is influencing people‗s daily life more so as compared to past.
People‗s daily activities have gradually shifted from physical conditions to virtual
environment. The shopping and payment surroundings have also changed from physical
store into online stores. Weiber and Koll Mann, (1998) investigated that online
technologies provide many competitive advantages like agility, selectivity, individuality.

Objective of the Study:

The objective of the study is given below:

1. To know the type of products purchased by consumers through online shopping.

2. To identify the factors influencing consumer to buy online

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FINDINGS:

The following are the major findings of the study:

• Majority of the respondents are male (65%) who are married (66%) and belonging to
the age group of 25 to 35 years (70%).

• Among the total respondents of the study, the majority of the respondents (40.5%) have
their family size as four.

• It has been observed that the majority of the respondents (48%) are qualified with a post
graduate level of education.

• On an average of 52% of the respondents are private employees.

Conclusion:

With discussion of above it is clear that most of the consumers want to purchase the
product from online. In the present environment the people have not so much time that
they will visit in the stores and purchase the product. Online shop plays a greater role for
those types of consumers who have no time and want to avoid the crowd. But still there
are some points who affect the consumer‗s behavior about online shopping but overall in
the next 5 to 10 years the online shop give a huge competition to the retailers. Because
online consumers are rapidly increasing and if consumers increase than online shop will
increase. In last it is clear that in future there is huge scope for online shop and online
shopping. The consumers are more attracted towards online shopping

50
CHAPTER-3

51
3.1 Research Methodology

Research design is the blueprint of the procedures that enable the researcher to test
hypothesis by reaching valid conclusion about relationship between independent and
dependent variables. Selection of the particular design is based on the purpose of the
experiment, the type of variable to be manipulated, and the conditions or limiting factors
which it is conducted. The design deals with such practical problems as how subjects are
to be assigned to experimental and control groups, the way variable are to be manipulated
and enrolled, the way it extraneous variables are to be controlled, how observations are to
be made and the type of statistical analysis to be controlled, how observation are to be
made, and the types of statistical analysis to be employed in interpreting data
relationship.

The methodologies of educational research are based, in most instances, on research

method in the behavioral and social sciences, relying most heavily on psychology,
sociology and anthropology. Because research in these fields emphasizes logical
positivism, which uses experimental and quantitative research methods, most educational
research also utilizes these methodologies. Research methods are classified into three
basic categories.

52
3.2. Research objective:

1. To analyze the consumer interest on online.

2. To determine the factors affecting online buying.

3. To evaluate the growth of online marketing.

4. To for see the demand of online shopping.

5. To understand the barriers of online marketing.

3.3. Hypothesis

1. H1: There is a significant relationship between the marketing influences and

the e- consumer purchase decision

H0: There is no significant relationship between the marketing influences and

the e- consumer purchase decision.

2. H1: Demographic factors of e-consumers significant impact the e-consumer behavior.

H0:Demographic factors of e-consumers no significant impact the e-consumer behavior.

3. H1:There is a significant relationship between discount (lower price) and the

consumer purchase decisions.

H0: There is nosignificant relationship between discount (lower price) and the
consumer purchase decisions.

53
3.4. TYPES OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1. Historical descriptive

2. Survey Method

3. Experimental Method

1- Historical method:

History is meaningful record of human achievement. It is not merely a list of

chronological events but a truthful integrated account of the relationship between person
events, times and place. History is used to understand the past and try to understand the
present in light of past events and development.

-History research is the application of scientific method to the description and analysis of
past events. Historical criticism is the evaluation of primary data. External criticism is
concerned with the authenticity or genuineness of remains or document, and internal
criticism is concerned with the trustworthiness or veracity of material.

2- Descriptive/Survey method:

The term descriptive study has been used to classify number of different type of activity.
This chapter points out the distinctions between three major categories. Assessment,
evaluation and descriptive research.

-Assessment describes the status of a phenomenon at a particular time without value

judgment, explanation of reasons or underlying causes, or recommendation for action.

54
-Evaluation adds to the description of status the elements of values judgment in terms of
effectiveness, desirability or social utility and may suggest a course of action.

-Descriptive research is concerned with the analysis of the relationship between non-
manipulated variable and the development of generalizations, extending its conclusion
beyond the sample observed.

3- Experimental method:

Experimental research provides s systematic and logical method for answering the
question, ―If this is done under carefully controlled conditions, what will happen,‖
Experimenters manipulate certain stimuli, treatment or environmental conditions and
observe how the condition or behavior of the subject is affected or changed. Their
manipulation is deliberate and systematic. They must be aware of other factors that could
influence the outcome and remove or control them so that they can establish a logical
association between manipulated factors and observed effects.

Experimentation provides a method of hypothesis testing. After experimenters define a

problem, they propose a tentative answer or hypothesis. They test the hypothesis and
confirm or refute it in the light of the controlled variable relationship that they have
observed.

Experimentation is the classic method of the science laboratory where elements

manipulated and effects observed can be controlled. It is the most powerful for
discovering and developing a body of knowledge about the prediction and control of
events. The experimental method has been used with some success in the school
classroom, where, to some degree, variables can be controlled.

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SAMPLING:

In any research conducted, people, places and things are studied. The opportunity to
study the entire population of those peoples, and things is an endeavor that most
researchers do not have the time and/or money to undertake. The idea of gathering data
from a population is one that has been used successfully over the years and is called a
census.

This method is mentioned several times in the bible (Wikipedia). It was also used by the
ancient Egyptians ―to obtain empirical data describing their subject‖. Census data
collection is still very popular for collecting public opinion for political endeavors.

The concept of sampling is discussed is more detail the threats to external validity and
generalizations. We will focus on sampling method in random sampling.

56
METHOD FOR SAMPLING:

There are two types of sampling:

Sampling

A) Probability sampling B) Non-Probability sampling

1) Simple Random 1) Accidental Sampling

2) Stratified 2) Quota Sampling

3) Cluster 3) Purposive Sampling

A] PROBABILITY SAMPLING:

Probability sampling provides an advantage because of researcher‗s ability to calculate

specific base and error in regards to the data collected probability sampling is defined as
having the ―Distinguishing characteristics that each unit in the population has a known,
non-zero probability of being included in the sampling design.

1) SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLING:

Simple random sampling is often called straight random sampling. The naming
conversion of this type of probability sampling method is not only indicative of the
discipline but reliant upon the researcher or author of the various books and articles
referenced. That is to say that these two terms are interchangeable and is not
interdependent on a specific discipline within academic.

57
Data Collection
A cross-sectional research design was used in this study since data was collected at a
single point in time. Quantitative research methods were adopted in this study with help
of questionnaires for the data collection. The detailed information about data collection is
presented below. This research considered of two sources of data .Both secondary and
primary data were collected to make it possible to resolve the research problem. Primary
data was collected afresh and for the first time, on the other hand secondary data have
already been collected by someone and have already been passed through the statistical
process.

1. Primary Data

Primary data consist of raw data and is especially gathered for the current research.
About a defined problem, it was decided to execute a quantitative research to collect
primary data. Quantitative research is usually associated with surveys or experiments and
is considered the primary method for the research for collecting data and the type of
questionnaire depends on the methods of the survey. Primary data was collected with the
help of structured Questionnaire. A questionnaire is a formalized framework which
consists of numerous questions and scales which have the purpose of generating primary
raw data The questionnaire is a vital part of the survey, and the quality of the research
depends on a well-designed questionnaire Furthermore, it is vital that the questions use
simple words and are short and specific. It was decided to use a highly structured
questionnaire survey with formal questions. The reason for choosing a highly structured
questionnaire survey, which consists of closed and multiple choice questions was not just
because of the nature of the research problem but because the sample size was too large
for this survey. Before the questionnaire was defined, secondary data was studied
thoroughly and a pilot testing of the Questionnaire was conducted. A survey was
conducted through E-mail, personal interviews & telephonic interviews of the
respondents.

58
2. Secondary Data

Secondary data was collected from both internal & external sources. Internal secondary
data was collected from e-retailers & their vendors. External secondary data was
collected from Published books, Articles, Newspapers, Magazines, Research papers &
Journals. The reason for using secondary data is to save the researcher time and money .It
is therefore important that the researcher evaluates the information gathered through the
secondary research to find out if it is relevant to the research or not. Secondary data used
for this research study was assessed to establish the appropriateness, quality and accuracy
of the procedures adopted for finding answers to research questions.

TOOLS FOR COLLECTIN OF DATA:

In any research activity collection of the data becomes an important part of the process;
hence the factual material is very essential in every study. The facts are to be obtained
through some systematic procedure, so that the inferences, hypothesis or generalization
tentatively hold may be identified as valid, verified or correct or rejected as untenable, it
is because of this, adopting a systematic procedure for collecting the essential data, is a
necessity. Now, the researcher makes use of various devices for collecting the data that is
required for his or her study. For each and every type of research activity, he or she needs
certain instruments to gather new facts or explore new fields. The instruments that are
thus employed as a means are called tools.

Each research tool is appropriate in a given situation to accomplish a particular purpose,

therefore, for any successful research selection of suitable tools is of vital importance,
research have to get themselves familiarized the nature, merits and limitation of the
existing research tools and also develop skill in the construction and use of each of the
research tools.

59
3.5. Limitation of study

1. Lack of Environment support for the study on the topic.

2. The result in assuming that respondent has given accurate information.

3. The study was restricted to Bhiwandi City.

4. The sample of size is 100 only.

5. I have done this project with Survey method.

60
4.1. Data analysis

Data analysis is a process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming and modeling data with
the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusion and supporting
decision-making. Data analysis has multiple facets and approaches, encompassing
diverse techniques under a variety of names, and is used in different business, science,
and social science domains. In today's business world, data analysis plays a role in
making decisions more scientific and helping businesses operate more effectively

4.2. Sample size: The sample size is a term used in market research for defining the
number of subjects included in a sample size. By sample size, we understand a group of
subjects that are selected from the general population and are considered a representative
of the real population for that specific study.

For example, if we want to predict how the population in a specific age group will react
to a new product, we can first test it on a sample size that is representative of the targeted
population. The sample size, in this case, will be given by the number of people in that
age group that will be surveyed.

Sample size 100

61
4.3. Graph & Interpretation Presentation

1.Do you prefer shopping on

internet?
2%

YES
NO

98%

INTERPRETATION:

According to my survey 2% of people don‗t prefer shopping on internet. 98% of people

prefer shopping on internet.

62
 2.Have you purchased anything online
ever?
2%

YES
NO

98%

INTERPRETATION:
According to survey 2% people don‗t purchase online in day to day life.98% of people
purchase online in day to day life.

63
 3.Which Category of goods have you
bought

16 12
BOOK

10 CLOTH
25
MOBILE

15 ELECTRONIC

22 UTENS

SHO

INTERPRETATION:

1. According to survey I got to know 12% of people purchase books online.

2.25% of people purchase clothes online.22% of people purchase mobile.

3.15%of public buy Electronic Gadgets.10% of people purchase Home appliances

utensil on online.

4.16% of public buy shoes online.

64
 4.Overall were you satified with
your

32 SATISFIED
HIGHLY

DISSATISFIED

48

INTERPRETATION:

1.32% respondents are satisfied with experience of online shopping.

2. 48% of respondents are highly satisfied with online shopping experience.

3.9% of respondent say they are dissatisfied with their experience of online shopping.

4.7% of respondent they are highly dissatisfied with the online service and experience.

65
 5.Did you find Products Affordable?

11%

30%

COSTLY

LE
DEPENDS

59%

Interpretation:

1.11% respondents say are products are very costly on online.

2.59% respondent says that they find product affordable while shopping on internet.

3. 30% respondent says that they can‗t say it is costly or affordable its depend on the
products.

66
 6.What mode of Payment would you

12

CREDIT

27 DEBIT CARD
CASH ON
61

Interpretation:

1. 12% respondents say that they prefer credit card payment mode.

2. 27% respondents say that they prefer debit card payment mode.

3.61% respondents say that they prefer cash on delivery payment mode.

67
 7.Biggest Attraction in Online

11
16

SAVES

20
QUALITY
HOME
DELIVERY
44

Interpretation:

1.16% respondent says that online shopping saves time.

2.44% respondent say that the biggest attraction in online shopping is discounts.

3.9% respondents say that because of good quality they get attract in online shopping.

4.20% respondent says that home delivery of product is the biggest attraction in online
shopping.

5.11% respondent says that the biggest attraction in online shopping is comfortable.

68
 8.Online Shopping is as secure as
traditional shopping?

38%
AGREE

EE
62%

Interpretation:

1.62% respondents are agreeing with online shopping is a secure as traditional shopping.

2.38% respondents are disagree with the above given statement they don‗t feel online
shopping is secure as traditional shopping

69
 9.Do you face issue while shopping
online?

42%
YES
NO
58%

INTERPERTATION:
1.42% respondents don‗t face issue while shopping online.

2.58% respondent says that they face issue while shopping online.

70
 10. Is consumer perception change
while
shopping online?

18%

82%

INTERPRTATION:
1.82% of respondent say that consumer perception change while shopping online.

2.18% of respondent say that the consumer perception does not change while shopping
online.

71
 11. Do you agree online shopping
offers a large variety of
products?

7%

82%

INTERPRTATION:
1.82% respondent say they are agree online shopping offers a large variety of products.

2.7% respondent say that they are not agree with the above given statement.

72
 12. Do you think shopping on the online
saves time?

6%

YES
NO

94%

INTERPRTATION:
1. 94% respondents say shopping online saves their time.

2. 6% respondent say they don‗t feel its save time .

73
 13.It is more difficult to shop on the
internet?

22%

AGREE

78%

INTERPRTATION:
1.22% of respondents are agreeing with the statement of more difficult to shop on the
internet.

2.78% respondents are disagreeing with above given statement they say its very easy to
shop online.

74
 14.While shopping I hesitate to give my
credit card number?

20%

YES
NO

80%

INTERPRTATION:
1. 20% of respondents don‗t hesitate to give credit card number while shopping online.

2. 80% of respondents hesitate to give their credit card number during online shopping

75
 15.What acording to you are the
most

17 DELIVERY COST ARE

TOO HIGH
38 PRICES ARE TOO HIGH

21 I DON'T HAVE CREDIT

CARD
I ENJOY GOING TO DO
MY SHOPPIING
24

INTERPRTATION:

1. According to my survey 17% of important barriers come while purchasing online is

delivery cost to high.

2. 21% of people say prices are too high in online shopping.

3.24% people say they don‗t have credit card to do shopping online.

4.38% people say that they love and enjoy the traditional shopping.

76
4.4. Testing of Hypothesis

Alternate Hypothesis H1: Demographic factors of e-consumers significant impact

the e-consumer behavior.

The Null Hypothesis Ho stated that ―There is no significant difference in perception

between socio demographic variables and consumers‗ perception towards problems faced
on shopping online is disproved in relation to socio-demographic variables such as
occupation status, monthly income and marital status. Hence, it is found that there is
significant difference in perception between socio-demographic variables such as
occupation status, monthly income and marital status and consumers perception towards
problems faced on shopping online.

Result:

The result or can called overall observation of this hypothesis shows that there is equal
need of e-shopping and offline shopping as we have ample amount of customers can be
said as e-consumer.it goes same with offline customer.as online shopping some time not
affordable for everyone and even not trust online marketing as of now. The result says
that we do need e-commerce now a day with offline commercial practice to keep
customer happy and to attract them. The e-commerce business do effect e- consumer as
any chain in the business directly or indirectly effects the consumers and their behavior
as there is a type of dependency on it.

77
4.5. Photography of Survey

78
Chapter 5

79
5.1. CONCLUSION

Online shopping is comparatively a new style of shopping among the people of India.
The slow growth of financial and technological sector adversely affected the pace of
online shopping penetration in India. But now a day, along with the all-round
developments of the country, the life style of the people are improving and online
shopping also started to show an increasing trend. A number of online shopping
companies are started their operations in India and many Indian traditional retail shops
have now started their operation through internet by setting up an online web store. The e
shopping companies made their web store more attractive and shopping made so easy
through simple shopping procedures. The researcher made an attempt to provide an
overview about the online shopping in India in this chapter. The major online shops in
India and their volume of business, the shopping procedures and the safety measures to
be taken while making an online purchase are briefly explained in this chapter. Various
statistics related to online business in India like online retail sales over the years and its
share to the total retail sales, the number of digital buyers, preferred digital payment
option among the consumers etc. are also discussed with the help of diagrams showing
the related statistics.

In the past, consumers had sufficient time to visit shopping centers, searching for various
products. Many consumers prefer bargaining and decide the purchases after physical
examination of the commodities. The entire process can range from a few hours to weeks
depending on the product, quantity, quality and source of purchase. Today there is radical
change in the entire scenario. Everything in today‗s world is Internet oriented like
Electronic Data Interchange, E-Mail, E-Business and E-Commerce.

E-Commerce is exchange of information using network-based technologies. In the

present high cost situation, e-Commerce can be used as a competitive strategy. It
successfully includes the entire online process of developing, marketing, selling,
delivering, servicing and paying for products and service

80
5.2. Self-Experience

The topic of my project are consumer perception towards online shopping.as the topic
itself say the story that it‗s all about consumers view, review, attraction, likes, dislikes,
and variety of product choice and there feedbacks on it.to get the feedback or to know the
actual views, thought and suggestions from the customer I have done surveys.

The survey were local was local, offline and it was digital as well as local survey are been
done by visiting and talking to people around me like my neighbors, I family friends,
ect.offline survey were going to some people meet them and discuss how‗s their
experience. Online survey was visiting to the website which offers us online shopping
and checking customer reviews comment and their experience with the products they
buy.

The survey has majority focused on the question

1. What according to you are the most important barriers to purchase?

2. Is consumer perception change while shopping online?

3. Do you think shopping on the online saves time?

4. It is more difficult to shop on the internet?

5. While shopping I hesitate to give my credit card number?

I have met different people and all of them had their own different view on the topic.
There were people who were happy with online shopping on the other hand a set of
people were not that much satisfied, where some find it convenient to handle daily chore.

81
I have faced few challenges also initially as generally everyone has a fear to speak or be
confident enough to share their experience and feedback as they think they will face
problem. People were even aggressive sometimes in my offline survey.in online survey
was also the same issue but it was quite different and has its own difficulty. We can‗t
trust all the reviews comments shared by public about any social website offering
shopping. The challenge was to identify the right thing, right judgment and to catch the
correct point to analyze it in correct manner.

But its advantages also as people are scared of sharing reviews directly, so, this online
shopping gives them a platform to choose better and complaints about the products,
material or kind of goods. Also have observed that the complaints and the review of the
customer are taken seriously to level which helps customer to build trust and a good
relationships which enhance their business and profit.

I have taken guidance from my faculty PROF.AKSHAY BHOIR. He have been guidance
me entire my project work and have been helpful

82
5.3. Suggestion

The researcher has made personal contact with the respondents who have purchased
products and services through online. It is concluded that most of the respondents have a
good opinion about online shopping, though there are so many problems to be improved
by the vendors and service providers. These suggestions are as follows:

• As there are no proper laws for online purchases, they have to be implemented to
prevent the anonymous intruders. This will help to maintain security and private
information properly concerning the respondents. So the website developers and service
providers should take necessary steps to overcome this problem.

• Web based technologies upgrades creative conceptualization that would improve the
response from technology savvy consumers. So the firms have to invest in such new
technologies.

• Internet environment has to be improved in the areas of art, dynamic and interactive
techniques. This improvement will give more visual appeal.

• One of the major drawbacks that the respondents have felt is no proper returning policy
to the product. After getting opinion from the respondent if the above said problem
occurs, then they should be guided in a proper way to return the product. This will create
a good website reputation and repurchasing power of the respondents.

83
5.4. Bibliography
1) 12th COMMERCE TEXTBOOK: Organization of Commerce And
Management, Publisher: Shri.Krishna Kumar Patil.

2) Ashwni N and Manjula. R, ―An Empirical Study on Consumers Perception towards

Online Shopping‖, International Journal of Management and Commerce Innovations ISSN
2348-7585 (Online) Vol. 3, Issue 2, : (1103-1110), Month: October 2015 - March 2016

3) Dr. T. Thirupathi and I. James, ―Consumer‗s Perception towards Online Shopping‖,

International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research & Development Vol. 04, Is. 04,
Ver. 1.0, Apr‗ 2017, pp. 11 – 19.

4) Vikas, and Vinod Kumar, ―A Study on Consumer Perception toward Online

Shopping‖, IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM) e-ISSN: 2278-
487X, p-ISSN: 2319-7668. Volume 19, Issue 8. Ver. I. (August 2017), PP 32-35
www.iosrjournals.org

5.5. Webliography

1) www.wikipedia.com

2) www.google.com

3) www.shodhganga.com

4) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305751897_A_STUDY_ON_CONSUMER_PE

84
5.6. Annexure

Name

Gender: a) Male b) Female

Occupation Age

1. Do you prefer shopping on the net?

a) Yes b) No

2. Have you purchased anything online ever?

a) Yes b) No

3. Which category of goods have you bought through internet?

a) Books b) Clothes c) Mobile

d) Electronic Gadgets e) Utensil f) Shoes

4. Overall were you satisfied with your experience of online shopping?

a) Satisfied b) Highly Satisfied

c) Dissatisfied d) Highly Dissatisfied

5. Did you find Products Affordable?

a) Costly b) Affordable c) Depends

6. What mode of Payment would you prefer?

a) Credit Card b) Debit Card c) Cash on Delivery

7. Biggest Attraction in Online Shopping.

85
 a) Saves Time b) Discount c) Quality

d) Home Delivery e) Comfortable

8. Online shopping is as secure as traditional shopping.

a) Agree b) Disagree

9. Do you face issue while shopping online?

a) Yes b) No

10. Is consumer perception change while shopping online?

a) Yes b) No

11. Do you agree online shopping offers a large variety of products?

a) Yes b) No

12. Do you think shopping on the online saves time?

a) Yes b) No

13. It is more difficult to shop on the internet?

a) Agree b) Disagree

14. While shopping I hesitate to give my credit card number?

a) Yes b) No

15. What according to you are the most important barriers to purchase?

a) Delivery costs are too high.

b) Prices are too high.

c) I don‗t have credit card.

d) I enjoy going to do my shopping.

86