Research Topic: Consumer’s behavior

Research title: Factors Affecting Consumer’s Online Shopping Buying Behavior

Background of the Study

The process by which a customer purchases a service or product over the internet is

known as online shopping. In other words, a consumer can shop for products from an online

store from the comfort of their own home. This concept was first demonstrated prior to the

advent of the World Wide Web (WWW) with a real-time transaction processed from a domestic

television. As per Statista-The Statistics Portal, the digital population worldwide as of April 2020

is almost 4.57 billion people who are active internet users, and 3.81 billion are social media

users. In terms of internet usage, China, India and the USA are ahead of all other countries

(Clement, 2020)

From the buyer’s perspective also, e-commerce offers a lot of tangible advantages. For

example, reduction in buyer’s sorting out time, better buyer decisions, less time is spent in

resolving invoice and order discrepancies and finally increased opportunities for buying

alternative products. Moreover, consumers can enjoy online shopping for 24 hour per day. This

is because e-commerce is open for 365 days and never close even for a minute (Jusoh et. Al,

2012). Ecommerce also expanded geographic reach because consumers can purchase any

goods and services anytime at everywhere. Hence, online shopping is more environmentally

friendly compare to purchase in store because consumers can just fulfill his desires just with a

click of mouse without going out from house by taking any transportation.

As impulse buying has become a prevalent phenomenon in all retail formats, marketers

and researchers (R. Sangalang et.al) have observed it as one of the most important studies

they have conducted entitled “Factors Influencing Consumers’ Impulse Buying Behavior in the

Fifth “District of Cavite”. This consumer purchasing behavior has become so ingrained in
people's lives that they often do not realize or are unaware that they are engaging in it. The

study concluded that its main findings were somehow related to other studies of factors

influencing consumers’ impulse buying behavior. The findings thereafter provided a conclusion

concerning how consumers purchase impulsively and what factors influences that behavior. It

was also shown that the consumers or shoppers in the fifth district of Cavite were commonly

planned impulse buyers. Significant influence on the consumers’ impulse buying behavior.

Accordingly, it is revealed that impulse buying behavior does not significantly influenced by the

participants’ sex and occupation.

Market competition is high in the retail industry right now, and all types of businesses

use promotion in their activities and various marketing strategies to retain their customers.

According to Retail Market Report (2023), Asia has some of the biggest retail markets in the

world in China, Japan, and India. E-commerce sales in Q2 2020 accounted for 16.1% of total

sales in the US market. As a result, encouraging impulse purchases in the retail market for

various goods may become a significant competitive advantage and a lucrative source of

income for the retail store. Therefore, it is significant for retailers to comprehend impulse buying

behavior as it can help in improving the sales of the firm.

The concept of shopping from home has been around for a long time, from commercials

to catalogs. Internet or online shopping is becoming more popular as various technologies

advance. Most people rely on the Internet's accessibility, which is an obvious phenomenon

happening in the world today, and because of the increasing use of the Internet, the Philippines

provided an emerging opportunity for online shopping. Online shopping has grown rapidly in

recent years due to the numerous benefits as of the latest statistics of January 2021 and based

on 2020 data reported by Hootsuite and We Are Social, 38.88 million Filipinos purchased goods

via the internet, amounting to up to $3.55 billion with an annual growth of +42.5%. It provides for

both consumers and sellers, such as convenience for consumers, saving time and effort rather

than relying on store visits, expanding market area for sellers, and a diverse range of products.
Because of these benefits, an increasing number of people nowadays say they prefer online

shopping to physical shopping (T. Borovkov, 2017). However, there are risks associated with

online shopping. Consumers' online shopping behavior reflects their psychological state when

making purchases on the Internet. The goal of this paper is to better understand Filipino

consumers' attitudes toward online shopping and the factors that influence their decision to

shop online. This paper examines whether or not those factors can influence marketers,

entrepreneurs, and business owners' online marketing strategies.