Business Research Methods(BRM) Project

On

Factors affecting purchasing pattern of Women in Online Shopping Apparel

LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, DELHI

Submitted by:

Amlan Prakash(403)

Apurva Singh(406)

Utkarsha(410)

Saloni Sharma(419)

Khushi(435)
 INDEX

Introduction 1-2

Literature Review 3-4

Objective 5

Research Design & Methodology 6-7

Data Analysis & Interpretation 8-11

Findings 12

Conclusion 12

References 13
 INTRODUCTION

The history of online shopping dates to 1979. Later in 1982 Boston computer exchange
launched the world's first E-Commerce 6company to buy and sell computers. Whereas, in
India e-commerce business started with the launch of amazon's Junglee.com in February
2012.

E-commerce market has a huge consumer potential in which women consumers play a vital
role. The generation z has frequently adopted electronic channels for their routine needs
which includes online shopping products and services. Recent years have shown a growing
interest of customers in E-Commerce.

In India, women’s wear market is estimated to be over 1.2 billion people. This tremendous
opportunity for women's wear businesses in India is further fueled by the country's
expanding disposable income, increased access to fashionable Western clothing influenced
by worldwide trends, and the growing desire among women of all ages and sizes to dress
well.

Traditionally, Indians preferred dresses stitched by local tailors catered exclusively to local
demand. The growing awareness of brands since 1980s and the convenience offered by
ready to-wear garments were largely responsible for the development of the branded
apparel industry in India. Other factors affecting to its growth are considered as better
purchasing power in the hands, access to fashion trends outside the country, and the
superior quality of fabrics available in the fashion market. 1990s witnessed a drastic change
in the overall economic environment of the country which is described liberal trade and
new investment policies. It was seen the effects of such liberalized polices in the clothing
industry also. After liberalization of Indian economy, there emerged more than 100 leading
brands that jostled for consumer mind space. Today, Indians are more inclined than
consumers in other markets to buy apparel for a specific purpose. Indeed, 38 percent of
Indian respondents to a recent McKinsey study said they were highly likely to buy apparel
for special events, a significantly higher proportion as compare to Brazil, Russia or China.
The growth of the Indian and global fashion designers has encouraged the branded apparel
market additionally. The purpose of
this study is to investigate buying behavior which constitutes buying behaviour dimensions
and shopping habits as regards young Indian consumers in the age group of 18-25 years. In
this competitive era marketer must be fully aware about the customer needs distinctly and
separately as two groups males and females as regards what are they expecting from a
brand, how they differ in their buying behaviour, factors which push them to purchase a
particular brand, their total outlay, shopping frequency etc.to attain a competitive edge.
This vital information can help the companies to formulate the strategies as per the
customer needs & deliver them the products which consumer want from the company
which will be profitable for the company embedding gender perspective. Retailers and
marketers should understand the immense diversity among consumers if they are to market
apparel accurately and successfully.
 LITERATURE REVIEW

Nisha Singh, Dr. Ririka Moolchandani, and Dr. Archana Bhatia in their study “Factors
Influencing Online Buying Behaviour among Women Customers” aimed to identify the

different factors that influence online buying behaviour among women shoppers. It was
conducted with the help of a structured questionnaire on a sample of 400 women customers
from the NCR region of India using a judgmental sampling method. Before going to final
analysis, a pilot test was also conducted in order to finalize the questionnaire using a
sample of 50 women customers. Minor modifications were then made in the questionnaire
on the basis of pilot test results and fifty-one statements were then taken into consideration
related to different aspects of online shopping behaviour of women. These statements were
identified with the help of online shopping industry executives and then ranked on a scale
of 1 to 5. The different latent factors were found out using EFA (exploratory factor
analysis) method and then applied on the primary responses received against the fifty-one
statements of online shopping behaviour. After doing the analysis, the results indicated that
the fifty-one statements could be explained with the help of eight latent extracted factors:
Perceived Services, Perceived Ease of Use, Perceived Usefulness, Intention to Purchase,
Perceived Expectation, Perceived Expected and Actual, Service Gap, and Repurchase
Intention which defined approximately sixty-seven percent of the variance of the included
statements in the

data set. These eight factors were finally found to be indicating the different aspects of the
online shopping behaviour of the women customers.

M B Rao, C L Hymavathi, and M Mallika Rao in their study “Factors affecting female
consumer’s online buying behaviour” examine to identify the factors affecting online
shopping preferences of female consumers. The research done was both descriptive and
exploratory in nature on a sample of 316 respondents. The dependent as well as the
independent variables were identified and a questionnaire was designed with questions
having scaled-responses; specifically, a five-point Likert scale was used as “scaling permits
measurement of the intensity of respondents’ answers”. Secondary data was also collected
from published sources such as national and international journals and reports. A pilot
study was then conducted with thirty respondents and analysis was done using IBM SPSS.
Exploratory Factor analysis (EFA) was used for analysing data on items that influence
consumers to shop online along with Principal components analysis. Following these, six
factors that is; ease of use and convenience, security, utility, time management, outbound
logistics, and feedback were filtered out as they explained more than 69% of variance in
the data. Ease of use and convenience was found to play the most significant role in
attracting online female customers, followed by security in the online transaction and
source credibility of the supplier. An important consideration for the female online
customers was the process of returning a product which was also an important factor found
to influence online shopping. Thus, these various factors were found to be the main
components influencing the buying behaviour in women.

Alan Hirst and Ogenyi Omar in their research “Assessing Women’s Apparel Shopping
Behaviour on the Internet” evaluated women’s attitude as an overall inclination towards
apparel shopping online by distribution of email questionnaires. This study consisted of a
focus group phase and a survey phase. The focus groups were formed with the purpose of
identifying general perceptions of women in respect to use of online shopping for apparel
products. A total of 96 women consisting of undergraduate female students studying
business related courses participated in the focus groups that ranged in size from 6 to 9
members each.

Based on the responses, specific benefits and risks related to online shopping were
identified and included in the next phase, which is the survey. Three universities were
selected for generation of female postgraduate student population samples to receive a self-
administered questionnaire designed to reflect variables related to shopping for apparel
online identified previously. Out of the 1000 questionnaires mailed out, 248 responses were
received with only 210 usable responses for further data analysis. Descriptive statistics
were used to determine the characteristics of the sample followed by Factor Analysis.
Seven factors were initially extracted which were then finally reduced to three factors using
varimax rotation namely; ease of use, security, and user advantage. It was found that
women apparel purchasers online were more likely to perceive online shopping as having
relative advantages as compared to non-online shoppers. Also, online shoppers tend to be
more mature with high incomes, and are more willing to provide personal information
online. That is, women who shop online are more willing to provide credit card and
purchasing information over the Internet if the retailers were deemed reliable.
 OBJECTIVES

Obj1: Identifying the major E-commerce website and brands while shopping online.

Obj2: Understanding the important factors that drive women for online shopping.

 Management Decision Problem: Does E-commerce platforms or brands drive women to

buy apparels online?
 Management Research Problem(MRP):
1. To understand the major factors influencing online shopping
2. To understand the challenges while shopping online.
3. To understand whether demographics play an important role while shopping online.
 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

I. Research Design: 1. Exploratory Research

2. Conclusive Research

1. Exploratory Research: Our first and second MRP requires exploratory research to find
out the various attribute women consider before buying women apparel.
a) Initial size – 30 respondents.
b) Method - Online Survey.
c) Research Instruments – Close ended Questionnaire.
d) Sampling Frame – Female students and female employees.

2. Conclusive Research: Conclusive Research: Our third MRP requires conclusive research
to conclude. This research is based on the conclusions drawn from the exploratory research
done earlier.

a) What: Factors affecting the women purchase decisions.

b) Why: To gain insights on most preferred Brands and Websites.

c) Who: Female working professional and students.

d) When: Respondent leisure time.

e) Where: Anywhere

f) Way: Questionnaires- online.

II. Data Collection: The data has been collected in the following ways:

1. Primary Data –A Structured Questionnaire was used to gather the relevant data.

2. Secondary Data – Multiple research papers and reports on online women buyers were
studied.

3. Scale Used-
i. Interval Scale
ii. Likert Scale (1-5)
 iii. Nominal

III. Sampling Plan:

 Population Universe- People in the age group of 20-60 years.
 Sampling Frame- Students and working professionals.
 Sampling Unit: Colleges, Corporate offices.
 Sampling Element: Female individuals.

IV. Sampling Technique: Convenience Sampling

V. Research Instrument: Questionnaires

VI. Sample Size:

The research will require the study of continuous variables which will be on the itemized
rating scale. The following formula will be used to calculate the sample size.

n = sample size
p= probability of occurrence
q=1-q
z = Z score
e = standard value at a specified margin of error

We are taking 95% confidence interval which resulted a Z-score of 1.96

Tolerable error that we can take is 5%
n= (0.5*0.5) * (1.96*1.96) / (0.05*0.05) = 384 (approx.)
Hence, the sample size rounding off to the next multiple of 30 is 389.
 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

I. Reliability Test: Cronbach’s Alpha is used to measure the reliability of variables in research.
It must be greater than 0.7 to be acceptable. Upon testing for reliability with SPSS with 39
variables which are related to Women’s Apparel. Cronbach’s alpha came out to be 0.868
which indicates good internal consistency. And it can be said the questionnaire is reliable.

II. To understand major factors influencing online shopping among women in India

Factor Analysis: Total 13 variables of measurement were identified. We are required to

group these variables in factors. Factor analysis is used in data reduction.

To identify small no. of factor, which in this case came out to be under these factors we can
club variables which each factor is significantly able to explain.

From SPSS report, we get total variance output.

 Eigen Values of Factors 1, 2, 3 and 4 are 4.762, 1.929, 1.399 and 1.063 respectively and
together they can explain 70.414 % of variance in the variables.

Factor 1 can explain 36.628% of variance in variables, Factor 2 can explain 14.842% of
variance in variables, Factor 3 can explain 10.764% of variance in variables and Factor 4
can explain 8.179% if variance in variables.

III. Scree Plot

Rotated component (SS)

We analysed rotated component matrix to get the variable within these factors.
Factor 1: Internet Safety, Privacy, Experience, Trust on website
Factor 2: Affordable Prices, Description of the clothes, Product review
Factor 3: Unavailability in stores, Referrals from friends and family, Variety and positive
image in public
Factor 4: Risk of retail shops become obsolete

These factors are then named as-

Factor 1: Security
Factor 2: Product Information
Factor 3: Product Image
 Factor 4: Risk

IV. KMO or Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy: It is an index used to

examine the appropriateness of factor analysis. High values (between 0.5 and 1.0) indicate
factor analysis is appropriate. Values below 0.5 imply that factor analysis may not be
appropriate. Here our output shows a KMO measure of 0.683 which indicate that the factor
analysis has been done appropriately.

V. Chi- Square Analysis: To find a relationship between age and frequency of buying clothes
online, we conducted chi-square test. This test will help us understand whether age
affecting buying clothes online.

Ho: There is no significant association between age and Frequency of buying clothes
online.

H1: There is significant association between age and Frequency of buying clothes online.
Upon examining the significant value, P significant is 0.000 which is less than 0.05.
This means, we reject the null hypothesis
Hence, there is significant relationship between age and Frequency of buying clothes
online.
 RESULTS/ FINDINGS

Since Indian Women Clothing industry is continuously in the prowl of surging as a major
apparel manufacturer, women are purchasing clothes as there is an increase of income of
women as well as change in tastes and preferences of working women. It is important for
the E-commerce websites and Apparel Manufacturers to be able to understand the different
factors affecting the extent in women apparel purchasing behaviour. The factor analysis
results after analysing the component matrix table it can be deduced that Security, Product
Information, Product Image and Risk are the most important factors and it influences
70.414%. The analysis after the scree plot indicates that 4 factors are above the Eigenvalue
i.e 1. The total variance table explains the variance that is explained by various factors. It
indicates that the cumulative variance to be 70.414. From the Chi- Square test for Age and
Frequency of buying clothes online we infer that there is significant relationship between
age and Frequency of buying clothes online. We also infer that there is significant
relationship between Income and monthly expenditure using Chi-Square Test.

CONCLUSION
It is important for the cloth manufacturers and E-commerce websites to be able to
understand the different factors affecting the extent in women apparel purchasing pattern
amid the changing economic environment.
 REFERENCES
1. Finsler, Bug. (2019). Assortments in Fashion E-Commerce. Reutlingen University.
2. Singh, Moolchandani, Bhatia. (2019). Factors Influencing Online Buying Behaviour among
Women Customers. International Journal of Research in Engineering.
3. Hirst, Omar. (2007). Assissing Women’s Apparel Shopping Behaviour on the Internet. Retail
Marketing Management Research.
4. https://www.statisticshowto.com/kaiser-meyer-olkin/
5. http://www.dissertationcanada.com/blog/factor-analysis-and-kmo-bartletts-test/
6. https://www.theanalysisfactor.com/factor-analysis-how-many-factors/