Discussa about the Impacts of Internet on Shopping Behavior.
Shopping refers to the act of accessing and obtaining a particular place where goods and services are offered by sellers for the purpose of making a purchase. Since the ancient of times, shopping has been an activity carried out by human beings so as to be able to obtain what they cannot produce. Customers had different methods of doing shopping but generally in the past, the people used to walk physically to the markets or shops to do window shopping and eventually buy goods and services. Being physically present at a buying location accords the buyer the time and opportunity of assessing the quantity and the quality of a particular product or service. It is also advantageous because the buyer and the seller are able to meet and negotiate the price. On the other hand the advent of technology and various dynamics in lifestyle, buyers have since adopted another way of shopping known as online shopping. Online shopping does not require a buyer’s physical presence at the shop or the market. It only requires one to have an internet enabled device like a computer or a Smartphone. With these kinds of devices nowadays, one can do shopping at the comfort of his house. You just need to log on to various online shopping websites of various businesses where you will be able to browse the goods and services you require and all their details be made available. It is even easier as at the time of purchasing the goods one can also order for doorstep delivery.
Despite the shift from traditional way of shopping or in-store shopping, various disadvantages can still be associated with online shopping. Just to mention but a few, it eliminates that fun time that family and friends would have when on a shopping spree. Secondly, sometimes doorstep deliveries of goods become too expensive hence afforded by just a few individuals. In-store shopping too has its shortcomings on an equal measure. It has been found to be time consuming as one has to appear physically at the market or mall. To add on, it is expensive because one has to hire a taxi or even incur fuel cost in case of personal cars. In summary, it can be said that the advent of internet in the business world has led to a lot of dynamics in the sector.
Despite many studies that have been conducted by various researchers, the influence which has been brought by internet in the world of shopping is immeasurable and still remains unexplored fully. People nowadays tend to have different shopping patterns that seemed to have changed gradually since the advent of internet. A good number of customers have run away from the traditional way of shopping which also known as in-store is shopping and embraced online shopping. It is thought that it is the kind of lifestyle that people have adopted that contributes much towards how they conduct their shopping but on the other side research has linked shopping patterns to geographical locations. So many questions as to how or to which extent internet has impacted on shopping patterns still remain unanswered. It is felt that there still remains a big gap left by previous researches done on the same topic. It is for this reason that this research study seeks to answer the many unanswered questions on the real impact of internet on shopping.
The research study objectives will be sub-divided into two. The first subdivision is the impact of internet in shopping patterns while the second sub-division is the specific objectives which serve the purpose to support the main objective of the study.
In line with the objectives of this research proposal and so as to remain relevant in answering the questions of his research, the following hypothesis will be put forward.
A lot of studies have been conducted regarding the impact of internet on shopping patterns. Despite these numerous studies, many questions are yet to be answered and the real truth unravelled about this topic. This study will therefore come in handy to answer the many research questions that are posed in this research proposal. Since a thorough literature review has been conducted, this study will serve the purpose of filling the gaps that have been left by other research studies on the same topic. The findings of this research will be of paramount importance as it will form an additional knowledge to the already existing literature about the same topic. Various customers will also be able to read and have knowledge on the current trends in the world of business fuelled by internet connectivity. We believe that the study will not be 100% exhaustive therefore will leave space for criticism therefore prompting further research by other researchers. Lastly it results of this finding will be helpful to those students who are pursuing education in e-marketing in institutions of higher learning.
The development and the spread of internet influence in the current business world have been greatly recorded in various literatures (Dholakia, 2010). Statistics has it that in the United Kingdom the sales soared up to the level of 720% between 1999 and 2005 courtesy of internet (Weltevreden, 2008). In addition to this (Hjorthol, 2009) asserts that in the year 2006 almost two fifths of the population in the United Kingdom had transacted business through various websites. The advantages of e-commerce as reported by other researches included convenience and affordability as put by (Sim&Koi, 2002). He explains that through online customers are able to the activity anytime they need to do so regardless of their location. He adds that online shopping offers a variety of products including those that are not available locally.
A research done by (Larson, 2009) recorded that internet use served a good purpose of easing the pressure that was evident in the brick and mortar business. The pressures were for example parking and overcrowding. According to Hjorthol online shopping help customers have a great deal of information about the goods and services before they make the final decision to purchase a given product.
Though online shopping seems to have more advantages than traditional shopping in general, (Lee, 2009) compares the two modes of shopping and confirms that there exists a trade leakage with e-commerce. Trade leakage refers to a situation where buyers purchase goods outside the boundaries of their locations thereby encouraging the development in other areas rather than their local areas.
Various studies have also been conducted to find out why there were many people doing traditional shopping despite the trending and popular online shopping. A study by (Aldridge, 1997) found that there were fears associated to fraud within some customers. To add on, there were claims of delays and high door to door delivery costs. Some customers also wanted to have personal contact with whatever they were buying so as to do a thorough assessment.
In this chapter, an outline of how data will be handled from collection to analysis is detailed. It also discusses how the result findings will be presented for the purpose of drawing conclusion from them.
The study will use a research design which is descriptive to help in assessing the influence of internet on shopping patterns. This design is always very important especially in social research where a lot of information regarding a population sample is required. In short it is able to give more information about the population of study and their characteristics. Apart from descriptive design, a blend of quantitative and qualitative design will be used. In testing inferential statistics, quantitative statistics will come in handy. On the other side, qualitative statistics will help the research be able to get more information from the study participants which cannot be expressed quantitatively.
To ensure bias is eliminated in the research findings, the study will give each and every person in the population an equal chance of being selected to take part in the research study. Therefore the research will use simple random sampling in selecting respondents to take part in the study. Simple random sampling is sometimes called equal chance sampling technique. One hundred customers will be selected to take part in the study.
The research study will lean more on primary data. Primary data refers to data obtained first hand from the respondents. This will be through interviews, questionnaires and through focused group discussions. Secondary data on the other hand refers to already published data. It will only be used in the literature review to find out the details about other researches that were conducted on the same topic. These data will be retrieved from published books, internet and various website pages.
Descriptive statistics will be applied to analyse the data collected. This is the same as summary statistics. They include determining measures of central tendencies like mean, mode and median. For example we will be able to find the mean number of times that people use online shopping while comparing this to the mean number of times individuals are doing traditional shopping. To add on, inferential statistics will also come in understanding the data more. Measures of association and independence will enable the study come up with vital information as regards to the data collected. For example the study will seek to establish whether there is a relationship between the kind of shopping and the ownership of smartphones or computers. The study will also test whether there is a significant difference in the mean number of times individuals use online shopping compared to the number of times individuals do traditional shopping.
The data collected will be analysed through the use of statistical software SPSS and excel.
In general, the result findings of this research study are expected to be that majority of the people like online shopping as compared to those who do traditional shopping. The reasons behind this liking will be that online saves time as people are able to do window shopping at the comfort of their houses without physically travelling to shopping malls or markets. The other probable reason would be that people find it convenient when they order for goods and they are dropped at their door steps. Details about the goods and services they are looking for can also be found all in one place just at the click of a button. To add on, customers are able to get goods and services that they cannot get locally. On the other hand, those customers who support traditional shopping will be found to be the minority. They might have reasons such as attaching fun to traditional shopping. Going out and meeting family and friends is always a fun.
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Reference
Büttner, O. B. (2008). Perceived trustworthiness of online shops. Journal of Consumer Behaviour.
Dholakia, U., & Kahn, B. (2010). Consumer Behavior in a Multichannel, Multimedia Retailing Environment. Journal of Interactive Marketing.
Hjorthol, R. (2009). “Information searching and buying on the Internet: travel-related activities?”.
Loi, S. (2009). Outshopping Through the Internet: A Multicountry Investigation. Journal of Global Marketing, 53 – 66.
Sim , L., & Koi , S. (2002). Singapore’s Internet shoppers and their impact on traditional shopping patterns. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 115-124.
Weltevreden, J., & Atzema, O. (2008). The geography of Internet adoption by independent retailers in the Netherlands.
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