International Journal of Information Research and Review, December, 2016

International Journal of Information Research and Review

Vol. 03, Issue, 12, pp. 3385-3387, December, 2016

Research Article
CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS ONLINE SHOPPING: A LITERATURE REVIEW
1Dr. Gopal, R. and 2,*Deepika Jindoliya
1Director, School, Department of business Management) D.Y. Patil University, Navi Mumbai, India
2Research Scholar (M.Phil), Navi Mumbai, India

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Article History: The origination of the internet created an entire new experience for consumers regarding gathering
th
information, comparing products or prices and the possibility of purchasing on the internet. Therefore
Received 14 September, 2016 consumer behaviour on the internet is an important factor for marketers. To predict consumer
Received in revised form
behaviour on the internet marketers need to understand how, where and why consumers behave
22nd October, 2016
Accepted 29th November, 2016 online. This paper tries to analyse studies done by various researchers in order to explore what online
Published online December, 30th 2016 channels consumers use when they are in a particular stage of the buying decision process (BDP). The
study will create more understanding about why and how on-line consumers go through their buying
Keywords: decision process (BDP). It will be helpful in drawing a modified and more effective marketing policy.

Consumer Behavior,
Online Shopping,
Buying Decision Process (BPD),
Stages of BPD.
Copyright © 2016, Gopal and Deepika Jindoliya. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

INTRODUCTION
Consumer behavior towards online shopping is a field of
Consumer behaviour is the study of how individual customers, interest for both scholars and professionals because internet has
groups or organizations select, buy, use, and dispose ideas, greatly influenced the preferences and buying pattern of
goods, and services to satisfy their needs and wants. It refers to customers. Internet is changing the way consumers shop
the actions of the consumers in the marketplace and the and buy goods and services, and has rapidly evolved into a
underlying motives for those actions. Consumer behaviour global phenomenon. Many companies have started using the
blends elements from psychology, sociology, social Internet with the aim of cutting marketing costs, thereby
anthropology, marketing and economics, especially behavioural reducing the price of their product and service in order to stay
economics. It examines how emotions, attitudes and ahead in highly competitive markets. Companies also use the
preferences affect buying behaviour. Characteristics of Internet to convey, communicate and disseminate information
individual consumers such as demographics, personality to sell the product, to take feedback and also to conduct
lifestyles and behavioural variables such as usage rates, usage satisfaction surveys with customers. Customers use the internet
occasion, loyalty, brand advocacy, willingness to provide not only to buy the product online, but also to compare prices,
referrals, in an attempt to understand people's wants and product features and after sale service facilities. Scholars and
consumption are all investigated in formal studies of consumer practitioners of electronic commerce constantly strive to gain
behaviour. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer an improved insight into consumer behavior in cyberspace.
from groups such as family, friends, sports, reference groups, Along with the development of e-retailing, researchers
and society in general. The study of consumer behaviour is continue to explain e-consumers behavior from different
concerned with all aspects of purchasing and consumption perspectives. Many of their studies have factors or assumptions
behavior as well as all persons involved in purchasing which are based on the traditional models of consumer
decisions and consumption activities. Research has shown that behavior, and then examine their validity in the internet
consumer behaviour is difficult to predict, even for experts in context. This paper will mainly discuss the work done by
the field. previous researchers in the area of online consumer behaviour.
This research paper attempts to have a comprehensive
discussion on theoretical and practical views of previous
*Corresponding author: Deepika Jindoliya, studies done on online shopping and consumer behaviour.
Research Scholar (M.Phil), Navi Mumbai, India.
3386 Gopal and Deepika Jindoliya. Consumer buying behaviour towards online shopping: A literature review

This paper examines these studies to understand the factors These factors have been classified into different types and
influencing the consumer's purchasing decision in online categories in different ways by different authors. For instance,
shopping. It includes the price attractiveness, time saving, Wiedermann et al (2007) classified them into internal and
perceived risk, enjoyment and excitement, tangibility and high external factor. On the other hand, Winer (2009) divided them
interactivity. All of these factors will contribute to the study of into social, personal and psychological factors. Despite the fact
customer's purchasing intentions. Numerous economic studies that they have been classified into different groups by different
focus mainly on specific areas such as product design, quality authors they are similar in scope and purpose (Rao,
and marketing strategy. Many scholars and research analysts 2007).There is a wide range of factors that can affect consumer
carried out research work to understand the verious attributes behaviour in different ways. These factors are divided by
of consumer behaviour. It is worth noting that consumer Hoyer et al. (2012) into four broad categories: situational,
buying behaviour is studied as a part of the marketing and its personal, social and cultural factors.
main objective it to learn the way how the individuals, groups
or organizations choose, buy use and dispose the goods and the There are various studies about on line consumer behavior. The
factors such as their previous experience, taste, price and most important studies on this subject are:
branding on which the consumers base their purchasing
decisions (Kotler and Keller, 2012). One of such studies of  Geissler, (2012) The shopping motivation literature is
consumer buying behaviour has been conducted by Acebron et abound with various measures of individual
al (2000). The aim of the study was to analyze the impact of characteristics (e.g., innovative, venturesome,
previous experience on buying behaviour of fresh foods. In the cosmopolitan, variety seeking), therefore,
study the author used structural equation model in order to innovativeness and risk aversion were included in this
identify the relationship between the habits and previous study to capture several of these traits.
experience on the consumer buying decision. Their findings  Chen (2009) in his dissertation entitled “Online
show that personal habits and previous experience on of the consumer behavior: an empirical study based on theory
consumers have a direct impact on the consumers’ purchase of planned behavior” extends theory of planned
decision. They also found that the image of the product has a behavior (TPB) by including ten important antecedents
crucial impact on the purchasing decision of the consumer and as external beliefs to online consumer behavior. The
further recommended that the product image should results of data analysis confirm perceived ease of use
continuously be improved in order to encourage the consumers (PEOU) and trust are essential antecedents in
towards purchasing. determining online consumer behavior through
behavioral attitude and perceived behavioral control.
Another study conducted by Variawa (2010) analyzed the The findings also indicate that cost reduction helps the
influence of packaging on consumer decision making process consumer create positive attitude toward purchase.
for Fast Moving Consumer Goods. The aim of the research was  Ying (2006) in his study “Essay on modeling consumer
to analyze the impact of packaging for decision making behavior in online shopping environments” examined
processes of low-income consumers in retail shopping. One of online purchase behavior across multiple shopping
the common models of consumer decision making process has sessions. Shopping cart abandonment is the problem of
been offered by Blackwell et al (2006). According to him, the many e-commerce websites. He investigated abandoned
five stages of consumer decision making process are shopping carts in an online grocery shopping setting.
followings: problem/need recognition, information search, Specifically, he developed a joint model for the cart,
evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision made and post- order, and purchase quantity decisions. Empirical
purchase evaluation. analysis shows that not all abandoned shopping carts
result in lost sales. Customers routinely pick up
abandoned carts and complete the final orders. Among
the factors that propel customers to continue with
aborted shopping are the time of shopping, time elapsed
since the previous visit, the number of items left in the
abandoned cart, and promotion intensity. The study
offers marketers important managerial implications on
how to mitigate the shopping cart abandonment
Source: wikipedia image of Blackwell model
problem.
The most noteworthy writers that serve as academic advocates  Benbaset (2006) The Relevant exogenous factors in the
of The Five Stage Model of consumer decision making include context of consumer behaviour are “consumer traits”
Tyagi (2004), Kahle and Close (2006) Blackwell et al. (2006) “situational factors” “product characteristics” “previous
there are also a range of competing models that include online shopping experiences” and “trust in online
Stimulus-Organism-Response Model of Decision Making shopping”. By incorporating these exogenous factors
developed by Hebb in 1950’s, Prescriptive Cognitive Models, next to the basic determinants of consumers’ perception
The Theory of Trying (Bagozzi and Warsaw, 1990), Model of and intention to use a technology, the framework is
Goal Directed Behaviour (Perugini and Bagozzi, 2001) and applicable in the online shopping context. Together,
others. A number of researches have been carried out by these effects and influences on consumers’ perception
academics and scholars on identifying and analyzing those toward online shopping provide a framework for
factors affecting the consumers’ buying behaviour and as a understanding consumers’ intentions to shop on the
result, various types of factors have been identified. Internet
 3387 International Journal of Information Research and Review Vol. 03, Issue, 12, pp. 3385-3387, December, 2016

 Rogers (2003) concluded that Online shopping features Conclusion

can be either consumers’ perceptions of functional and
utilitarian dimensions, like “ease of use” and The previous few years have seen an unprecedented growth in
“usefulness”, or their perceptions of emotional and the number of online business players. This ever increasing
hedonic dimensions like “enjoyment by including both competition has called for adoption of new marketing
utilitarian and hedonic dimensions, aspects from the strategies, new media and “out of box thinking” to influence
information systems or technology literature, as well as the customer to visit the site and make purchases. In India, e-
the consumer behavior literature are integrated in our tailing has the potential to grow more than hundredfold to
framework. reach a value of USD 76 billion by 2021. The country’s
 Davis, (2002) This raises the issue of examining what growing Internet-habituated consumer base, which will
factors affect consumers to shop online. Therefore, a comprise about 180 million broadband users by 2020, along
framework is needed to structure the complex system of with a burgeoning class of mobile Internet users, will drive the
effects of these different factors, and develop an in- online shopping story. This paper strives to understand the
depth understanding of consumers’ perceptions toward decision making process of consumer. As e retailing is worth
Internet shopping and their intentions to shop online. millions of dollars it is of utmost importance for the companies
The research suggests that consumers’ perception to know the degree of impact their new marketing campaign
toward Internet shopping first depends on the direct would have on potential customers. It would help them in
effects of relevant online shopping features. channelizing more money and effort towards the strategy
 Gupta Alok, su Bo-Chuan, Walter Zhiping(2004): An which has maximum impact on consumer psyche.
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