Executive Summary:

The world has become a global village because of advancements made in the field of
online communication channels. These channels have specifically changed the models of
conducting business. It is said that company which is not present on the internet will eventually
cease to exist in its brick and mortar form. Online purchasing is very much common in western
countries but not much common in developing countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka
and many parts of south Asia where people still prefer traditional methods of buying and selling.
The main objective of this research is to study how much consumers in these countries are aware
of online purchasing and what factors influence their online purchasing decisions. As majority of
the online shoppers in this region comprises of youth so questionnaire were delivered online in
universities. The response towards the questions has been analyzed using techniques of random
sampling.
Though online shopping all over the world has become a way of life, but in developing
countries, online shopping is moving at a very slow pace. There are online shops but most of the
people are unaware of their presence because of limited technological awareness. The protection
of privacy and security are major problems that affect the behavior of the population to buy
online.
A developing country are an emerging market of E-commerce and has 1000+ online
shopping stores providing their services to internet users. Ease, usefulness and enjoyment are not
the only factor contributing towards this trend apart from that consumer behavior, product
features, past experience and trust are the main factors that induce the consumer to visit online
stores.

Contents
Executive Summary:...................................................................................................................................1
Task 1:.........................................................................................................................................................3
Industry:..................................................................................................................................................3
Problem Definition:.................................................................................................................................3
Research Questions:................................................................................................................................3
Objectives of Research:...........................................................................................................................3
Consumer Specific Objectives:............................................................................................................3
Business Specific Objectives:..............................................................................................................3
Research Design:.....................................................................................................................................4
Exploratory Research:.........................................................................................................................4
Task 2:.........................................................................................................................................................4
Conducting Research:..............................................................................................................................4
Implementing the Research:....................................................................................................................4
Data Collection:.......................................................................................................................................4
Secondary Data:...................................................................................................................................4
Primary Data:......................................................................................................................................4
Cost and Time analysis:.......................................................................................................................5
Sample:....................................................................................................................................................5
Literature Review:...................................................................................................................................5
Task 3:.........................................................................................................................................................6
Evaluation of Outcomes..........................................................................................................................6
Future Considerations:...........................................................................................................................12
Limitation of Research:.........................................................................................................................12
Suggestions:...........................................................................................................................................12
References:................................................................................................................................................13
Book Reference:....................................................................................................................................13
Journal Reference:.................................................................................................................................13
Appendix:..................................................................................................................................................13

Task 1:
Industry:
Developing countries has seen a tremendous economic growth which has resulted in
higher consumption power of general public. As now the consumers can afford new means of
technology there is an increased trend regarding usage of internet for information, entertainment
and communication purposes. Due to large availability and new startups in e-commerce more of
the internet users are getting converted into online shoppers.
As internet is relatively inexpensive, more and more people are using it to serve their
needs like accessing information regarding products via comparison sites, chat rooms, blogs or
social media networks.
Problem Definition:
This research aims to provide understanding and quantification of consumer and business
attitudes towards online shopping.
Consumer Behavior regarding online shopping in developing countries
Research Questions:

How much the consumer is aware regarding e-commerce sites in developing countries?
What are the factors that are driving consumers in these regions to go for online
purchasing?

Objectives of Research:
Consumer Specific Objectives:

The first objective is to determine market attitude of consumers towards online shopping.
To know consumer awareness regarding conducting an online purchase securely.
Another objective is to know consumer perception about safety and security of internet.

Business Specific Objectives:

Type of goods sold in these regions online.

Payment methods most commonly used in these regions to conduct buying and selling
online

To determine consumer satisfaction rate regarding online purchasing and know about
negative feedback of consumers.

Research Design:
Exploratory Research:
Such research is normally conducted when there is no prior knowledge regarding the
research topic. As e-commerce is a rising phenomenon in many of developing countries and the
behaviors leading to this trend are quite different from one observed in European markets so
considering the main objective of developing a basic understanding of consumer behavior
exploratory research framework is designed.
One of the main reasons for not choosing descriptive research is lack of knowledge
regarding variables involved in making contributions towards online purchasing behavior. Hence
exploratory research is conducted to develop an initial understand and know the variables for
future research purposes.

Task 2:
Conducting Research:
Implementing the Research:
To conduct the research, questionnaires were designed which are attached in the appendix
section of this project and were delivered to students studying in leading universities of
developing countries.
Data Collection:
Secondary Data:
Secondary data was collected through online sources to develop an understanding
regarding the industry trends in the regions under study. The sources include research articles,
new articles.
Primary Data:
Primary Data was mainly collected via Questionnaires given to participants involved in
the study.

Cost and Time analysis:

The modern day techniques and internet facilities though save a lot of money and time
that was previously vested in researching however timings constraints especially are still
connected to the research. As described earlier that the methodology used for collecting data was
questionnaires that were rotated via internet and these results were analyzed later on. The
questionnaire was developed after literature review that was followed by long discussion as to
what to be discussed in the questionnaire and what appropriate sample should be selected and
what will be the target audience to this questionnaire. This process took more than three to four
days and after that the questionnaire was rotated over internet. The collection of responses took
more than a week and thus after a week responses that were well sufficient to fulfill the research
needs of the given population were gathered. Again it took two days to properly analyze the data
and prepare all results. Reporting of the data was tiresome work indeed and took two days. Thus
over all a time of two weeks went straight away in the construction, preparation and collection of
all data. As the research was conducted via Google drive therefore the cost of printing and
copying the paper prints of questionnaires was not at all incurred. The usage of right kind of
technology gave a full room to develop a better set of results that were checked, rechecked and
analyzed over internet and in turn giving complete freedom from costs that are spent normally in
such researches.
Sample:
Target market of this research was students under the age of 25 studying in various
universities in developing regions. Questionnaires were posted on various online forums in these
universities and as many as above three hundred responses were gathered and analyzed.
Literature Review:
The advent of internet has given generation to new patterns to shopping behaviors.
Consumers are no longer bound to go and shop in brick and mortar environments offered by
companies. Everything has gone from physical into virtual place for the purpose of purchasing
products and services. A person can purchase a product or a service at any time and at any
specific location. A new medium of communication and information exchange has been created
which largely owes to the invention of internet. Number of users, online shoppers, and online

transactions are constantly increasing and has already increased multiple times in the past
decade. (Joines, Scherer & Scheufele, 2003)
To understand online consumer behavior and to know how consumer reacts towards new
avenues offered in electronic commerce, factors that affect the traditional and physical mode of
exchange of goods should be ignored completely. For example, the fear of physically touching
the product and inspecting it before purchasing lacks in online purchases which is an influential
factor. Hence consumer purchasing behavior in click and mortar and virtual stores can be
different from conventional stores. [Alba et al., 1997; Winer et al., 1997].
Frequent use of internet shopping is expected to increase confidence of consumers in
online shopping. Another factor adding to this confidence is as more and more people adapt to
this online culture, consumer will switch from traditional to virtual modes of conducting
purchases. Online sellers must be very much concerned about the consumer perception regarding
offerings they are making as a little lack of service will result in dissatisfaction of consumers.
[Nunes, 2001].
E-Business has offered many businesses to go for affiliate marketing and have direct
interaction with their target market and learn about their customers and innovate their business
models by learning from their feedbacks which as a result is quite helpful in generating sales.
Internet has given rise to globalization of businesses in which each business can market their
products to large number of consumers.
Ernst & Young (2000) states that credit card hacking and other security concerns always
affect the consumer buying decision. Consumer do not prefer to buy online as they do not trust
the online purchasing methods and are not willing to give out their credit and debit card
information. As they are scared of privacy breaches and social risks involved with hacking of
their personal information.

Task 3:
Evaluation of Outcomes
54.55 percent response was gathered from women/females and rest from males.
Therefore the results were more women dominated as far as the majority is concerned as already
told, eleven pertinent questions were asked from the respondents that actually reflected the

shopping behavior in perspective of online buying. Now the detailed analysis of questions and
responses will follow one by one.

Know how about e-shopping

Yes

No

10%

90%

Starting with the most important inquiry

that whether people have some knowledge about online shopping or not? This made the first part
of the questionnaire. Fig:1 shows that now people now are quite aware of the happenings and
marvels of e-commerce and online shopping is just one popular trend that resulted from fast
changing internet world. The concept of globalization is actually transforming the world into
global village where buying from H&M is longer a problem for a person living in developing
countries. However still in the villages and towns of underdeveloped countries this trend is quite
uncommon however it is expected that in some more years to come there will be no one left
taking benefits from beauty of fast consumer buying over internet.

Question 2
Weekly

Monthly

Qaurterly

Other

5% 7%
42%
47%

The next thing being asked was about the time frame about online shopping that how
frequently people shop online. This was asked to get knowledge that how much those people

actually use this mode of shopping who do know about this trend. In that only 4.55% replied as
weekly, while majority i.e. 46.59% replied with quarterly (fig: 2). This shows that despite
having knowledge not as many people use this mode of shopping and the reasons were still to be
discovered. Thus a common inference can be derived that yes people do know about online
shopping however they dont go for.
The next thing that was discussed was that discussing whether when did people shopped
last time. This actually showed their interest in online shopping and that was useful in getting to
know about the consumer behavior. Majority (50%) answered in few months ago that again
shows a discontinuous trend in the buying behavior. Only 7.95% people replied in few days
ago. This is demonstrated in figure 3.

Question 3
Few days ago

8%
Few weeks ago 8% Few months ago
34%

Other

50%

Talking about the experience of people who shopped online, gave neither rise to another
notion, when majority replied as their experience being neutral i.e. neither good nor bad.
39.77% people responded as neutral response towards online shopping trends. Thus people
were still in confusion that how to regard their shopping experience.

Question 4
Very good

Good

Neutral

Poor

Very poor

6% 10%
6%
40%

39%

The people who responded to this questionnaire though being neutral were still in favor
to recommend online shopping to their friends. This was the next thing being asked and with
46.69% majority responded that they will recommend their friends for online shopping. 38.64%
were still neutral and 14.77% responded that they will not recommend their friends to go for
online shopping. The basic behavior so far depicts the shifts and transitions in the peoples
choice to buy online. However all results are resulting in positivity.

Question 5
Agree

Disagree

39%
15%

Neutral

47%

Question 6
More time cosuming

Less time cosuming

Same as nornal purchase

19% 9%
72%

Now
about the consumption of time, 71.59% responded that online shopping was less time consuming
thus giving a sense that people actually know about the benefits of the online shopping and this
is positive sign while talking about the positivity and awareness among masses. However rest of
the people who dont know about the benefits of online shopping are yet to inform about it. The
figure demonstrates the trend,

One of the things that e-commerce sites should be concerned is the privacy and security
of the customers. When asked how actually 50% of feel, the respondents said that they feel
insecure while doing online shopping. Whereas only 12% of the respondents said that they feel
secure and remaining 38% of the people remained neutral.

Customer Trust and Security

Secure

Insecure
38%

Neutral

13%
50%

Another dimension that plays a vital part when considering customer behavior towards ecommerce and online shopping is the price factor. If online stores are offering lower prices than
usually market price then it will definitely attract more customers, but as far as customer
response is concerned about 38% of respondents said that they find price on online store to be
lower than usual, while 37% of the respondents agreed that prices are higher on online stores.
Whereas rest of the 25% respondents found no difference and remained neutral.

Prices on Online Stores

Agree

Disagree
25%
38%

38%

Neutral

Convenience
Agree

Disagree

35%

Neutral

43%

22%

One of the biggest benefits that an e-commerce offers is the convenience, convenience in both
time and distance. While conducting survey 43% of the respondents agreed that online shopping
provides with convenience while 22% of the respondents disagreed regarding the convenience of
the e-commerce and the remaining 35% of the respondents remained neutral.

Another dimension to e-commerce is the behavior of the buyers regarding what they
mostly purchase. According to the survey we conduct most of the respondents said that they do
online shopping for the purchase of clothes and apparels, 50% of the people. Whereas 20% of the
respondents replied that they do online shopping for purchasing electronic devices such as
mobiles, laptops etc. and the remaining 30% of the respondents use e-commerce for the purchase
of other commodities which included purchasing jewelry and cars.

Items Purchased
Clothes

Electronics

30%
50%
20%

Other

Factors Affecting Buyer Behavior

Social factor
Emotional factor
Other
7%

Psychological factor
Environmental factor

10%
45%
8%
30%
There are many factors that

affect buyer behavior and it differs from country to country. But some of the factors that usually
affect are environment factors, social factors, emotional factors etc. In our case when we asked
the respondents about what are the basic factors their behavior, about 30% of the respondents
answered psychological factors. Whereas, 45% of the respondents said that their behavior is
influenced by social factors. About 10% of respondents are influenced by environmental factors
and 8% of the respondents replied that they are affected by emotional factors while the remaining
7% of the respondents lies in the other category.
Future Considerations:
Future milestones is to conduct a descriptive research on the same topic and this time from the
perspective of business operating in developing regions and to know what portion of their sales
are generated via online and what are different variables contributing towards online generation
of sales.
Limitation of Research:
Following are the limitation of research.

One basic limitation is lack of communication with the respondents to have deeper

understanding about their behaviors.

Research conducted outside the region of researcher.
No control over sample and respondents

Suggestions:
One basic suggestion is to increase security measures and introduction of new safety
standards and consumer laws regarding online businesses which has to be adopted

internationally. Radical steps to reduce piracy must be taken so that more and more businesses
can participate in e-commerce and consumer can have more faith in the product quality they are
purchasing. Another suggestion is to increase internet penetration in developing regions so that
more people can have access to affordable means of communication.

References:
Book Reference:
Uma Sekaran (2003). Research method for business: A skill building approach, 4th
edition, John Wiley & Sons.
Naresh Malhotra (2010). Marketing Research: An applied orientation, 6th edition.
Journal Reference:
Jessica L. Joines, Clifford W. Scherer, Dietram A. Scheufele, (2003) "Exploring
motivations for consumer Web use and their implications for e-commerce", Journal of
Consumer Marketing, Vol. 20 Is: 2, pp.90 108
Alba, J., Lynch, J., Weitz, B., Janiszewski, C., Lutz, R., Sawyer, A., et al. (1997).
Interactive home shopping: Consumer, retailer, and manufacturer incentives to participate
in electronic marketplaces. Journal of Marketing, 61(3), 3853.
Hubl, G., & Trifts, V. (2000). Consumer decision-making in online shopping
environments: The effects of interactive decision aids. MarketingScience, 19(1), 421.

Postma, O. J., & Brokke, M. (2002). Personalization in practice: The proven effects of
personalization. Journal of Database Marketing, 9(2), 137142.

Appendix:
This questionnaire is designed for academic purposes and marketing research under the course of
Marketing Research". All information will be kept confidential and will be used for intended
purpose. We will greatly appreciate your contribution by filling out this questionnaire. If you
want us to share the results of the findings with you provide us with your email and get the
results.
* Required
Gender *
o

Male

Female
Age *

15-20

20-25

25-30

Above 30
1) Do you have any awareness regarding e-commerce or online shopping? *

Yes

No
2) How often do you do online shopping? *

Weekly

Monthly

Quarterly

Other
3) When was the last time you purchased something online? *

Few days ago

Few weeks ago

Few months ago

Other
4) How was your experience while doing online shopping? *

Very good

Good

Neutral

Poor

Very Poor
5) You would recommend your friends to purchase things from online stores? *

Agree

Disagree

Neutral
6) As compared to normal purchase, you found online shopping: *
(Here normal purchase means purchase from regular store etc.)

More time consuming

Less time consuming

Same as normal purchase

7) While doing online shopping you tend to feel: *

Secure

Insecure

Neutral
8) The prices of commodities on online stores are normally higher than actual
prices? *

Agree

Disagree

Neutral
9) As a buyer you find online shopping more convenient: *

Agree

Disagree

Neutral
10) You normally do online shopping to purchase: *

Clothes

Electronics

Other:
11) In perspective of online shopping, in your opinion which factor influences the
buyer behavior the most? *

Social factor

Psychological factor

Emotional factor

Environmental factor

Other: