QUESTION
Write 2500 word Essay on Study on Factor Affecting Consumer Choice in Buying a Product Online.
ANSWER
INDEPENDENT PROJECT ESSAY
STUDY ON FACTORS AFFECTING CONSUMER CHOICE IN BUYING A PRODUCT ONLINE
Introduction
In this world of digitisation internet market is in flaming day by day with Ecommerce at the front face. E Commerce is the heart of the internet business. A customer sitting at a particular place gets the wide range of possibilities at his own hands through internet. This virtuality of business involves various choices of products which lead to customer beneficiation. Through intense study it has been known that changes in human perception, attitude, characteristics and behavioural changes are seen in online business compared to that of offline marketing. Internet business would have been impossible without the technological advancement of internet and technology. It can be said that people are getting more and more updated as in the recent years a distant growth of internet shopping market customers has been seen which proves the technological advancements of mankind which was unimaginable before a certain period of time. This essay expresses its deep concern about the detailed analysis of the factors for customer attraction, customer characteristics and behavioural differences between customers including reason for customers to choose online shopping.
Through detailed theoretical background analysis it can be understood that preferences and choices differ from customer to customer. According to Yeo, Goh & Rezaei (2015), individual taste, flavour and preferences are determined by personal, psychological, cultural and social factors which define the choice and taste of a particular customer. Empirical analysis discovers that a relationship is constrained by inertia, comfort ability impetus, purchasing size perceived value and trust. This theory is based on certain facts which preserve their loyal customers to maintain their profitability and as trustworthiness is considered as an important factor for business upliftment. Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are the two things which have to be maintained by both the customer and the company. The customer has to maintain its loyalty to the company on the other hand company has to focus on whether the customer is satisfied with the product delivery of the company. Cho, & Sagynov (2015) stated that A reciprocal relationship has to be developed between the customer and the company.
The company has to focus more on the reputation of the company to attract more customers from the offline market. There are also other market based factors which are responsible for the greater number of customer generation for online market which are brand value of product, design of product, quality content of product, durability of product, product warranty, variety in showcasing, good packaging with environmental friendliness. The company has to pay attention to some core points towards price ranging; it has to maintain a decent reasonable price while maintaining sustainable quality of product. Verma, Sharma & Sheth, (2016) opined that E Commerce though have answered the customers to itself but it lacks in food department as there are not much companies who are supplying restaurant ready foods to door steps of customers. Though the grocery sector is proceeding gradually to a significant rise as AMAZON and various companies have started their grocery stores but the rise of food home delivery business is not proceeding in that rampant stage as it could have. Taking these background theories into account, various factors can be understood about internet shopping markets, customer behaviour analysis and how to draw different types of customers responsible for the growth of E Commerce and online shopping markets.
As per the views of According to Yeo, Goh & Rezaei (2015) online purchases can be defined as the interest of a particular customer to buy a product from the online shopping market. Online purchase is a method which is the only medium where exchange of time money and effort occur. A customer is sure to purchase goods and materials from offline stores. It requires courage for a particular customer to start online shopping market (Tarhini et al. 2018). The customer experiences risks of buying from the online shopping markets as there are ample amount of risks, which include firstly fake online reviews, fake and sceptical reviews often lead a customer to reach in a false position if a customer is subjected to fake and sceptical comments. Secondly lack of full cost disclosure, the original price at times are not visible as the shipping charge or the home delivery charge is hidden, which cheats the customers when they make the final transactions. Thirdly counterfeit goods are another massive problem in today’s online shopping market. Even the CEO of AMAZON is also fed up with the counterfeit goods problem and is facing huge controversies in this subject matter. Fourthly it can be seen in small or unauthorised shopping market sites where the ordered product never arrives.
This problem is faced by various customers and has been recorded by the customer complains sectors. In this case if a customer is using the pay on delivery option then it can be managed but if a customer has already made internet payment then the customer’s money is totally wasted and that customer never gets the product. Lastly there is another problem in online shopping and that is Quality content and brand originality. Many issues have been recorded against this issue where a customer is seen receiving fake products rather than the original product which he ordered while paying the amount necessary for the branded product. These factors often border a customer’s interest to proceed in online shopping as one sees the risks and falls short in gathering courage to leave the offline shopping market (Palacios-Marqués, Popa, & Pilar Alguacil Mari, 2016).
Nalchigar, Weber, Lak, & Bener (2016) opined that after large scale study of internet shopping behaviour that from the early 1990’s there was a huge craze for online shopping markets which was emerging day by day. Consumer behaviour is complex in case of online shopping market. The customer behaviour in these days has been greatly improved from the early days of introduction of online shopping. This rise in statistical data which prove significant rise of customers leaning interests towards the online market has been more positive than assumed. In shortness of time accompanied by busy schedules a customer is bound to shift from the offline market.
The globe has seen times when people feared hearing the term online shopping. Today is a completely different time. Before entering to the online shopping market a customer finds certain positive factors which encourage him or her to drive into online shopping (Mallapragada, Chandukala, & Li, 2016). The availability of a particular product is 24*7 a customer can buy any product at any hour of the day or night as it is always available. The customer can find ample of same products of different brands where a customer can compare and contrast between different products and also select the price range comfortable to buy as the prices are mostly reasonable in comparison to offline stores. There is a great significance of online shopping as it saves huge amount of time. The companies often give huge amount of discounts as well as free shipping which attract lots of customers to engage in shopping online. It is notice that certain materials or products are not available in the offline stores and are hard to find, online shopping helps in these conditions (Nalchigar et al. 2016). These are the factors which stimulate a customer to shift away from offline shopping market and lean towards online shopping market. The online sellers have made highly successful methods to immensely increase customer’s confidence in online shopping market (Al-Debei, Akroush, & Ashouri, 2015). Companies like AMAZON and EBAY are real examples of successful online shopping markets which provide wide range of products with the best quality and reasonable price. These factors contribute to the factors which are responsible for the respectable rise of the online market.
The rate of online customer increment depends on another significant form of marketing is through branding and promotion. Advertising is a leading trend in the age of globalisation every particular company in order to increase its sales uses advertising. As per the views of Liu & Mattila (2017) using brand name to the company products hugely increases the customer attraction to a company, building trustworthiness for the company in the customer’s mind resulting in repeated sales. It is seen that the private level brands in the retail market are immensely successful in attracting customers and buying behaviour. There are certain key elements if maintained, the company will face a financial hike, they are, brand awareness of the company, good quality branding with reasonable pricing, durability, quality design, certain discounts and necessarily visual merchandising in product. In order to create a brand awareness of the company, it has to advertise its brand to the market as advertisement obliterates conventional and primitive opinions about a certain business farm and help in broadening or exposing the business to the global market (Jugenheimer, Kelley, Hudson, & Bradley, 2015). This can lead to immense industry growth involving interested investors and subsidiaries who want to merge with the company. Advertisement is the sole source of information about the changers in a company. It helps customer to compare and contrast the price range and quality of a certain product.
There are various advantages of promoting about the brand value. It helps in building reputation in the establishment of a new product by promoting it. Immense increment of sales has been noticed on advertising, along with a certain amount of competition in the e-market. Advertising about an organisation increases its goodwill and educates customers about latest and upcoming products or announcements regarding discount sales and others. Ultimately it cuts out the middleman decreasing the selling price while maintaining quality of the product. Thus the online companies must use advertisements as parts of marketing programs to make increment in the figure of sales and product services altogether securing the reputational and economic situation of the company.
Human beings run towards convenience, it is human nature to run behind convenience. Customers choose convenience over money, online shopping provides at home, the widest range of goods and materials available in the market. Billions of customers depend on online shopping and numerous are clinging to it day by day, which assures and portrays its inflaming market in the distant future. Despite its conveniences many chose not to shop online which is also very much justified for valid reasons. Certain customers like the idea of shopping offline by physically going to stores, touch the desired product, put on clothing see it’s fitting and made up material then consider buying an item. According to Pappas et al. (2016) Customers goes for offline shopping for certain risks involved in online shopping including customer fear for credit card information compromisation. Customers also fear about not getting the desired product by considering the picture as frauds can occur and dissimilar materials can be delivered which resemble null similarity with early picture. Clothing is a difficult option in online shopping as sizes are never same and wrong size delivery is a disgustful inconvenience faced by the customer.
On the contrary, there are possible advantages which attract more and more customers day by day increasing the market (Harris et al. 2017). Wide range of products with comparing price exhibits a customer to choose online shopping. Customers have more control over their choice of buying on the contrary the product delivery is beyond their control. There is privacy for certain products which the offline stores can’t provide. It hugely saves time and effort for going to the store. Online shopping provides great discounts with lower prices on wide variety of brands and models. Depending upon these factors Customer satisfaction is relative it can be both good and bad (Shaouf, Lü, & Li, 2016). The customer with bad product delivery will naturally generate hatred for online shopping as the person has seen its risks which are huge in number, on the contrary a customer with the best product delivery with accurate chosen item shipment leaning more towards online shopping.
Conclusion
Based on the above analysis it can be concluded that this essay expresses its deep concern about the factors affecting customer choice in buying from online shopping by stressing on both advantages and disadvantages of online shopping starting from the theories based on the study of online shopping involving the philosophical and discussing about psychological factors and issues faced by a customer prior to buying from online stores. The essay describes customer behaviour towards any product purchase form the online shopping market and its positive factors.
Here a significant role of advertising and marketing discussing brand value of both product and company is incorporated which helps to understand about product placement and marketing. Lastly the essay edges by involving the role of customer satisfaction for online shopping and its relative nature depending upon the product delivery. Thus the wide range of factors brings out the inner conflict of the essay which is its vast range of advantages and disadvantages of online shopping and various factors leading to the customer inclination towards online shopping money market.
Reference List
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