E-commerce offers significant opportunity for retailers in emerging markets like India due to the growing Internet popularity and rising incomes. But the Internet penetration growth does not commensurate with the online retail sales. This necessitates unraveling and understanding the online buying behavior. This paper employs ‘Theory of planned behavior (TPB)’, ‘Technology acceptance model (TAM)’ and self-image to unfold the online consumer behavior. It proffers an integrated model of online consumer behavior by integrating the self-image variable with the TPB and TAM models. The study tests the various components of integrated model and find that attitudes, subjective norms, self-image, and self-efficacy significantly impact online purchase intentions. The study makes significant theoretical contributions and provides valuable insights into the consumers’ online purchase behavior.
1. Introduction
Internet provides a significant opportunity to marketers to reach Indian consumers. It has emerged to be a significant retail channel for almost all the business firms in the country (Dash and Saji, 2008; Khare and Rakesh, 2011). Consumers’ growing buying power coupled with rising Internet penetration provides a significant alternative to international retailers. The country currently has the third largest Internet user base in the world and it is expected to be the second largest consumer base by 2015 (McKinsey, 2012). The consumers are willing to try the new retail format due to its convenience, affordability and accessibility (PWC, 2012). The digital consumers spend more than their non-connected peers (BCG, 2013). With the rise in consumer demand, the B2C sales are expected to grow 57% annually between 2012-2016 (Forrester, 2012). It is predicted that India’s Internet users will swell five fold by 2015 (McKinsey, 2011). The country is going to be the biggest e-commerce market in the Asia Pacific as it is expected to reach $ 8.8 billion by 2016 (Forrester, 2012). The increased Internet diffusion has augmented its acceptability but it has failed to gain acceptance as an alternate retail channel (Khare, Singh and Khare, 2010). Although online sales are restricted to few urban Indian youth who purchase small-value items (Gupta, Handa and Gupta, 2008) but the Internet has sizeable influence on offline buying (BCG, 2013). Despite the widespread research, there is a gap in understanding of Indian online shopping behavior (Beldona, Racherla and Mundhra, 2011). This mandates understanding the online consumer behavior.
There is growth of e commerce research (Chen and Holsapple, 2013; Wang and Chen, 2010) and key research point in ecommerce is modeling the online consumer behavior (Cag ̆il and Erdem, 2012).
Amazon.com operates in the Online Retail Industry. The sector is one of the fastest growing globally and is outperforming the ordinary retail marketplace. It was created after 1995 and it was only the Internet that made it possible for such an industry not only to be established but to become one of the most flourishing sectors in the business environment. What is interesting is that Amazon.com, together with eBay is the pioneer in the field. Both companies were launched in 1995 and are still extremely successful. The creation of e-mail in 1996 had a huge impact on the development of online retail by introducing a fast and easy way to communicate with customers. For this two-year period Internet usage doubled annually, thus, allowing for the expansion of the industry. Google is launched a year later, in 1998, only to become the most used search engine in the world and an essential partner for the online retailers by helping them tailor their websites to customer’s personal preferences and by advertising. After that, more and more people see the opportunity in the growing industry and enter it. By 2001 there are more than 513 million Internet users globally, which calls for action in terms of creating regulations and laws to protect the users and personal property. In 2003, Apple launches iTunes, and provides a platform for low-cost digital downloads. Another major change is the appearance of social media from 2004, which is one of the biggest influencer on the state of the industry. With the launch of iPhone in 2007, this trend strengthens as people get to enjoy the Internet anywhere they want to. From then on, technological advancements have made it extremely easy and fun to shop online, making it ...
With several thousand commercial Web sites to consider, there are a great variety of e-commerce business models.
E-commerce in China is complex, unlike any other country, and in a constant state of flux. The sheer size of the industry and the sheer number of Chinese consumers - which is still steadily growing as you read this report - make it extremely hard to navigate this complex industry and even harder to find a winning strategy. However, with careful research and acute business sense, one will be able to capitalise on the unique dynamics on this industry and make investments that will make a good return in the long run. I hope that this report has helped to give you some key insights into the industry and improve on your investment process.
Chung-Shing Lee, (2001) "An analytical framework for evaluating e-commerce business models and strategies", Internet Research, Vol. 11 Iss: 4, pp.349 – 359
Kaushik, A. K., & Rahman, Z. (2015). An alternative model of self-service retail technology adoption. Journal Of Services Marketing, 29(5), 406-420. doi:10.1108/JSM-08-2014-ng
Print Mishra, Sita, and Mathew, Priya. " Analyzing Perceived Risks and Website Attributes in E-Retailing: A Study from India. " Journal of Internet Banking & Commerce 18.2 (2013). Print Musgrave, E. Targeting India, the next big thing? Drapers.
Based on these concerns, retailers in the international marketplace have their work cut out for them. But through proper education of consumers, and the ever-expanding growth of the infrastructure in many countries, the future seems to be leaning heavily towards using the Internet for many needs.
However, in the long run it’ll be a different story as E commerce in India has just reached less than 1/10th of its potential. Out of 120 Crore Indian population not more than 1.5 crores use E Commerce frequently. Looking at burgeoning internet users the market should reach at least 15 ...
E-commerce has evolved in three different stages over the years to satisfy communications and business needs. E-commerce is an easy way to purchase and to sell products or services over the internet and other computer networks without any difficulties. The invention, the consolidation, and the reinvention with the social and mobile are the three periods of e-commerce. The study is a description of the three different steps of e-commerce.
The Information revolution is changing our daily lives. With the rapid development of computer and internet, online commerce become quite common and plays an important role in the modern world. The online business has booming development in these few years. US online retail sales raised an average of 11% in the first three months of 2009 (“US Online Sales Up,” 2009). The growth of online sales may due to the growing number of consumers who shop online. In the case of Asia, survey reported 77.6% of Internet users have online shopping experiences in 2003 (as cited in To, Liao & Lin, 2007). Online shopping is very different from traditional shopping. Consumers cannot touch and check the product before purchasing it, which means they are at higher risk of fraud than traditional shopping. Consumers also have other concerns such as credit cards security of online shopping. Then questions should be raised: what is the advantage of online shopping? Why people shop online? In following paragraphs, the advantage of online shopping for the consumer and consumer’s motivation to shop online will be reviewed and discussed.
E-marketing is a fast growing and rapid platform for any form of business. EBay has been highly successful over recent years and this is a perfect example of an online business. The internal and external environments are constantly changing and in order to keep up with these changes, businesses and organisations must make relevant changes, and generate new strategies to keep up with contemporary developments in e-marketing and to also maintain their position in their market in comparison to their competitors.
In today’s era “INTERNET” is playing a significant role in our daily life. People can walk through the internet to one who is actually living on the different side of the planet, can send mails round the clock, search information & even buy things online. With this invention of internet there is a shift in traditional way of shopping. Now there is no need to open a physical store. One can be active at any time and place and purchase products and services. The number of users of internet is increasing day by day which means that online shopping is increasing. Various characteristics of online shopping is making it more convenient for the customers, as compared to traditional way of shopping such as the ability to view and purchase goods and
In her book, McCue- an advisor to U.S. Government, United Nations, and World Bank organizations on trade development, e-commerce, e-government, and youth issues since 1991– indicates that Internet is used as sales and marketing medium but this sales channel is not as viable as expected because a huge number of competitive websites are growing exponentially. In addition, misunderstanding e-commerce and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can result in ineffective business practices. She also provides handy checklists, detailed outlines of key operating principles, and insider tips of what to do, what not to do and where to find information for building an e-commerce strategy and executing it in an integrated marketing program. This book also has templates and techniques for strategy and addition resources. And more important, the ideas presented here can be used in all organizations, from small to large e-commerce enterprises in this fast-changing world.
“Digital Commerce: March 2011”, Report provided by Internet and Mobile Association of India and available at http://www.iamai.in/rsh_pay.aspx?rid=0gWlBn0YPIA=
Consequently, e-business and especially online shopping is crucial for retail stores. They should provide necessary infrastructure for selling their products online. By taking advantage of e-business not only they can get competitive advantage of online shopping, but the...