The Reasons behind Why Online Shopping Is So Popular among Uni Students Study in Bognor Regis - Research Paper Example

Find out the reasons behind why online shopping is so popular among Uni study in Bognor Regis in in order to develop a new business online. By Student’s Name Course+Code Class Institution Date Contents Contents 2 2.0. Overall aim 3 3.0. Relevance of the research 3 4.0. Literature review 4 4.1. Consumer behaviours 4 4.2. Statistics Related to Consumer Usage of Internet trade 5 4.3. Privacy security 6 6.0. Proposed Methodology 7 6.1. Research strategy 8 6.2 Ethical issues 9 6.3 Access issues 9 6.4. Data collection tools and method 10 6.5. Sampling 10 7.0. Preliminary ideas for data analysis 11 8.0. Phasing/timescale of the research 11 9.0. Problems and limitations of the research proposal 12 10.0. Reference list 13 11.0 appendix 14 1.0. Introduction The internet is very popular among people today. It is currently the most used means of communication. The internet, has however, found more usage. Producers of goods and services currently rely very much on the use of the internet to market and sell commodities (Khosrowpour, 2006). As a result, the way people shop has greatly changed. Individuals are currently shopping for goods and services from the internet. This method of shopping is considered convenient and fast (Bidgoli, 2003). University students are some of the frequent users of this mode of shopping. In light of these facts, this research intends to determine why online shopping is quite popular among university students in Bognor Regis (Khosrowpour, 2006). 2.0. Overall aim Businesses in the United Kingdom spend a large chunk of their annual budgets in advertising and marketing of their products. This research aims to find out why university students prefer to shop from online markets as opposed to other modes of shopping. This information will help business in the United Kingdom when they decide to take their business online (Bluschke, 2011). 3.0. Relevance of the research Any business organization aims at selling its products to be able to generate a profit. In the quest, for profit maximisation businesses spend a major portion of the income they earn to sell and market their products (Bluschke, 2011). Businesses have invested massively in retail outlets with the aim of reaching their potential clients. This is very expensive; to be able to display commodities would require a large space. This is in addition to the cost employing shop attendants and paying utility bills like water and electricity. The cost of advertising is also quite high; a company has to put adverts both in print and electronic media. Organizations also use billboards including other forms of advertising. A close look at many organizations budgets shows that massive revenues are spent on advertising and marketing process. Due to rapid advancement in technology, consumers have changed the way they do their shopping. Consumers no longer prefer to do their shopping physically in retail outlets. There is an emerging trending where shopping for goods and services is done from the internet. Most of the producers though still lack enough knowledge on use of internet trade. This research intends to carry out a detailed study to determine why consumers prefer to use online markets to transact. This information will equip the business organizations with knowledge on consumer preferences in case they decide to establish an online store. Selling wares online greatly cuts down the businesses operational costs. This will also reduce the organizations budget on advertising. This will result in increased profitability of most businesses (Ferreday, 2009). 4.0. Literature review In the subject of online shopping, many scholars have done numerous studies and written books on various subjects relating to online shopping. 4.1. Consumer behaviours Consumer online trends are very necessary in this study; there are a majority of scholars who have analysed consumer behaviour trends on the internet (Khosrowpour, 2006) takes a detailed look at customer behaviour. The book specifically aims at predicting customer online shopping behaviour. (Bluschke, 2011) takes an in-depth analysis of factors that influence consumer’s intention to purchase clothes online. (Bidgoli, 2003) this publication interprets the consumers mindsets and online shopping, it attempts to discuss if the shopping online is goal oriented or consumers just use the internet for experimental purposes. (Ferreday, 2009) is a study of what drives consumers to purchase commodities from online sources, is it done for pleasure, to fulfil a particular fantasy or is it done as a necessity. (Gao, 2005) the author looks at the factors that motivate a consumer to purchase goods and services from online sources. He tries to analyse if consumers resort to buy commodities online for convenience, what influences what consumers purchase and the amount of information that consumers have about the online markets they purchase their products . (Fjermestad & Romano, 2006) is detailed survey on the management of customer relationships online. It attempts to look at how the various organisations with a massive online market manage their customers. 4.2. Statistics Related to Consumer Usage of Internet trade (Black, 2012) looks at the statistics on the percentage of internet users that do their shopping online. The outcome shows that almost eighty-five percent of the sampled internet users had made a purchase from and online (Molenaar, 2010).the writer compares online shopping to shopping from a real shop. The author tries to find out why a consumer would go into an ordinary shop. Consumers go into shops because they find the shops very attractive; to set up a successful online shop the consumers need to find the online market to be attractive and interactive. The consumer thus will want to view the commodities on display more. (Qin, 2007) discusses the fundamentals and key features of electronic commerce. Its focus is the developments in the online trading industry. It offers solutions for dealing with problems encountered in the electronic commerce. These include the areas of applications, how to manage an online market and other key factors. (Heinemann & Schwarzl, 2010) analyses online market segmentation. It delves into the concepts surrounding online marketing of commodities including how to generate higher revenues from online sources. (Dholakia et al .2002) this text takes a close examination at the effects of globalization and technological competition on online marketing. The book also questions why some internet marketing strategies work while others fail. It also finds applications to the findings of its study through managerial advice. (Miller, 2004) this is an online shopping guide on how to get the best bargains; it contains tricks consumers use to get bargains for the products they intend to consume. (Shaw, 2007) this is a detailed guide for online consumers. It contains tricks to use to scout for the best bargains, how to be able to find the best commodities at favourable prices. 4.3. Privacy security Literature here analyses how safe an internet shoppers personal information is while making purchases online. (Suen, 2013) this text examines the online market for applications; these applications are in computers, tablets and mobile phones. The book also attempts to cyber security issues, is the internet users private information like the credit card number, name and residence only available to the store or can it be shared by third parties. The subject of online shopping and electronic commerce has widely been researched on in the recent past. The literature reviewed has relevance in this study because; it details information on how consumers behave while shopping online. It details the trends in the industry. It also talks about the security of the consumer’s information that is in the hands of the traders. 5.0. Specific research objectives or questions What factors influence a university student to make purchases online? How do university students evaluate the internet as an avenue for shopping? How likely will a university student use the internet to purchase commodities in the near future? What are the factors that an organization should consider before establishing an online shop? What are the behavioural intentions towards online shopping by university students? What is the level of satisfaction that university students get from online shopping? To determine if university students who have used online shopping are trail users, occasional users, frequent users or regular buyers. 6.0. Proposed Methodology The research is aimed at determining why university students prefer to use the internet to shop. To be able to determine this variety of other information will need to be obtained to determine whether the respondents fit the criteria of online shoppers. The research will thus seek to obtain a variety of other details about the clients. These details would include; age of the respondent, their expenditure on a monthly basis, the gender and finally knowledge of online shopping platforms. This information will enable the researcher to determine if the sampled population fits that of regular online shoppers. After which the respondent’s usage of online shopping will be compared to their personal information. The results of this research will then enable organizations who want to set up online shops to determine who exactly they should target with their product, should it be female or male shopper, and what age group they should target. The research will be done through an online survey. The online survey method was chosen because of a variety of reasons: Since the study is on internet usage, the study should be carried out online It is the simplest way to identify people who use the internet. The data collection and analysis will be fast and accurate. Participants will show an increased likely hood of participating since the survey will be easy and one can do it at their own convenient time. The participants will each be given a copy of a structured questionnaire where the participants are expected to fill out all the necessary details and mail the questionnaire back. 6.1. Research strategy This research aims to determine a variety of issues, mainly the quality of service, the frequency of internet usage and factors that influence this usage. Thus, the research will determine the quality of service and the quantity of transactions by use of statistical measures to analyse the data obtained. The research will target any individual who had made and online purchase within the university. This will include those who have purchased books, clothes or done their banking online. The study is to be structured as an online survey. With the aid of the university, each respondent will be contacted via email (Gao, 2005). The data on students will be obtained from the university database. The questionnaire will then mailed to each of the chosen respondents e-mails. The respondents will then submit their questionnaires and the data will be compiled for purposes of analysis. The questionnaire will have two parts one structured part for the respondent to fill out their personal details. The second part is open ended. This is to allow the respondents to be able to explain themselves. This explanation will include all purchases made via the internet over the last six months. It would also have a part that seeks to know why the respondent chose the internet over other modes of purchase (Molenaar, 2010). The use of an online survey was preferred; this was because most of the university student may lack time to respond to an interview or a written questionnaire. 6.2 Ethical issues A few ethical issues may arise from the research. Accessing student information on the university database without the knowledge of the student is a violation of privacy policy. However, because the survey is for purposes of academia then requisite permission can be sought from the authorities at the university. Sending a large group of individuals’ emails without their approval is spamming. Spamming is an unethical practice frequently used by rogue advertisers. The recipients might then classify the emails as spam and fail to respond to them. 6.3 Access issues The information for the study will be obtained once each respondents fill out their questionnaires and mails it back. Many problems may be encountered at this stage. Some respondents may have a negative attitude towards this kind of research and may fail to participate in the study. Others may take longer than it is expected to respond to the questionnaire. This may result in delay in date collection (Molenaar, 2010). Some of the recipients might block the emails from their accounts as spam; this will limit the ability of the research team to get the emails to them. Messages characterised as the recipient’s browser may filter out spam. Some respondents have numerous email accounts, if the email is sent to an account not frequently used by the respondent. The respondent may fail to get the message and provide an appropriate response in time. 6.4. Data collection tools and method The research would employ use of a questionnaire; this questionnaire would have a structured part and an open-ended part. This tool was preferred, as it would enable the acquisition of data on quality and quantity simultaneously. Some of the questions required a yes or no response while the rest would need the respondent to write down their opinions. Personal information on the respondents would be obtained from the university database; this information will act as a buffer for the respondent’s responses and help to eliminate biased information. Once each respondent there questionnaire and fills it out. They then mail it back. Once the questionnaire is received, the data is segmented. This is done in terms of the gender of the respondent, their age, and level of income. This is the recorded against how frequently they made use of the internet. 6.5. Sampling Five hundred respondents will be sampled. This comprises students who had used the internet to make a personal retail purchase. Information on their age, gender, level of income, how often they access the internet was also taken. This data will be entered into the questionnaire. The students to be sampled are chosen randomly from the university database, this is irrespective of all other factors. The sample population will be divided equally between both genders, two fifty respondents will be male while the other half female. The numbers will be spread equally among all the years of study. Random sampling was preferred it eliminated the level of bias in the study. It enabled a large population of respondents to be selected. This meant that all the students had an equal opportunity of taking part in the study. 7.0. Preliminary ideas for data analysis The data collected is segmented in relation to various dependant variables with frequency of online shopping as the independent variable. The ages of the respondents are made to correspond to the frequency of online purchases. The data on incomes, gender, and the level of access an individual has to the internet is also compared to how frequent purchases were made. This data is analysed using SAS. The means, standard deviations, mean deviations, variances of the various sets of data are obtained and the final data is represented in graphs and tables (Heinemann & Schwarzl, 2010). 8.0. Phasing/timescale of the research The time scale of the study was of the study is around six weeks. The questionnaires will be mailed to all the respondents on the same day. This window of around six weeks is necessary to ensure that every respondent is able to get time and respond to the questionnaires. Failure to present a response within the six weeks would mean that the respondent would not take part in the study (Heinemann & Schwarzl, 2010).After the six weeks any submissions are not accepted. This data will thus not be considered for analysis. 9.0. Problems and limitations of the research proposal Numerous challenges are faced when carrying out this study The data collected may be false, since the student is responding to the questionnaire alone there is no opportunity to verify the validity of the data presented. Some respondents may give false information especially related to age and level of income. Some respondents may fail to mail back the questionnaires. This is a major challenge some of the respondents may have a negative attitude towards the survey and hence fail to take part in the survey. The research is quite time intensive. Since the research is to be conducted online. A time window is necessary to give all the respondents’ adequate time to respond to their questionnaire. Financial challenges will also be encountered, since the research entails much work. A few assistants will have to be recruited to aid in the research. Collection of data for five hundred respondents will require a team. This team will require resources like access to computers, a place to work and other office stationary. Obtaining permission to access student’s information on the university database is a complex affair that requires various levels of security clearance from the concerned authorities. Since the survey is carried out online, in case the server crushes or a virus hits the computer system all the data will be lost, a new survey will thus have to be carried out (Bluschke, 2011). 10.0. Reference list Black, K. 2012. Business statistics: For contemporary decision making. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Bluschke, N. 2011. Factors influencing consumers intention to purchase clothing online. München: GRIN Verlag GmbH. Bidgoli, H. 2003. The Internet encyclopedia. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons. Dholakia, . R. R., Dholakia, N., Fritz, W., & Mundorf, N. 2002. Global e-commerce and online marketing: Watching the evolution. Westport, Conn [u.a.: Quorum Books. Fjermestad, J., & Romano, N. C. 2006. Electronic Customer Relationship Management. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, Inc. Ferreday, D. 2009. Online belongings: Fantasy, affect and web communities. Oxford: Peter Lang. Gao, Y. 2005. Web systems design and online consumer behaviour. Hershey PA: Idea Group Pub. Heinemann, G., & Schwarzl, C. 2010. New online retailing: Innovation and transformation. Wiesbaden: Gabler. Information Resources Management Association., & Khosrowpour, M. 2006. Emerging trends and challenges in information technology management. Hershey, Penn: Idea Group. Miller, M. 2004. Bargain hunters secrets to online shopping. Indianapolis, IN: Que Pub. Molenaar, C. 2010. Shopping 3.0: Shopping, the Internet or both?. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate Pub. Qin, Z. 2007. Introduction to E-commerce. Berlin: Springer Berlin. Suen, A. 2013. Downloading and online shopping safety and privacy. New York: Rosen Central. Shaw, R. C. F. 2007. Silver surfers colour guide to online shopping. London: Foulsham. 11.0 appendix SAMPLE QUESTIONARE AGE GENDER: MALE FEMALE LEVEL OF INCOME: AVERAGE MONTHLY INCOME BELOW £ 100 £500 £1000 ABOVE £1000 Please give a detailed account of any online transactions including purchases, banking services and other that are relevant within the past six months. Why do you prefer to do shopping online? Read More