i

1 Introduction
The introduction chapter will be explaining the purpose of my research. There search
questions, limitations and a background will be presented.

1.1 Background
The invention of the Internet has created paradigm shift of the traditional way people shop.
A consumer is no longer bound to opening times or specific locations; he can become active at virtually
anytime and place and purchase products or services. The Internet is a relatively new medium for
communication and information exchange that has become present in our everyday life. The number
of Internet users is constantly increasing which also signifies that online purchasing is
increasing(Joineset,Scherer&Scheufele,2003).The rapid increase is explained by the growth in the use
of broadband technology combined with a change in consumer behaviour(Oppenheim&Ward,2006).

The Internet is considered a mass medium that provides the consumer with purchase characteristics
as no other medium. Certain characteristics are making it more convenient for the consumer,
compared to the traditional way of shopping, such as the ability to at anytime view and purchase
products, visualise their needs with products, and discuss products with other consumers
(Joinetal.2003).Oppenheim and Ward (2006) explain that the current primary reason people shop over
the Internet is the convenience. They also recognize that the previous primary reason for shopping
online was price, which has now changed to convenience.

Online shopping is the process consumers go through when they decide to shop on the
Internet. The Internet has developed into a “new” distribution channel (Hollensen,2004) and the
evolution of this channel ,e-commerce ,has been identified by Smith and Rupp(2003) to be the most
significant contribution of the information revolution. Using the Internet to shop online has become
one of the primary reasons to use the Internet, combined with searching for products and finding
information about them (Joinesetal.,2003).Smith and Rupp(2003) also state that the consumers have
never had access to so many suppliers and product/service opinions. Therefore, the Internet has
developed to a highly competitive market, where the competition over the consumer is fierce. In order
to have an impact on and retain consumers, in a competitive market, Constantinides (2004) stated
that the first step is to identify certain influencing aspects when purchasing online, these can be
regarded as factors.

1.2 Problem
At any given time there are millions of people online and each of them is a potential customer
for a company providing online sales. Due to the rapid development of the technologies surrounding
the Internet, accompany that is interested in selling products from its website will constantly have to
search for an edge in the fierce competition. Since there are so many potential consumers, it is of the
out most importance to be able to understand what the consumer wants and needs.

The importance of analysing and identifying factors that influence the consumer when he or she
decides to purchase on the Internet is vital. Since the Internet is a new medium for there have been

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new demands set by the consumer. That is why it is crucial for the online retailers to know what
influences the online consumer.

Analysing consumer behaviour is not a new phenomenon. The renowned marketing expert
Philip Kotler has published several works on the topic of consumer behaviour theories. These theories
have been used for many years not only to understand the consumer, but also create a marketing
strategy that will attract the consumer efficiently. Hence, understanding and identifying the consumer
is closely related to the directions a company will take with their marketing strategy. These theories
can also be applied to identify the online consumer and to create certain consumer segments.
However, some distinctions must still be made when considering traditional consumer behaviour and
online consumer behaviour.

Since online retailing is a new retailing medium and online consumer behaviour is diverse from
traditional consumer behaviour, one must identify what influences the online consumer. Analysing
the process that the online consumer goes through when deciding and making a purchase over the
Internet , shows some factors that consumers consider. These factors need to be identified and taken
into account by online retailers in order to satisfy consumer demands and compete in the online
market. To further understand how these factors influence different types of consumers, I must
identify segments which will enable us to make comparisons.

1.3 ResearchPurpose
The purpose of this research is primarily to identify and get insight in to what main factors the
online consumer takes into consideration when purchasing online. Further, I will investigate if any
segments can be established by identifying the consumers and how these segments relate to the
identified factors. The findings of this research will be outlined a simplications for online retailers in
order to enhance their consumer knowledge and increase their online marketing strategy
effectiveness.

1.4 ResearchQuestions
 What main factors affect the online consumer when considering and making a
purchase over the Internet?
 How do these factors influence the consumer when purchasing online?
 What kind of segments can be found within the identified consumers when purchasing
online?
 What is the connection with the identified factors and consumer segment groups?

1.5 Limitations
There are a number of factors influencing the online consumer. However, this research will
try to identify the main factors influencing the online consumer and will, therefore, try to limit these
to a few in order to be able to investigate the effect on the online consumer. Within the field of
consumer behaviour there are many theories and models that identify the consumer.This research
will limit itself to identifying the consumer through his/her consumer characteristics and the consumer
buying process. Consumer behaviour differs depending on what product or service is bought. Hence,
different factors are of different importance to consumers depending on the product or service.
Therefore this research will limit itself to since this is the product that is most widely bought on the

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Internet. This seemed to be the most appropriate choice considering the limitations in both time and
resources.

1.6 Summary
Since the rapid development of the Internet online shopping has become a new and widely
used medium for retailing. In order to understand the consumer the retailers need to know what
influences the consumer. That is what I want to accomplish with my research.

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2 Method

2.1 Choice of Methodology

I will attempt to find the main factors that influence the online consumer when making an
online purchase. In order to broaden my own understanding of the subject I conducted my initial
research in literature on consumer behaviour and e-commerce. I reviewed studies that had similar
aims and paid particular attention to their results.

For my own research I decided that the most appropriate approach would be a questionnaire
that would be filled out by students and employees.

This study started out as an exploratory study but developed into an explanatory study since
I started out with first gaining knowledge about consumer behaviour to further being able to gain
knowledge about online consumer behaviour. Having this knowledge I continue to identify specific
factors that are of importance when the online consumer is making online purchases. This information
is then used in order to find relationships and correlations between these variables.

2.2 Research Approach

There are two most commonly used research approaches, the inductive and the deductive
method. The inductive research method attempts to setup a theory by using collected data, while the
deductive research approach attempts to find the theory first and then test it to the observed data. I
chose a deductive research approach for my study as I would move from the more general to the
specific. I will present the theoretical findings on consumer behaviour in the next chapter, after which
I will present my questionnaire in chapter four where I present my collected primary data.

2.3 Research Philosophy

When starting a study there must be an understanding of in which way the study will be
approached. The established research philosophy explains this approach when collecting and
analysing data. The research process has three main focuses: positivism, realism, and interpretive
(Saunders,Lewis&Thornhill,2007).

Positivisms the approach where the researcher does not want to be affected by nor affect the
subject of the research. The researcher believes that the collected and analysed data can be simplified
to allow like generalization using existing theories to develop hypotheses from these. In the realistic
approach, there is a reality existing independent of the mind. Like the positivistic approach it assumes
a scientific approach to the development of knowledge. The interpretive way of approaching the
subject of the research does not agree with the fact that law-like generalizations can be made. Instead
it stress that the human mind and the social world are too complex in order to be generalized
(Saundersetal.,2007)

My research will be conducted with a positivistic approach, since I will try to affect and interfere with
the collected data as little as possible.

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2.4 Research Strategy
When collecting data to approach the purpose of a research there are two ways in which the
data can be collected. In order to acquire a general knowledge about the topic, secondary data is
primarily used and is one of the ways by which data can be collected. These Conway to collect data is
the primary data collection. Usually when a study is conducted, secondary data is not sufficient
enough and needs to be completed with primary data which is collected by the researcher
(Christensen,2001).

2.4.1 Secondary Data

Secondary data can be classified into three different subgroups: documentary, multiple
source, and survey. Documentary second and data comes in both written and non-written form.
It is the data that can be collected from sources such as journals, databases, transcripts etc. This
form of data is dependent on the access the researcher has to it. Survey based secondary data is
the data that is collected through the survey and is available as data table forms. Multiple source
secondary data is data that has been compiled into documentary or survey form; the main
characteristics of this type of data is that it has been changed into a different form before there
searcher is assessing the data (Saundersetal.,2007).
I have mainly used documentary secondary data combined with multiple source data.
Documentary secondary data has been the data collected through different types of research
conducted within the topic, articles, and that are written on consumer behaviour and e-
commerce. This type of data has been the fundamental source for gaining knowledge within the
topic in order for us to be able approach the research problem. The secondary data that I used
for our research his data that has also lead to the conclusion of which factors that will be
examined. The multiple source data that I have used has been in order to choose which product
I would use for our research in order to be able to find the product that is most widely bought
over the Internet.

2.4.2 Primary Data

Primary data for our research was collected through questionnaires. When collecting
primary data one can choose to do interviews, observations, experiments, and questionnaires.
Due to the purpose of our research, only the questionnaire method would be able to approach
the topic and be able to collect the answers in a satisfactory manner. In our research the primary
data is mainly concerned with analysing the respondent in order to later on classify the
respondent. Further on, the primary data will be used to analyse the factors and how these are
related to the respondent. The primary data is conducted in a manner to be able to approach our
research and solve our research questions. The questionnaire will be explained in more detail in
chapter5, theEmpiricalmethodology.

2.5 Summary
In order to find the factors that influence the online consumer, as I have set out to do, this
study will go from an exploratory to explanatory study. This also explains the deductive approach that
I chose, as I first turn to the literature in order to gain knowledge. I do not want to affect the
respondents’ answers and I, therefore, perform a positivistic approach to the study. By using
secondary data I attempt to find the influencing consumer factors and then continue with primary
data in order investigate the influence of the factors

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3 Theory

3.1 Introduction
This dissertation aims at finding factors that affect the online consumer’s buying behaviour.
By reading literature concerning consumer characteristics and online consumer characteristics I
believe to find implications for certain factors that are of importance for the online consumer.

The Internet is a worldwide accessible series of computer networks that transmit data by
packet switching using the standard I Internet Protocol. It is a "network of networks “that consists of
millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry
various information and services, such a select, file transfer, the interlinked WebPages and other
documents of the World Wide Web. Originally the Internet was mainly used by academics, research
scientists and students; however that scenario has changed as commercial organizations have moved
to incorporate the World Wide Web into their promotional campaigns, and by offering the facility of
online purchasing (Jobber&Fahy,2003). The Internet has evolved into a worldwide accessible
marketplace for information exchange and e-commerce. The strategic importance to be available for
consumers on the World Wide Web, with information and services has become particularly relevant
to firms.

According to Vesterby and Chabert (2001) the Internet can make it easier for companies to
have information about their products or services available to their customers or potential customers.
A company can satisfy the consumers’ individual need of information at a low cost in comparison to
sending out product brochures for example. As the user can choose information from websites, which
implies that the information provider can achieve better understanding of the user’s needs and wants
by collecting data. On the other hand, the Internet is a place with hardly any structure or rules:
therefore, large efforts are needed in order to show the consumer where a specific site is located, and
what services are available on that site. Vesterby and Chabert (2001) claim that companies with no
physical presence must market themselves considerably, both online and offline, for the consumer to
remember their name.

Whether it is the traditional market or the online market, the marketer must understand the
consumer and how he makes his decisions and purchasing choices(Hollensen,2004), because the
consumer is under a constant flow of stimuli from the marketers advertisements. The marketer has
the possibility to decide and to control the output that will be forwarded to the consumers, but when
the advertisement reaches the consumer that control ends. The consumer then interprets the
information that has been sent out in his own way based on specific factors for every consumer.
Therefore marketers have developed different theories that can explain why consumers interpret
information in a certain way, and there by understand certain behaviours (Kotler&Armstrong,2007).
Several articles have set out to identify the characteristics of the online consumer. Allred, Smith and
Swinyard (2006) identify the online consumer to have the following characteristics: younger,
wealthier, better educated, having a higher “computer literacy” and are bigger retail spenders.

Donuthouand Garicia (1999) identify the online consumeras: older, make more money,
convenience seeker, innovative, impulsive, variety seeker, less risk aware, less brand and price
conscious, and with a more positive attitude towards advertising and direct marketing. Some of these
characteristics are similar, while others are the opposite.

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 Trying to identify the online consumer is difficult since the rapid development of e-commerce
has also led to an increase of both technologies and different types of consumers. It is also known that
the type of product has a significant influence on the online consumer behaviour which makes it more
difficult to identify consumer characteristics (Christopher&Huarng,2003). There are still some
characteristics that can be identified to specify the online consumer and the following text will try to
do so.

3.2 Customer Behaviour

Donal Rogan (2007) explains the relationship between consumer behaviour and marketing
strategy. He states that “strategy is about increasing the probability and frequency of buyer behaviour.
Requirements for succeeding in doing this are to know the customer and understand the consumer’s
needs and wants.”

Chisnall (1995) points out that human needs and motives are inextricably linked and that the
relationship between them is so very close that it becomes difficult to identify the precise difference
which may characterize them. People may buy new coats because it protects them against the
weather, but the irreal underlying dominant need may be to follow the latest fashion trend. Buyers’
characteristics are important theories from Kotler and Armstrong (2007) and it explains the way that
the consumer interprets and receives stimuli from advertisements. The decisions of consumers are
influenced by a number of individual characteristics that are linked to the consumer’s specific needs
(Kotler & Armstrong, 2007).

3.2.1 Consumer Characteristics

Consumer characteristics are explained by: Cultural characteristics, Social characteristics,
Personal characteristics, and Psychological Characteristics. These characteristics are identified, by the
marketer, in order to identify the consumer and to be able to decide on the strategy to what kind of
consumer to target. Hence, these characteristics are used in order to segment the market and target
specific consumer groups.

Cultural Characteristics

The Cultural Characteristics are recognized as the main influencer of consumer behaviour.
These characteristics are developed by three features under pinning consumer behaviour: Culture,
Subculture, and SocialClass.

Culture is mentioned as the most basic cause of a person’s wants and needs. Kotler and
Armstrong (2007) argues that human behaviour is mostly learned and that I are exposed to different
sets of values and beliefs from a young age, and that these values influence our behaviour and decision
making. Hence, these characteristics are interesting for marketers and important indicators of certain
consumer behaviour and taste.

Subcultures are small group formations with a certain number of people that share values and
beliefs such as nationalities, religions or geographic regions. An identified subculture can serve as an
important and effective market segment which can be targeted.

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 Social class is recognized by Kotler and Armstrong (2007) as a class structure, consisting of a
combination of factors which gather different types of members. Some identified factors are income,
age, education, and wealth

Social Characteristics

The Social Characteristics are divided into three different categories, namely Reference
Groups, Family and Social Role and Status.

Reference Groups–According to Kotler and Armstrong (2007) the effects of the Reference
Groups is mainly based on the belief that a person’s behaviour is influenced by many small groups.
When a group has a direct influence it is called a Membership Group, for example: family, neighbours
and co-workers. Reference Groups are the groups to which the person often wants to be long to and
to be apart of but is not. These groups indirectly and directly form a person’s behaviour and attitudes.
There are three different ways by which these groups influence a person’s behaviour; they may expose
a person to new behaviours and lifestyles, influence a person’s attitudes and self-concepts and also
create a pressure of confirmation by Reference Groups. Another influence of importance is the
opinion leader . An opinion leader is a person that influences others to follow his believes and attitudes
towards certain issues, products or areas (Kotler& Armstrong,2007).

Family–Family members have a great influence on the buying behaviour. The involvement and
influence by different family members varies, both to which degree but also in what way. Therefore,
it is important for marketers to understand which role is played by whom in the family and direct the
advertisement towards the main influencing part of the family.

Roles and Status–Each person belongs to different types of groups and also plays different
roles whilst having different positions in the various groups. Roles are identified by Kotler and
Armstrong (2007) as what activities people are expected to perform from other members of the group.

Personal characteristics

These personal characteristics are categorized into: Age and Life-CycleStage, Occupation,
Economic Situation, Lifestyle, Personality and Self-Concept.

The Age and Life-Cycle Stage These stages explain different periods in life that the consumer
experiences as he goes through life. These different stages also represent different changes that the
consumer may experience when reaching a new stage. According to Kotler and Armstrong (2007)
marketers, therefore, define their target markets interms of the different stages in order to develop
appropriate marketing plans.

Occupation–The occupation tends to have an effect on the products and services bought by
the consumers. This leads to the possibility of developing different types of products or services that
suits interests identified to be above average within an occupation.

The Economic Situation–Wealth will affect a consumer’s product choice. A consumer may be
price- sensitive or not depending on the level of income, level of savings, level of interest rates, and
also the product or service itself.

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 Lifestyle–This is identified to be a person’s way of living which is recognized by the activities,
interest, or opinion she or she has and it also explains the way a consumer interacts in the world.

Personality–This is mainly explained by the terms self-confidence, dominance, sociability,

autonomy, defensiveness, adaptability and aggressiveness. These psychological factors are a result of
one’s environment. Personality can be defined as a dynamic and organized set of characteristics
possessed by a person that uniquely influences his or her motivations, and behaviours invarious
situations (Ryckman,2004).

Self-concept or Self Image–Is the conceptual understanding that people’s possessions reflect
their personalities. This concept does bring some conflicts in case people may have an image that
satisfies who they are but does not agree with who they want to be (the ideal self-concept),the
question then arises which one I would want to satisfy.

Psychological Characteristics

The psychological characteristics are divided into the following concepts: Motivation,
Perception, Learning, and Beliefs and Attitudes.

Motivation–Motivation refers to a person needs that must be satisfied. These needs are of
different kind; some are biological, such as hunger, thirst and discomfort ,and some are psychological
such as the need for recognition, esteem and belonging. Needs are not satisfied until they reach a
certain point of intensity and become a motive for the consumer to satisfy them. Kotler and Armstrong
(2007) discuss several motivation theories, among them are Freud’s and Maslow’s theories of
motivation. Freud argued that a person does not really and fully understand his or her motivations.
Maslow on the other hand wanted to understand why some people set out to satisfy some needs
before others.

He then came to the conclusion that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy from the most
pressing to the least pressing, as Kotler and Armstrong (2007) explains it. These needs are listed as
psychological needs, safety needs, socialneeds, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. When
one need has been satisfied, a person moves on to satisfy the next.

Perception-This characteristicis based on the understanding of how differently I perceive the

same situation or the same stimuli. Kotler and Armstrong (2007) explains perception as the process
by which people select, organize, and interpret information. There are three different processes that
decide how I interpret certain information. These are Selective Attention, Selective Distortion, and
Selective Retention.

Learning–Learning is, according to Kotler and Armstrong (2007), an act that changes people’s
behaviour because of their experience. It occurs through drives: strong internal wants that call for
action, stimuli: object that drives for certain action, cues: small stimuli that determinate when, where
and how the person will respond and reinforcement: when the response and stimuli towards an object
is experienced more than once.

Beliefs and Attitudes–These are acquired by people through learning and experiencing. They
influence the buying behaviour by making up brands and product images in the consumer’s heads. A
belief is explained by Kotler and Armstrong (2007) as a descriptive thought about something and is

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based on real knowledge, opinions or faith. Beliefs can also be emotionally charged. Attitudes are
described as a person’s evaluations, feelings, and tendencies towards something, but also
determinations of people such as like and dislikes.

3.2.2 Online Consumer Characteristics

More specific identifications of the online consumer need to be made in order to

understand the online purchase behaviour. The identified characteristics are some key
characteristics in regard to the online consumer. These key characteristics were made in order to
identify online consumers and to be able to segment them.

Cultural Online Characteristics

Smith and Rupp (2003) identify that the difference in social class creates a difference in purchasing
Online Behaviour. Consumers from a higher social class generally purchase more and have a
higher intention to purchase online because there is a higher probability that they possess a
computer and also have greater access to the Internet. Consumers from lower social classes
would not have the same properties. The authors also point out that consumers with lower social
class, and there by not having the same properties, would not have the needed computer literacy
to be able to leverage a computer.

Social Online characteristics

The social influence on the online consumer comes from new Reference Groups
compared to the tradition always. For the online consumer new Reference Groups were identified
as virtual communities, consisting of discussion groups on a website. The consumer can read
about other people’s experiences and opinions which have shown to have the effect of Reference
Groups (Christopher &Huarng, 2003). Other Reference Groups, which are identified by
Christopher and Huarng (2003), are links to product related websites, which encourages product
selection and contact information.

Personal Online characteristics

Monsuwé, Dellaert and Ruyter (2004) explored the personal online consumer
characteristics and concluded that income has a vital role for online purchasing behaviour. The
authors discussed Lohseetal .(2000) who pointed out that consumers with higher house hold
income would have a more positive attitude towards online shopping. This conclusion was
explained by the fact that house holds with higher income would have a positive correlation with
the possession of a computer, Internet access, and higher education.
Smith and Rupp (2003) also identified the age factor as a determinant for online purchase
intentions. They argued that older people who had no frequent interactions with the Internet and
the computer would not use the Internet as a medium for purchases, while young adults would.
This was concluded by that the young adults used the Internet and computers more frequently.
Younger people were also identified to have more technical knowledge. Monsuwéetal. (2004)
also supported this judgement by concluding that younger adults usually have greater interest in
using new technologies to browse for information and evaluate alternatives.

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 Psychological Online Characteristics

Smith and Rupp (2003) identified the psychological characteristics of consumer behaviour
as questions the online consumer would ask himself before making a purchase online.

Motivation–The consumers is reasoning for incentives to engage in a particular behaviour. He

may ask himself questions like: should I look around for better price? If online shopping saves me
time, should I shop online more often? How much do I really need this product?

Perception- The consumer is interpreting acquired information by classing it. Questions such as
the following may come about: I feel that this site seems pretty secure. It seems that this site has
a good product but how can I be sure?

Personality- The consumer is adapting to influences of his cognitions. He may ask himself, what
types of Web sites are best suited for his personal buying preferences.

Attitude- The consumer is working out what his likes and dislikes are in respect to a particular
situation. He may ask himself: I am pretty unsure about extra costs, should I really be buying items
from the Internet? If I do not buy the item online, how else can I get it?

Emotions-The consumer is without conscious effort detecting how he is being affected by his
cognitive choice. He may ask himself: The last time I ordered from the Internet I had a really bad
experience .Should I try buying online again? What is the future of buying online? If Websites get
better should I invest more time in buying online?

3.3 Specific Consumer Traits and Online

Behaviour The online consumer’s characteristics that I have identified to be the most
important ones to have an effect on the online consumer, will be referred to as specific Consumer
Traits and how the consumer uses the Internet will be referred to as Online Behaviour.

The online consumer characteristics such as personal, social, and psychological characteristics
need to be identified in order to understand what is important for the online consumer. These
characteristics reveal the consumers’ lifestyle and identify who the consumer is and what attitudes he
has towards online shopping.

Therefore, I will be using the following characteristics to segment the online consumer, by
analysing:

 The consumer’s demographics, as Bergmanetal.(2005).

 Life patterns concerning Online Behaviour, such as how much the consumer uses the Internet,
Webographics, as Bergmanetal.(2005).
 For what purposes, Internet Usage, also as Bergmanetal.(2005).
 How much the online consumer shops online, Online Shopping Patterns, can be used in order
to find out what impact certain factors have on different type of consumers
(Bergmanetal.2004).

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  Prior experiences have also been identified to be relevant for what Beliefs and Attitudes the
consumer has towards online shopping and are therefore also important for there
search(Monsuwéetal.2004).
 Social influences have an effect on the consumer in the early decision making stage and these
were referred to as Reference Groups (Christopher&Huarng2003).

These are the consumer characteristics that are relevant for this research and need to be
identified in order to find out who the online consumer is and what affects him when shopping online.
These I will be referred to as Consumer Traits and Online Behaviour.

To summarise the prior text and to answer the question what identifies an Online Consumer,
one can draw the conclusion that for this research the important consumer characteristics that need
to be identified are:

 ConsumerTraits
 Demographics
 AttitudeandBeliefs
 ImpactofReferenceGroups
 OnlineBehaviour
 Webographics
 OnlineShoppingPatterns
 InternetUsage

Gender, Age,
Demographics
Income

Online Consumer Previous and

Attitude and Belifs
Traits Future Experience

Impact of Family, Friends and

reference groups Online forum
Online Consumer
Segments
Webographics Time spent online

Online Shopping
Online Behaviour Expenditure
Patterns

Fun, Work, Emails,

Internet Usage Information,
Shopping

Figure3-1TheOnlineConsumerSegmentSubdivisions

3.4 Important Influencing Factors

When processing the previous literature in order to find what Specific Consumer Traits and
Online Behaviour that needs to be identified, I gained knowledge of which factors that were highly
important for the online consumer.

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 Brengman, Geuenes, Weijters, Smith and Swinyard (2005) segment online consumers through
first identifying the Internet usage lifestyle of every consumer; they believe that the Internet
experience is highly relevant for the identification of the online consumer. Lifestyle is, as presented
above, a describing group of consumers’ personal characteristics and is expressed as a person’s
demographics. These living patterns show what opinions and interests a consumer has for certain
products, for what reasons and which interest they have in the Internet, the Internet usage. The study
came to the conclusion that four segment groups could be conceptualized and these would categorise
the online consumers according to their shopping behaviour. The different attributes, that explain
these segments, show that the factors Price, Trust and Convenience are highly relevant influencers on
the online consumer shopping behaviour (Brengmanetal.,2005).

Monsuwéetal. (2004) created a framework through their study that would help the
understanding of consumer’s attitudes towards online shopping . Attitudes and beliefs are separated
from consumer’s psychological characteristics and mainly determined by learning and prior
experiences. Further, Bellenger pointsout that the ability to conduct price comparisons has been cited
as a major reason why consumers use the Internet (Wallace, 1995). Price sensitives hoppers are
essentially concerned with buying products at the lowest price or getting the best value for the money
they spend (Bellenger,1980).

There have been many attempts to identify and segment the online consumer through various studies.
By reading different studies I have identified certain factors that were constantly present in the
literature. There are many factors that have an impact on the online purchase behaviour, but I have
identified Price, Trust and Convenience to be very important and will put our attention to these three
factors.

3.4.1 Identified Factors affecting Online Consumer Behaviour

Price which is a part of the marketing mix is a factor used in order to stimulate the consumer
and is also a communicator, bargain tool, and a competitive weapon. The consumer can use price as
a mean of comparing products, judge relative value for money, and judge product quality
(Brassington&Pettitt,2000).

The factor Trust is considered to be a concern on the emotional basis in the minds of the consumers.
The consumers have a focus on their safety needs and want to satisfy them before making a
purchase(Brassington&Pettitt,2000).

The factor Convenience is considered to be a benefit in the eyes of the consumer and a quality
derived from purchasing over the Internet. It is therefore considered to be amotivator and a benefit
to consumers.(Constantinides,2004)

We believe that these factors have a significant influence on the consumer when purchasing
online. To further analyse the factors, I study underlying attributes that represent what way the factors
affect the consumers.

The Factor Price

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 The Internet has become a global market place on which consumers can gather and compare
information such as product information and prices. The technologies and innovative business ideas
of the Internet allow sellers to discriminate between buyers and buyers to discriminate between
vendors. Historically, however, prices have been set by negotiations after having examined the
product (Kotler & Keller, 2006). The Internet facilitates the scenario that comparisons can be achieved
with ease, overlooking several digital attributes (which can be communicated through the web) and
possibilities with several different vendors simultaneously. On the Internet it is after all the price
comparison prospect that interests price sensitive consumers, whilst another category of consumers
focuses on finding unique products with specialized features that might be difficult to find offline and
who, therefore, perhaps even consider the price as secondary.

However, when online, only digital attributes can be evaluated by the consumer, while offline non-
digital attributes (for which physical inspection of the product is necessary) can be tested (Lal &
Sarvary,1999). This could even influence impulsive shoppers to become more cautious about the
product as it can only be inspected digitally. Furthermore, when buying online, additional costs such
as freight charges, customs or prolonged delivery times can influence the online consumer’s decision
to reconsider the transaction even though the price is low. Table3.1 clarifies the fact that the factor
price has two attributes, saving money and price comparison.

Table3-1TheFactorPriceanditsAttributes

Factor Attributes
SavingMoney
Price
ComparingPrice

The Factor Trust

Monsuwéetal.(2004) conclude that because the Internet is a relatively new way of shopping,
it is challenging for the consumers and therefore perceived by the consumer as risky. They further
identify the sales person to be a silent source of trust for the consumer, and that the consumer is
dependent on the sales persons’ expertise. But since the salesperson has been removed in online
shopping, the authors argue that the basis of consumer trust has disappeared. They further explain
that the consumer is not able to check the quality of an item, nor is he able to monitor the safety of
the security when revealing personal data. The authors, therefore, conclude that if a high level of
security and privacy is communicated to the consumer the result would have a positive effect on
consumer trust and the intention to buy online.

According to Luhmann (1979) who has a sociological point of view on the theory of trust, there
are three modes of maintaining expectations about the future, familiarity, confidence and trust.To
experience trust, familiarity and confidence must have been established. However, trust is only
necessary when there is a high perceive drisk, such as during a purchase transaction or a similar action.

The consumer’s previous experience and trust in the computerized medium is likely to affect his
amount of trust in online shopping (Lee & Turban,2001). According to Lee and Moray (as cited in Lee
& Turban, 2001) human trust in computerised systems depends on three factors:

14
  The perceived technical competence of the system-The systems apparent ability to perform
assigned tasks.
 The perceived performance level of the system-How fast and reliable it appears to bea ble to
finish the tasks.
 The human operators understand of the underlying characteristics and processes governing
the system’s behaviour.

Previous knowledge also affects trust. Luhmann (1993) states that ," Practical experience tends to
teach us the opposite: the more I know, the better I know what I do not know, and the more elaborate
our risk awareness becomes” (p.28).

Turbanetal.(2001) constructed a model that highlights what trust is constituted from when
purchasing on the Internet. According to figure3.2 which is a scaled version based on “A Trust Model
for Consumer Internet Shopping ”by Lee, Matthew K.O, and Efraim Turban (2001), trust is dependent
on the six variables

Seller

Trust in Internet Competency

Benevolence

Ec Trust

Reliability

Trust in internet as
Understandability
Shopping channel

Security and
Payment

Figure3-2TrustinElectronicCommerce

Acompanymustshowtheconsumerthatitiscompetentinmanaginginformationandsupportingth
econsumerafterapurchaseisdone.Ifthatcanbeachieved,theconsumerismorelikelyto"engageintrust-
relatedInternetbehaviourslikepurchasing,cooperating,andsharinginformation"(McKnight&Chervany,
2001-2002).Table3.2showsthefactorTrustanditsattributes.

Table3-2TheFactorTrustanditsAttributes

Factor Attributes
Perceptionofsafety
Trust TrustintheInternetRetailer
TrustintheInternetasretailshopping

15
The Factor Convenience

Convenience is anything that is intended to save time and frustration according to the Swedish
National Encyclopaedia. Further definitions of the concept of convenience are:

 The quality of being suitable to ones comfort, purpose or needs

 Personal comfort or advantage
 Something that increases comfort or saves work at a suitable or agreeable time(Lexico
Publishing Group[LLC],2007)

Online shopping as a new medium for retailing creates a number of different advantages. One
of these is that it is considered to be more convenient to shop online compared to the traditional way
of shopping. The convenience attributes that online shopping provides are:

 Less effort:
 Being able to shop at home
 Time saving
 Being able to shop at anytime of the day

Azjen (as cited in Kim&Park, 1991) claims that online shopping provides convenience for
consumers such as time savings and search convenience if compared to the traditional way of
shopping.

Kim and Park(1991) also argue that if online shopping is to be perceived as convenient for the
consumer, the consumer must perceive a certain amount of easines s with accessing the Internet and
also with carrying out the behaviour with shopping online.The less complexity the consumer perceives
with accessing the Internet the more attention the consumer has to enter the Internet and search for
information.

The characteristics of convenience with online shopping can be summarized as follows:

Consumers can shop from their homes meaning they do not have to take certain aspects, needed
when shopping in the traditional way, into consideration. Online shopping is, therefore, considered to
require less effort. It is also considered to be time saving, the consumer can search for products and
prices easy through the developed search engines. Through tracking devices a consumer can at
anytime check where their package is. Another time aspect of online shopping is that it allows

The consumer to shop at any time of the day, the consumer does not need to consider if the stores
are open or not.Table3.3 shows the factor Convenience and its attributes.

Table3-3TheFactorConveniencewithAttributes

Factor Attributes
SavingTime
Convenience LessEffort
Shoppingatanytime

16
 3.5 Summary
By first examining consumer behaviour theories I have investigated what identifies the
consumer and the processes that the consumer goes through before making a purchase. This has been
applied to gain understanding of the online consumer buying behaviour and has then been used in
order to find which characteristics that are relevant to identify and segment the online
consumer.These have been identified as Consumer Traits and Online Behaviour and are listed below
along with the respective subsegments:

ConsumerTraits:

 Demographics
 AttitudeandBeliefs
 ImpactofReferenceGroups

OnlineBehaviour:

 Webographics
 OnlineShoppingPatterns
 InternetUsage

Furthermore,I have pointed out certain factors that I believe are important for the online
consumer when shopping online through the literature overview. These factors have been identified
as Price, Trust and Convenience through the literature. In order to comprehend how the identified
factors influence the online consumer I must first identify the online consumer. This identification
needs to be done mainly through the relevant Consumer Traits and online consumer behaviour that
have been identified earlier.

Figure 3-3 The influencing Factor's effect on Online Consumer Segments

Price Convenience Trust

Demographics Webographics
17
Online
Attitude and Consumer Online
Consumer Online Shopping
Belief Traits Behaviour
Segments Patterns
We can then understand the relevance and impact of the factors for the all the respondents. By gaining
understanding and being able to segment online consumers I can see the relevance and impact of
certain factors for specific groups. Figure3.3 explains that Online Consumer Segments will be
developed through how the respondents answered questions that involved Consumer Traits and
Online Behaviour. The defined segments will be compared according to how the respondents in each
segment answers the questions involving Price, Trust and Convenience. Finally, implications for online
stores will be drawn from these results.

18
4 Empirical Research Method

Since our research is of deductive character our primary intention was to collect secondary
data and analyse it. By doing so I found the factors Price, Trust and Convenience. I then collected
primary data through a survey. The main purpose of the survey was to collect data about Online
Consumer Behaviour and the significance of the established factors, Price, Trust, and Convenience.

In order to be able to find and establish Online Consumer Segments, Consumer Traits and Online
Behaviour had to be identified. The segments were used in order to further identify what impact the
factors Price, Trust, and Convenience have on Online Consumer Segments.

4.1 Segments
A segment is a subgroup of people that share the one or more characteristics and these
segments have similarities such as that they share behavioural features or have similar needs. These
similarities make a specific segment homogenous in their needs and attitudes. Different types of
variables can be used in order to segment a market and one of the requirements was that it needed
to be measurable. I will be using the identified Consumer Traits and Online Behaviour variables to
segment the online consumers.

4.2 Sample
The factors that I intended to examine can be applied to and investigate data population that
uses the Internet and buys online. Since there are time and resource restraints, a specific population
had to be identified in order to generalise and create relevant segments. I decided that the sample
size should contain over 100respondents and I collected answers from 103respondents.

4.3 Non Probability, Convenience Sampling

The population for this research are Students and employees, India. The Sample was chosen
on a convenience basis. Convenience sampling involves using samples that are the easiest to obtain
and is continued until the sampling size that need is reached. The bias with the convenience sampling
is that it is hard to generalize to the wanted population (Saundersetal.,2007).

We will attempt to collect as many respondents as possible but since I will be studying
students I assume that there will be little variation in the population making it more approved to
generalize the response rates. The sampling method for students took also place on a convenience
basis since the students that agree to answer the questionnaire are those that were chosen.

4.4 TheQuestionnaire
In order to create the questionnaire I started out by deciding on the main variables that
needed to be investigated. These were: Demographics, Webographics, OnlineShopping Patterns,and
Attitude towards Online Shopping, Social Characteristics, Reference Groups, and the identified factors
Price, Trust, and Convenience.

19
For the questionnaire, which was self- administrated, I used the Delivery and collection questionnaire
method. This method was mainly used because of the limitations in time and available resources.
Different types of questions were set in order to be able to collect the information that was needed
concerning the different topics. The examined variables were of different types. They were opinions,
behaviour, and attributes.

Opinions are used to understand how a respondent feels about something ,behaviour
attributes are used to record what the respondent does, and attributes shows what the respondent
possesses (Saundersetal.,2007).In order to collect the correct data, I needed to ask questions with
suited alternatives that we read jested to the type of the variable that needed to be examined. In our
questionnaire I were only using closed questions that were of the list, category, ranking, quantity, and
ratingtype.

All rating questions used a seven-point Likers style rating scale. In order to determine the underlying
attitudes for Price, Trust, and Convenience I used the bipolar semantic differential rating, on a seven
pointscale.The values of the semantic differential rating scale are described by opposite adjectives
designed to anchor the respondent’s attitudes towards trust. These mantic differential rating scale
was later translated from1-7 to set a new value range of-3to +3for our analysis. The obtained values
were then being multiplied to obtain one final overall value, ranging from-9to+9,for each question by
using these mantic differential rating system.

The first questions (1.1to1.5) of the research were primarily used to explain the Demographics
of the respondent and were designed as background questions. These questions acted as category
with one quantity question. The quantity question (1.2) allowed the respondent to list their age. The
category questions (1.1,1.3,and1.4) were used to categorize the respondents after their: gender,
semester, and income respectively. The category questions gave us the ability to form different
segments of the respondents.

4.5 Reliability
Reliability is the extent to which data collection techniques yield consistent findings, similar
observations would be made by other researchers and if there is transparency in how sense was made
from raw data (Saundersetal.,2007). Reliability implies the ability of a survey to resist random errors.
According to Robson (ascitedinSaundersetal.,2007)there may be four threat store liability:

 Subject/ Participant error: This can occur when the respondent is on a “high”, for example
prior to the weekend. The opinions transmitted during this period could be overly positive,
and vice versa if it is a Monday morning, when the respondent is likely to be ona“low”.
 Subject/Participantbias:This occurs for example when the respondent is answering as they
think their boss would want them to answer, instead of answering with their own mindset,
fearing any consequences that might fall upon them if they fail to answer correctly according
to their boss.
 Observererror:This is when the observer is not collecting data as intended, and thus errors in
the final research are likely.
 Observerbias: When the observer is interpreting an answer with the help of his own beliefs
and values, the registered answer will be biased, and thus not represent the true answer given
from the respondent.

20
 These threats can however be reduced. A highly structured questionnaire will make the
observer error almost non-existent. Guaranteeing anonymity will make a respondent more inclined
to answer truthfully, since he will not be held accountable for any answer, thus minimizing the bias.
Finally, the subject and participant terror can be reduced simply by choosing a neutral day to conduct
the survey, such as a Tuesday

Validity is the extent to which the data collection method or methods accurately measure
what they were intended to measure (Saundersetal.,2007). When a quantitative research results in a
measured value that corresponds with the real value, then there search is considered to be completely
valid. In that case one has measured what was intended with perfect
precision(Christensenetal.,2001).The biggest task is to create clear and non-ambiguous questions that
can be interpreted indisputable and provide us with the right information for our purpose. However,
there is no guarantee that the respondents interpret the questions definitely, yet I have to assume
they will and do consider the benefit of doubt.

4.6 Generalizability
This term refers to how generalizable the results of our search are, and whether the findings
can be applicable too there research settings (Saundersetal.,2007). Due to our decision to focus on
students, and since this group only represents a small part of the Indian population, the results would
only be generalizable,if generalizable at all, to students.

21
5 Results

5.1 Introduction
The questionnaire was designed to collect primary data in order to find first-hand information
on how the respondents value the importance of price, trust, and convenience when making
purchases over the Internet. The questionnaire was designed to, first, collect data that would be used
to find segments among the respondents, and second, to collect data about the factors price, trust,
and convenience. The questions in the questionnaire were based on the findings from the literature.
Questions which were designed to collect data to find respondent segments were derived from the
findings within consumer behaviour. Questions about the factors price, trust, and convenience were
derived from the literature found about the factors when purchasing online. I Emailed questioner link
to all the respondents through the mail and collected emails in order to make sure not to collect data
from the same respondent more than once. I decided that the sample size should be
over200respondents and I collected 226 respondents. In order to analyse the collected data I used the
software program SPSS. The following will present and discuss the results from the questionnaire.

5.2 Questionnaire–Collected data

5.2.1 Online Consumer Traits
Demographics

22
 Questions1.1,1.2,1.3,and1.4

These questions were used inorder to establish the consumer demographics. They were used
to find out the respondents gender, age, semester at the University, and income.

Gender

Gender was included in the survey in order to find out if there is a difference between
men and women concerning the beliefs towards the factors. The following table will show the
distribution of the male and female respondents that were included in the survey.

Table5-1Q1.1Distributionaccordingtothevariable“Gender”

Sex Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

Male 58 56.31% 56.31%
Female 44 42.72% 99.03%
Others 1 0.97% 100.00%
Total 103 100.00%

The distribution of male and female respondents shows a majority of male respondents
(57%), compared to the female respondents (42%).

Others
1% Gender

Female
42%
Male
Male
57% Female
Others

Age

Age was included to find out if there is a significant relationship to what impact the factors
price, trust, and convenience have on different age groups. Age is a demographic value that can
also be used in order to further explain and elaborate on some of the other questions that are
used to find segments among the respondents. The respondents were asked to write how old
they were, instead of setting up different age groups to choose form. In this way I were able to
get the exact ageand there by setup different age groups according to the distribution.

Table5-2Q1.2Distributionaccordingtothevariable“Age”

23
 Years Frequency Percent CumulativePercent
<=20 17 16.50% 16.50%
21–25 77 74.76% 91.26%
25-33 5 4.85% 96.12%
34-41 1 0.97% 97.09%
42>= 3 2.91% 100.00%
Total 103 100.00%

Age
42 >=

34 - 41

25 - 33
Age
21 – 25

<= 20

0 20 40 60 80

Area

The above diagram is showing the percentage of demography of respondents and what
is the percentage of respondents who lives in rural or urban region, the below diagram is showing
that 77% of the respondents are from urban areas and 23% of the respondents are from urban
area.

Table5-3Q1.3Distributionaccordingtothevariable“Area”

Area Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

Rural 25 24.27% 24.27%
Urban 78 75.73% 100.00%
Total 103 100.00%

24
 Geographical Distribution

Rural
23%
Rural
Urban
Urban
77%

Occupation

This graph help us to know the occupation of the respondents, this is to know that which
segment of people are buying more products on the internet whether they are the segment of
students or government employees or professional, the above graph shows that the segment of
the students i.e.90% of the students are using internet and use to buy online products.

Table5-4Q1.4Distributionaccordingtothevariable“Occupation”

Years Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

Student 70 67.96% 67.96%
Professional 24 23.30% 91.26%
Govt.Employee 5 4.85% 96.12%
SelfEmployed 3 2.91% 99.03%
Other 1 0.97% 100.00%
Total 103 100.00%

Self Employed
Govt. Employee
3%
Other
Occupution
3% 1%

Professional Student
24%
Professional
Student Govt. Employee
69%
Self Employed
Other

DisposableIncome

Income was used in the questionnaire mainly to find if the respondents that have a higher
income spend more money online or not. This variable is also used in order to find the correlation

25
to the factors price, trust, and convenience. The distribution of the variable income is highly
connected with the fact that the respondents are students and, therefore, have a lower income.
This explains the fact that the majority of respondents have the lowest income (52.48%).

Table5-5Q1.5Distributionaccordingtothevariable“DisposableIncome”

Years Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

<5000 53 51.46% 51.46%
5001–6999 15 14.56% 66.02%
7000–8999 4 3.88% 69.90%
9000–10999 5 4.85% 74.76%
11000-12999 5 4.85% 79.61%
>=13000 21 20.39% 100.00%
Total 103 100.00%

Disposable Income
>= 13000

11000 - 12999

9000 – 10999

7000 – 8999 Disposable Income

5001 – 6999

< 5000

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Internet Connection

This graph shows us the percentage of respondents who have their own internet
connections, its shows that 87.13% of respondents have their own internet connections and 35%
people don’t have their internet connection.

InternetConnection Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

Yes 88 85.44% 85.44%
No 15 14.56% 100.00%
Total 103 100.00%

26
 Internet Connection
No
13%

Yes
Yes No
87%

Online Shopping

This graph shows us the percentage of respondents who have done Online Shopping, its
shows that 68.93% of respondents have done Online Shopping and 31.7%people haven’t done do
Online Shopping

OnlineShopping Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

Yes 71 68.93% 68.93%
No 32 31.07% 100.00%
Total 103 100.00%

Online Shopping

No
31%

Yes
Yes
No
69%

Motivation

Thisgraphshowsuswhatmotivatesthepeopletobuyinternet,asfromaboveresultIfoundoutt
hatnotraveltoshopisthemainthingwhichmotivatesthepeopletobuyproductsonline.

Table5-6Q2.1Distributionaccordingtothevariable“Motivation”

Motivation Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

27
 EasyPayment 21 29.58% 29.58%
NoHiddencost 6 8.45% 38.03%
Widerangeofproducts 22 30.99% 69.01%
Notraveltoshop 22 30.99% 100.00%
Total 71 100.00%

Motivation
No travel to
shop
31% Easy Payment
Easy Payment
30%
No Hidden cost
Wide range of products
No travel to shop
Wide
range of No Hidden cost
products 7%
32%

Competitive Prices

This diagram shows us that whether online marketers are giving competitive price or not
and result which is came is that most of the people thought that online marketers are providing
competitive prices than physical stores. And results 74.65% of people say that it provides
competitive prices and only 14.08% people says no.

Table5-7Q2.2Distributionaccordingtothevariable“CompetitivePrices”

CompetitivePrices Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

Yes 53 74.65% 74.65%
No 10 14.08% 88.73%
Can’tsay 8 11.27% 100.00%
Total 71 100.00%

Can’t say
Competitive Prices
10%

No
14%
Yes

Yes No
76% Can’t say

Products buy online

28
 The above graphs gives result that most of the time people use to buy 36% but the margin
with other things is very less as musicCd’ save percentage of 15 and Personal and Healthcare15%

Products buy Online

Personal and Healthcare 15

Mobiles and Acessories 34

Clothing 21
Products buy Online
Music CD's 15

Books 36

0 10 20 30 40
S

Frequentlyvisitedonlinestore’s

Thisgraphshowsthat57%peopleusetovisitFlipkartforonlineshopping,31%usetogoatEbay,1
7%peopledoatAmazonandforotherpeopleusetovisitatBestBuyandothers.

Online stores
Other 7
Myntra 13
letsbuy 6
Flipkart 57 Online stores

Amazon 17
e-bay 31

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Factorshelptodecidetoshoponline

Thisdiagramshowsuswhataffectspeopletobuyproductsoninternetanditshowsthat21%peo
plecametoknowaboutshoppingsitesthroughsearchengines.Andtheyattractedtowardsitandstartg
ettingproductsfromthere.And20%peopledecisionisaffectedbyspecialoffersbytheoffersandthedis
countsgivenbythesites.

29
 Factors help to decide which site to
shop online
Tv advertising 4

Online Advertising 12

Special Offers On Sites 20 Factors help to decide

which site to shop online
Personal
14
Recommendation
Search Engine 21

0 5 10 15 20 25

WayofPayment

Thisdiagramshowsthatmostlypeopleusescreditcardtopaytheirpayments42%peopleuseto
paybycredit/debitcardand14%throughCashondeliveryand11%throughInternetBankingand3from
paypal.

Way of payment
Cash-on-Delivery 14

GoogleWallet 1

Paypal 3
Way of payment
Internet banking 11

Debit/ credit card 42

0 10 20 30 40 50

FrequencyofOnlineShopping

30
 Twice a week
4% Frequency of Online shopping
Twice a month
16%
once a
week once a month
8% once a week
once a month
72% Twice a month
Twice a week

Attitudes and Beliefs

Questions4.1and4.2

Prior experience

This question was used in order to see what attitude the respondent had about shopping
online. The measured attitude was mainly derived through questions about the respondent’s
prior experiences. This usually also affects the attitude towards performing an action, in this case
the action was to shop online. The question was, therefore designed to let the respondent rate
their prior experience for shopping online.

Table5-8Q4.1Distributionaccordingtothevariable”Previousexperiencewithonlinepurchases”

Experience Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

1(VeryBad) 0 0.00% 0.00%
2 1 1.41% 1.41%
3 24 33.80% 35.21%
4 33 46.48% 81.69%
5(VeryGood) 13 18.31% 100.00%
Total 71 100.00%

31
 Prior Experience
1 (Very Bad)
40
30
20
5(Very Good) 2
10 0
13
0 1 Prior Experience

24
433 3

Overall the respondents showed a good to very good prior experience with purchasing
online. The number of respondents with a very good attitude towards online shopping is high and
the distributed attitude declines as less respondents think of it as a bad experience. Rating
number four on the scale is considered as neither a good nor bad experience. The majority of
respondents,overall 35.87%, do consider their prior experience with online purchasing as neither
good nor bad. This question is closely related to the following question which investigates the
respondents’ future expectations of online purchasing.

Future expectations of online purchases

This question is a part of analysing the respondents’ attitude towards online purchases.
Future expectations are highly dependent on respondents’ prior experiences of online purchases;
this will be further discussed in the analysis of the results.
As with prior experiences the respondents have a highly positive attitude towards future
online purchases. The majority (41.38%), of the respondents have rated future expectations with
online purchases to be positive. Not considering the neutral respondents; an overall 80.9% of the
respondents had positive expectations.

5.2.2

Table5-9Q4.1Distributionaccordingtothevariable”Futureexperiencewithonlinepurchases”

Experience Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

1(VeryBad) 0 0.00% 0.00%
2 1 1.41% 1.41%
3 11 15.49% 16.90%
4 24 33.80% 50.70%
5(VeryGood) 35 49.30% 100.00%
Total 71 100.00%

32
 Future Expectations
1 (Very Bad)
40
30
35 20
5(Very Good) 2
10 0
0 1 Future Expectations

11
24
4 3

Impact of Reference Groups

Questions5.1,5.2,and5.3

The impact of Reference Groups These questions were designed to find out which of the
three Reference Groups, family, friends, and online forum, that have an impact on the
respondent. Families as Reference Groups have not shown to have an impact on online purchases
among students. A majority of 32.39% do not consider any of their families’ opinions and
experiences at all when purchasing online.

Table5-10Q5.1Distributionaccordingtothevariable“Howmuchdoesfamilyaffectonlinepurchase”

Familyaffect Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

1(Notatall) 11 15.49% 15.49%
2 15 21.13% 36.62%
3 23 32.39% 69.01%
4 13 18.31% 87.32%
5(VeryMuch) 9 12.68% 100.00%
Total 71 100.00%

33
 Family affect
1 (Not at all)
25
20
15 11
10
5(Very Much) 2
5 15
9
0 Family affect

13
4 3
23

Friends as a Reference Groups have shown to have a bigger impact as a Reference Groups
when respondents consider their purchases online. This can be explained by the fact that friends
often are fellow students that attend the same program and have relevant information that is of
use to the respondent. The distribution of the respondents shows that the majority of the
respondents, 33.8%, take the opinions and experiences of their friends into consideration.

Table5-11Q5.1Distributionaccordingtothevariable“Howmuchdoesfriendsaffectonlinepurchase”

Friendsaffect Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

1(Notatall) 8 11.27% 11.27%
2 10 14.08% 25.35%
3 13 18.31% 43.66%
4 24 33.80% 77.46%
5(VeryMuch) 16 22.54% 100.00%
Total 71 100.00%

Friends affect
1 (Not at all)
25
20
15
8
10
5(Very Much) 16 2
5 10
0 Friends affect

13
4 3
24

34
 Online forums do not have any impact on the respondents. A majority of 40.85% of the
respondents do not consider the opinions and experiences discussed on online forums at all.

Table5-12Q5.1Distributionaccordingtothevariable“HowmuchdoesOnlineforumsaffectonlinepurchase”

OnlineForumsaffect Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

1(Notatall) 7 9.86% 9.86%
2 9 12.68% 22.54%
3 29 40.85% 63.38%
4 18 25.35% 88.73%
5(VeryMuch) 8 11.27% 100.00%
Total 71 100.01%

Online Forums affect

1 (Not at all)
30
25
20
15 7
5(Very Much) 10 2
8 5 9
0 Online Forums affect

18
4 3
29

5.2.3 Online Consumer Behaviour

Webographics

Question2.1

Time spent online

Thisquestionisusedinordertoinvestigatehowmuchtimetherespondentspendsonline.Ther
espondentthatspendsmoretimeonlinehasahigherexperiencewiththeInternetwhichaccordingtoth
eliteratureisareasontobuymoreonline.Hence,thisquestioniscloselyrelatedtotherespondentsshop
pingpatterns.Thiswillbefurtherdiscussedintheanalysisoftheresults.

Table5-13Q2.1Distributionaccordingtothevariable“Timespentonline”

Timespentonline Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

<30 8 11.27% 11.27%
1-2 20 28.17% 39.44%
2-5 19 26.76% 66.20%
>5 24 33.80% 100.00%
Total 71 100.00%

35
 Time spent

>5 < 30
34% 11%

1 - 2 hours < 30
28% 1 - 2 hours
2 - 5 hours
2 - 5 hours
27% >5

Thedistributionshowsthatthemajorityoftherespondentsspendsomewherebetween30min
to2hoursonlineeachday.Thetwosecondmajorgroupsarerespondentsthatspend5hoursandrespon
dentsthatspendgreaterthan2-
4hoursonlineeachday,34%respectively27%.Theseresultswillbeusedinordertofindwhatdiffersbet
weentheserespondentsandwhichofthefactorsprice,trustandconveniencehasthelargestamountofi
mpact.

Table5-14Q2.1Distributionaccordingtothevariable“TimespentShoppingonline”

InternetUsage

Percentageoftimespentonshopping Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

<20% 40 56.34% 56.34%
20–40% 23 32.39% 88.73%
40–60% 2 2.82% 91.55%
>60% 6 8.45% 100.00%
Total 71 100.00%
ThisquestionwasincludedtoinvestigateforwhatreasontherespondentsmainlyusedtheInte
rnet.Therespondentsweregiven5alternativesfromwhichtheyhadtorank3bytheprimary,secondary,
andtertiarychoiceofusage.

Table5-15Q2.2Distributionaccordingtothevariables“Primaryuse,Secondaryuse,andTertiaryuse”

InternetUsage PrimaryUsage SecondaryUsage TertioryUsage

Fun 11(15.49%) 9(12.67%) 14(19.71%)
Work 21(29.58%) 16(22.54%) 9(12.67%)
Information 21(29.58%) 13(18.30%) 16(22.54%)
E-Mail 16(22.54%) 29(40.84%) 12(16.90%)
Shopping 2(2.82%) 4(5.63%) 20(28.17%)
Total 71 71 71
Accordingtothetable5.15therespondentsastheprimarymostpopularuselistedthealternati
vesWork(29.58%),Information(29.58%)andEmail(22.54%),accordingly.Thesecondaryoverallmost
popularchoiceswerethealternativesE-

36
 mail(40.84.54%),Work(22.54%)andInformation(18.30%).ThetertiarymostpopularchoiceswereSh
opping(28.17%),Information(22.54%)andFun(19.71%).Accordingtothedistributionthealternatives
Fun,E-
mailandInformationwerethemostpopularalternatives,withtheexceptionofFunastertiaryusewhere
thatalternativewasreplacedwithwork.

5.2.4

5.3 Identified Attributes

Price

Questions6.2and6.3

Saving money when purchasing online compared to purchasing at store this is the first
attribute of the factor price and involves the respondents’ attitude towards saving money when
purchasing online. The respondent was asked two questions in order for us to establish their attitude.
The first question examined if the respondent agrees with the fact that purchasing online saves money
and these cond question examines the importance of this statement. The results from these two
questions gave us the following distribution of what the respondents’ attitude towards this
statementis.

Table5-16Q6.2Distributionaccordingtotheattribute“Savingmoneywhenpurchasingonline”

SavingMoney Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

1(Notatall) 6 8.45% 8.45%
2 2 2.82% 11.27%
3 20 28.17% 39.44%
4 22 30.99% 70.42%
5(Always) 21 29.58% 100.00%
Total 71 100.01%

Saving Money
1 (Not at all)
25
20
15
10 6
5(Always)
21 2
5
2
0 Saving Money

4
22 203

The table 5.17 illustrates whether the respondents feel that they are saving money when they
purchase online compared to a regular store.40.7% of the respondents felt that they saved money

37
and that it is important to save money when they purchase online. These condlargest category is a
neutralone, with 23.5% where the respondent felt that they neither save money nor do not save
money . The reason for the values being so high can be that even though the Comparing prices,
through different price comparison websites, before purchasing online.

ComparingPrice Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

1(Negative) 1 1.41% 1.41%
2 4 5.63% 7.04%
3 18 25.35% 32.39%
4 24 33.80% 66.20%
5(Positive) 24 33.80% 100.00%
Total 71 100.00%

Comparing Price
1 (Negative)
25
20
15
24 10
5(Positive) 2
5 1
4
0 Comparing Price

18
4 3
24

Table 5.18 shows how the respondents use price comparison sites such as Ebayor Myntra.
Almost everyone uses this type of comparison prior to purchasing a, more or less often, and a large
group (31.9%) of the respondents does so very often. This displays an overall positive attitude towards
comparing price over the Internet even though the largest group of 24 respondents (33.80%)consider
comparing price over the Internet as positive. This can be concluded by the fact that the respondents
might not compare prices but think that it is important. This then translates into neither a positive nor
a negative attitude towards comparing prices when purchasing online. The respondent might also
compare prices but does not find it important.

Trust

Questions7.1,7.2

It is secure to shopping online

This question investigates what the respondents overall attitude is towards the first attribute
I identified that constitutes the factor trust. This attribute involves the respondent over all attitudes

38
towards security when shopping online. The respondent was first asked to answer whether they felt
secure when shopping online and then how important it is for them to feel safe when Shopping online.

Table5-17Q7.1Distributionaccordingtotheattribute“SecuritywhenShoppingonline”

ComparingPrice Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

1(Negative) 1 1.41% 1.41%
2 12 16.90% 18.31%
3 23 32.39% 50.70%
4 19 26.76% 77.46%
5(Positive) 16 22.54% 100.00%
Total 71 100.00%

The values in table5.18 explain whether the respondents feel that it is safe to purchase online,
and if it is important to feel secure when purchasing online. The largest category (32.39%) feels secure
and also thinks it is important to feel neither secure nor not secure when shopping online. These
condlargest (26.76%), with just one respondent less, is the category slightly more positive than
“neither”. The large number could come from respondents that not feel secure when they shopping
online, but never the less feels that it is important to feel secure when they do. Hence, the distribution
of the respondents reveals that they generally have a more positive attitude towards feeling secure
when shopping online.

Trust in the Internet retailer

This question investigated the respondents overall attitude towards the trust in the Internet retailer.
Two questions were asked, one asked if the respondent has to trust the Internet retailer in order to
make a purchase from them, and these condquestion asked how important it is to have trust in the
Internet retailer before making a purchase from them. The results showed the respondents overall
attitude towards the third and last attribute constituting the factor trust.

Table5-18Q7.2Distributionaccordingtotheattribute“TrustintheInternetretailer”

ComparingPrice Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

1(Negative) 2 2.82% 2.82%
2 7 9.86% 12.68%
3 24 33.80% 46.48%
4 28 39.44% 85.92%
5(Positive) 10 14.08% 100.00%
Total 71 100.00%

The majority feel a need to trust the retailer, while also feeling that it is important to trust
there tailer when proceeding with a purchase. Only three respondents fell into the negative part of
the scale. This indicates that trust in the Internet retailer, to some degree, is almost always needed
for the consumer to make a purchase from an Internet retailer.

Convenience

39
Questions8.1,8.2,and8.3

If online purchasing is perceived as involving less effort compared to shopping at a store This question
examines one of the attributes that constitutes the factor convenience and is included in the
questionnaire in order to find out if the respondents perceive that purchasing online involves less
effort than compared to shopping in a store. This question is also a part of the fact or convenience
and the overall attitude the respondents have towards the factor convenience.

Table5-19Q8.1Distributionaccordingtheattribute“ShoppingonlineinvolveslesseffortcomparedtoShoppingatphys
icalstore”

ComparingPrice Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

1(Negative) 0 0.00% 0.00%
2 8 11.27% 11.27%
3 12 16.90% 28.17%
4 22 30.99% 59.15%
5(Positive) 29 40.85% 100.00%
Total 71 100.00%

The majority (40.85%) of the respondents did not find shopping online is convenient when it
involved the attribute less effort. The further distribution of all the respondents had a positive attitude
towards the attribute less effort. This is clearly shown by that one of the largest respondent groups
(30.99%) is the group with the highest value that perceived shopping online as always involving less
effort compared to shopping in store. Hence, there is an overall a positive attitude towards this
attribute among the respondents.

Does online purchasing save time compared to purchasing at a store?

Table5-20Q8.2Distributionaccordingtheattribute“Purchasing online saves time compared to purchasing at a

store”

ComparingPrice Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

1(Negative) 2 2.82% 2.82%
2 8 11.27% 14.08%
3 15 21.13% 35.21%
4 22 30.99% 66.20%
5(Positive) 24 33.80% 100.00%
Total 71 100.00%

The two big majority groups (33.90% respectively 30.99%) found shopping online either as
always time saving or that neither it saves time nor is more time consuming than shopping at store.The
overall distribution of the respondents had showed a positive attitude towards the attributes hopping

40
online saves time compared to shopping at a store. This is a logical conclusion that can be derived
from the fact that when shopping online from a computer at home does not involve having to leave
the home, which can be considered as time saving. But some complications at the website or being
able to use a computer from home, can explain the why the majority of respondents do considers
shopping online neither as time saving nor is more time consuming than shopping at store. This
explanation can also be applied to the respondents on the negative side of the scale.

5.3.1 Primary Factor

By considering all the attributes of the factors and looking at what factor each respondent had
the most positive attitude towards and labelling it as the Primary Factor, I were able to identify the
following distribution among the respondents for the factor sprice, trust and convenience in table
5.25:

Distribution according to the“Primary Factor”

PrimaryFactor Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

Price 53 75.71% 75.71%
Trust 10 14.29% 90.00%
Convenince 7 10.00% 100.00%
Total 70 100.00%

41
6 Analysis

6.1 TheFactors
In order to gain an initial understanding of how the respondent feels towards

Price, Trust and Convenience, they were asked to rank these in the questionnaire accordingly.
I have then investigated the different attributes of the factors.

When the respondent was asked to just rank the different factors, the results showed that 73.9%
considered price as the primary concern when purchasing online. When the respondent was put in
front of the three factors, I could see that most of them chose price.However, if compared to the
Primary Factor, where the different attributes to the factors were used to find the overall attitude and
importance; the results did not match. The distributions for the Primary Fact or were Price: 41.6%,
Trust:30.1% and Convenience: 28.3%. This showed that the respondent generally thought that Price
was the most important to him or her, but at the same time one of the other factors could actually be
the most important to a respondent, since the distribution shifted between the two ways of
evaluating, with the Primary Factor being the most accurate since it offers an overall attitude
measurement. This answers the questions one and two in our research.

6.2 Two Step Cluster

The two step cluster analysis was used to segment the respondents. This type of analysis
grouped data so that records within a group were similar. It could be applied to data that described
customer buying habits, gender, age, income etc. It created segments containing groups that had the
most in common and this method was selected due to the amount of variables that needed to be
taken into consideration when creating the segments.

By analysing the collected data, for the various variables that I intended to segment by, I
decided to exclude some variables. There as on was that some of the variables did not show a
significant variation which would have enhanced the homogeneity of the segments. Segments need
to be homogenous and diverse from the whole population in order for them to be targeted. The
variables that I did not use would instead be applied to give an additional explanation to the formed
segments. With the two step cluster analysis I found three segments in our sample, based on the
variables that I chose to segment by, which were: Expenditure on an average each month, Previous
experience with purchasing online, Future expectations with purchasing online, The impact of the
reference group: family, The impact of the reference group: friends, and The impact of the reference
group: online forums. In this research the variables are categorized into the following variables shown
by Figure6.1.

42
  ConsumerTraits:ImpactofReferenceGroups(Family,Friends,and,Onlineforums),andAttitudean
dBeliefs(PreviousexperienceandFutureexpectations)

Attitude and
Belifs
Consumer Traits
Impact of
Online Consumer reference Groups
Segments

Online Shopping
Online Behaviour
patterns

Figure6-1Segmentvariables

6.2.1 Significance of the factors within the segments

InordertoshowthattheresultsandconclusionswhicharetobepresentedbelowaresignificantIcon
ductedaKruskalWallistest.Thistestalsopresentedthatthenumberofcollectedrespondentswassufficientf
ortheanalysisthatIhadconducted.TheKruskalWallistestisthesametestasthepriorOneWayANOVAexpec
tfromthefactthatKruskalWallisteststwovariablesatthesametimeforsignificance.

TwoStepClusterNumber N MeanRank
PriceFishbein 1 15 127,61
2 22 118,29
3 34 100,61
Total 71
TrustFishbein 1 13 151,37
2 27 112,26
3 31 94,15
Total 71
ConvenienceFishbein 1 21 121,40
2 12 124,27
3 38 97,53
Total 71

WhenIconductedthetestIfoundthatthefactorsPrice,Trust,andConvenienceshowedasignificant
variancewithinthesegmentsandthattheresultspresentedbelowconcurwiththeconclusionsthatIhaddra
wn.Table6.7showedthatallthreefactorswerehighlysignificant,especiallythefactorTrusttowhichtheresp
ondentshadansweredwithhighvariances(,000).

43
6.3 Segments
Thetwo-
stepclustercreatedthreesegmentsoutoftheselectedvariables.AccordingtotheTable6.1thedistributiono
ftherespondentstothethreesegmentsis:SegmentOnewith47respondents,SegmentTwowith93respond
entsandSegmentThreewith86respondents.

Segments Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

Segment1 15 21.13% 21.13%
Segment2 22 30.99% 52.11%
Segment3 34 47.89% 100.00%
Total 71 100.00%

6.3.1 DescriptionofSegmentOne:HighSpenders
Segmentoneheld20.8%ofalltherespondents.Theconsumersinthissegmentmainlyspenteachbe
tween400-
799SEKoneachmonthduringasemester.Hence,theyarethesegmentthatcanbeconsideredtospendmost
eachmonth.Theentiresegment(100%)hashadverygoodpreviousexperienceswithpurchasingonlineand
veryhighexpectationsforthenexttimetheywillpurchaseonline.Theexperienceandopinionsoftheirfamily
andfriendsasReferenceGroupsdidnotmattertothemwhentheypurchasedonline,neitherweretheexperi
encesandopinionsdiscussedinonlineforumstakenintoconsideration.

Asaconclusionthissegmentisthesmallestofthethreeandconsistedofconsumersthathadspentth
emostmoneyonshopping.Theyhadveryhighconfidenceinpurchasingonline,mainlyduetoverygoodprevi
ousexperiences.TheydidnotregardtheexperienceandopinionsofanyofthenamedReferenceGroups.

Byfurtherprofilingtheconsumersinthissegmentthatwerestudyingattheirfirstorsecondsemeste
rattheUniversity,hadanageintervalbetween18to24years.Theyhadadisposableincomewithahighvariati
onbetween5.000SEKto11.000SEK.Thissegmentgroupspentmainlysomewherebetween1to2hourseach
dayonline,however,keepinginmindthatsomerespondentswithinthissegmentonlyspentbetweenhalfan
hourto1houronline.ThissegmentprimarilyusedtheInternetforfunandthesecondmostimportantasE-
mail,andthethirdasinformation.Becauseoftheidentifiedcharacteristicsofthissegment,Ichosetolabelthe
masHighSpenders

PrimaryFactorofConcernforHighSpenders

ThedistributionamongtherespondentsaccordingtothefactorsPrice,Trust,andConveniencesho
wedthatthefactorTrustwasthemainconcernoftheHighSpenderswith46.67%,closelyfollowedbyPrice(33
.33%).ThethirdconcernofSegmentOnewasidentifiedasConvenience(25.5%).

Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

Price 5 33.33% 33.33%
Trust 7 46.67% 80.00%
Convenience 3 20.00% 100.00%
Total 15 100.00%
Accordingtotable6.1theprimaryfactorofconcernfortheHighSpenderswasTrust.Here,Trusthada
naboveaveragedistributionwhichloweredthedistributionofthefactorsPriceandConvenience.Thisindica
tedthattherespondentsofthisSegmentOneweremoreaffectedbytheTrustattributeswhentheypurchasi
ngonline.

44
 ByfurtherexploringthevariableTrustforthissegmentIfoundthattherespondentsweremainlycon
cernedwithfeelingsecurewhenpurchasingonline.ThisalsoincludedtrustingtheInternetretailer.Theresp
ondentshadaveryhighpositiveattitudebothinagreeingtothestatementsandalsobyshowingtheirconsent
thatthestatementswereofhighimportance.ThethirdattributeofthefactorTrust,“trustingtheInternetasd
istributionchannel”,didnotshowthesameoverallpositiveattitudeasthefirsttwo.Eventhoughthatamajori
tyoftherespondentswereonthepositivesideofthescaletherewasagroupof23.4%thatbelievedthisattribu
tetobeneutralforthem.

InthissegmentIalsochosetoanalysethequestionconcerningwhethertherespondentboughtfrom
thesameonlineretailer.Thissegmentwashighlyconcernedwithtrustingtheretailer,whichisanattributeto
thefactorTrustandinfact,therespondentsinthissegmentalsopurchasedfromthesameonlineretailermor
efrequentlythantherespondentsinSegmentTwoorSegmentThree.

Byaskingtherespondentstolistwhattheythoughtastheirprimaryconcernofthethreefactorswhe
npurchasingonline,IfoundthattheydidnotcorrespondwiththeresultswhenapplyingtheFishbeinmodel.T
herespondentsinSegmentOnehadlistedthefactorPricetheirprimaryconcern,thefactorConvenienceass
econdaryconcern,andlastthefactorTrustastertiaryconcern.Butwhenexaminingtheoverallattitudetowa
rdsthesefactorsbydividingthedifferentattributesIfoundslightlydifferentresults,whichwerepresentedin
table6.3.Accordingtotable6.3,theprimaryconcernwasTrust,followedbyPriceandConvenience.

Theconclusionthatcanbeendrawnfromtheresults,isthatthereareconsumerswithahighlypositiv
eattitudetowardspurchasingonlinewhichisformedbythehighlypositiveattitudetowardsthefactorTrust.
SodidtheattributesoffeelingsecurewhenpurchasingonlineandhavingtrustintheInternetretailer.Sinceth
esewerealsotheconsumersthatspentthelargestamountofmoneyonpurchasingonline,therebytheywer
egivingimportantimplicationstowardsthefactorTrust.

6.3.2 Description of Segment Two: Price Easers

SegmentTwoconsistedof22respondentsandwasthelargestsegmentgroupwith41.2%oftheover
allsample.Theiraverageexpenditureonpermonthwasbetween200-
599SEK.Theconsumersinthissegmenthadaslightlylesspositivethanverygoodwhenitcametotheironline
purchasingexperience.Theirfutureexpectationsweresimilartothepreviousexperiences,andtheconsum
erexpectedanyfutureonlinepurchasetobeslightlylesspositivethanverygood.Mostoftheconsumershada
goodtoverygoodattitudetowardspurchasingonline.Generally,theconsumersinthissegmentdidnotconsi
dertheexperiencesandopinionsoftheirfamilies,butontheotherhand,theydidconsideritmorecomparedt
hananyoftheothertwosegments.Theirfriend’sexperiencesandopinionswould,however,affecttheirpurc
hasetosomedegree.Minorconsiderationswerealsotakentotheexperiencesandopinionsdiscussedinonli
neforumsbythissegment.Generally,therespondentstooktheexperienceandopinionsofthedifferentRefe
renceGroupsintomostconsiderationcomparedtotheothersegments,andtheywereespeciallyaffectedby
theReferenceGroupfriends.

ThefurtherprofileofthissegmentgroupissomewhatsimilartothatofSegmentOne.Theresponden
tsinthissegmentwereintheagebetween18to24years.Theyweremainlystudyingtheirfirstorsecondseme
sterattheuniversityandhadaincomeofvarioussize,themajority(43.0%),hadadisposableincomeofbelow
5.000SEK,butaanothergroup(26.9%),hadadisposableincomeofbetween7.000-
8.999SEK.TheyprimarilyusedtheInternetforfun,andlisttheirsecondaryuseoftheInternetforinformation

45
purposesandtheirtertiaryuseasE-
mail.Becauseoftheidentifiedcharacteristicsofthissegment,IchosetolabelthemasPriceEasers,sincethey
hadalowdisposableincome,butweremoreinactivewhenlookingforthelowestpricesastheywouldrelyont
heirfriends’opinions.

Primary Factor of Concern for Price Easers

ThedistributionaccordingtotheprimaryfactorofconcerninthissegmentshowedthefactorPricew
ith45.45%tobethemaininfluencerwhenpurchasingonline.ThePricefactorwascloselyfollowedbythefact
orConveniencewith36.36%oftherespondents.InthissegmenttherespondentsconsideredthefactorTrust
theleastimportantwith18.18%.

Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

Price 10 45.45% 45.45%
Trust 4 18.18% 63.64%
Convenience 8 36.36% 100.00%
Total 22 100.00%

Asillustratedintable6.2,themajorityoftherespondentsinSegmentTwobelievedthatPricewasthe
irmostimportantconcern,followedbyConvenienceandTrust.ThisshowsthatthePriceattributesaffectthe
consumerthemostwhenpurchasingonline.ItshouldalsobenoticedthattheConveniencefactorinthisseg
mentisveryhighwhencomparedtotheoveralldistributionofthefactortotheentirepopulationsample.The
sefactorshadanoverallhigherdistributionwhichreducedthedistributionofthefactorTrust.

WhencloserexaminingtheattributesofthefactorPriceIfoundthataccordingtoSegmentOne,the
majorityoftherespondents(52.7%),listedthattheydidagreewiththestatementthat“purchasingonlinesa
vedthemmoney”andthemajority(62.4%)listedthat“savingmoneyishighlyimportant”.Thesecondattribu
teofthefactorPrice,“comparingpricesthroughdifferentpricecomparisonwebsitesbeforepurchasing\onl
ine”,wasshowntohaveanevendistribution.Therespondentswerealsoevenlydistributedbetweenthegro
ups,andthemajorityfeltthatthiswasimportant.

SincethefactorConveniencehasahighdistributioninthissegment,thereneedstobefurtherexami
nationofthedifferentvariablesinordertowhollyunderstandtheconsumersinthissegment.Ifoundthatthe
overallattitudewaspositiveandcamefromtheattributes“savingtime”and“lesseffort”.Theconsumersagr
eedwiththefactthatpurchasingovertheInternetinvolvedlesseffortcomparedtopurchasingoffline.Yetth
eydidnotlistitasimportant.Thesamedistributioncanbefoundfortheattributesavingtime,wheretheconsu
mersagreedtothefactthatitsavedthemtimebuttheydidnotfinditasimportantastimesaving.Comparedto
thepreviousattributetheyfound“savingtimewhenpurchasingonline”tobeofgreaterimportancethanwh
enitinvolvedlesseffort.ThelastattributeofthefactorConveniencewas“beingabletopurchaseonlineatany
time”wheretheconsumersdidnotshowasmuchofapositiveattitudeastothepriorattributes.Acloserexam
inationshowsthattherespondentagreedwiththestatementbutdidnotfindithighlyimportant.OverallIcan
concludethattherespondentsagreedwiththeattributesbutdidnotperceivethemasimportant.

Whenaskedtoranktheimportanceofthethreefactors,therespondentsinSegmentTwolistedthef
actorPriceastheprimaryconcern,TrustasthesecondaryandConvenienceasthetertiaryconcern.Herethep
rimaryconcerndidagreewiththeoverallattitudetowardsthefactors,whilethesecondaryandtertiaryconc

46
erndidnot.TheresultsshowedthattheconsumersinthissegmentweremoreConvenienceorientedthanco
mparedtoTrust.

InconclusionthePriceEasersweregenerallypricesensitiveandatthesametimeveryconvenienceo
riented.ThiswassupportedbythefactthattherespondentstookconsiderationoftheReferenceGroupsand
mostlytooktheopinionsoftheirfriendsintoconsideration.Inthissensetheywereveryconvenienceoriente
d.Therespondentsalsoconnectedtothefactthattheywantedtosavemoneybutdidnotfinditasimportanta
scomparingpricesbeforepurchasing.Instead,theyturnedtotheadviceandopinionsfromtheirfriends.Thef
actthattherespondentsinthissegmentwerepricesensitivecanalsobeconcludedbythatthemajorityofther
espondentshadthelowestdisposableincomeoftheoverallsample.BecauseofthePriceandConvenienceor
ientation,theconsumerdidnottakemuchconsiderationtothefactorTrust.EventhoughPriceEasersspentl
essmoneyonpurchasing,comparedtotheprevioussegment,theywerestillthelargestsegmentgroupandb
ecauseofthatimportant.

6.3.3 Description of Segment Three: Bargain Seekers

SegmentThreewasasegmentwith86respondentsand38.0%oftheoverallsample.Theseconsume
rsspentaboutasmuchastheconsumersinSegmentTwo,between200to599SEKoneachmonth.Theyhadeit
herslightlygoodorneithergoodnorbadpreviousexperiences.Futureexpectationsforpurchasingonlinewe
rewithinasimilarsamerange.Overalltheconsumersinthissegmenthadtheleastpositiveattitudetowardsp
urchasingonlinecomparedtotheothertwosegments.Withinthissegmentamajorityof61.6%didnotconsid
ertheexperiencesandopinionsoftheirfamilyatall,whiletheyshowedamorepositiveattitudetowardsthee
xperienceandopinionsoftheirfriends.TheimpactoftheReferenceGrouponlineforumswasinlinewiththeR
eferenceGroupfamily,whereamajorityof66.3%didnotconsidertheexperienceandopinionsthatweredisc
ussed.TosummarizethevariableofReferenceGrouponecanfindthattheexperienceandopinionsoffamily
andonlineformswerenotaffectingtheconsumeratallwhiletheexperienceandopinionsoftheirfriendswer
etakenintosomeminorconsideration.

OthervariablessuchasDemographicsandTimeSpentOnlinewereverysimilartotheothersegment
sandparticularlytoSegmentTwo.Almostnodifferencecouldbefound.Whatmightseparatetheminthesev
ariableswasthatthissegmentspentslightlymoretimeonline.Therespondentsinthissegmentlistthatthey
mainlyusedtheInternetforfunandthereafterforinformationasbothsecondaryandtertiaryuse.Becauseof
theidentifiedcharacteristicsofthissegment,IchosetolabelthemBargainSeekers.

PrimaryFactorofConcernforBargainSeekers

InthissegmentthepreferablefactorofconcernwasPricewith47.06%oftherespondentsagreeingt
oit.ThedistributionwasclearlymadeontheexpenseofboththefactorsTrustandConvenience.Thedistribut
ionsofthefactorstrustwere29.41%,andconveniencewas23.53%.

Frequency Percent CumulativePercent

Price 16 47.06% 47.06%
Trust 10 29.41% 76.47%
Convenience 8 23.53% 100.00%
Total 34 100.00%

47
WefoundtheBargainSeekerstobehighlypricesensitiveandthattheydidnotgivemuchconsiderationtothef
actorConvenience.

Afterhavinginvestigatedtheattributesfurther,thatconstitutedthefactorPrice,Ifoundthattheres
pondentshadamorepositiveattitudetowardscomparingpricesthantheyhadtowardsthefeelingofsaving
moneywhentheypurchasedonline.Thisindicatedthatcomparingpriceswasmoreimportantconcernforth
erespondentsofthesegmentandsincetherespondentwerecomparingpricestheywouldautomaticallybel
ookingforthebestbuy.Bylookingforlowerpricesoneisconsequentlytryingtobesavingmoney.Iwerelinkin
gthisbehaviourtothefirstattribute,thefeelingofthattheyweresavingmoney.Bycloserlookingattheattrib
ute“comparingprices”itshowedthattheconsumersdidfrequentlycomparepricebeforepurchasingandal
sothatitwasimportantforthemtobedoingso.WhenlookingatthesecondvariableIseethattheconsumerdi
dagreethatpurchasingonlinesavedmoney.However,theydidnotfeelthatitwasasimportantascomparing
prices.OveralltherespondentswerehighlypositivetothefactorPriceandthereforetookconsiderationtoit
whenpurchasingonline.

Theprimaryconcernfortherespondentsinthissegmentshowedthattherespondentswerepriceor
iented,forthesecondaryconcerntheystatedthattheywereTrustorientedandastertiaryconcerntheyliste
dConvenience.TheseresultsmatchedwiththedistributionthatIacquiredaccordingtotheFishbeinmodel.T
heBargainSeekershashadalowincomewhichmadethempricesensitive.Theywere,however,notConveni
enceoriented;insteadtheytooktheirtimetocomparethepricesonlinewhichwasshownbythedifferentattr
ibutestothefactorPrice.Itshouldalsobenotedthattheyspentalittlemoretimeonlinethantheothersegme
nts.Theyconsideredtheexperiencesandopinionsoftheirfriendswhichalsoshowedthattheywereactively
seekingthelowestpricesandthatitwasimportantforthemtodoso.Thatbehaviourexplainsthefactthatther
espondentsfoundcomparingpricestobemoreimportantthanactuallysavingmoney,butasexplainedbefo
re,constantlysearchingforthelowestpriceswillautomaticallyresultinthewanttobesavingmoney.

6.4 Summary
The three segments that were found show a significant difference in the primary factor of
concern. The general distribution showed that the factor Price was the primary factor for the entire
population sample, and that these cond factor was Trust which was closely followed by Convenience.

When segmenting the respondents through the different variables I found that Segment One
was mainly trust oriented and the respondents had a high positive attitude towards purchasing online.
As they-did spend the most money, in comparison to the other segments I chose to label them High
Spenders.

Segment Two were mainly Price and Convenience oriented and therefore took the most
consideration to the opinions and experiences of the Reference Groups. As they low disposable
incomes and were some what convenience orientated when acquiring information about low prices,
I chose to label them Price Easers.

Segment Three were highly Price oriented and there fore actively involved in searches for the
lowest prices online. They considered the experiences and opinions of their friends to some extent
before purchasing online while, and were actively searching for the lowest prices. Hence, I chose to
label them Bargain Seekers.

48
7 Conclusions

When a consumer purchases a online, he or she is affected by various factors. The main
influencing factors have been identified as Price, Trust ,and Convenience. The Price factor exists
because prices are often lower on Internet stores compared to physical stores due to lower costs.
Purchasing a online can greatly benefit the consumer in terms of convenience and saving money. It is
also convenient to shop on various sites with different assortments, from the home. Trust is evidently
needed since the consumer must share detailed personal and financial information when purchasing
a online. These types of data include the full name, delivery address and credit card number for
example, which makes Trust an important factor.

7.1 Future research

After having conducted our research and considering the limitations in time and resources
that we had been facing, it would be of interest to examine our research topic further as well as more
profoundly. Below, we have listed a few deductions for possible future research:

It would be interesting to conduct a survey at another university. If this would be done and similar
results were discovered, one could apply generalizability to the results

Conduct a survey on a larger sample, also including people that are not students and segmenting
according to that. This could find new segments, with new analytical possibilities.

This research was conducted from the consumers point of view, and if could also be conducted with
greater focus towards the online retailer.

We found that Price, Trust and Convenience were factors that are important when a consumer decides
to purchase online, but it would be interesting to see whether the concepts of these factors are
perceived equally between all consumers or if there were any discrepancies.

Furthermore, it would be of interesting to see if the factors were the same for other good that are
traded online. In general, this research could be conducted with a greater range of goods and with
greater detail towards the specific factors.

8 References

Literature:

 Brassington, F. and Pettitt, S. (2000),Principles of Marketing,(2nd edn),Edinburgh Gate,

Pearson Education Limited.
 Chisnall, M. P. (1994)Consumer Behaviour,(3rd edn), Maidenhead, McGrawHill Companies.
 Christensen, L., Engdahl, N., Grääs, C. and Haglund, L. (2001)Marknadsundersökning – en
handbok, (2nd edn), Lund, Studentlitteratur.
 Hollensen S. (2004)Global marketing – A Decision Oriented Approach, (3rdedn), Edinburgh
Gate, Pearson Higher Education.

49
  Jobber, D. and Fahy J. (2006)Foundations of Marketing,(2nd edn),Maidenhead, McGraw-Hill
Education.
 Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2007)Principales of Marketing,(12th edn),Upper Saddle River,
Prentice Hall.
 Kotler, P. and Keller, L. K. (2006),Markating Management,(12th edn), UpperSaddle River,
Prentice Hall.
 Luhmann, N., (1979),Trust and Power, New York, Wiley.
 Luhmann, N., (1993),Risk : a sociological theory,New York, de Gruyter cop.
 Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2007)Research Methods forBusiness Students,(4th
edn), Edinburgh Gate, Pearson Higher Education.
 Vesterby, T. and Chabert, M. (2001)E-marketing,Viby J, Jyllands-PostenErhvervsbogklubb.

Articles and Reports:

 Allred, R. C., Smith M. S. and Swinyard, R. W(2006), ‘E-shopping loversand fearful

conservatives: a market segmentation analysis’,InternationalJournalof Retail & Distribution
Management34: 4/5, 308-333.
 Brengman, M., Geuenes, M., Weijters, B., Smith, M. S. and Swinyard R. W.(2005), ‘Segmenting
Internet shoppers based in their Web-usage-relatedlifestyle: across cultural
validation’,Journal of Business Research58, 79 – 88.
 Constantinides, E. (2004) ‘Influencing the online consumer’s behavior: theWeb
experience’,Internet Research14: 2, 111-126.
 Goldsmith, E. R. and Flynn, R. L. (2004) ‘Psychological and behaviouraldrivers of online clothing
purchase’,Journal of Fashion Marketing andManagement,8:1, 84-95.

Internet Sources:

http://dictionary.reference.com/help/ahd4.html, Lexico Publishing Group,LLC,

(2007)(www.larsperner.com/teaching_materials.htm)

Corporate Authors:

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Online-Forschung e.V. [AGO F e.V.], 2007

Quotations:

Donal Rogan, FH Joanneum Graz, 28 May – 1 June 2007, InternationalConsumer Behaviour

9 Appendix

The Questionnaire

1. What is your Gender? *

Male
Female

50
 Transgender

2. Which category best describes your age? *

<=20
21-25
25-33
34-41
42>=

3. Which area you belongs to? *

Rural
Urban

4. What is your occupation/ Employment status? *

Student
Professional
Government Employee
Self Employed
Other:

5. Which category best describes your disposable income? *

< 5000
5000-6999
7000-8999
9000-10999
11000-12999
>= 13000

6. Do you have your own internet connection? *

Yes
No

7. Have you ever done online shopping *

Yes
No

8. What motivates you to buy Online? *

51
 Easy payment
No hidden cost
Wide range of products
No travel to shop

9. Do you feel that the online marketers are providing competitive prices? *
Yes
No
Cant say

10. What products you buy on internet? *

Books
Music CD's
Clothing
Mobiles and Acessories
Personal and Healthcare

11. Which of the following stores have you visited online? *

e-bay
Amazon
Flipkart
letsbuy
Myntra
Other:

12. What factors help you to decide which site to use for online shopping? *
Search Engine
Personal Recommendation
Special Offers On Sites
Online Advertising
Tv advertising

13. How do you make your payments on internet ? *

Debit/ credit card
Internet banking
Paypal

52
 GoogleWallet
Cash-on-Delivery

14. How often you do Online shopping? *

once a month
once a week
Twice a month
Twice a week

15. How is your previous experience with online purchases? *

1 2 3 4 5
Very Bad Very Good

16. What is your future expectations of online shopping? *

1 2 3 4 5
Very Bad Very Good

17. How much does family affect online purchase? *

1 2 3 4 5
Not at all Very much

18. How much does friends affect online purchase? *

1 2 3 4 5
Not at all Very much

19. How much does online forums affect online purchase? *

1 2 3 4 5
Not at all Very much

20. How much time do you spend online daily? *

< 30 min
1-2 hours
2-5 hours
> 5 hours

21. How much percentage of your online time consists of online shopping? *
< 20%

53
 20-40%
40-60%
> 60%

22. What is the reason to use Internet *

Fun Work Information Email Shopping

Primary usage

Secondary usage

Tertiary usage

23. Are you saving money while purchasing items online? *

1 2 3 4 5
Not at all Always

24. Do you compare price through different price comparison websites? *

1 2 3 4 5
Negative Positive

25. Do you find it secure to purchase things online? *

1 2 3 4 5
Negative Positive

26. Do you trust the internet retailer? *

1 2 3 4 5
Negative Positive

27. Is purchasing online saves time compared to purchasing items on a store? *

1 2 3 4 5
Negative Positive

28. Is purchasing online involves less effort compared to purchasing items at a store? *
1 2 3 4 5
Negative Positive

29. Do you feel that online shopping is better than shopping at brick and mortar store? *

54
Yes
No
Cant say

55