RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Factors Affecting Consumer’s Buying Behavior Towards Online Shopping

in Urban Area of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Course: Business Research Methodology

Course Code: ALD 3102

Prepared for:
Md. Abdullah Al Jamil
Assistant Professor
Adjunct Faculty
Bangladesh University of Professionals

Prepared by:
Tasfia Tabassum Chowdhury
ID: 18221001
Batch: 2018, Section: A
Department of Business Administration in Finance & Banking
Bangladesh University of Professionals

Date of Submission: 4th May 2020

Factors Affecting Consumer’s Buying Behavior Towards Online
Shopping in Urban Area of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

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 Table of Contents

Chapter
Title Page Number
Headings
1. Introduction 03

2. Research Gap 03

3. Research Problem 04

4. Research Objectives 04
4.1. Primary Objective 04
4.2. Secondary Objective 04

5. Literature Review
05
Table - 1
6. Research Methodology 07
6.1. Conceptual Framework 08

7. Significance of the Study 08

8. References 09

Appendix 10

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1. Introduction:

Online shopping is growing very rapidly with the expansion of the use of Internet in
the world. Now-a-days, modern people get so busy that they are unwilling or they do
not have sufficient time to spend on shopping. So, purchasing products (goods and
services) online from different websites saves their crucial time. Again, consumer’s
choices, preferences and tastes are also changing everyday due to the emergence of
internet. For this reason, sellers should have clear concept about consumer behavior.
Now-a-days, it is very easy for the consumers to select their required products since
there are multiple options in online platforms. So, now, maximum people use online
platforms for buying tickets, dresses, jewelries, etc. Consumers also use internet for
comparing prices, products feature and the post-sale services they can enjoy from a
particular online store.
Since Bangladesh is giving more importance on digital connectivity and also
progressing in their economic sector, so they can have great potentiality in online
business. Bangladesh, being a developing country, is slow going to reach on the online
shopping spree, but with continuous improvement in economic condition of the country
and development of the internet infrastructure, online shopping is becoming a great
path for the Bangladeshi consumers for leading their daily lives.

2. Research Gap:

Different researches related to this topic were conducted earlier. But those researches
were done either based on the whole country, i.e., Bangladesh or on a particular district,
specially Dhaka. Here, I will be choosing only the urban area of Dhaka as my research
area which was not chosen by any other researchers earlier. I have chosen it to get more
specific result about the factors that are affecting buying behavior of consumers
towards online shopping.
Again, different factors like Demographical Characteristics, Reliability, Design of the
Website, Flexibility of Time and Place, Trust and Experience of Consumer, Branding
of Product, Convenience, Risk, etc. were used in the previous researches. In my

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 research, I will use some new factors, selected as independent variables, for showing
the distinct components that affects consumers buying decision through online
shopping which will be Marketing of the online products, Availability of discounts on
online purchases, Educational level of the consumer, Availability of information on
online products, returning facility provided by online stores, etc. Considering my area
of research, these factors were not used earlier in any researches related to this topic.

3. Research Problem:

Different types of consumers have different perspectives or behavior regarding the

online shopping of Bangladesh. Our research problem is to find out and determine the
factors that affect the buying behavior of consumers towards online shopping only in
the urban area of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

4. Research Objectives:

The purpose of this research study will be to explore online consumer behavior, which
in turn will provide e-marketers with a constructional framework for modification of
their e-businesses’ strategies.

4.1. Primary Objective:

The primary objective of this study will be to identify the factors that influence the
consumer’s buying behavior and purchase decisions towards online shopping in urban
area of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

4.2. Secondary Objectives:

The secondary objectives of this study will be:

 Identifying the monthly level of income, level of education and choices of the
consumers.
 Identifying the perception of different categories of online buyers regarding
website factors and website elements.

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  Identifying whether the consumers are getting proper IT facilities with the
advancement of technologies for online shopping.

5. Literature Review:

Consumer Behavior refers to the process of selecting, purchasing, using and disposing
products, services, ideas or experience by individuals, groups and organizations to meet
their demand (Kotler, 1977), (Kotler and Armstrong 2001). Again, Online Shopping,
a type of electronic commerce, indicates that the consumers directly buy products from
the seller through Internet (Mudaa et al., 2015). After a lot of sufferings, the growth of
e-commerce and activities on commercial fronts in Bangladesh is observed with
changing mind set of consumers and the advent of new technologies (Payza, 2015).
Purchasing products from internet provides many benefits to customers like shopping
from home, reduced cost of transportation, wide variety of choices and thus online
shopping will get more priority from customers in Bangladesh (Alba et al., 1997).
Forsythe and Shi (2003) explained that “Most online consumers, use information
gathered from online to make purchases offline”.
In 2000, Jarvenpaa et al. tested a model of consumer attitude towards specific web base
stores, where it was found that store’s reputation and size affect consumer’s trust on
the retailer. Again, Brynjolfsson and Smith (2000) found that branding and trust is very
important for Internet retailers. Usually, trust and perceived benefits determine the
attitude of consumer towards online shopping (Hoque, Ali, & Mahfuz, 2015).
On the same time, Vellido et al. (2000) found that risk is one of the main factors for
people buying from online and people not buying from online. Besides risk perception,
Robinson, Riley, Rettie and Wilsonz (2007), Bhatnagar and Ghose (2004),
Swaminathan (2004), Morganosky and Cude‟s (2000) Darian (1987) claim that
consumers are motivated towards online shopping because it delivers bundles of items
at door step, is less time consuming, flexible, very less physical effort is needed and
the consumers can purchase at any time. Akroush and Al-Debei (2015) argued that
convenience is a very significant factor affecting consumers’ attitudes toward online
shopping in developing countries. Moreover, Kang Lo et al. analyzed that the
consumers consider the prices of products and services are lower in online stores than

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 in normal traditional shops. Online customers get to better deal to buy same product at
a lower price.
Kamariah and Salwani (2005) discovered that higher website quality influence
consumers towards online shopping. Strongly predictive factors of online shopping
satisfaction are information quality, merchandise attribute, website design, website
reliability, website customer service, website security, transaction capability, payment,
security/privacy, delivery, and customer service (Katawetawaraks & Wang, 2011;
Mudambi & Schuff, 2010; Liu, He, Gao, & Xie, 2008; Shergill & Chen, 2005; Sorce,
Perotti, & Widrick, 2005; Novak, Hoffman, & Yung, 2000). Again, Ozkisi and
Topaloglu (2016) examined and concluded that demographic variables such as
education, gender, age, and income have a significant impact on consumer’s purchase
decision from online, but earlier purchases or experience was the most important factor
of online shopping.
For more understanding, the table given below summarizes the previous study results
on online shopping.

Title Findings Author

Identifying key factors affecting The product and service information quality, user interface Park and
consumer purchase behavior in quality, security perception and site awareness were found to Kim
an online shopping context have significant effects on consumer’s site commitment. (2003)

Consumer attitudes towards

online shopping: The effects of Al-Debei
The findings of this study indicate that perceived benefits and
trust, perceived benefits and et al.
trust determine consumer attitudes toward online shopping
perceived web quality (2015)
(Jordan)

The effect of demographic characteristics like income,

An empirical study on behavioral gender, occupation, education levels, a sector of employment
Kim et al.
intent of consumers in online is found to be statistically insignificant in the online
(2008)
shopping environment. Ease of use, compatibility & past experiences
more effective for determining the behavior

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 Title Findings Author

Factors influencing consumers’ Has significant relationship between e-Commerce experience,

Zuroni and
attitude towards e-Commerce product perception and customer service. Attitude towards
Goh
purchases through online online shopping has no relationship with customer risk and
(2012)
shopping hours spent on Internet.

6. Research Methodology:

The target population of this study will be those who have already experienced online
purchasing and also who might buy online in future. A survey will be done as primary
source of data collection by forming a self-constructed questionnaire considering the
research objective. For collecting quick responses from the respondents, a Likert five-
point scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree will be used.
In this study, I will use Convenience non-probability sampling to acquire data from
respondents in urban area of Dhaka city. In Bangladesh, because of the availability of
internet connectivity, about 50% e-commerce customers reside in urban area of Dhaka
(Jagonews24. com., 2015). I will have the target to collect data from 100 respondents
which will include different service holders, business persons, students, persons
belonging to different age-groups, and homemaker with various experience in online
shopping.
For this research, I will use Exploratory Factor Analysis for classifying the variables
considered in the factors which will affect consumer’s behavior during online
shopping. I will classify online customers into different categories based on their
purchase frequency like Potential customers, Experimental online customers,
Occasional online customers, Persistent online customers and Regular customers.
ANOVA techniques will be applied for testing different hypotheses.

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 The conceptual framework for this research is given below:

Independent Variables

Availability of Information about products

Reliability and Design of Website

Post-Sales Customer
Service
Dependent Price of the Product
Variable
Consumer’s Attitude

Convenience
Consumer’s
Buying Behavior Trust on Retailer
Towards Online
Shopping Marketing of Product

Previous Experience

Availability of Discounts

Branding of Product

Flexibility of Time & Place

Product Returning Facility

Risk Involved in Online Shopping

Demographical Variables (Age, Gender, Income, Educational Level)

Figure-1: Conceptual Framework of Factors Affecting Consumer’s Buying Behavior

Towards Online Shopping

7. Significance of the Study:

By studying the literature review and conducting an entire study on the topic, I am
assuming that the most important factor will be shoppers’ attitude towards the online
shopping followed by demographical variables, price of the product, trust and

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 convenience, reliability of the website, post-sales customer service provided by online
stores and previous experience of consumers respectively. Through this, the people of
the society will also be benefitted. They don’t need to cross the whole traffic jam of
Dhaka city for purchasing a product from traditional stores. Rather, they can order
online whenever they want and get their desired product at home very easily within a
short period of time. So, it will save their time and thus more people will be attracted
towards it. Again, online business is a profitable one, so this business profitability will
result in social development and welfare of the country. Moreover, in future, this study
can help the future researchers to do research on new online products by taking an idea
from this research. That is, broadening the online platform by adding different new and
substantial products by finding out the needs of the consumers and improving their
services.

8. References:

Datta, A., Acharjee, M. K., (2018). Consumers Attitude towards Online Shopping:
Factors Influencing Young Consumers to Shop Online in Dhaka,
Bangladesh. International Journal of Management Studies, 5 [Issue –3(4)],
1-13.
Mahmud, Q.M., Hossain, S., (2014). Factors Influencing Customers’ Attitude Towards
Online Shopping: Evidence from Dhaka City. Journal of Business Studies,
35(03), 161-174.
Rahman, M.A., Islam, Md. A., Esha, B. H., Sultana, N., Chakravorty, S., (2018).
Consumer buying behavior towards online shopping: An empirical study on
Dhaka city, Bangladesh. Rahman et al., Cogent Business & Management,
5:1514940, 1-22
Tabassum, T., Khan, T., & Farhana, N., (2017). Attitude towards Online Shopping
among Urban Bangladeshi Youth: Factor Analysis of the Influencing
Parameters. IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM), 19
(Issue 8. Ver. 6), 42-50.

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 Appendix
Questionnaire: The following proposed questionnaire will be used for collecting data from
the respondents.

Interview Guide
Factors Affecting Consumer’s Buying Behavior Towards Online Shopping in Urban
Area of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
A. Demographic
In this section, we would like to request you to fill in some of your personal details. Please
place a tick (√) for each of the following and your answers will be kept strictly confidential.

1. What is your age?

18 to 23
24 to 29
30 to 35
36 to 41
41 and above

2. What is your Gender?

Male
Female

3. What is the highest level of school you have completed or the highest degree you have
received?
Class I - V
Class V - IX
SSC
HSC
Bachelor and Above

4. In which level your income belongs to?

< BDT 10000
BDT 10000 to BDT 40000
BDT 40001 to BDT 70000
BDT 70001 to BDT 1 Lac
> BDT 1 lac

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5. How long have you been using online platforms for purchasing products?
< 1 Years
1 to 3 Years
4 to 6 Years
7 to 9 Years
> 10 Years

B. Now, many online stores sell their products through online platforms and are
available in the urban area of Dhaka, Bangladesh. So, please rate the following items
concerned the impact of these arrangements on your activities in day to day life.

1 Now I can easily buy products 1 2 3 4 5

2 I can get product whenever I need 1 2 3 4 5
3 I can easily rely on the store’s website 1 2 3 4 5
4 I trust the online retailer 1 2 3 4 5
5 It is less time consuming 1 2 3 4 5
6 I can compare prices and then buy products 1 2 3 4 5
7 I can get product at a lower price 1 2 3 4 5
8 I don’t feel online shopping risky 1 2 3 4 5
9 Easy to get necessary item in shortest possible time 1 2 3 4 5
10 Can get bundles of items together easily 1 2 3 4 5
11 Less physical effort is needed 1 2 3 4 5
12 I can buy products any time without hard currency 1 2 3 4 5
13 This system is convenient to me 1 2 3 4 5
14 I frequently use this system 1 2 3 4 5
15 Online stores are also capable to deal with customer problems 1 2 3 4 5
16 I am pleased with the customer service provided by online stores 1 2 3 4 5
17 I did not face any fraudulent problem 1 2 3 4 5
18 There are sufficient number of online stores near my house 1 2 3 4 5
19 Design of the website attracts me towards online shopping 1 2 3 4 5
20 Discount on products encourage me to order them online 1 2 3 4 5
21 Returning facilities are very flexible 1 2 3 4 5
22 Can know more information about the product before buying 1 2 3 4 5
23 Way of marketing of products fascinate me 1 2 3 4 5
24 My previous experience of online shopping is satisfactory 1 2 3 4 5

C. Overall

Considering all the factors mentioned above, I think I am more

1 2 3 4 5
satisfied by using online shopping rather than traditional shopping

N.B.: Here, 1,2,3,4,5 denotes Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree and Strongly
Agree respectively.

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Tentative Time & Cost:

The tentative time duration for doing this research is 1 year (12 months) and monetary cost is
about BDT 60000. The distribution is shown below in the table:

Description Time Duration Monetary Cost

Title Selection, Introduction, Methodology, Sampling
1 month BDT 5000
Selection
Literature Review 1 month BDT 5000

Data Collection 3 months BDT 20000

Data Interpretation, Full Report Preparation, Compilation 4 months BDT 10000

Training for Learning SPSS Software 1 month BDT 10000

Meeting and Discussion with Supervisor 1 month -

Editing, Printing and Binding 1 month BDT 10000

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