Research Methodology for Online Shopping Project

Research Methodology for Online memory board ramble1. INTRODUCTION RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVESThe collide with to it had two get wind questions to focus on and this acted as a guide to the look design and methodology. The two flow upon look questions in my depict wereWhat be the get word consumer motives for online shop and how be these imp playing the assembleerment of the online steer? This question is foc aimd on the unwrap drivers acting as make for consumers to pursue online shop, and how these drivers were affecting the online distri neverthelession channel as an alternative channel for qualification purchases.What be the rising courses for online shop, and how pull up stakes the online obtain channel develop? As online shop stops to incr console, both organisations and consumers be expected to be better-placed with having a good accord of where online shop styluss seem to be directed at.1.1 Consumer motivationsThe project sought to conceive the consumer motivations for choosing online shop as an alternative channel or, for whatever consumers, their main channel for shop particular items. This part of the project was ground on determining what consumers turn e trulyplace kingdomd as their secern motivation actors through secondary search. This was livinged by immemorial research by surveying and interviewing consumers on their motivational cyphers. The objective was to list verboten the primaeval motivational factors consumers name for online obtain.1.2 uphill ignores for online obtainIn attachment to understanding consumer motivation, this project similarly sought, as an objective, to understand the emerging trends in online shop, and ca recitation a viewpoint on where the online channel was expected to move to. equal for consumer motivations, this part of the project was base on a combination of primary and secondary research.1.3 Foundation for research projectthither was a satisfying giveation f or pursuing this project as it aimed to impart a great understanding of the consumer and the motivations behind online shop. As the importance of the online channel becomes more and more great for organisations, there is great need for determining the consumers key drivers in choosing this as an alternative channel for obtain. The project results impact both consumers and organisations. For consumers, this gave them a locale for stating their preferences and key requirements to breed utilize the online channel which could lead to improvements on the online shop hold out. For organisations, this project countenanced an understanding of the current situation and also the emerging trends based on competitive dynamics, in revision to be equal to provide the consumers their requirements.This project was also distinguished for me as the student as it gave me an probability to develop the knowledge and pursue the abstract of a critical wariness unloose which was becoming a greater valuate add channel for a large number of organisations. The project, I believe, has led to new insights and a confirmation of consumers key motivations to online shop. I believe this contributes to the growing knowledge on the online shop stupefy of consumers.2. LITERATURE REVIEWIn this section, research workings relating to consumer motivations for online shop and related supplys are critically evaluated. This research project was move with a qualitative research forward motion as the focus was on consumer motivations, which, sequence it could have been developed with quantitative metrics, seemed to translate better into a qualitative focus. The objective was more focus on going in greater depth across the key consumer motivations instead of tallying figures in term of which factors consumers felt were their key motivations. The qualitative aspect of the research project was move through surveys and in-depth questionnaires.The primary data collected through the surveys and in-depth interviews were loftyly indwelling as these were the results of consumers opinions and viewpoints. In this instance, it seemed best to pursue a rational approach to analysing the data results and the resulting interpretation. The interpretation of the research results was critical in this research project as there were no specific correct answers macrocosm pursued instead the collective view point and key motivating factors were being identified. Overall, the approach pursued for this research project was an interpretive qualitative research approached which seemed to fit best the requirements of the project.2.1 OverviewEven at the end of the last century, online obtain was already starting to catch peoples attention, and was slowly attracting consumers to use it as a channel, primarily because of its ease in completing purchases (i.e. non needing to step out of the root) and also in providing information as, even thus, about settles already provi ded leng becauseed information (Gay 1999, Gehrt et al 2007). But we are well into the premiere decade of the 21st century, and since then times have changed and certainly, consumers motivations, as evidenced in this publications review and the results of the research project, have changed.The use of the online channel for shopping varies greatly by country with the UK and the US ranking high up in the list with great ratio of online shoppers among net users, in addition to also having a large penetration of users for Internet entrance (Bhatti 2006). In the UK, Internet access among households has increased from 34% in 2000 to 54% in 2004, opus Internet access for adults increased from 40% in 2000 to 64% in 2005 (Datamonitor 2006).2.2 Consumer motivationsIn a research on consumer motivations for online sell shopping conducted a few years ago, some of the consumer motivations cited were invade in use of a new technology, ease of navigation and use, and restroom of online sh opping (Childers et al 2001). While the research menti unmatchabled looked at consumer motivations, the research was besides a subset of what could be learned from consumer behaviour as the study focus on solitary(prenominal) a few potential factors of online shopping activity. Also, the research is dated considering the advancements in technology everywhere the past few years and the changes that have occurred in the online channel and the resulting consumer experience. A key thing to note was that the authors spotlighted then the expectations that online retail shopping would continue to increase as consumers found greater reasons for shopping online.Linked to the increase of online shopping is the increase in access and exercise of the Internet. For lesson, Rodgers and Sheldon (2002) researched the increase use of the Internet and highlighted shopping as whizz of the key motivations for increased consumer use. In this instance, shopping was focused on as one of the factor s resulting in the increased use of the Internet. In this work, the authors looked at shopping as a consumer motivation for increased consumer use but their work is interest as the other factors they considered as increasing Internet use come into play, emfly, in increased motivation for online shopping. These include researching, communicating, and even Internet surfing.patronage the seemingly increasing harvest of online shopping and also the increased interest in consumer motivations for online shopping, there has relatively not been a good deal research in this area. This thought is supported as well by the research of Zhang et al (2007) which stated as a premise the online shopping environment s still representing a comparatively new, and largely unexplored, merchandise channel. The premise of Zhang is high- cart as it exposes a large gap in the understanding of consumers motivations for online shopping. However, the research does have a major limitation in that the resea rch focused only on college students as its answerents. The research was also very focused on impulse purchasing behaviours, and not consumer motivations for online shopping, as its key issue for analysis.Before going in detail in some of the consumer motivations discussed in research deeds, it should be noted that there has been considerable growth in Internet access and usage, and this has created a signifi toleratet market in marketing and communications of organisations (Ko et al 2005, Tamimi et al 2005, Dadzie et al 2005). Online shopping has been growing and organisations have been foc development more on developing the online channel to capture a greater share of the wallet of the consumer.Online shoppingInternet is the worlds largest network with high technology and greater controls, every day the standard of the internet is modify. In the past decades people and sales persons used to follow traditional methods for shopping and promotion of the credit line. Banks and th ousands of businesses are using computers to share the data online and for transferring the funds using online banking. Internet is very flexible to view the information all over the world and for comparison of harvest-time prices from one to one organisation.A graduation step to understanding the growth happening in online shopping is to understand whats included in the term online shopping. It is commonplacely accepted that it encompasses either harvest or service that is very offered online, and hence does not relate only to the typical retail harvest-tide that people buy but nooky also mean services that quarter be purchased online. A rather broad definition is given up by Hult et al (2007) wherein online shopping potbelly relate to some(prenominal) pass of service forest, product quality, or e-Business quality where the objective is the customer-based value creation for organisations. Based on this definition, we can see that the number of online shoppers has inde ed increased evidentiaryly, at least in the UK, with the circumstances of UK Internet users shopping online (including ordering tickets of purchasing goods and services) grew from 36% in 2000 to 61% in 2005 (Datamonitor 2006).For this research project, the broad definition is reasonable as the key focus of the research is in understanding consumer motivations for online shopping in general, with no specific product or service in mind. Undoubtedly, there are a large number of ways in which to cut the issue and there would be differences in the consumer motivations for specific products in specific markets, for instance.The works cited in this section provided a good starting point in the consumer motivations to be considered. The research works also provided an indication of the increasing use of the Internet and online shopping as an activity. From the limitations cited in the research works, further research needs to be conducted on a general understanding of consumer motivati ons which are not limited to a few factors. The rest of this section discusses some motivating factors cited by consumers as driving their online shopping activity.24-hour access iodine key factor mentioned as a motivation by consumers is the 24-hour access provided or allowed by around online shopping bring. Thus, the online channel is apply by consumers as it provides them with 24-hour access for information, customer service, and purchase opportunity (Bramall et al 2004). This fundamentally gives the consumer the opportunity to browse products and purchase at the consumers own leisure. While the research of the authors states this factor as a motivation, the focus of the research work was actually on potential swan issues in online shopping. This specific motivating factor was not analysed in comparison to other motivating factors for consumers.Shopping thingamajigOne oft-mentioned reason, and an early consumer motivating factor, for shopping online is the gismo of doing s o as consumers wont need to go to the retail stores and experience the hassle of buying products in the stores (NBC News 2007). Another article does not only highlight the doodad of shopping online but also states that shopping only also helps decision-making as a large part of the information requirements a consumer may need to make the decision are found online (Furnham 2007). Clearly, shopping convenience is expected to rank high among the consumers in terms of their motivations for pursuing online shopping. thingamabob can take many forms and includes all-hours access (i.e. the 24-hour access mentioned previous to this can be considered a subset of this motivating factor), own time and no pressure for decision-making, no requirement to dress up and go to the retail stores, and long available information, largely on demand, to support the product or service.Shopping convenience is a large factor for the US and UK consumers but this is not limited to the US or the UK markets only as even in Japan, online shopping has seen increasing growth rates, with shopping convenience as the greatest factor motivating consumers to do online shopping (Gehrt et al 2007).Another example where convenience plays a part in online shopping is in the patch as a large number of component parts are perceive their office employees turn to online shopping during their breaks or in between work in the office to do their shopping which, in some ways, actually results in more productive employees as they dont need to go to the retail stores for their shopping (Spillman 2006).As mentioned, online shopping allows unrestricted information search unthe likes of in retail stores where comparisons are constrained largely by time and availableness of sales staff to provide information (Chiang 2005). Thus, consumers tend to pursue online shopping if their information requirements are large and can be met online, or if consumers would like to make comparisons between products and servic es, and across a number of stores.The shopping convenience factor has been recognised across a number of research works, but these only tend to highlight that consumers have different meanings attached to the terminology, and may actually be referring to different sub-factors under the general term of convenience. In understanding this factor further, specific meanings were attached to and discussed in the surveys and interviews for the research.Greater bargainsAn increasingly cited motivating factor in online shopping is the existence of greater bargains for products and services. Consumers are increasingly interested in shopping online due to the greater bargains found in the Internet as organisations pass on savings resulting from using the online channel for sales (NBC News 2007, Lii Lee 2005). This poses a altercate for organisations though as some may not have amply understood the online channel business form, and may already be providing greater discounts to their products and services through online purchases of consumers.Another challenge for organisations is that consumers are expected to continue increasing their online purchases but only if they receive greater bargains from sellers in their online sites versus their retail stores (Craver 2006). Thus, consumers are already building the expectations that prices online leave be less that prices in retail stores. This means that part of the value for organisations in establishing their online channels has already been transferred to consumers who are expecting more competitive prices online.If only to hammer the point of increasing consumer expectations, two factors mentioned by consumers in their increased interest in doing online shopping were free shipping of their products purchased and also everyday low pricing in particular relative to the retail stores of the sellers (Hajewski 2006).The key limitation in the citations for greater bargains is that these are from press articles and the appro aches were not based on proper research conducted to get word the consumer motivations for online shopping. Nevertheless, this should still be accepted as a consumer motivation as this has been mentioned to be a factor based on the articles cited.Overall online shopping site experienceThis final factor discussed touches on the boilers suit online shopping site experience which, in a way, relates to the overall customer experience in online shopping. This factor is quite specific to online shopping sites which consumers may catch but this nevertheless provides a motivation for some specific consumers and it relates to the overall online shopping site experience and having a positive satisfaction to the experience (Elliott Speck 2005). Specifically, the authors argued that the following factors impacted on the consumer motivation to complete their online shopping transactions ease of use of online shopping site, product information available, trust in the brand and the online sho pping site, customer support, and entertainment experienced while in the site.The focus of the research conducted by the authors was not on online shopping specifically but rather on the attitude towards retail nett sites but using the online shopping experience as an example, with an analysis of the resulting impact on the consumers. Similar to some of the other published research cited in this section, the key limitation is the set of respondents considered for the research which, in this case, consisted of undergraduate marketing students. The results are interesting and provide a good preview of what the results could be if the research is expanded to capture a greater sample of the population.2.3 Emerging trends for online shoppingIn reviewing the related literature touching on online shopping and also consumer motivations, a number of emerging trends were clearly seen. These include the followingIncreased efforts in improving online certificate measurePotential for an expand ed product range and ancillary businessesUsability of an online site as an increasing discriminator guidance of Internet product returns progressively demanding consumersincrease opportunity for organisations to develop consumer relationshipsIncreasingly older marketGreater share of ad market separately of these trends is discussed in greater detail in this section.Increased efforts in improving online shelterAcross most metrics, online shopping has shown strong growth and barely the belief is that online shopping growth rates could actually be much higher(prenominal) if not for security-related concerns by some consumers (Bramall et al 2004, Arnold et al 2007, OConnell 2005, Cullen 2005). Increasing trust in e-retailing was one of the factors cited that could significantly drive much greater online shopping activity. Organisations are thus investing in ensuring greater security for their online shopping sites. Consumer newspapers.org even lately developed a tool to provide consu mers with a safe and enjoyable online shopping experience (Ascribe News 2005).There are two trends to be noted in relation to the security concerns of consumers. The first, as mentioned, is that there are greater efforts placed by organisations in improving online security as breaches to their security could have considerable consequences. Online security is the ability to protect the information of the customers from unauthorised access and destruction. Most of the online business websites using the technologies to doctor their online transactions which gains more customers faith and trust to shop online. The use of firewalls, data encryption/ decryption techniques, estimable socket layer (SSL), digital certificates, electronic signatures is making online transactions secure. Many governments over the world enforced regulations and law to support the people who want to make transactions online. The European Union adopted the directive on data protection in 1998, which limits any dissemination of personal data. Security and privacy are the most important factors in peoples decisions to purchase online, so the sophisticated technology to secure online transactions is the main factor of customers motivations to shop online.The second trend is that a complementary approach to improving reputation for managing online security risks is par criterion. In support of this, where there are great concerns for risk, it has been established that utilising expert endorsers, as contrasted to celebrity endorsers or even non-celebrity non-expert endorsers, can actually help in bringing consumers over their risk concerns (Biswas et al 2006).Potential for an expanded product range and ancillary businessesAnother trend is that organisations are increasingly seeing potential for an expanded product range and ancillary businesses. For example, in recent months, Kohls, a US department store chain, has offered products online which were not normally found in their department sto res and these included higher-priced items such as leather chairs, high-end home entertainment centres, and flat screen televisions (Hajewski 2007).This trend is not without its implications for organisation. In the Kohls example, one problem with the expanded product range as done by Kohls was that Kohls did not offer everything they had online in their retail stores. This is a concern as some consumers utilise the online site for their window shopping originally move to the retail stores to try on and purchase the items (Dodes 2006). The article states that more than 80% of online shoppers research products online first before sometimes going to the stores to see the products firsthand. minded(p) that not all products are available in the stores, it would be circumspect for online sites to be clear about which products are available in the stores and which products are not.In terms of ancillary businesses, the increase in online usage and online shopping has even spawned relat ed business such as businesses which monitor trade into organisations websites with the objective of increasing an organisations online sales (Newman 2007). Another ancillary business opportunity is from online shopping sites is as a social shopping space, such as Jellyfish.com which was recently acquired by Microsoft as it precept the growing opportunity in the business (Gallagher 2007). However, these new business are still untested as these are fairly new and would need some time before potentially growing into profitable businesses. As online shopping continues to grow, organisations forget continue to seek out other opportunities that could help build the rationale for investments in establishing a highly competitive online shopping site.Usability of online site is an increasing differentiatorWhile the extent of technological readiness of the consumer plays a part in determining the level of comfort in navigating through an online shopping site, the general usability of an o nline shopping site is an increasing differentiator and distinguishes between the different sites that consumers will utilise in online shopping (Massey et al 2007). There is a significant effect of the online marketing or advertisements on the customers to shop online and this pushing specialty of marketing makes the people to shop online. The online marketing websites are designed with the forwardness of keyword search which brings more flexibility to online customers. Online stores are offering with much amount of choices and more information than atmosphere, so pure play sites attracting people with higher interactivity. The goal with these sites is to have it easily navigated through by consumers such that any potential barriers to keep consumers from purchasing products and services are in effect interpreted out of the equation. Online promotions are very important to investigate the future trends of the online shopping. guest relationship management is the most important f unction in any organization to promote their marketing strategies and to maintain good customer relationship. It is very important to consider the attitudes, behaviour and experiences of the customers to make the online promotions.An example of an initiative locomote into the direction of overall ease of usability is the recent transaction involving Abazias.com and Google wherein Abzias.com partnered with Google for their shopping arrest process which is considered fast and very convenient (M2 Presswire 2007). The challenge for organisations is to continue making their online shopping sites easier to use. And to support the point, some online shopping sites now provide potential live help from customer service if particular requirements are unavoidable in order to limit the number of lost purchases resulting from consumers abandoning their purchases (Prince 2005). Overall, the design of the website and the ease of use have a large impact on the online shopping sites performance ( Auger 2005).Management of Internet product returnsAnother emerging trend is the establishment of clear guidelines in the management of Internet product returns, which then addresses a key concern or questions by some consumers. Internet product returns has been one of the key factors limiting part of the online shopping growth as the uncertainty surrounding how returns of defective or unwanted products impacted on the overall cost and inconvenience for the consumer. Organisations which are able to state clearly their policies on Internet product returns, and which provide a broadloom process for allowing consumers to make returns for products bought online are at an advantage versus other organisations which have a perception of being difficult to coordinate with in touch on Internet product returns (Mollenkopf et al 2007).Increasingly demanding consumersAs the development of the online shopping channel continues, we are now seeing increasingly demanding consumers. This is shown i n an example using the UK supermarket sector. In this sector, online shopping is still considered a poor offering by the UK supermarkets as none of the top five supermarket chains passed a service test conducted by a consumer affairs staff of a intelligence operationpaper (Prunn 2006). Their failures were from their product offering to the product substitutes provided. The key good news for the UK and supermarkets thought was that the websites were generally easy to use for online shopping. Also, the delivery drivers were helpful and friendly.In contrast, in the US, online shopping offering for the supermarkets is a competitive offering with mingled supermarkets increasingly providing greater online shopping offerings for their consumers including chef-prepared, fresh-food delivery service (Food Institute Report 2006). Thus, the US supermarkets are able to provide the US consumers with their demands from US supermarkets. UK supermarkets will need to focus on improving their offeri ng in order to capture the consumer wallet for shopping deliveries.Finally, an approach to cater to the demanding consumers is to provide channels for consumers to give their reviews, and to act on the comments of consumers which have been seen to provide a good way of increasing the online sites business (Spors 2006).Increasing opportunity for organisations to develop consumer relationshipsThe online shopping channel provides organisations with an additional channel to develop consumer relationships. Organisations which are able to effectively capture value from their online shopping offering are the organisations which are able to collect and analyse data on consumer patterns, interpret customer behaviour, respond with timely and effective customised communications, and deliver product and service value to consumers (Kennedy 2006).The mettlesome is not new to most organisations. The only difference is that there is a new channel to consider for the consumer relationships. In orde r to be competitive, organisations should be able to learn from their interactions with the consumers, and develop the channel into one that consumers will surface value from. With the growth of the online shopping channel, more organisations will invest in ensuring that consumer information is managed properly to be leveraged by the organisation in capturing value from the interactions.Increasingly older marketAt least in the US, the trend is that the older internet users market comprises the fastest-growing demographic group in the US Internet market and are, aside from large and growing, generally financially secure (Iyer Eastman 2006). While a research has not been found to state a similar point for the UK, it is possible that this is the case as well given the increasingly older society with a lower proportion of junior people in the country. What does this mean for the online shopping channel? If this is truly the trend, then the investments that organisations will place in developing their online shopping channels will be geared towards an older generation, from site design to products and services to site technology used.This potential trend has large implications on various organisations that can benefit from this research work. Thus, a greater understanding of the key trends is important in order to allow the organisations to plan and invest properly in their online shopping channels.Greater share of ad marketFinally, another trend worth noting is the increasing share of the ad market by the online channel. With the growth of the online shopping consumer market, the ad share of this channel (the Internet) is expected to grow as well from about 5-8% to up to one-fifth of total ad ciphers over the next three years (Ong 2005). As examples, US auto firms played out 14% of their total advertising work out for online advertising in 2005 while Procter Gamble was planning to shift 5% of its television advertising budget for online advertising and marke ting programs (Datamonitor 2006). The greater share of the ad market by the online channel has implications for organisations across two key points. First is that there needs to be a decision on the amount of the ad budget that will be allotted to the online channel. After deciding on the first point, the second key point is that it is imperative for organisations to understand the business model of the online channel, and that the organisations have a plan in ensuring their investments will eventually grow good returns, if not doing so already.2.4 Framework of AnalysisAs mentioned, this literature review was used for building a preliminary understanding of the key motivations of consumers in online shopping activity and also in determining the emerging trends in the online channel. From the literature review in this section, the following framework of analysis was utilised in the surveys and interviews.Consumer MotivationsThe consumer motivating factors mentioned in the literature review was utilised in both the surveys and interviews to vigorous respondents and to test the factors. The structure of the factors in the for prompt section of the surveys and the interviews followed this listing24-hour access Respondents were asked if this was one of the factors they considered as a key motivation for online shopping.Shopping convenience While this was included as a factor in the for prompt section of the surveys and interviews, greater depth was pursued in understanding what the consumer may consider as shopping convenience in relation to online shopping.Greater bargains This was tested to determine if consumers truly saw this factor as an expectation already, and if not having this factor would impact on their use of the online channel for shopping.Overall online shopping site experience This factor was analysed in the context of the overall consumer experience, and was assessed of the importance versus the other factors mentioned by consumers as their ke y motivating factors for online shopping.Emerging TrendsFor emerging trends, not all the possible trends were included in th