Dr.

Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law

University

FINAL DRAFT
ON
IMPACTS OF ONLINE SHOPPING OVER
TRADITIONAL SHOPPING

Submitted to Submitted by
Ms. Mitali Tiwari Simran Yadav
Assistant Professor of Economics Roll no-1801011 36
Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National B.A.LLB. (Hons.)1st year
Law University, Lucknow. 1st semester

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .............................................................................................................. 3
BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................ 4
RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................ 5
OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................................................. 5
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND ANALYSIS ..................................................................... 5
LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................... 6
Online shopping .............................................................................................................................. 8
History Of Online Shopping ....................................................................................................... 8
I. Comparison of consumers’ preference between online shopping and traditional shopping based
on his decision making.................................................................................................................... 9
II. Factors Affecting Online Shopping.......................................................................................... 10
III. Factors Affecting Offline Shopping........................................................................................ 14
IV. Impact on traditional shopping due to advancement of online shopping based on certain
parameters. .................................................................................................................................... 16
INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS ...................................................................................... 18
Conclusion and suggestion ........................................................................................................... 26
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................... 27

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to use this opportunity to extend my heartiest gratitude to all the people who have
helped me develop this project.
First and foremost, I would like to thank my Economics professor, Mitali Tiwari, who has been
constantly supporting me, guiding me and helping me with all queries and difficulties regarding
this project since its fledging stage. Without her enthusiasm, inspiration and efforts to explain even
the toughest of jargons in the most lucid manner, the successful inception of this project would
have been a Herculean task.
Next, I would like thank the librariarns of Dr. Madhu Limaye library for helping me find the correct
resources for my research and for helping me enrich my knowledge.
Finally, I would like to extend my gratitude to my batch mates and seniors for providing me some
unique ideas and insights which helped me make this project even better.
I know that despite my sincerest efforts some discrepancies might have crept in, I hope and believe
that I would be pardoned for the same.
Thanking You
Simran Yadav

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BACKGROUND
The project deals with a comparative study on the consumer’s attitude towards online and
traditional shopping.
The fundamental issue which arises in front of a consumer when he/she embarks on buying
something is which mode of shopping they should choose to satisfy themselves. There are both
online and the traditional brick and mortar shops available to fulfill their purchase interests. This
abundance of choice available for consumers has thrown up a serious challenge for companies
regarding the way they should target consumers to maintain competitive advantages. In the
developed countries like the United States, it has become almost a norm to make purchases on the
online platform specially for apparel products. However, in a developing country like India,
majority of people still depend on the brick and mortar stores to make purchases in different
categories. Although in the last few years, online shopping has become quite a craze among the
masses specially among the teenagers and youngsters, in absolute numbers, offline shopping is
still way ahead of its online counterpart. In the present day context, learning and analysing
consumer behaviour is extremely vital for the success of a business, be it online or offline.
Consumers drive the market. All the business activities are carried out keeping in mind the interests
of consumers.
The healthy competition between the online stores and the offline brick and mortar counterparts
have ushered in a new era where consumers can pick and choose the medium of shopping to fulfill
their shopping interests. Some of the key differences between the two medium of shopping are the
means of gathering product informations, perceived risk and the ability of consumers to access
similar kinds of products according to their preferences.
The increase in technology provides good opportunities to the seller to reach the customer in much
faster, easier and in economic way. Online shopping is emerging very fast in recent years. Now a
day the internet holds the attention of retail market. Millions and millions of people shop online.
On the other hand the purchasing of product from traditional market is continuing since years.
Many customers go for purchasing offline so as to examine the product and hold the possession of
the product just after the payment for the product. In this contemporary world customer’s loyalty
depends upon the consistent ability to deliver quality, value and satisfaction. Some go for offline
shopping, some for online and many go for both kind of shopping. The focus of the study is on the
consumer’s choice to shop on internet and at the traditional stores at the information gaining
period. However online shopping is easier for the people and less price than the offline shopping.
While making any purchase decision consumer should know the medium to purchase whether
online shopping or the offline shopping. Consumer should decide the channel for them which can
best suit to their need and wants and which can satisfy them.

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RESEARCH QUESTIONS

 What is the extent of awareness about online shopping among people?

 What does the consumer prefer between online shopping and traditional shopping based
on his decision making?
 How the advancement of online shopping has affected traditional shopping based on
certain parameters?

OBJECTIVES

 To analyse the impact of online shopping over traditional shopping using primary data
analysis through questionnaire.
 To explore the interest and consumers’ ease in different types of shopping.
 To examine which shopping has more freedom of choice through targeted population.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND ANALYSIS

 The project is based on primary data analysis.

 Research through questionnaire.
 Target population- around 40-45 people.
 Target area-Lucknow.
 Result of the project will be presented in any of these two methods-
1. Descriptive method
2. Statistical method

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LITERATURE REVIEW
Ernst and Young (2000) reported that Internet users purchased online because of good
product selection, competitive prices, and ease of use, but were concerned about shipping
costs, lack of opportunity to prior examining the products, as well as, the confidentiality of
credit card and personal information. Alka Kumawat and Tandon (2014) made study using
questionnaire with 200 customers as a sample. The study revealed that customers are very
satisfied towards online shopping because of the delivery system is working effectively
therefore customers are doing shopping again and again.
Prashant singh (2014) made study on consumer’s buying behavior on flipkart (India) and found
that any e-tailer will be get success depends on fair policies, brand image and popularity.
According to Kapoor ,2012, online decision making and online shopping phenomena are governed
by a number of consumer acceptance and behavior characteristics and grounded in theoretical
aspects of consumer decision making. There are number of factors that affect what we buy, when
we buy, and why we buy. In reference to buying online, the factors that influence consumers are
marketing efforts, socio-cultural influences, psychological factors, personal questions, post
decision behavior, and experience.
Chandra and Sinha, 2013, studied that, now days the new and latest type of retail shopping are
online shopping. It has now been adopted all over the world including India. In many other
countries this shopping method is still not as well known or accepted, and though the knowledge
of online shopping in India is now beginning to increase rapidly. To analyze factors affecting on
online shopping behavior of consumers that might be one of the most important issues of e-
commerce and marketing field, this is the main objective of the study. It is a complicated socio-
technical phenomenon and involves too many factors so that there is very limited knowledge about
online consumer behavior.
Research summarized by Emarketer (2005) showed that the Internet applied a bigger influence
than for offline media for electronics compared to that clothing, beauty or home improvement as
would be expected. Internet Marketing has changed the way people buy and sell good and service.
It has added lot of convenience and easy to the whole process of buying. Internet buying prevalence
is highest in the United States, where 93%of Internet users have bought on-line (Business Software
Association, 2002), and it is growing rapidly in India as well.
Hans (2013) while discussing the growth of e commerce in India highlighted a forecast which
mentioned that online shopping will grow hundred-fold from the Rs 3,400 crore ($600 million) in
2013 to Rs 4,30,000 crore ($76 billion) by 2021. The prediction indicates the growing importance
and penetration of internet marketing in India. Further it becomes increasing important to
understand the reasons from tradition to technology on the part of customers in terms of their
choice of purchase and sale. Manosh (2011) indicated that India is experiencing e- Commerce
boon as 80% of the new e commerce companies started in India were started in the period of 2008-

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2010. PWC (2015) while analyzing the reasons for preference of customers from traditional mode
of shopping to online shopping identified a combination of four factors that are the cause and
concern for the paradigm shift namely (i) Change in business model from physical to virtual, (ii)
Growth of mobile technology (iii) penetration of social Media (iv) Socio Economic demographic
shift.
Baidyaraj (2011) highlighted that transition between mortar stare and virtual store is basically
influenced by discounts. The deep discounts provided by online shopping websites and cash on
delivery facility is drawing customers across various cities in India irrespective of its classification. Thau
(2013) while identifying the motivation behind shopping in online store and a brick and mortar store
indicated that price discounts are not the only factors which influence this transition rather factors like
fulfillment of customer demand and efficiency service delivery has changed this attitude of consumers
towards virtual and real shops. Miller (2012) while assessing the factors which influenced the transition
of shopper from real to virtual world identified a combination of factors like (i) convenience (ii) better
prices (iii) variety (iv) fewer expenses (v) comparison of prices (vi) crowd (vii) compulsive shopping and
(viii) discreet shopping which influenced a shopper to shop online.

Prashant Singh(2014) in his article “Consumer’s Buying Behaviour towards Online Shopping A case study
of Flipkart.Com user’s in Lucknow City” published in Abhinav stated that future of e-retailers in India
looking very bright. E-retailers give consumers the best way to save money and time through purchasing
online within the range of budget. Flipkart.com offering some of the best prices and completely hassle-
free shopping experience. The whole concept of online shopping has altered in terms of consumer’s
purchasing or buying behavior and the success of E-tailers in India is depending upon its popularity, its
branding image, and its unique policies.

Upasana Kanchan , Naveen Kumar and Abhishek Gupta(2015) in their article “A Study of Online purchase
behaviour of Customers in India” Published in ICTACT Journal on Management Studies stated that online
shopping is gaining popularity among people of young generation. Higher income groups and educated
people are purchasing more via e-retailing websites. People have hesitations in doing online shopping due
to security concerns. At the same time people are resistant to change because of technological complexity
in making online purchase. Companies involved in online retailing should focus on building trustworthy
relationship between producers and customers.

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Online shopping
In simple words Online shopping is defined as purchasing items from Internet retailers as opposed
to a shop or store or the act of purchasing products or services over the Internet. It is a form of
electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over
the Internet using a web browser.
Different words utilized for web based shopping are e-shopping, web shopping.

History Of Online Shopping

Online Shopping was invented by Michael Aldrich in the year 1979. In 1980, Redfin’s Office
Transformation was propelled by him, which empowered the merchants, suppliers, consumers and
operator to interface with the corporate framework over the web and portable exchanges
electronically.
In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee created the first World Wide Web server and browser in UK. It opened
for commercial use in 1991. In 1994 other advances took place, such as online banking and the
opening of an online pizza shop by Pizza Hut. During that same year, Netscape introduced SSL
encryption of data transferred online, which has become essential for secure online shopping. Also
in 1994, the German company Internet shop introduced its first online shopping system. In 1995,
Amazon launched its online shopping site, and in 1996, eBay appeared.
In June 1999, K Vaitheeswaran and five of his friends including V S Sudhakar, Vipul Parekh,
Hari Menon, V S Ramesh and Sundeep Thakran founded India's first online departmental store.
The website Fabmart.com was launched in September 1999 which then offered only music CDs
for sale. Between February and October 2000, the website introduced additional categories
including books, movies, watches, and groceries. Today, online shopping has become the booming
industry in India, some of market leader’s in India are Amazon.com, Flipkart.com, Myntra.com
etc. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the retailer directly or by
searching among alternative vendors using a shopping search engine, which displays the same
product's availability and pricing at different e-retailers the process is called business to- consumer
(B2C) online shopping. The rapid growth of e-commerce in India over the last two decades, rising
internet and mobile phone penetration has changed the way we communicate and do business. E-
commerce is relatively a novel concept. It is, at present, heavily leaning on the internet and mobile
phone revolution to fundamentally alter the way businesses reach their customers. The growth is
expected to be led by increased consumer-led purchases in durables and electronics, apparels and
accessories, besides traditional products such as books and audio-visuals. The birth and growth of
Internet has been the biggest event of the century. E-commerce in India has come a long way from
a timid beginning in the 1999-2000 to a period where one can sell and find all sorts of stuff from
a high end product to a meager peanut online.

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I. Comparison of consumers’ preference between online shopping and
traditional shopping based on his decision making
The five stage consumer decision making model is shown Figure 1. Even though online and brick
and mortar shopping channels are two entirely different mode of shopping, the five stage consumer
decision making model is equally applicable for both the mode of purchase. Let us discuss each of
the five stage consumer decision making model below
(i) Need recognition:

Irrespective of the mode of the purchase, most decision making starts with some sort of problem.
The consumer feels a difference between the present stage he/she is in and the ideal stage he/she
wants to be in. That missing thing which can satisfy the customer’s dissatisfaction, is the need of
the customer. Marketers need to identify this stage and offer products and services as per the
requirement. For example, if a customer needs to buy a new set of dress to attend an upcoming
marriage ceremony, then this is the need of the customer.

(ii) Information search:

Most of us are not experts on everything around us. In this stage we evaluate the products and
services which can satisfy our needs. Apart from our friends, family members and neighbours,
nowadays we can look for information on the websites as well. The major difference between
online and offline shopping regarding this particular stage is the search cost involved in it. Whereas
in case of offline shopping, it’s time consuming and physically demanding, in case of online
shopping, the search cost is extremely low and it’s a matter of pressing some keys. This is the stage
where risk management commences. Consumers evaluate the pros vs cons of purchasing a product.
Since customers remember good experiences over bad ones more, it’s advisable to spend
considerable amount of time on this stage as customers don’t want to regret later about the decision
they made regarding purchase of a certain product or service.

(iii) Evaluation of alternatives:

This is the stage where products and services are compared with each other to choose the best
ones available. Now this decision is absolutely subjective as consumer choice varies from person
to person. One advantage online shopping companies have over their brick and mortar counterparts
is the variety of products available online. Due to the higher varieties, customers have more options
to choose from. Apart from that, the customer review option available online helps customers to

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go through the reviews and choose for themselves from the alternatives available. But one
advantage of offline shops in this aspect is the tangibility factor. Customers can touch and feel the
product. They can also get a first hand demo and try it on themselves. They can also interact with
the salespeople of the store. That definitely helps them to make informed choices.

iv) Purchase:

This is the stage where products and services are purchased after deliberations. In case of offline
shopping, products and services can be used immediately, whereas in case of online shopping,
customers have to wait for the courier company to deliver the product. In case of services like
softwares, it can be downloaded directly from the websites and can be used. At this stage a
customer has either assessed all the facts and come to a logical conclusion, made a decision based
on emotional connections/experiences or succumbed to advertising/marketing campaigns, or most
likely a combination of all of these has occurred.

v) Post purchase evaluation:

The review stage is a key stage for the company and for the customer likewise. Did the product
deliver on the promises of the marketing/advertising campaigns? Did the product match or exceed
expectations? In case the customer is not satisfied with the product and want a replacement for it,
he/she needs to act differently online and offline. In case of a brick and mortar shop, the
replacement can be obtained by visiting the shop during the scheduled working hour. Whereas in
case of an online shop, it requires calling up the customer care to lodge a complaint, waiting for
the courier company to pick up the product and wait for the replacement to arrive.

II. Factors Affecting Online Shopping

Online shopping becomes relevant in the last decade. The kind of business online retailer are
doing is proof enough that they are providing some benefits to customer which offline shopping
does not give to the customer. These are the factors affecting online shopping:
Risk: When customer buy products from online shopping they do not touch or feel the product
in a physical sense .Hence we understand that lot of risk is involve while buying an online product
whether it will reach us on proper time or not is also a concern and also there may arise a risk of
product size and colour as it may differ in real view or sense. Sometimes the product ordered is
kind of damaged.
Convenience : Online shopping is much more convenient than offline shopping. Instead of taking
out your vehicle and visit shop to shop you can just sit at your home and do the shopping. It is

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convenient to sit at one place and shop the product of our choice without moving from place to
place. Once you have decided on what you want to buy the payment process is seamless and the
order is delivered to your place. Online shopping makes things more convenient. We can have a
lot of choice over there in any kind of material we want to deal with that too without any fear of
dealing with any dealer or distributers. Online shopping is convenient in its real sense as it do not
carry any dealing with issues of asking for wanted items or issues of asking for desired kind of
items which helps in avoiding the part of waiting, asking, questioning about the product.
Anxiety: People’s anxiety of exploring the sites and experimenting over them is also a matter of
concern. Sometimes people those who are not very known to any sites like flip kart , myntra or
any sites they just feel like it’s a tough kind of activity over net and its complicated in there sense
as they are not very fond of doing online shopping as it takes a time to even understand the product
about its details. This particular activity makes them irritated and anxious over any kind of fatal
online dealing.

Previous online experience: How has been a person’s experience in past as far as online
shopping is concerned is a major story of concern. Previous experience is what matters actually as
its hamper or sometime it keep good view or mood of people. There are two experiences one is
about good and another is about bad. Both has its own and different affect in the mind of buyers.
So these factors also influence online shopping or e shopping.

Pricing Policy: Online retailers gets an inherent advantage in pricing as they don’t have to bear
expenses like store rent, bills etc. They can pass their price directly to customer and generally offer
a lower price to customer than offline market. Even when shipping charges are included than also
it is better than the offline shopping. Hence, determines the level of online shopping. Lower the
price- higher the mood to demand, higher the price –lower the demand. Price of any commodity
also influences the purchasing power of any specific buyer. Consumer generally prefer mild or
normal price with good quality and do not want to spend or expense lot for any kind of stuff. So
buying and selling both are simultaneously affected by the price of product.

Quality: The quality of product at online sites and offline stores vary a lot and then this determines
the frequency of online shopping. Quality also carries good affecting nature over any kind of
shopping. As consumer or buyer want to have a good quality of product as they spent their huge
sum of money. In general, qualities is a primary need over any kind of purchasing as it somewhat
secure or give a good sense of buying or kind of guarantee about the product preferred.

Online trust: It depends on customer perception whether they trust a particular site and its product
and services. Hence the frequency of online shopping also depends upon whether they trust a
particular site or not. People are different in there nature and thoughts, some kind of people trust

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online dealing some kind of people are in fear of online dealing. Trust carry a lot of points
examples- trust about the same product size quantity weight and security etc.

Tangibility of the product: At the store the customer gets to touch and feel the product they
purchase before buying which help the customer to take the decision to buy the product or not
whether the product will suit the customer need or not. Whether, we can and see feel a product is
also a reason which determines whether a person’s wants to go for shopping or not. Tangibility of
any product also determines the online shopping. Without touching the preferred or desired
substance nobody can get its security about the worthiness or quality or sense of any preferred
product.

Delivery time: The product ordered by the customer in online shopping takes a minimum of six
to seven days to deliver the product to the customer. But in offline shopping the possession of the
goods is immediately transferred to the buyer. So this is a major factor which affects the online
shopping. People want a good delivery time; they prefer to get a product in a desired time or in
short time of duration. Duration is the second major factor affecting the demand of product.

Income: The person whose income is more, do more online shopping as compared to the person
whose income is less. Income plays a major role to purchase online products. Higher income
people prefers to purchase online more than offline as it gives them reliability and convenient.
Higher the income higher wills the purchasing of online product and vise-versa.

Taste and preference: The taste and preference of the customer vary from customer to customer
and time to time, taste and preference also a factor which influences online shopping. Taste and
preference of age group also matters in online shopping. Old people buy or purchase product for
their kind of use. Young generation or teenagers use to purchase their taste of product. Taste and
preference move in tend of ages and choices. Every customer or buyer choices are different in
nature as per their ages.

Information: The information given in the site may not be correct or may not be appropriate
information. The full information about the quality of the product may not reach to the customer.
Hence it will affect the online buying of the customer. Information provided by the preferred sites
may be not the same about the detail of the product. May be with the provided information and
details customers are not very satisfied. Sometimes it happens that even many customers use to
buy the product after their full knowledge of details as they prefers the detail are accurate and good
in sense. Information related to product may vary in its real sense when it arrives or delivered to
relevant customer.

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Variety: The kind of variety that a customer gets online is hard to match any product purchased
offline. The online retailer’s stock products from the entire major brand and a customer can find
any product in their listing no matter how hard to find it is in the offline store. Online and offline
both shopping provide variety of range from various brands. Variety in it itself is the foremost
dealing factor which influence the market. Larger the variety of product in shop higher the selling
and vice-versa. People generally prefer to move where they get more variety of products.

Discreet shopping: While buying some products like lingerie customers don’t feel comfortable to
purchase it in offline store. Shopping online is discreet and some online portals also provide
discreet shopping. Purchase of girly material are very convenient in offline shopping as it is not
dealt with any kind of uncomfortable situation. There is no person to who is to ask for any kind of
intimate product, customer can easily cope with offline as they can go and purchase their usable
items without any kind of hesitations.

Offers: Apart from offering products at lower price most online shopping regularly come up with
discount offers in association with bank, brand etc. Which entail customer to get additional saving
while buying products online? Offline stores only give offer or discount during stock clearance or
when the manufactures gives the discount on the products. Online shopping always provides offers
at all the time and day. In every purchase we get some offers even if there is no festival or carnivals.
Offers are a great factor which attract customer to purchase online. Offer carry a great influence
in shopping.

Instant gratification: Customer buying offline gets their products as soon as they pay for it but
in online shopping customer have to wait for their product to get their product. Under normal
circumstances waiting a day or two does not matter much but when a customer want to get the
product instantly than offline shopping become necessary

Available product and services: Online shopping offer customers more benefit by providing
more variety of goods and services that they can choose from. There are some goods which a
customer can only find online.

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III. Factors Affecting Offline Shopping

Offline shopping has existence since the existence of mankind. Offline shopping gives different
types of benefits to the customer. There are some factors which affect the shopping offline those
are as follow:

Less number of choices: There are limited numbers of choices when it comes to offline shopping.
The numbers of varieties are limited. The ranges of products available in the shops are limited.
Sometimes, the stocks are old and are up for discount and sale. Basically in offline or any shop we
get less numbers of choices as it consists of manual work. We have to choice in that less number
of materials due to manual factor.

Time consuming: It takes a lot of time to go shopping to a store. Distance from home or
workplace to the store is time consuming. It is also time consuming while trying out the outfits in
a store or even going through other products. In off-line shopping customer move one place to
another and one shop to another in search of their desired product.

Information: What generally happens is that the information provided by a shopkeeper isn’t
correct. Also this information doesn’t always suit our needs. And we buy products according to
what they say when we ourselves don’t have adequate knowledge about the products. Such
purchases are based on goodwill when we happen to know the shopkeepers.

Authenticity: Offline shopping is more authentic than online shopping. While buying the product
we can feel the texture of it and know what it’s like. We exactly know what we are buying while
buying anything offline. But in online shopping, we don’t always know what exactly we are
buying. This is because what we see on the websites is not always what we buy when the product
reaches us.

Taste and preference: The taste and preferences of the customer change from time to time. While
buying any product from a store we have the flexibility and the choice to try out 9 outfits. But
while buying any product from a website we don’t have this facility. Therefore, buying offline
caters more to the changing taste and preferences of the customers.

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Bargaining: In offline store a customer can do physical bargaining to the seller unlike shopping
online. In online shopping a customer cannot do bargaining as the price of the product is fixed.
Some of the customer purchased products depending upon bargaining so they do not go for online
shopping as they feel shopping online is more costly than the market.

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IV. Impact on traditional shopping due to advancement of online shopping
based on certain parameters.
Convenience: Now, that’s one of the benefits of purchasing through online medium. Unlike in
case of offline purchase, in case of online shopping, consumers don’t need to travel all the way to
the brick and mortar shop, jostle with other consumers during festive seasons rush and face
difficulty finding proper parking space for their vehicles. Online shops are open 24*7 and products
are delivered to the residences or offices of the customers according to their choice. So a consumer
can just wake up in the middle of the night and place an order for a smart phone or some apparels.
This is one of the major reasons for the popularity of online shopping.

Variety: An online shop is a customer’s delight. No offline shop can offer as much variety in
different product categories as an online shop can. Since online shops do not have to bother about
space crunch, they can make available large varieties of product at the same place. This large
variety gives consumers vast choice which was not available before the advent of this medium.

Consumer review: This is one of the benefits of the online shopping which helps the prospective
customers to learn about the performance of products from somebody like them even before they
can lay their hands on the products. Once a product is purchased by a customer through an online
store, the customer is requested by the shopping company to upload their experiences with the
product on the portal so that customers other customers can read that and decide for themselves if
they want to purchase it or not. That helps customers to choose the best products for themselves.

Comparison shopping: As customers, we like to visit few shops before purchasing a product. In
case of offline shopping, that means physically traveling to each and every shop to check out the
products. That’s both time consuming and physically demanding. But in case of online shopping,
we can effortlessly pull up number of online shopping sites on our devices and compare the
products on them. Based on the comparison and best deal available, we can decide to purchase
from a particular site.

Discounts: This is one of the major reasons for consumers specially youngsters purchasing online.
Since online sellers don’t need to go for costly decoration of their shops, employ large number of
salespeople and due to disintermediation, they can offer products and services at a considerable
amount of discounts compared to their brick and mortar counterparts.

Availability of unique products: Nowadays it has become almost a fashion for manufacturers of
electronic devices and other product categories to launch their brand new products exclusively on

16
a particular shopping portal. These products are not at all made available in any offline shops and
only the specific online portal gets the exclusive right to sell the product. In that case, customers
are left with no options but to purchase these products on that portal.

Tangibility and trialability: That’s one of the draw backs of online shopping. In case of brick
and mortar stores, customers can touch the products, feel the products, can get a first hand demo
and in case of apparels try it out on themselves before purchasing them. Whereas, online portals
offer customers only the pictures and specifications of products which might not be sufficient in
some cases to undertake informed buying. Even though nowadays some of the e-tailers are offering
free trials upon delivery where a customer if not satisfied with the product or service, can return it
immediately. Despite of that, this is one area which will always hand an advantage to the offline
stores against their online counterparts.

Shopping experience: It’s said, shopping is not only about just going through the motion and
making the purchase. The shopping process itself, where we sift through products and feel the
colours, textures and feel them can be extremely enjoyable. Apart from that, shopping in India is
known to be a family outing on weekends or holidays where the entire family goes out together,
purchase products, catch some movies, visits a restaurant to take their meals. It becomes virtually
a get together for families on weekends or holidays which otherwise is not possible because of
hectic work schedules of the family members. Online shopping can’t offer similar experience. You
might be able to purchase products more easily online, but the experience of spending valuable
times with your family members is something which can’t be replicated by them.

Delivery of products: Unlike in case of brick and mortar shops where upon purchase, customers
can immediately use the products, in case of online shopping, there is considerable amount of lag
time between placing the order and delivery of products which sometimes can extend upto weeks.
As a result, products which are of immediate use, can’t be purchased online. To tide over this
problem, online portals have started offering same day delivery or next day delivery of products
as premium services in exchange of certain extra payments.

Return of products: That’s something which always pulls down online shopping companies.
Whereas in case of offline shops customers can visit the respective shop to exchange their products
if not satisfied, in case of online shopping it entails calling up customer care, waiting for the courier
for reverse logistics, getting the money back or getting the products exchanged. Sometimes the
entire process might take an entire month. Even though most of the online shopping sites offer
money back guarantees or product exchange facilities, the experience could be harrowing.

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INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS
This particular project is based on primary data analysis where the survey was conducted in the
city of Lucknow on 44 people where majority of them belonged to age group between 15 -19 years
followed by the group of 20-24 years of age . The survey deals with a comparative study on the
consumer’s attitude towards online and traditional shopping.

The first question that was put before them was what were the top reasons which attracted the
customers towards online shopping or traditional shopping .

Customers
under survey when asked about why they liked particularly offline /traditional way of shopping

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two groups having equal number of people liked it because they had the facility to touch the
product and the other reason was no product disappointment since they could get the material at
hand then and there and also because they could satisfy themselves them by checking the
commodity on their own .then people also liked going for offline shopping due to some other
reasons as well for example it gives instant gratification they don’t have to wait for delivery of the
product and they have their product instantly they make the payment and this traditional method
is also liked because customers don’t have to spend on shipping.

Similarly customers prefer going for online shopping to traditional shopping because majority of
them(58.1%) find it convenient ,and (52.2%) because of availability of varieties of product which
becomes difficult in case of a store where only limited items are available that too with the taste
of common customers. (39.5%) customers like online shopping because they don’t have to make
a line and push through crowd to get their products. Around 30 to 33% of the all customers are
also happy with the facility that the products are shipped directly to home and no time limitation
on placing the order since internet is all time open . So top reasons for going with this form of
shopping are convenience ,availability of varieties of products ,direct shipping to home ,no time
limit etc.

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Majority of the customers find online shopping better in case of payment method and pricing
system for e.g., 55.8% and 74.45 respectively because as per the survey they find more discounts
on products online and at cheaper price. and payment methods are better online since there is
availability of COD ,credit card ,net banking whereas these facilities are not available on all stores
therefore customers can pay at their convenience.
But in case of delivery system 55.8% which is more than half of the customers like traditional
method of shopping.

1. Commodities bought online most are clothes i.e., 30.2% of all the customers under
survey like to buy clothes online since they find varieties of designs , colours ,sizes and
brands at one place they don’t have to go from one shop to another to find what they

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 want. In clothes different colours and sizes are available with size charts. And one can
get the reviews also from the customer who has already bought that material. The next
item that is bought online most are books because there is least chances of getting
something different from what you want . In the review section also customers comment
on how they like the book ,sometimes customers also tell about the genre of the book so
it becomes easier to choose one . for electronics also(23.3%) goes the same thing They
are relatively cheaper than buying from store. Online selling sites now have a policy
of returning the good if the goods are received damaged. Easy to get all the details about
the product. There are comment section too on the site which is for the review of the
customers on the particular product which helps us to get the review of the product which
we do not get by buying from the stores. Jewelry amongst the given options is bought
least by customers online. Foods(9.3%) and cosmetics (7%) are more or less bought at
same level.

The order in which products are preferred offline are clothes, jewelry ,food, electronics and then
books. This chart shows that (53.5%) of customers prefer buying clothes offline here plays the role
of tangibility, instant gratification and self satisfaction. They feel that they get what they want and
what they are paying for. They don’t have to wait till the delivery time as in case of online
shopping. They feel more satisfied when they get to try the clothes in store then buying that cloth.
Next item is jewelry which 23.3% customers keep at second number since they want to touch the
product and most of the time when they are concerned with the metal because here they have to
invest great amount in case of gold ,platinum or silver jewelry so they want to rely on old seller
they have in their old store. Then rest products are bought at more or less at the same preference.

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Under this survey people doing their shopping online were great in number those who did once a
month(58.1%) followed by people once a weak (27.9%)and in the last once a year(14%). This
shows that online shopping is gradually becoming famous and usual amongst people due to various
reasons mentioned in above findings. This also shows their faith in online shopping and they are
ready to spend money into this method of shopping . people doing online shopping once a year are
really less in comparison to people doing once a month or once a week.

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In the last four graphs the X axis is representing the degree to which customer agree to a particular
statement like in first graph majority agree that digital medium has more freedom of choices and
not even single response has come against this statement.
41.5% are neutral in purchasing the product online than going to market place to buy the same
product if its available online. But 24.4% customers disagree in purchasing the item online means
they can go to market place to buy that product.
Launching a new product via digital media is more informative than conventional methods , to this
statement 28.6% customers strongly agree and 33.3% agree and responses against this is very few
in number.
Digital Media is a easy & effective way to give feedback to the product/services.in this graph
percentage of customers who are neutral towards it and strongly agree is same i.e., 32.6%
And who strongly disagree with the statement are 2 out of 43 so basically according to survey
Number of customers in favour of the statement are much more than those who are against it.

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Conclusion and suggestion
Online shopping is preferred by customers due to the reason that they can shop anytime,
anywhere, anything conveniently while comparing prices, features of the products among available
varieties and brands at online shopping sites and also customers find online shopping better
because of pricing system and payment method. Further the prompt services by online retailers
and wide spread internet has acted as enablers of online shopping. Online shopping can be made
more attractive by clarifying the apprehension of consumers with respect to financial and security
risk. It was found in the research that the people are more satisfied with online shopping in case of
pricing system and payment method and also they are happy with the fact that they don’t have to
spend much of their money on petrol and they can spend their quality time with their family
member.
The factor that does not support online shopping is the tangibility of the product as in traditional
shopping customers get to touch the product they want to buy and get instant gratification and also
in case of delivery system people who were subjected to survey were more happy with the
traditional shopping.
In case of goods purchased through online shopping or traditional shopping had different rankings
few goods were given preference in being bought online and others were given preference in
traditional shopping for example clothes ranked top amongst all goods being bought online
followed by books and electronics and so on.

Further the online shopping companies must devise their promotion mix in such a manner that
all elements of promotion mix including the new platforms like social networking sites should be
properly used to attract customers by online shopping companies. The online shopping
companies must take appropriate measures for data encryption so that safety of financial
transaction is ensured and privacy is also provided to customers with respect to their personal
details regarding address and contact numbers. Finally the website of the online shopping
companies must be customer friendly and must be intriguing enough to ensure the revisit of
customers to online shopping websites.

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JOURNALS

 G., Gopal. (2013). An study of Factors Affecting on Online Shopping Behavior of

Consumers. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications (IJSRP),3(6).
 K., R., & A., Kaur. (2016). , A Study Of Behaviour Of Consumer Towards Online
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 K., P, P., & M. S., Shivdanga. (2015). International Journal of Advance Research Ideas
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