Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
(2015PGP046)
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KEYWORDS
High involvement, Low involvement, Payment mode
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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INTRODUCTION
The risk of purchasing a costly product in terms of monetary cost and mental cost is higher as
compared to a cheaper product. A person is more cautious when purchasing a costly and nonroutine product. Thus it is seen that a consumers approach towards purchasing a product
having high involvement compared to a product with low involvement is different.
Involvement can be defined as perceived relevance of the object on the basis of the needs,
values and interests (Zaichkowsky,1985).
LITERATURE REVIEW
Sherif and Cantrill introduced the concept of involvement in the year 1947 in the area of
psychology. If involvement can be defined based on stimulus, products can be categorized by
marketers into different product involvement categories and markets can be segmented on the
basis of product involvement (Grunig,1989;Taylor & Joseph,1984).Solomon(1998) studied
the consumer behavior and said that it is the study of the processes involved when an
individual selects, purchases , uses or disposes off products, services, ideas or experiences to
satisfy needs and desires. In view for the internet to spread out as a retail channel, it is
imperative to realize the consumers mind-set, intention and conduct in light of the online
buying practice. Bellman, Lohse and Johnson (1999) examined the relationship among
demographics, personal characteristics and attitudes towards online shopping. These authors
found that people who have a more wired lifestyle and who are more time constrained tends
to buy online more frequently i.e. those who are more time starved prefer shopping on the
internet. A study conducted by Lina Zhou, Liwei Dai and Dongsong Zhang(2007) resulted in
a model known as OSAM (Online Shopping Acceptance Model). Dr.Ashutosh A.
Sandhe(2014) studied the consumers approach towards high involvement and low
involvement products and found that buying behavior of consumers towards high
involvement products is different from low involvement products and the preferred mode of
payment is also different. Prof.Jiger Manek and Dr. Ruta Khaparde(2015) did a research on
consumer buying behavior towards online jewellery shopping and concluded that consumers
are finding more designs available while online shopping which makes their shopping
experience more attractive and festival seasons has experienced the maximum sale, that
means traditional approach still continues in certain extent and Diwali seemed to be the
festival where maximum number of consumers prefer shopping.They also found that
consumers are aware that online jewellery shopping has less making charges in comparison to
retail shopping and trust factor plays a vital role from consumers point of view towards
online jewellery shopping.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
What is the general notion of consumers towards online buying when it comes to high
involvement products
What are the factors that contribute towards the shift in the behaviour
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The data for this research project is collected through questionnaire and personal
interviews.A structured questionnaire was developed to collect data and test hypothesis. Both
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type of questions i.e. open ended and closed ended were used. A pilot study was conducted to
identify products with high involvement and low involvement..In the final questionnaire,
questions were framed to __. Convenience sampling method was used and questionnaires
were got filled by email and personal interview methods. A target of _ respondents was set,
but many of the respondents provided half completed questionnaires, therefore only _
questionnaires were entertained for final analysis and data interpretation. Based on the data
obtained, mean values and significance was calculated to find out the reliability. Simple
charting and tabulation tools are used to understand the behavior of the respondents for
shopping of high involvement products online. The following table gives a depiction of
demographic profile of the respondents.
Table 1: Demographic Profile of Respondents
DEMOGRAPHIC
FEATURES
NUMBER OF
RESPONDENTS
PERCENTAGE IN TOTAL
SAMPLE
GENDER
MALE
45
75%
FEMALE
15
25%
AGE
18-22
17
28.34%
23-26
35
58.33%
27-30
13.33%
OCCUPATIONAL
STATUS
Student
11.67%
Job
53
88.33%
COLLECTION OF DATA
Primary Data: They were the main source of data collection. The method of
collection of primary data would be direct personal interview through a structured
questionnaire.
Secondary Data: It was collected from internal sources. The secondary data was
collected from the articles, newspapers, management books and the internet.
SAMPLE SIZE
The total sample size for this research project was 60, out of which 45 were personally
interviewed and the other 15 have filled the questionnaire through email. Qualitative research
to understand the latent needs
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1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
Discount
33
17
10
Mode of Payment
15
28
11
34
10
Availability/Options
26
12
10
Convenience
10
31
15
Time
14
35
As seen from the graph above, maximum participants have rated the discount rates as their
first preference, followed by the mode of payment. Trust and security is the third most
prefered factor to choose online shopping, fourth being availability or presence of options
that is closely followed by convenience. Time is the sixth most prefered factor, seems though
the participants do have a lot of time indeed.
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Discount deals - The prime reason behind the success of online platforms is the discount
deals and considerable price difference compared to physical shopping. It is evident from our
research as majority of respondents have voted discount deals as the most important factor
which they consider while going for online shopping of high involvement products.
Priority Ranking
Number of Respondents
1st
33
55%
2nd
17
28.33%
3rd
10
16.67%
4th
0%
5th
0%
6th
0%
Total
60
100%
Table 2
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Mode of Payment - Means by which payment is made such as Cash on Delivery (COD),
Credit cards, Debit cards, Net Banking or via third party like Paytm wallet. From our survey,
we found that majority of the respondents voted mode of payment as their second priority
while shopping online for high involvement products.
Priority Rating
Number of Respondents
1st
15
25%
2nd
28
46.67%
3rd
10%
4th
13.33%
5th
5%
6th
0%
Total
60
100%
Table 3
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Priority Rating
Number of Respondents
1st
8.33%
2nd
11
18.33%
3rd
34
56.67%
4th
10
16.67%
5th
0%
6th
0%
Total
60
100%
Table 4
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Availability/Options
Many people prefer online mode of shopping because of the wide array of choices available
to them in online platform as compared to traditional markets.Also they can compare between
various sites selling the same product or similar product. Hence majority of the respondents
have voted availability of products and number of options available as their fourth priority.
Priority Rating
Number of Respondents
1st
8.33%
2nd
3.34%
3rd
8.33%
4th
26
43.33%
5th
12
20%
6th
10
16.67%
Total
60
100%
Table 5
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Convenience
People nowadays want everything at their doorsteps and online shopping has greatly
contributed towards it. Convenience becomes an important factor when it comes to choosing
between online shopping and traditional markets. However in case of high involvement
products, people value the product more than the convenience and are ready to compromise
with the convenience. It has been voted as fourth among the six important factors.
Priority Rating
Number of Respondents
1st
3.33%
2nd
1.67%
3rd
1.67%
4th
10
16.67%
5th
31
51.67%
6th
15
25%
Total
60
100%
Table 6
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Time:
In todays world with things happening at lightning fast pace, nobody has time to do shopping
by visiting a number of shops. Hence they go for online shopping even for high involvement
products. However people like to touch and feel high involvement products before buying
them, so they have rated time as the least important factor.
Priority Rating
Number of Respondents
1st
0%
2nd
1.67%
3rd
6.67%
4th
10%
5th
14
23.33%
6th
35
58.33%
Total
60
100%
Table 7
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54 out of 60 participants have opted online platform for the purchase of high
involvement product
The purchase of high involvement products through online means have seen a rise
since 2013
Depending on the responses obtained, we have found that people prefer- Electronics
products ( because they are assured of the quality as both companys and sellers
guarantee is there) and dont prefer - Apparels and shoes ( due to size and quality
issues) and jewellery(lack of trust) buying online.
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The most preferred websites by the respondents were Amazon and Flipkart for buying
high involvement products. A few of the respondents said that they might prefer
Paytm and Bluestone(for diamond jewellery) as well.
Almost all of the respondents accepted that the chances of defective products are
more in case of online shopping.
Despite the possibility of security issues and some defaults in delivery and transaction
process, the majority of the respondents said that in future too, they will continue their
shopping through web stores and they love to compare the various features of the
selected product with the competitor product. The results obtained have shown that
majority of the people (%) are in favour of continuing with online shopping.
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Most of the respondents replied that they are comfortable in buying more expensive
products than they have bought till date.
Almost none of the participants of the research have experienced any online theft till
date.
When we asked the respondents whether price difference has any impact on their
decision, everybody replied with a Yes.
Many respondents said that they may wait for festivals for buying high involvement
products online depending upon time and necessity.
Majority of the respondents accepted that Generation Gap plays a role in decision
making in online shopping. The older generation is not much comfortable in shopping
online owing to the factors like lack of technical know-how, perceived insecurities
with online transactions and lack of trust. The young population is the biggest
attraction of this industry and they may contribute substantially to the growth of
online shopping in India.
CONCLUSION
The current study is descriptive in nature and it has made an attempt to understand the
behavior of indian consumers towards online shopping of high involvement products. It has
been found that the indian consumers are very quickly drifting towards online even for high
involvement products. These products which usually modeled in high-tech showrooms are
now finding asylum in online websites. The reliability and the quality provided by online
retailers as a result of high competition to excel and sustain customers has ended up in a huge
growing customer base. The participants even felt that they would always choose online
shopping for high involvement products over traditional methods thanks to the ease of
shopping and easy replacement options provided.
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REFERENCES
[1] Prof. Jiger Manek & Dr. Ruta Khaparde, (2015). Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards
Online Jewellery Shopping. International Journal of Science Technology and Management,
4(01), .
[2] Dr. Ashutosh A.Sandhe,(2014). Consumers' Approach Towards High Involvement
Products and Low involvement Products: A Study of Buying Behaviour in Vadodara. Pacific
Business Review International, 7(5), .
[3] Dr. Renuka Sharma, Dr. Kiran Mehta & Shashank Sharma(2014). Understanding Online
Shopping Behaviour of Indian Shoppers. IJMBS, 4(3), .
[4] Lina Zhou, Liwei Dai & Dongsong Zhang (2007). Online Shopping Acceptance Model- A
Critical Survey of Consumer Factors in Online Shopping. Journal of Electronic Commerce
Research, 8(1),
[5] Anubhav Singh. (2016). E-Commerce in India- Consumer Buying Behaviour and Growth
Trends an Exploratory Study. Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 4(2), .