Consumers Have All the Control
Emma Sheehan, Jing Gao, Dapai Wang, Shan Xu, Yunhan Jiao
Background and Method
Consumer Behaviors are researched within five themes; fashion, beauty,
staying accommodations, transportation and food delivery services.
In this research project, Chinese International Students were the
demographic. This was decided because there are few studies geared
toward researching Chinese International Students specifically.
Methods
Quantitative data was accumulated via the online survey from 31
participants (18 females and 13 males) that use the social media app,
WeChat. WeChat is only for the Chinese population.
Qualitative data was collected from 3 individual interview groups where
participants would be asked via our group members. Two of the
interviewees were male and one was female.
Limitations
- Face-to-face interaction with possible participants on campus
- Opening the online survey to non Penn State students
- Advertised more than we did
- Asked more Consumer Behavior questions as a broad topic
Fashion/Clothing
What influences Chinese international students to follow
fashion trends and how do they accumulate these pieces?
Fashion has greatly evolved within the last 5 years all thanks to social
media. Influencers are the new way to market. (citations)
From the online survey, 67.7% of the 30 participants prefer to shop for
clothes online and the 30 of them like to shop for clothes (refer to Figure
1).
41.9% of the participants from the online survey said they use their own
money to buy clothes and 22.6% said they sometimes do.
Because the majority of the people said they use their own money,
58.1% of the people answered they prefer fast fashion over buying from
luxury brands.
Two out of three of the people who were individually interviewed,
discussed they were influenced by social media advertising and
YouTube to buy clothes online.
Luxury brands are said that they are becoming more popular due to
influencers sponsoring for these companies. This means social media
influencers have a strong voice that alter consumer’s behaviors, proven
by the online survey. It was not expected that luxury vs. fast fashion
almost broke even.
Penn State University
Figure 1
Makeup
Why do international students buy makeup products online?
Online shopping as a whole has become an important part of the
makeup industry.
According to the survey, all of the participants who like to buy
makeup online is the exact same number of people who wear and
buy it in general (64.5% or 20 people: refer to Figure 1).
Answers as to why participants are inclined to buy makeup online as
opposed to in-store shopping:
- 41.7% - Convenience
- 37.5% - Online Reviews
- 20.8 % - No Human Interaction
70% of the participants think seeing the physical products is the
reason why they shop in-store, which is the biggest disadvantage of
online shopping makeup.
Online shopping for beauty products has apparently become more
popular as proven by the online survey. However, people like to
shop in-store (gathered from survey) to see the actual products
because makeup is harder to buy online.
Figure 2
Food Delivery Services
What are Chinese international student’s
consumer behaviors toward online food
delivery services?
Online food delivery service is having the food delivery from
restaurants to other places through online websites or Apps.
According to our survey, Chinese international students, they love
to order Chinese food through online delivery platforms..
- 83.9% international students had been ordered food online and
about 59.3% orders for dinner.
Figure 3
- 70% of use Ricepo or One Menu which are Chinese Online
food delivery platforms.
- Delivery fees are around $4 right now, however $2 is an
acceptable by most people in our survey. Staying Accommodations
- 95% are willing to tip the drivers.
Why do Chinese international students choose Airbnb
Although, Grubhub may be perceived as the biggest food delivery instead of Hotel to spend leisure time with their friends
platforms in the nation, Chinese International students prefer using and family exploring different and various tourism
local Chinese platforms (Ricepo and One Menu.)
destinations throughout the world?
Chinese language option, consumer experiences, and payments Nowadays, people like to spend leisure time exploring various
method are the factors those shaped Chinese International students
tourism destinations throughout the world. Airbnb has become
consumer behaviors in State College.
popular in the hospitality industry in recent years which brings
many new product and service standards. (citations)
From the online survey:
- 74.2% of the participants have used Airbnb before.
Transportation - Within a year, 57.7% of the participants use Airbnb 1-2
times, 23.1% of participants used 3-5 times, and 19.2% of
What motivates Chinese international students to participants used more than 5 times.
choose to take the taxi or Uber in daily travel? - 88.5% of the participants said that they would use Airbnb
again in the future.
The majority of our sample of Chinese International students
(87.1%) at Penn State use Uber/Lyft in their daily life. The
purpose of this study is to figure out what types of consumer In the survey it has been proven that personal factors and social
factors are both affecting consumer behaviors when choosing
behaviors are factored into choosing modes of transportation for
international students. Airbnb accommodation. It has been found that the most
influencing factors which encourage Chinese international
Two out of three participants from the individual interviews prefer students to choose and use Airbnb accommodation are cost,
location, and authenticity (Figure 4).
taxi because they think that taxis are cheaper than Uber/Lyft. The
other interviewee likes to use Uber because it is more convenient
and taxis take longer to come.
From the online survey, 87.1% of participants use Uber/Lyft
- 3.2% of participants use taxis
- 9.7% of participants do NOT use Uber/Lyft or taxi at all
The figure 4 shows, most participants use Uber/Lyft because of its
convenience and easy to access. For participants who use the taxi,
they think it is safe, convenient and easy to access.
It was expected that the majority of Chinese international students
do not know how to drive a car but the data proved me wrong,
because the majority (77.4%) of participants said they know how
to drive. Also, the result shows Chinese international students
choices to use Uber/Lyft based on its convenience.
Figure 4