Predicting Consumers' Acceptance of Online Shopping on the Internet: An Empirical Study

Introduction

The world of retailing is undergoing an exceptional wave of innovation. New business models are having e-retailing as an integral part and focusing a wider retail value chain. In the present competitive marketing conditions, internet has captivated the attention of all the retail marketers. The shoppers are rapidly adopting internet as a means of shopping and is becoming more popular day-to-day in India. The internet technologies offer wide benefits to the consumers such as additional channel for information, convenience, cost savings, time efficiency and avoidance of crowds. Furthermore, the Internet makes an unlimited range of products and services accessible for consumers all around the world, people can buy or sell virtually anything, at any time, from anywhere, through online shopping. Due to ever increasing work pressure, multiple roles in life style, paucity of time, consumers are on the lookout of such facility that can suit to their changing needs.

Consumers are well associated than ever before and relatively have more information and choices at their fingertips due to expanding connectivity of internet all over the world. Online consumers always seek new products, attractiveness and the most important thing being price compatibility with their budget (Katta & Patro, 2017). The convenience in shopping is the major desirability factor for the consumers. Shoppers also use internet for comparison of prices and items, news, visit social networks and search information and so on. The online consumers buying intentions depend on the factors such as shopping motives, personality variables, internet knowledge and experience, shopping incentives, website visibility, e-store credibility, information comparison, payment security, privacy, and convenient time (Wang et al., 2008). Culture, social, personal, psychological behaviour also affects the consumers’ attitude in online shopping. Online shoppers always want to seek information within few clicks and reach to the most relevant information according to their requirements such as competitive brands, best price offers, product specification and consumer word-of-mouth (Gao, 2005). In future, the websites can enhance their technology enormously, allowing for much easier and a more realistic buying experience.

The growing security concerns, poor digital marketing skills, lack of proper governance and poor integration of technology are the challenges faced by the industry. To continue this growth path it is necessary to tackle these issues effectively (Rao & Patro, 2016). The various forces driving the growth of online retailing across all the major geographies include: improvements in technology, new needs and desires of consumers, increase of internet and smart phone users and growth of social media. Capturing customers’ product and payment preferences to deliver an enhanced online shopping experience is driving the growth of e-retailing. The retailers cannot compete exclusively based on sheer volumes in ever-evolving, information symmetric and globalised world of e-marketing. Instead, the realm of competition has shifted to ever-shortening timeliness, both consistently and predictably. In order to remain competitive, the online marketers need to adopt effective strategies to satisfy their customers’ needs and wants. But the shoppers’ behaviour in a virtual environment often seems to be a complex, as their expectations change with the change in time and technological advancements.