online shopping research topic

103 Online Shopping Topic Ideas & Essay Examples

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When it comes to choosing an essay topic, online shopping has plenty ideas to offer. That’s why we present to you our online shopping topic list! Here, you will find best hand-picked essay titles and research ideas.

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• Online Shopping vs. Traditional Shopping The advent of internet shopping in the late nineties created a revolution in the retail industry. It is possible to know about the sizes, features, and costs of products in online and traditional shopping.
• Traditional vs. Online Shopping Traditional shopping involves shoppers physically entering a brick-and-mortar store or shopping mall to select items of their choice, pay for them in cash or by credit card, and either take delivery personally or have them […]
• Influence of Online Shopping Apps on Impulsive Buying Olsen et al.go further and confirms that online shopping apps have increased impulse buying due to the wealth of information they provide the consumer.
• Advantages of Online Shopping In addition to this, the number of people adapting to online shopping is expected to grow, due to the numerous benefits associated with it.
• International Students Attitudes Towards Online Shopping The researcher strived to answer three key questions, which sought to find out students’ attitudes towards online shopping, the nationality of students who make the largest number of online purchases, and the barriers that prevent […]
• Drawbacks and Benefits of Online Shopping One of the benefits of online shopping is that it makes the customer have quick access to items that are identical regardless of where he or she does the shopping for them.
• Consumer Behavior in Online Shopping On the one hand, earlier studies argue that purchase intention is the key motivator for the consumers. Qualitative method is based upon judgment and intuition of the experts in the matter and consumers.
• Product Reviews in Online Shopping The paper will discuss strategies used by online retailers in their product reviews as well as describe a research study that can be used to explore the relationship between customer comments and their buying habits.
• Online Shopping Characteristics and Effectiveness Background information on online shopping will be presented, and the way on how to succeed in online shopping will be discussed. What are the details of online shopping DMC students should be aware of?
• Online Shopping as a Method of Supply Online shopping is the method of selling goods and services that allows individuals to sell goods directly over the internet. This mode of operation is better than the use of door-to-door sales people who can […]
• The Era of Online Shopping Today, online shopping has become a great phenomenon thanks to the rapid development of internet security technologies and a similar pace in the penetration of the World Wide Web.
• Consumer Attitudes Towards Online Shopping Since the online environment gives consumer a wider choice of products and product platforms from where to make their purchases, this study seeks to establish the exact consumer behaviour portrayed in an e-commerce environment and […]
• Amazon’s Success: Online Shopping Psychology One of the many factors contributing to Amazon’s success is its thorough understanding of its consumers, which is shown in the layout of its website and the numerous innovations it has brought to online retail.
• Saudi Women’s Perspective on Online Shopping Owing to the existence of different sites, the researcher examined the growth and expansion of the e-commerce segment in the nation.
• Consumer Behavior in Online Shopping: A Study of Aizawl The article shows the effective use of credibility of the authors, appropriate structure and organization, regional relevance of the cited literature, and functional illustrative material.
• The Effects of Online Shopping on Customer Loyalty For example, the study by Afrashteh, Azad, and Tabatabaei Hanzayy is dedicated to the concept of online shopping and the use of this electronic marketing technique to influence customer loyalty in conditions of the state […]
• Jordan’s Furniture Company and Online Shopping First of all, I would like to point out that Jordan’s Furniture is a furniture retailer in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the U.S.A.
• Survey Analysis: Phones vs. PC in Online Shopping The findings of the survey indicate that the majority of female online shoppers prefer using mobile phones to make purchases; both computer and mobile apps are used to shop online.
• How Motivation Influences Online Shopping The Balanced Buyer: In this cluster, about a third of the sample was moderately driven by the desire to seek variety.
• Online Shopping and Its Advantages The decision of a customer to buy a product from a specific website depends on the reputation of the company and brand, which owns it.
• Amazon’s Online Shopping and Innovative Delivery The company started as an online seller of books, but later, Amazon became the platform for a variety of goods and services to sell.
• UK Consumer Attitudes Towards Online Shopping It means that delivery represents a vital component of the overall purchasing or service reception experience and contributes to the development of customer loyalty.
• Online Shopping Impact on the Global Retail Industry While the significance and the convenience of e-commerce are indisputable, it is important to study its impact on the traditional retail industry around the world to identify the challenges, which it has to withstand.
• Secure Online Shopping System Integration Therefore, the new service called SOSS, which is proposed in the management of the online ticketing business, will form part of the actual customer safety guarantee service.
• Peacock Fashion Company’s Online Shops The purpose of the paper will be to determine the characteristics and feelings of online shoppers as related to online fashion shopping in United Kingdom market.
• Online Shopping Impact on the Fashion & Design Industry In this report, the aim will be to determine the impact of online shopping on the fashion and design industry. The increased profitability of this industry means that the individual firms have the capacity to […]
• Consumer Science: Online Shopping in the United Arab Emirates In an attempt to identify these factors, the present study uses a mixed-methods methodology to show the importance of online shopping and how this concept has changed consumer habits on shopping in the UAE. The […]
• Online Shopping: Benefits and Drawbacks Essay The last major advantage of online shopping is that it assists the customer to find the best deal on a product.
• Online Shopping Platform for La Donna Boutique By using online services, La Donna cost of production will be reduced because it will be selling goods directly to the customers and this will make producers to get rid of costly intermediaries. The e-commerce […]
• Secure Online Shopping System Model on Customer Behavior The aim is to find respondents who are the potential, if not actual customers of our online products who fall within the category of youths and young adults described in the introduction.
• Service Marketing: Online Shopping Competition Their website allows customers to register with them and be able to do their shopping from the comfort of their homes.
• Online Shopping and Purchase Decision The above is a detailed explanation of the buying process for an online product specifically E-reader from Kindle. The customer will then evaluate the alternatives and make a purchase decision.
• Online Shop Business Plan One of the major aims of a supply chain management is to ensure that the goods used in manufacture are of the right quality and quantity; this goes ahead as it is reflected in the […]
• Online Shopping vs. Brick-And-Mortar Shopping
• The Need for Accelerated Knowledge Management Within Internet Banking and Online Shopping
• Using Online Shopping Codes to Save Money
• Online Shopping Increases Consumption Rate
• The Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Shopping
• The Consumer Society: Advertising and Online Shopping
• Understanding Egyptian Consumers’ Intentions in Online Shopping
• Online Shopping Services for Consumers and Businesses
• Online Shopping Will Replace Traditional Shopping
• Visiting Malls While Online Shopping Is Fun
• The Relationship Between Marketing Mix and Buying Decision Process on the Online Shopping in Thailand
• The Advantages and Risks of Online Shopping
• Walmart Online Shopping Information System
• The Most Famous Online Shopping Website In China
• Perceived Risk and Online Shopping Intention: A Study Across Gender and Product Type
• The Benefits and Disadvantages of Online Shopping
• Online Shopping Reviewers Are Not All That They Seem
• Analyzing Customer Satisfaction: Users Perspective Towards Online Shopping
• Australian Customers and Online Shopping
• Antique Motorcycle Online Shopping Options
• Relationship Between Convenience, Perceived Value, and Repurchase Intention in Online Shopping in Vietnam
• The Development and Validation of the Online Shopping Addiction Scale
• Television Advertising and Online Shopping
• Assessing Benefits and Risks of Online Shopping in Spain and Scotland
• Online Shopping: Effectiveness and Convenience
• The Legal Issues Surrounding Online Shopping
• Taobao Established Shopping From Home With Online Shopping
• The Pros and Cons of Online Shopping vs. Brick and Mortar Stores
• Why People Like Online Shopping
• Online Shopping Lifts Aramex Profits by 4% and Rent Cap Removal Hits Abu Dhabi
• What Influences Online Shopping Of Individuals From European Countries
• Perceived Value, Transaction Cost, and Repurchase-Intention in Online Shopping: A Relational Exchange Perspective
• Online Shopping Unexpected Impacts Are We Gaining More or Less
• Differentiation Between Traditional and Online Shopping
• Popular Websites For Online Shopping
• The Online Shopping Industry Has Changed The World
• Online Shopping: Product Availability and Logistics
• The Interactions Between Online Shopping and Personal Activity Travel Behavior: An Analysis With a Gps-Based Activity Travel Diary
• Statistics and Facts About Online Shopping
• Analysing Online Shopping Behaviour of Google Merchandising Store Customers
• How Effect of Freight Insurance on Consumers’ Attitudes Toward Online Shopping?
• Does Online Shopping Cause Us to Spend More Money?
• Does Freight Insurance Work in Online Shopping?
• What Are the Pros and Cons of Online Shopping?
• How Do E-Servicescapes Affect Customers’ Online Shopping Intention?
• What Are the Moderating Effects of Gender and Online Shopping Experience?
• How Online Shopping Behaviour Is a Priority Issue for Many?
• How Does Online Shopping Cause You to Spend More Money?
• How Has Online Shopping Become a Convenient and Efficient Time?
• What Effects Repurchase Intention of Online Shopping?
• What Influences Online Shopping of Individuals From European Countries?
• Why Are More Customers Switching to Online Shopping From Traditional Coursework?
• Why Do People Like Online Shopping?
• What Is the Cheapest Online Shopping Site?
• What Is Called Online Shopping?
• How Many Types of Online Shopping Are There?
• Is Online Shopping Cheaper Than In-Store?
• What Are the Disadvantages of Online Shopping?
• What Is the Advantage and Disadvantage of Online Shopping?
• Why Is Online Shopping Better?
• What Is the Importance of Online Shopping?
• How Is Online Shopping Helpful?
• What Are the Factors Influencing Online Shopping?
• Do Consumers Prefer Online Shopping?
• How Does COVID Affect Online Shopping?
• What Are the Benefits of Online Shopping?
• How Does Online Shopping Affect the Consumer?
• What Is the Theory of Online Shopping?
• How Has Online Shopping Changed the Way We Shop?
• How Does Online Shopping Affect the Economy?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Online consumer satisfaction during covid-19: perspective of a developing country.

• 1 Antai College of Economics & Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
• 2 School of Management, Zhejiang Shuren University, Hangzhou, China
• 3 Faculty of Management Sciences, Riphah International University, Faisalabad Campus, Punjab, Pakistan
• 4 Department of Professional Psychology, Bahria University, Islamabad, Pakistan

A conceptual model based on the antecedents and consequences of online consumer satisfaction has been proposed and empirically proved in this study. Data were collected during Smart Lockdown of COVID-19 from 800 respondents to observe the difference between perceived and actual, and direct and indirect e-stores. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to observe the validity of the data set. The structural equation modeling technique was used to test the hypotheses. The findings indicated that consumers feel more satisfied when they shop through direct e-store than indirect e-store, whereas their perception and actual experience are different. Implications have also been added to the study.

Introduction

Online shopping is the act of buying a product or service through any e-stores with the help of any website or app. Tarhini et al. (2021) stated that shopping through online channels is actively progressing due to the opportunity to save time and effort. Furthermore, online shopping varies from direct e-store and indirect e-store about their perception against the actual experience. Developing countries still face various conflicts and issues while promoting and utilizing e-commerce to the maximum compared with the developed countries ( Rossolov et al., 2021 ). In the developing countries, the difference between the perception and actual experience of the consumers varies when buying from indirect e-store compared to the direct e-store. On the contrary, as the world has been suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, it has brought drastic changes globally in many sectors, business being one of them. De Vos (2020) stated that a large-scale lockdown was imposed worldwide to prevent the virus from spreading.

To survive, switching traditional shopping or trade toward digital was one factor that captured the attention across the globe on a larger scale. In April 2020, Walmart reported a 74% increase in online sales even though they faced a low customer walk-in at stores ( Nassauer, 2020 ; Redman, 2020 ). This upsurge of swift adoption of online channels has led this research to ask a few questions. First, what will be the difference between the perceived and the actual product purchased online? A recent study has documented that consumers bear actual risk after shopping through online channels ( Yang et al., 2020 ). Research reported that 30% of the products through online channels get returned and are not according to their perception ( Saleh, 2016 ). The same author also showed that the return and complaint rates are getting higher when consumers shop through an online channel.

Second, is there any difference between the perceived and the actual product purchase online from a direct e-store or an indirect e-store? Direct e-store means the online brand store, for example, Walmart, and indirect e-store means third-party stores such as Amazon, Alibaba, Jingdong (JD), and Daraz. The direct e-store strives hard to maintain a clear, potent perception in the mind of its buyer ( Grewal et al., 2009 ). Kumar and Kim (2014) stated that a brand strengthening its relationship with its consumer satisfies its needs through the actual product or services. In the literature ( Olotewo, 2017 ; Rossolov et al., 2021 ), it is stated that the shopping patterns of buyers from direct and indirect e-stores vary greatly, especially in the developing countries. In this way, when shopping through a direct e-store, consumers may easily recognize the difference in buying from a direct and indirect e-stores ( Mendez et al., 2008 ).

Third, a conceptual framework from a consumer perspective, antecedents and consequences of customer satisfaction, has been proposed and empirically proved. The literature ( Alharthey, 2020 ) discussed different risk types in online shopping. Three main types of risk, perceived uncertainty, perceived risk, and price, are addressed in this model. To the best of the knowledge of the authors, no such investigation directed specific circumstances, particularly in the developing countries. Therefore, it is necessary to look for the antecedents and consequences of customer satisfaction to promote online shopping in the developing countries. The degree of consumer satisfaction defines his/her experience and emotions about the product or service purchased through the online channel. Recent studies ( Guzel et al., 2020 ; Mamuaya and Pandowo, 2020 ) stated that the intention of the consumers to repurchase and their electronic-word-of-mouth (e-WOM) depends on their degree of satisfaction. In light of these heavy investments in online shopping, there is an exciting yet unexplored opportunity to comprehend better how the purchasing experiences of consumers through online channels influence their satisfaction level.

The study contributed to the current marketing literature in several ways. First, this study has highlighted that the perceived risk is very high when shopping through online channels, mainly the indirect e-stores. Therefore, the managers should develop strategies that reduce the perceived risk for the online consumer to shop more. Second, the study also disclosed that the perceived uncertainty in shopping through the online channel is high. While shopping online, the website design, graphics, and color scheme make the product more attractive than the actual one. Therefore, the managers must balance the visual appearance of the product on the website with the actual appearance of the product. This would increase the confidence and satisfaction of the consumer. Third, this study has also revealed that people are more satisfied while shopping from direct e-stores than indirect e-stores. Because the focal brands officially sponsor the direct e-stores, they pay more attention to their quality to retain consumers and maintain their brand reputation. Fourth, an indirect e-store works as a third party or a retailer who does not own the reputation of the product. This study exhibited the difference between the perception of the consumer being very high and the actual experience of using that product being quite different when shopping from the indirect channel. Last but not the least, this study is the first to report pre- and post-purchase consumer behavior and confirmed the perceived and the actual quality of a product bought from (i) direct e-store and (ii) indirect e-store.

Literature Review

Theoretical review.

Literature shows that when consumers get influenced to buy a particular product or service, some underlying roots are based on their behavior ( Wai et al., 2019 ). Appraisal theory significantly explains consumer behavior toward shopping and provides an opportunity to analyze the evaluation process (e.g., Roseman, 2013 ; Kähr et al., 2016 ; Moors et al., 2017 ; Ul Haq and Bonn, 2018 ). This research, aligned with the four dimensions of appraisal theory as the first stage, clearly defines the agency stage that either of the factors is responsible for customer satisfaction. The second stage explains that consumer's degree of satisfaction holds great importance and refers to novelty in the literature. The third stage of the model briefly explains the feelings and emotions of the consumers about the incident, aligning with the certainty phase. The last step explains whether the consumers have achieved their goal or are not aligned with the appetitive purpose.

Cognitive appraisal researchers stated that various emotions could be its root cause ( Scherer, 1997 ); it could be the reaction to any stimulus or unconscious response. On the contrary, four dimensions of appraisal theory are discussed in this research ( Ellsworth and Smith, 1988 ; Ma et al., 2013 ). Agency (considering themselves or objects are answerable for the result of the circumstance) ( Smith and Ellswoth, 1985 ; Durmaz et al., 2020 ); novelty (assessing the difference between the perception of an individual and his actual experience) ( Ma et al., 2013 ); certainty (analysis of the apparent probability of a specific outcome and its effect on the emotions of the buyer) ( Roseman, 1984 ), and appetitive goal (judging the degree to what extent the goal has been achieved) ( Hosany, 2012 ).

Hypotheses Development

Perceived risk and consumer satisfaction.

Perceived risk is the perception of shoppers having unpleasant results for buying any product or service ( Gozukara et al., 2014 ). Consumers who buy a specific product or service strongly impact their degree of risk perception toward buying ( Jain, 2021 ). Buyers who tend to indulge in buying through online channels face perceived risk characterized by their perception compared to the actual uncertainty involved in it ( Kim et al., 2008 ). Literature ( Ashoer and Said, 2016 ; Ishfaq et al., 2020 ) showed that as the risk of buying is getting higher, it influences the degree of consumers about information about their buying, either purchasing from the direct or indirect e-shop. Johnson et al. (2008) stated that consumer judgment that appears due to their experience strongly impacts their satisfaction level. Jin et al. (2016) said that as the ratio of risk perception of their consumer decreases, it enhances customer satisfaction. Thus, from the above arguments, it is hypothesized as follows:

H 1 : Perceived risk has a significant negative impact on consumer satisfaction—direct vs. indirect e-store; perceived vs. actual experience .

Perceived Uncertainty and Consumer Satisfaction

Uncertainty is defined as a time that occurs in the future that comprises the predictable situation due to the asymmetry nature of data ( Salancik and Pfeffer, 1978 ). Consumers may not expect the outcome of any type of exchange conducted as far as the retailer and product-oriented elements are concerned ( Pavlou et al., 2007 ). Therefore, uncertainty initiates that retailers may not be completely predictable; on the contrary, consumers tend to analyze and understand their actions about decision making ( Tzeng et al., 2021 ). Thus, the degree of uncertainty involved in buying through online channels influences that degree of customer satisfaction. In addition, when the performance of any particular product or service matches the degree of expectations, he gets satisfied and, hence, repeats his decision of buying ( Taylor and Baker, 1994 ). But if the product quality fails to meet the requirements, it negatively affects the degree of satisfaction ( Cai and Chi, 2018 ).

H 2 : Perceived uncertainty has a significant negative impact on consumer satisfaction—direct vs. indirect e-store; perceived vs. actual experience .

Price Value and Consumer Satisfaction

Oliver and DeSarbo (1988) suggested that the price value is the proportion of the result of the buyer to the input of the retailer. It is defined as an exchange of products/services based on their quality against a price that is to be paid ( Dodds et al., 1991 ). Consumers look for a higher value in return; consumers are willing to pay a higher price ( Pandey et al., 2020 ). Yet, it leads to higher dissatisfaction when they receive a lower degree of profitable products. Besides, the buyers associate such type of product/service they use as less favorable or not according to their needs and desires. Hence, the buyers regret their decision-making degree for choosing that particular product ( Zeelenberg and Pieters, 2007 ). Aslam et al. (2018) indicated that a product/service price influences the satisfaction of a buyer. Afzal et al. (2013) recommended that the price is among those factors that hold great significance for the degree of satisfaction of the consumer. If the price value of any product/service differs from consumer to consumer, consumers tend to switch brands. Hence, it is hypothesized that:

H3 : Price value has a significant positive impact on consumer satisfaction—direct vs. indirect e-store; perceived vs. actual experience .

Consumer Satisfaction With Consumer Delight, Consumer Regret, and Outrage

Satisfaction is defined as how a consumer is pleased with a particular brand or view about a product/service that matches requirements. It is an essential factor that triggers when the product or service performance exceeds the expectation and perception of the customers ( Woodside et al., 1989 ). The decision of the buyer significantly affects their satisfaction toward the product or service ( Park et al., 2010 ). If buyers are satisfied with the product/service they purchased online, this degree of satisfaction significantly affects their repurchase intention and WOM ( Butt et al., 2017 ). Tandon (2021) stated that a consumer satisfied with the product/service would get delighted. Consumer satisfaction, when exceeding the expectations, leads to consumer delight ( Mikulić et al., 2021 ). Mattila and Ro (2008) recommended that the buyer gets disappointed by anger, regret, and outrage. It also defines that negative emotions have a significant effect on the purchasing intention of the consumers. Oliver (1989) stated that unsatisfied buyers or products that do not fulfill the needs of the customers can create negative emotions. Sometimes, their feelings get stronger and result in sadness and outrage. Bechwati and Xia (2003) recommended that the satisfaction of the consumers influences their behavior to repurchase; outraged consumers due to dissatisfaction sometimes want to hurt the company. Besides deciding to purchase, consumers mostly regret their choices compared to other existing choices ( Rizal et al., 2018 ). Hechler and Kessler (2018) investigated that consumers who are outraged in nature actively want to hurt or harm the company or brand from which they got dissatisfied or hurt. Thus, it is proposed that:

H 4 : Consumer satisfaction has a significant negative impact on (a) consumer delight, (b) consumer regret, (c) consumer outrage—direct vs. indirect e-store; perceived vs. actual experience .

Consumer Delight and E-WOM

Oliver et al. (1997) recommended that a degree of delight in a buyer is termed as a positive emotion. Consumers purchase a product/service that raises their degree of expectation and gets them delighted ( Crotts and Magnini, 2011 ). Delighted buyers are involved in sharing their experiences with their friends and family and spreading positive WOM to others ( Parasuraman et al., 2020 ). Happy buyers generally share their opinions while posting positive feedback through social media platforms globally ( Zhang, 2017 ). A positive WOM of the buyer acts as a fundamental factor in spreading awareness about the product/service and strongly impacts other buyers regarding buying it ( Rahmadini and Halim, 2018 ). Thus, it is proposed that:

H5 : Consumer delight has a significant positive impact on E-WOM—direct vs. indirect e-store; perceived vs. actual experience .

Consumer Delight and Repurchase Intention

Delighted consumers tend toward brand loyalty; thus, they increase their buying intention of the service or product ( Ludwig et al., 2017 ; Ahmad et al., 2021 ). Customers can understand the objective of loyalty in purchasing a similar product or a new one from the same company. Delighted consumers tend to indulge in a higher degree of an emotional state that leads them to higher purchase intentions; it eliminates the switching of brands ( Parasuraman et al., 2020 ). Kim et al. (2015) stated that consumers delighted with a product or service of a brand become loyal to it, and the possibility of switching brands gets very low. Research ( Loureiro and Kastenholz, 2011 ; Tandon et al., 2020 ) shows that delighted consumers are more eager to purchase the same product again. Hence, it is proposed that:

H6 : Consumer delight has a significant positive impact on his repurchase intention—direct Vs. indirect e-store; Perceived Vs. actual experience

Consumer Regret and E-WOM

Regret is considered a negative emotion in reaction to an earlier experience or action ( Tsiros and Mittal, 2000 ; Kumar et al., 2020 ). Regret is when individuals frequently feel pity, disgrace, shame, or humiliation after acting in a particular manner and afterward try to amend their possible actions or decisions ( Westbrook and Oliver, 1991 ; Tsiros and Mittal, 2000 ). Regret is that specific negative emotion the buyers feel while making a bad decision that hurts them; their confidence level is badly affected. They blame themselves for choosing or creating a terrible decision ( Lee and Cotte, 2009 ). Li et al. (2010) suggested that buyers quickly start regretting and find their way to express their negative emotions. When they feel betrayed, they tend to spread negative WOM (NWOM) as a response to their anxiety or anger. Jalonen and Jussila (2016) suggested that buyers who get dissatisfied with their selections get involved in negative e-WOM about that particular brand/company. Earlier research says that buyers suffering from failure to buy any product/services tend to participate actively and play a role in spreading NWOM due to the degree of regret after making bad choices. Whelan and Dawar (2014) suggested that consumers sense that business has treated them unreasonably, and many consumers complain about their experience, resulting in e-WOM that may reduce consumer repurchase intention. Thus, it can be stated that:

H7 : Consumer regret has a significant negative impact on e-WOM—direct vs. indirect e-store; perceived vs. actual experience .

Consumer Regret and Repurchase Intention

Regret has a substantial influence on the intentions of the consumers to not entirely be measured by their degree of happiness ( Thibaut and Kelley, 2017 ). Results may not be evaluated by matching the structured degree of expectation but are also linked to alternatives reachable in the market. Therefore, such sort of evaluation and assessments will probably influence repurchase intention. For example, suppose the skipped reserve overtakes the picked alternative. In that case, the customer might change the replacement for the future purchase, regardless of whether the individual is profoundly happy with the picked option ( Liao et al., 2017 ). According to the researchers, there is a negative relationship between regret and consumer repurchase intention ( Liao et al., 2017 ; Durmaz et al., 2020 ). Furthermore, Unal and Aydin (2016) stated that perceived risk negatively impacts regret, influencing the repurchase intention of the consumers. Thus, it can be stated that:

H8 : Customer's regret has a significantly negative influence on his repurchase intention—direct vs. indirect e-store; perceived vs. actual experience .

Consumer Outrage and E-WOM

The disappointment of the consumers is a negative response to a product or a service ( Anderson and Sullivan, 1993 ). Outrage is the negative emotion a consumer experience when he purchases something totally against his requirements ( Lindenmeier et al., 2012 ). Besides, when the perception of the buyer is infringed, such behaviors occur. According to Torres et al. (2019) , enraged consumers get involved in communicating their outrage through e-WOM. Outraged consumers actively hurt the firm or brand from which they got hurt ( Hechler and Kessler, 2018 ). Consumers give e-WOM online reviews to decrease the negative emotions from the experiences of the consumer and re-establish a calm mental state to equilibrium ( Filieri et al., 2021 ). Thus, such consumers tend to give negative comments about the brand or product, which failed to match their expectations. NWOM has been characterized as negative reviews shared among people or a type of interpersonal communication among buyers concerning their experiences with a particular brand or service provider ( Balaji et al., 2016 ). Hence, it is hypothesized that:

H9 : Consumer outrage has a significant negative impact on e-WOM—direct vs. indirect e-store; perceived vs. actual experience .

Consumer Outrage and Repurchase Intentions

Repurchase intentions are characterized as the expressed trust of a buyer that they will or will not purchase a specific product and service again in the future ( Malhotra et al., 2006 ). Establishing relations with buyers should result in the repurchase. Negative disconfirmation ensues dissatisfaction or a higher level of outrage ( Escobar-Sierra et al., 2021 ). When a service/product fails and is not correctly addressed, the negative appraisal is overstated. Hence, “it may be more difficult to recover from feelings of victimization than to recover from irritation or annoyance” typically associated with dissatisfaction ( Schneider and Bowen, 1999 , p. 36). Therefore, consumers get outraged from buying such a product that fails to match their perception. When the experience of a consumer prompts a negative disconfirmation, the purchaser will also have a higher urging level through outrage. Therefore, consumers will probably have negative intentions to repurchase and do not want to indgule in making the same decision repeatedly ( Wang and Mattila, 2011 ; Tarofder et al., 2016 ). Therefore, it is proposed that:

H10 : Consumer outrage has a significant negative impact on repurchase intention—direct vs. indirect e-store; perceived vs. actual experience .

Methodology

This research explores the difference between the perception of the consumers and the actual online shopping experience through direct and indirect e-stores. It was an experimental design in which online shopping was studied in the developing countries. Data were collected from those individuals who shop from online channels; direct e-store and indirect e-store. Taking care of COVID-19 standard operating procedures, only 50 respondents were gathered two times, every time in a university auditorium after obtaining the permission from the administration. The total capacity of the auditorium was 500, as the lockdown restrictions were lifted after the first wave of the coronavirus.

Data Collection Tool

A questionnaire was used for the survey. The questionnaire was adapted in English to guarantee that the respondents quickly understood the questions used. A cross-sectional study technique was used for this research. A cross-sectional study helps in gathering the data immediately and collects data from a large sample size. The total number of distributed questionnaires was 1,250, out of which 800 were received in the usable form: 197 incomplete, 226 incorrect, and dubious responses, and 27 were eliminated. Thus, a 64% response rate was reported. Research showed that a 1:10 ratio is accepted ( Hair et al., 1998 ) as far as the data collection is concerned; for that instance, this study data fell in the acceptable range.

Indirect E-Store

Consumers who prefer to shop through online channels were gathered in an auditorium of an institute. Only those consumers were eligible for this experiment, who themselves buy through e-stores. A few products were brought from an indirect e-store, and later on, those products were shown to the respondents from the website of that indirect e-store. After showing products, we asked the respondents to fill the survey as per their perception of the product. Then we asked them to fill out another questionnaire to ascertain the difference between the perception and actual experience when purchasing from an indirect e-store. Once all the respondents completed the survey, we have shown them the actual products they have selected by seeing the website of the indirect e-store.

Direct E-Store

The second experiment was carried out on those consumers who shop from direct e-stores. For that purpose, a few popular reviewed clothing articles were purchased from the e-store. As in the case of an indirect e-store, respondents were also shown these articles from the websites of these direct e-stores. We then asked the respondents to fill the survey to confirm their perception of the products. Once all the respondents completed the survey, we showed them the actual product and asked them to fill out another questionnaire according to their actual purchasing experience from the direct e-store. The primary purpose of this experiment was to compare buying from direct e-store and indirect e-store.

Construct Instruments

The total number of items was 34, which were added in the earlier section of the questionnaire. These items were evaluated with the help of using a five-point Likert scale that falls from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). The items used in the study were empirically validated. Table 2 carries the details of the items of the questionnaire. The price value was evaluated using three items used by Venkatesh et al. (2012) . The perceived uncertainty was one of the independent variables that carry four items derived from Pavlou et al. (2007) . Perceived risk was the third independent variable used, held three items; thus, its scale was derived from Shim et al. (2001) . Wang (2011) validated consumer satisfaction carrying three items; consumer delight was measured by a 3-item scale proposed by Finn (2012) ; consumer regret was measured by the scale proposed by Wu and Wang (2017) . It carries a three-item scale. Consumer outrage was measured by Liu et al. (2015 ); it has six items. Repurchase intention was measured through a scale adapted from Zeithaml et al. (1996) , which carries four items. e-WOM was validated by the scale adapted from Goyette et al. (2010) ; it has five items.

Demographics of the Respondents

A total of 800 questionnaires were filled, and the respondents expressed their perception and actual experience from direct e-store and indirect e-store. Respondents belonged to different age groups from 18 to 50 years and above. There were 49% women and 51% men who took part in filling this survey. The income level of the respondents was grouped in different categories from “above 10,000 to above 50,000. The majority (56%) of the respondents were single, and 44% were married (Details can be viewed in Figure 1 ; Table 1 ). Data for both direct and indirect e-store was collected equally; 50% each to compare each category better.

Figure 1 . Proposed conceptual framework.

Table 1 . Demographics of the respondents.

Reliability and Validity

Reliability evaluates with the help of composite reliability (CR). All CR values fall into the range of 0.7–0.9, which is acceptable ( Hair et al., 2011 ). Convergent and discriminant validity has been observed through confirmatory factor analysis as recommended by some researchers ( Fornell and Larcker, 1981 ; Hair et al., 2010 ).

Convergent Validity

Convergent validity is evaluated with the help of two standards mentioned in the literature earlier, factor loading and average variance extracted (AVE), both the values should be >0.5 ( Yap and Khong, 2006 ). The values are mentioned in Table 2 .

Table 2 . Reliability and convergent validity.

Discriminant Validity

Discriminant validity is evaluated based on two conditions that are required to evaluate it. First, the correlation between the conceptual model variables should be <0.85 ( Kline, 2005 ). Second, the AVE square value must be less than the value of the conceptual model ( Fornell and Larcker, 1981 ). Table 3 depicts the discriminant validity of the construct of the study.

Table 3 . Discriminant validity.

Multi-Group Invariance Tests

Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was conducted as the pre-requisites for the measurement model. The multi-group analysis was used to investigate a variety of invariance tests. Different invariance tests were performed to guarantee the items working precisely in the same manner in all the groups. In this research, the following are the model fit indexes, that is, CMIN/dF =2.992 CFI = 0.915, TLI = 0.906, and RMSEA = 0.071. Byrne (2010) and Teo et al. (2009) stated that CFI gives more accurate results, especially when comparing variables in different groups.

Hypotheses Testing

Scanning electron microscope technique was used to run and test the proposed hypotheses for the conceptual model. First, all the hypotheses proposed were checked, from which eight were initially accepted. Later, the multi-group test was utilized to test the proposed hypotheses and compare the shopping experience from direct e-store with indirect e-store and consumer perception with actual experience. Table 4 explains this in detail.

Table 4 . Hypotheses results.

Discussion and Implications

This research offers a remarkable number of facts for practitioners. This study can benefit marketing strategists by reducing the perceived risk, decreasing the intensity of perceived uncertainty, stabilizing the price, enhancing consumer satisfaction, promoting delighting consumers, accepting the negative behavior of the consumers, consumer retention, and establishing a positive e-WOM.

Reducing Risks

Certain factors play a role in antecedents of consumer satisfaction; they are particularly those that resist consumers to shop from any online channel, neither direct e-store nor indirect e-store. Perceived risk, perceived uncertainty, and the price are some of those antecedents that play a significant role in affecting the degree of satisfaction of the consumers, resulting in either to retain a consumer or to outrage a consumer. This study aligns with the existing literature. Tandon et al. (2016) ; Bonnin (2020) and Pandey et al. (2020) showed that consumers seek to shop from an e-store without bearing any risk. Consumers feel more confident about an e-store when the perceived risk is less than shopping from traditional ones as consumers want to feel optimistic about their decision. Second, e-vendors should ensure that the quality of a product is up to the mark and according to the consumer needs. Therefore, vendors should offer complete details about the product/service and its risks to the consumers. Moreover, this study suggests that e-stores must align the visuals of a product with its actual appearance. This would help them to increase customer satisfaction and confidence in the e-store.

Focus on Consumer Satisfaction

Consumer satisfaction is the deal-breaker factor in the online sector. Literature ( Shamsudin et al., 2018 ; Hassan et al., 2019 ) showed that organizations prioritize their consumers by fulfilling their requirements and required assistance. As a result, consumers are more confident and become satisfied consumers in the long run. This study adds to the literature that the degree of satisfaction of the consumers plays an essential role in shopping from an e-store. Consumers feel more confident in shopping from a direct e-store than an indirect e-store as the difference in the perception of consumers and the actual experience varies. Therefore, online vendors should focus on satisfying their consumers as it plays a remarkable role in retaining consumers.

Value Consumer Emotions

Online, retaining, and satisfying consumers are the most vital factor that directly affects the organization. This research aligns with the existing literature ( Jalonen and Jussila, 2016 ; Hechler and Kessler, 2018 ; Coetzee and Coetzee, 2019 ); when the retailer successfully fulfills its requirements, the consumer gets delighted repeating his choice to repurchase. On the other hand, if the online retailer fails to serve the consumer, the consumer regrets and, in extreme cases, becomes outraged about his decision. The negative emotions of the consumers threaten the company from many perspectives, as the company loses its consumer and its reputation in the market is affected. Therefore, first, market practitioners should avoid ignoring the requirements of consumers. Second, online vendors should pay special attention to the feedback of the consumers and assure them that they are valued.

Consumer Retention

The ultimate goal is to retain its consumers, but e-vendors should make proper strategies to satisfy their consumers as far as the online sector is concerned. The earlier studies of Zhang et al. (2015) and Ariffin et al. (2016) contributed to the literature that consumer satisfaction is a significant aspect in retaining a consumer. This research has also suggested that the satisfaction of the consumers plays a vital role in retaining them. Moreover, online shoppers provide the fastest spread of the right WOM about the product/ service. Second, consumers should feel valued and committed to vendors.

Pre- and Post-buying Behavior

This study contributed to a conceptual model that deals with consumer pre- and post-purchase behavior from the direct and indirect e-stores. With the help of experimental design, this study has reported its finding, highlighted how a satisfied customer is delightful and shares e-WOM, and showed repurchase intention. However, if the customer is not satisfied with the flip of a coin, he may feel regretted or outraged and cannot share e-WOM or have a repurchase intention.

Conclusions

This research concludes that online shopping has boomed during this COVID-19 pandemic period, as the lockdown prolonged in both the developed and the developing countries. The study further supports the difference between shopping from a direct e-store and an indirect e-store. The perception of the consumers shopping from direct e-store is more confident, and their degree of satisfaction is much higher, as the actual experience of the consumers aligns with their perceptions. Instead, consumers feel dissatisfied or outraged to choose an indirect e-store for shopping. Indirect e-store makes false promises and guarantees to its buyers, and eventually, when the consumers experience the product, it is against their perception.

This research fills the literature gap about the antecedents that lead to online shopping growth in the developing countries. This study aligns with Hechler and Kessler's (2018) earlier research, which stated that dissatisfied consumers threaten the reputation of the organization. Furthermore, Klaus and Maklan (2013) , Lemon and Verhoef (2016) suggested that handling the experience and satisfaction of the buyers plays a significant role in surviving among its competitors. Grange et al. (2019) recommended that e-commerce develops and attracts consumers by fulfilling their needs and requirements quickly. This study aligned with the existing literature by adding factors influencing the shopping preferences of the consumers from an e-store.

Limitations and Future Research

Despite its significant findings, this research has some limitations and scope for future research. First, this research only examined a few risks involved in online shopping. Future research studies should analyze other risks, for example, quality risk and privacy risk. Second, this study focused on shopping through direct e-stores and indirect e-stores. Future research can implement a conceptual model of a specific brand. Third, this study can be implemented in other sectors, for example, tourism, and hospitality. Fourth, it may be fascinating to look at other fundamentals, such as age, gender, education, relation with the retailer, or the degree of involvement with online shopping to differentiate other factors.

The proposed framework can be utilized in other developing countries, as every country faces different problems according to its growth and development. The model can be examined among specific direct e-stores to compare new customers and loyal customers. Future studies can explore indirect relationships along with adding mediators and moderators in the proposed model.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Ethics Statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by This study involving human participants was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Department of Management Sciences, Riphah International University, Faisalabad Campus, Faisalabad, Pakistan. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author Contributions

AS contributed to the conceptualization and writing the first draft of the research. JU contributed to visualizing and supervising the research. All authors who contributed to the manuscript read and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: consumer perception, online shopping, actual experiences, customer satisfaction, direct shopping, perceived risk, delight, outrage

Citation: Rao YH, Saleem A, Saeed W and Ul Haq J (2021) Online Consumer Satisfaction During COVID-19: Perspective of a Developing Country. Front. Psychol. 12:751854. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.751854

Received: 02 August 2021; Accepted: 30 August 2021; Published: 01 October 2021.

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Copyright © 2021 Rao, Saleem, Saeed and Ul Haq. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Junaid Ul Haq, junaid041@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

From clicks to consequences: a multi-method review of online grocery shopping

• Published: 23 October 2023

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• Arvind Shroff   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8544-5361 1 ,
• Satish Kumar   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5200-1476 2 ,
• Luisa M. Martinez 3 , 4 &
• Nitesh Pandey 5  

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The academic interest in Online Grocery Shopping (OGS) has proliferated in retailing and business management over the past two decades. Previous research on OGS was primarily focused on consumer-level consequences such as purchase intention, purchase decision, and post-purchase behavior. However, there is a lack of literature integrating intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence the growth of OGS and its impact on purchase outcomes. To address this, we conduct a multi-method review combining traits of a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis. Analyzing 145 articles through word cloud and keyword co-occurrence analysis, we identify publication trends (top journals, articles) and nine thematic clusters. We develop an integrated conceptual framework encompassing the antecedents, mediators, moderators, and consequences of OGS. Finally, we outline future research directions using Theory-Context-Characteristics-Methods framework to serve as a reference point for future researchers working in OGS.

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Acknowledgements

This study was partially funded by UNIDCOM under a Grant by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (UIDB/DES/00711/2020) attributed to UNIDCOM/IADE – Unidade de Investigação em Design e Comunicação, Lisbon, Portugal.

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Shroff, A., Kumar, S., Martinez, L.M. et al. From clicks to consequences: a multi-method review of online grocery shopping. Electron Commer Res (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-023-09761-x

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The pandemic has changed consumer behaviour forever - and online shopping looks set to stay

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• Consumer shift to digital channels will remain after the pandemic -PwC report.
• Customer loyalty has plummeted, with buyers switching brands at unprecedented rates.
• The use of smartphones for online shopping has more than doubled since 2018.

Billions of people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic are driving a “historic and dramatic shift in consumer behaviour” – according to the latest research from PwC.

The consulting and accounting firm's June 2021 Global Consumer Insights Pulse Survey reports a strong shift to online shopping as people were first confined by lockdowns, and then many continued to work from home. Other trends in this shift towards digital consumption include online shoppers being keen to find the best price, choosing more healthy options and being more eco-friendly by shopping locally where possible.

Another significant finding from the report is that consumers do not think they’ll go back to their old ways of shopping once the pandemic is over.

A consumer pivot to digital and devices

More than 8,600 people across 22 territories took part in PwC’s survey. They were asked how often, in the past 12 months, they had bought clothes, books and electronics using a range of shopping channels.

Have you read?

Covid-19 pandemic accelerated shift to e-commerce by 5 years, new report says, these charts show how covid-19 has changed consumer spending around the world.

The chart below illustrates their answers, and shows a shift to digital and a growing trend for shopping using connected devices such as smartphones, tablets and smart voice assistants such as Amazon Echo, Google Home and Samsung SmartThings.

More than 50% of the global consumers responding to the June 2021 survey said they had used digital devices more frequently than they had six months earlier, when they had taken part in a prior PwC survey. The report also finds the use of smartphones for shopping has more than doubled since 2018.

COVID-19 has exposed digital inequities globally and exacerbated the digital divide. Most of the world lives in areas covered by a mobile broadband network, yet more than one-third (2.9 billion people) are still offline. Cost, not coverage, is the barrier to connectivity.

At The Davos Agenda 2021 , the World Economic Forum launched the EDISON Alliance , the first cross-sector alliance to accelerate digital inclusion and connect critical sectors of the economy.

Through the 1 Billion Lives Challenge , the EDISON Alliance aims to improve 1 billion lives globally through affordable and accessible digital solutions across healthcare, financial services and education by 2025.

Read more about the EDISON Alliance’s work in our Impact Story.

Medicines and groceries on demand

A survey of US consumers by McKinsey & Company gives a more detailed breakdown of the shift to digital shopping channels and the kinds of purchases consumers are making.

The survey found a 15-30% overall growth in consumers who made purchases online across a broad range of product categories. Many of the categories see a double-digit percentage growth in online shopping intent, led by over-the-counter medicines, groceries, household supplies and personal care products.

And McKinsey noted that “consumer intent to shop online [post-pandemic] continues to increase, especially in essentials and home-entertainment categories”.

A decline in brand loyalty

With consumers shopping from their sofas and home offices, another trend flagged up by McKinsey is a marked decline in brand loyalty.

In total, 75% of US consumers have tried a new shopping behaviour and over a third of them (36%) have tried a new product brand. In part, this trend has been driven by popular items being out of stock as supply chains became strained at the height of the pandemic. However, 73% of consumers who had tried a different brand said they would continue to seek out new brands in the future.

What is the World Economic Forum doing to manage emerging risks from COVID-19?

The first global pandemic in more than 100 years, COVID-19 has spread throughout the world at an unprecedented speed. At the time of writing, 4.5 million cases have been confirmed and more than 300,000 people have died due to the virus.

As countries seek to recover, some of the more long-term economic, business, environmental, societal and technological challenges and opportunities are just beginning to become visible.

To help all stakeholders – communities, governments, businesses and individuals understand the emerging risks and follow-on effects generated by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Marsh and McLennan and Zurich Insurance Group, has launched its COVID-19 Risks Outlook: A Preliminary Mapping and its Implications - a companion for decision-makers, building on the Forum’s annual Global Risks Report.

Companies are invited to join the Forum’s work to help manage the identified emerging risks of COVID-19 across industries to shape a better future. Read the full COVID-19 Risks Outlook: A Preliminary Mapping and its Implications report here , and our impact story with further information.

Healthy, hygienic and sustainable

The trend towards online shopping has also seen consumers focus on staying healthy during long periods in lockdown. McKinsey notes a desire to reduce touchpoints to ensure greater hygiene with the shopping experience.

One enterprise in the US has tapped into these trends to provide a service for shopping online at a range of farm shops local to the buyer. To qualify for the FarmMatch scheme, farmers must grow their food using sustainable methods.

As the world navigates its way out of the pandemic, the way we all act as consumers has been changed fundamentally by COVID-19. The research points to this change becoming permanent, leaving retailers and manufacturers with the challenge of attracting and retaining consumers in an 'omnichannel' world, where customer loyalty is hard-won.

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Articles on Online shopping

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A study on factors limiting online shopping behaviour of consumers

Rajagiri Management Journal

ISSN : 0972-9968

Article publication date: 4 March 2021

Issue publication date: 12 April 2021

This study aims to investigate consumer behaviour towards online shopping, which further examines various factors limiting consumers for online shopping behaviour. The purpose of the research was to find out the problems that consumers face during their shopping through online stores.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative research method was adopted for this research in which a survey was conducted among the users of online shopping sites.

As per the results total six factors came out from the study that restrains consumers to buy from online sites – fear of bank transaction and faith, traditional shopping more convenient than online shopping, reputation and services provided, experience, insecurity and insufficient product information and lack of trust.

Research limitations/implications

This study is beneficial for e-tailers involved in e-commerce activities that may be customer-to-customer or customer-to-the business. Managerial implications are suggested for improving marketing strategies for generating consumer trust in online shopping.

Originality/value

In contrast to previous research, this study aims to focus on identifying those factors that restrict consumers from online shopping.

• Online shopping

Daroch, B. , Nagrath, G. and Gupta, A. (2021), "A study on factors limiting online shopping behaviour of consumers", Rajagiri Management Journal , Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 39-52. https://doi.org/10.1108/RAMJ-07-2020-0038

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Bindia Daroch, Gitika Nagrath and Ashutosh Gupta.

Published in Rajagiri Management Journal . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Introduction

Today, people are living in the digital environment. Earlier, internet was used as the source for information sharing, but now life is somewhat impossible without it. Everything is linked with the World Wide Web, whether it is business, social interaction or shopping. Moreover, the changed lifestyle of individuals has changed their way of doing things from traditional to the digital way in which shopping is also being shifted to online shopping.

Online shopping is the process of purchasing goods directly from a seller without any intermediary, or it can be referred to as the activity of buying and selling goods over the internet. Online shopping deals provide the customer with a variety of products and services, wherein customers can compare them with deals of other intermediaries also and choose one of the best deals for them ( Sivanesan, 2017 ).

As per Statista-The Statistics Portal, the digital population worldwide as of April 2020 is almost 4.57 billion people who are active internet users, and 3.81 billion are social media users. In terms of internet usage, China, India and the USA are ahead of all other countries ( Clement, 2020 ).

The number of consumers buying online and the amount of time people spend online has risen ( Monsuwe et al. , 2004 ). It has become more popular among customers to buy online, as it is handier and time-saving ( Huseynov and Yildirim, 2016 ; Mittal, 2013 ). Convenience, fun and quickness are the prominent factors that have increased the consumer’s interest in online shopping ( Lennon et al. , 2008 ). Moreover, busy lifestyles and long working hours also make online shopping a convenient and time-saving solution over traditional shopping. Consumers have the comfort of shopping from home, reduced traveling time and cost and easy payment ( Akroush and Al-Debei, 2015 ). Furthermore, price comparisons can be easily done while shopping through online mode ( Aziz and Wahid, 2018 ; Martin et al. , 2015 ). According to another study, the main influencing factors for online shopping are availability, low prices, promotions, comparisons, customer service, user friendly, time and variety to choose from ( Jadhav and Khanna, 2016 ). Moreover, website design and features also encourage shoppers to shop on a particular website that excite them to make the purchase.

Online retailers have started giving plenty of offers that have increased the online traffic to much extent. Regularly online giants like Amazon, Flipkart, AliExpress, etc. are advertising huge discounts and offers that are luring a large number of customers to shop from their websites. Companies like Nykaa, MakeMyTrip, Snapdeal, Jabong, etc. are offering attractive promotional deals that are enticing the customers.

Despite so many advantages, some customers may feel online shopping risky and not trustworthy. The research proposed that there is a strong relationship between trust and loyalty, and most often, customers trust brands far more than a retailer selling that brand ( Bilgihan, 2016 ; Chaturvedi et al. , 2016 ). In the case of online shopping, there is no face-to-face interaction between seller and buyer, which makes it non-socialize, and the buyer is sometimes unable to develop the trust ( George et al. , 2015 ). Trust in the e-commerce retailer is crucial to convert potential customer to actual customer. However, the internet provides unlimited products and services, but along with those unlimited services, there is perceived risk in digital shopping such as mobile application shopping, catalogue or mail order ( Tsiakis, 2012 ; Forsythe et al. , 2006 ; Aziz and Wahid, 2018 ).

Literature review

A marketer has to look for different approaches to sell their products and in the current scenario, e-commerce has become the popular way of selling the goods. Whether it is durable or non-durable, everything is available from A to Z on websites. Some websites are specifically designed for specific product categories only, and some are selling everything.

The prominent factors like detailed information, comfort and relaxed shopping, less time consumption and easy price comparison influence consumers towards online shopping ( Agift et al. , 2014 ). Furthermore, factors like variety, quick service and discounted prices, feedback from previous customers make customers prefer online shopping over traditional shopping ( Jayasubramanian et al. , 2015 ). It is more preferred by youth, as during festival and holiday season online retailers give ample offers and discounts, which increases the online traffic to a great extent ( Karthikeyan, 2016 ). Moreover, services like free shipping, cash on delivery, exchange and returns are also luring customers towards online purchases.

More and more people are preferring online shopping over traditional shopping because of their ease and comfort. A customer may have both positive and negative experiences while using an online medium for their purchase. Some of the past studies have shown that although there are so many benefits still some customers do not prefer online as their basic medium of shopping.

While making online purchase, customers cannot see, touch, feel, smell or try the products that they want to purchase ( Katawetawaraks and Wang, 2011 ; Al-Debei et al. , 2015 ), due to which product is difficult to examine, and it becomes hard for customers to make purchase decision. In addition, some products are required to be tried like apparels and shoes, but in case of online shopping, it is not possible to examine and feel the goods and assess its quality before making a purchase due to which customers are hesitant to buy ( Katawetawaraks and Wang, 2011 ; Comegys et al. , 2009 ). Alam and Elaasi (2016) in their study found product quality is the main factor, which worries consumer to make online purchase. Moreover, some customers have reported fake products and imitated items in their delivered orders ( Jun and Jaafar, 2011 ). A low quality of merchandise never generates consumer trust on online vendor. A consumer’s lack of trust on the online vendor is the most common reason to avoid e-commerce transactions ( Lee and Turban, 2001 ). Fear of online theft and non-reliability is another reason to escape from online shopping ( Karthikeyan, 2016 ). Likewise, there is a risk of incorrect information on the website, which may lead to a wrong purchase, or in some cases, the information is incomplete for the customer to make a purchase decision ( Liu and Guo, 2008 ). Moreover, in some cases, the return and exchange policies are also not clear on the website. According to Wei et al. (2010) , the reliability and credibility of e-retailer have direct impact on consumer decision with regards to online shopping.

Limbu et al. (2011) revealed that when it comes to online retailers, some websites provide very little information about their companies and sellers, due to which consumers feel insecure to purchase from these sites. According to other research, consumers are hesitant, due to scams and feel anxious to share their personal information with online vendors ( Miyazaki and Fernandez, 2001 ; Limbu et al. , 2011 ). Online buyers expect websites to provide secure payment and maintain privacy. Consumers avoid online purchases because of the various risks involved with it and do not find internet shopping secured ( Cheung and Lee, 2003 ; George et al. , 2015 ; Banerjee et al. , 2010 ). Consumers perceive the internet as an unsecured channel to share their personal information like emails, phone and mailing address, debit card or credit card numbers, etc. because of the possibility of misuse of that information by other vendors or any other person ( Lim and Yazdanifard, 2014 ; Kumar, 2016 ; Alam and Yasin, 2010 ; Nazir et al. , 2012 ). Some sites make it vital and important to share personal details of shoppers before shopping, due to which people abandon their shopping carts (Yazdanifard and Godwin, 2011). About 75% of online shoppers leave their shopping carts before they make their final decision to purchase or sometimes just before making the payments ( Cho et al. , 2006 ; Gong et al. , 2013 ).

Moreover, some of the customers who have used online shopping confronted with issues like damaged products and fake deliveries, delivery problems or products not received ( Karthikeyan, 2016 ; Kuriachan, 2014 ). Sometimes consumers face problems while making the return or exchange the product that they have purchased from online vendors ( Liang and Lai, 2002 ), as some sites gave an option of picking from where it was delivered, but some online retailers do not give such services to consumer and consumer him/herself has to courier the product for return or exchange, which becomes inopportune. Furthermore, shoppers had also faced issues with unnecessary delays ( Muthumani et al. , 2017 ). Sometimes, slow websites, improper navigations or fear of viruses may drop the customer’s willingness to purchase from online stores ( Katawetawaraks and Wang, 2011 ). As per an empirical study done by Liang and Lai (2002) , design of the e-store or website navigation has an impact on the purchase decision of the consumer. An online shopping experience that a consumer may have and consumer skills that consumers may use while purchasing such as website knowledge, product knowledge or functioning of online shopping influences consumer behaviour ( Laudon and Traver, 2009 ).

From the various findings and viewpoints of the previous researchers, the present study identifies the complications online shoppers face during online transactions, as shown in Figure 1 . Consumers do not have faith, and there is lack of confidence on online retailers due to incomplete information on website related to product and service, which they wish to purchase. Buyers are hesitant due to fear of online theft of their personal and financial information, which makes them feel there will be insecure transaction and uncertain errors may occur while making online payment. Some shoppers are reluctant due to the little internet knowledge. Furthermore, as per the study done by Nikhashem et al. (2011), consumers unwilling to use internet for their shopping prefer traditional mode of shopping, as it gives roaming experience and involves outgoing activity.

Several studies have been conducted earlier that identify the factors influencing consumer towards online shopping but few have concluded the factors that restricts the consumers from online shopping. The current study is concerned with the factors that may lead to hesitation by the customer to purchase from e-retailers. This knowledge will be useful for online retailers to develop customer driven strategies and to add more value product and services and further will change their ways of promoting and advertising the goods and enhance services for customers.

Research methodology

This study aimed to find out the problems that are generally faced by a customer during online purchase and the relevant factors due to which customers do not prefer online shopping. Descriptive research design has been used for the study. Descriptive research studies are those that are concerned with describing the characteristics of a particular individual or group. This study targets the population drawn from customers who have purchased from online stores. Most of the respondents participated were post graduate students and and educators. The total population size was indefinite and the sample size used for the study was 158. A total of 170 questionnaires were distributed among various online users, out of which 12 questionnaires were received with incomplete responses and were excluded from the analysis. The respondents were selected based on the convenient sampling technique. The primary data were collected from Surveys with the help of self-administered questionnaires. The close-ended questionnaire was used for data collection so as to reduce the non-response rate and errors. The questionnaire consists of two different sections, in which the first section consists of the introductory questions that gives the details of socio-economic profile of the consumers as well as their behaviour towards usage of internet, time spent on the Web, shopping sites preferred while making the purchase, and the second section consist of the questions related to the research question. To investigate the factors restraining consumer purchase, five-point Likert scale with response ranges from “Strongly agree” to “Strongly disagree”, with following equivalencies, “strongly disagree” = 1, “disagree” = 2, “neutral” = 3, “agree” = 4 and “strongly agree” = 5 was used in the questionnaire with total of 28 items. After collecting the data, it was manually recorded on the Excel sheet. For analysis socio-economic profile descriptive statistics was used and factors analysis was performed on SPSS for factor reduction.

Data analysis and interpretation

The primary data collected from the questionnaires was completely quantified and analysed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20. This statistical program enables accuracy and makes it relatively easy to interpret data. A descriptive and inferential analysis was performed. Table 1 represents the results of socio-economic status of the respondents along with some introductory questions related to usage of internet, shopping sites used by the respondents, amount of money spent by the respondents and products mostly purchased through online shopping sites.

According to the results, most (68.4%) of the respondents were belonging to the age between 21 and 30 years followed by respondents who were below the age of 20 years (16.4%) and the elderly people above 50 were very few (2.6%) only. Most of the respondents who participated in the study were females (65.8)% who shop online as compared to males (34.2%). The respondents who participated in the study were students (71.5%), and some of them were private as well as government employees. As per the results, most (50.5%) of the people having income below INR15,000 per month who spend on e-commerce websites. The results also showed that most of the respondents (30.9%) spent less than 5 h per week on internet, but up to (30.3%) spend 6–10 h per week on internet either on online shopping or social media. Majority (97.5%) of them have shopped through online websites and had both positive and negative experiences, whereas 38% of the people shopped 2–5 times and 36.7% shopped more than ten times. Very few people (12%), shopped only once. Most of the respondents spent between INR1,000–INR5,000 for online shopping, and few have spent more than INR5,000 also.

As per the results, the most visited online shopping sites was amazon.com (71.5%), followed by flipkart.com (53.2%). Few respondents have also visited other e-commerce sites like eBay, makemytrip.com and myntra.com. Most (46.2%) of the time people purchase apparels followed by electronics and daily need items from the ecommerce platform. Some of the respondents have purchased books as well as cosmetics, and some were preferring online sites for travel tickets, movie tickets, hotel bookings and payments also.

Factor analysis

To explore the factors that restrict consumers from using e-commerce websites factor analysis was done, as shown in Table 3 . A total of 28 items were used to find out the factors that may restrain consumers to buy from online shopping sites, and the results were six factors. The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) measure, as shown in Table 2 , in this study was 0.862 (>0.60), which states that values are adequate, and factor analysis can be proceeded. The Bartlett’s test of sphericity is related to the significance of the study and the significant value is 0.000 (<0.05) as shown in Table 2 .

The analysis produced six factors with eigenvalue more than 1, and factor loadings that exceeded 0.30. Moreover, reliability test of the scale was performed through Cronbach’s α test. The range of Cronbach’s α test came out to be between 0.747 and 0.825, as shown in Table 3 , which means ( α > 0.7) the high level of internal consistency of the items used in survey ( Table 4 ).

Factor 1 – The results revealed that the “fear of bank transaction and faith” was the most significant factor, with 29.431% of the total variance and higher eigenvalue, i.e. 8.241. The six statements loaded on Factor 1 highly correlate with each other. The analysis shows that some people do not prefer online shopping because they are scared to pay online through credit or debit cards, and they do not have faith over online vendors.

Factor 2 – “Traditional shopping is convenient than online shopping” has emerged as a second factor which explicates 9.958% of total variance. It has five statements and clearly specifies that most of the people prefer traditional shopping than online shopping because online shopping is complex and time-consuming.

Factor 3 – Third crucial factor emerged in the factor analysis was “reputation and service provided”. It was found that 7.013% of variations described for the factor. Five statements have been found on this factor, all of which were interlinked. It clearly depicts that people only buy from reputed online stores after comparing prices and who provide guarantee or warrantee on goods.

Factor 4 – “Experience” was another vital factor, with 4.640% of the total variance. It has three statements that clearly specifies that people do not go for online shopping due to lack of knowledge and their past experience was not good and some online stores do not provide EMI facilities.

Factor 5 – Fifth important factor arisen in the factor analysis was “Insecurity and Insufficient Product Information” with 4.251% of the total variance, and it has laden five statements, which were closely intertwined. This factor explored that online shopping is not secure as traditional shopping. The information of products provided on online stores is not sufficient to make the buying decision.

Factor 6 – “Lack of trust” occurred as the last factor of the study, which clarifies 3.920% of the total variance. It has four statements that clearly state that some people hesitate to give their personal information, as they believe online shopping is risky than traditional shopping. Without touching the product, people hesitate to shop from online stores.

The study aimed to determine the problems faced by consumers during online purchase. The result showed that most of the respondents have both positive and negative experience while shopping online. There were many problems or issues that consumer’s face while using e-commerce platform. Total six factors came out from the study that limits consumers to buy from online sites like fear of bank transaction and no faith, traditional shopping more convenient than online shopping, reputation and services provided, experience, insecurity and insufficient product information and lack of trust.

The research might be useful for the e-tailers to plan out future strategies so as to serve customer as per their needs and generate customer loyalty. As per the investigation done by Casalo et al. (2008) , there is strong relationship between reputation and satisfaction, which further is linked to customer loyalty. If the online retailer has built his brand name, or image of the company, the customer is more likely to prefer that retailer as compared to new entrant. The online retailer that seeks less information from customers are more preferred as compared to those require complete personal information ( Lawler, 2003 ).

Online retailers can adopt various strategies to persuade those who hesitate to shop online such that retailer need to find those negative aspects to solve the problems of customers so that non-online shopper or irregular online consumer may become regular customer. An online vendor has to pay attention to product quality, variety, design and brands they are offering. Firstly, the retailer must enhance product quality so as to generate consumer trust. For this, they can provide complete seller information and history of the seller, which will preferably enhance consumer trust towards that seller.

Furthermore, they can adopt marketing strategies such as user-friendly and secure website, which can enhance customers’ shopping experience and easy product search and proper navigation system on website. Moreover, complete product and service information such as feature and usage information, description and dimensions of items can help consumer decide which product to purchase. The experience can be enhanced by adding more pictures, product videos and three-dimensional (3D), images which will further help consumer in the decision-making process. Moreover, user-friendly payment systems like cash on deliveries, return and exchange facilities as per customer needs, fast and speedy deliveries, etc. ( Chaturvedi et al. , 2016 ; Muthumani et al. , 2017 ) will also enhance the probability of purchase from e-commerce platform. Customers are concerned about not sharing their financial details on any website ( Roman, 2007 ; Limbu et al. , 2011 ). Online retailers can ensure payment security by offering numerous payment options such as cash on delivery, delivery after inspection, Google Pay or Paytm or other payment gateways, etc. so as to increase consumer trust towards website, and customer will not hesitate for financial transaction during shopping. Customers can trust any website depending upon its privacy policy, so retailers can provide customers with transparent security policy, privacy policy and secure transaction server so that customers will not feel anxious while making online payments ( Pan and Zinkhan, 2006 ). Moreover, customers not only purchase basic goods from the online stores but also heed augmented level of goods. Therefore, if vendors can provide quick and necessary support, answer all their queries within 24-hour service availability, customers may find it convenient to buy from those websites ( Martin et al. , 2015 ). Sellers must ensure to provide products and services that are suitable for internet. Retailers can consider risk lessening strategies such as easy return and exchange policies to influence consumers ( Bianchi and Andrews, 2012 ). Furthermore, sellers can offer after-sales services as given by traditional shoppers to attract more customers and generate unique shopping experience.

Although nowadays, most of the vendors do give plenty of offers in form of discounts, gifts and cashbacks, but most of them are as per the needs of e-retailers and not customers. Beside this, trust needs to be generated in the customer’s mind, which can be done by modifying privacy and security policies. By adopting such practices, the marketer can generate customers’ interest towards online shopping.

Conceptual framework of the study

Socioeconomic status of respondents

KMO and Bartlett’s test

Cronbach’s α

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Further reading

Grabner-Kräuter , S. and Kaluscha , E.A. ( 2003 ), “ Empirical research in on-line trust: a review and critical assessment ”, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies , Vol. 58 No. 6 , pp. 783 - 812 .

Nurfajrinah , M.A. , Nurhadi , Z.F. and Ramdhani , M.A. ( 2017 ), “ Meaning of online shopping for indie model ”, The Social Sciences , Vol. 12 No. 4 , pp. 737 - 742 , available at: https://medwelljournals.com/abstract/?doi=sscience.2017.737.742

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Online shopping has grown rapidly in U.S., but most sales are still in stores

Thanksgiving – and, more specifically,  Black Friday  – is the semiofficial start of the holiday shopping season in the United States. And if history is any guide, a lot of this year’s holiday shopping will be done online, and not just on Cyber Monday .

Like retail sales generally, online shopping reliably surges in the fourth quarter of every year. In 2022, for example, online sales – or, as the U.S. Census Bureau calls them,  “retail e-commerce sales” – totaled $303.1 billion in the October-December period. That was 23.4% higher than the quarterly average for the first nine months of the year, which was $245.6 billion. (Figures in this analysis are not adjusted to account for seasonal variations.)

But it’s not just the dollar volume of sales that peaks in the fourth quarter – the online share of all retail sales ticks higher at year’s end, too. In the fourth quarter of 2022, for instance, online sales accounted for 16.3% of all retail sales, compared with an average of 14.1% in the first three quarters.

The fourth quarter of 2023 could be another big one for online shopping . Through the first three quarters of the year, retail e-commerce totaled $793.7 billion, or 14.9% of all retail sales.

 Related: For shopping, phones are common and influencers have become a factor – especially for young adults

As the 2023 holiday shopping season begins, Pew Research Center wanted to find out just how significant online sales are as a share of total retail sales in the United States.

The primary keeper of such data is the U.S. Census Bureau, which, since 2000, has produced a  quarterly report on “retail e-commerce sales.”  The estimates in that report are based on the same sample of 10,800 retail firms the Census Bureau uses for its  Monthly Retail Trade Survey (MRTS). The MRTS sample is weighted and benchmarked to represent the full universe of more than 2 million retail firms.

It’s important to note that bars and restaurants are not considered retailers for the purposes of the bureau’s surveys. Online travel services, ticket sellers and financial-services brokers and dealers likewise are excluded from coverage.

This analysis uses data that has not been adjusted to account for seasonal variations. Figures for the third quarter of 2023 are preliminary, based on data released Nov. 17, 2023.

Online sales have grown over time

Between 2000 and 2020, growth in online sales followed a predictable pattern. The online share of retail sales jumped in the fourth quarter and then fell back, but not all the way to where it had been. Then it jumped again, to an even higher level, in the fourth quarter of the following year.

By such stepwise moves, the online share of total retail sales grew from 0.7% in the fourth quarter of 1999, when the U.S. Census Bureau began tracking online sales, to 12.4% in the fourth quarter of 2019.

The COVID-19 pandemic that swept the globe disrupted that pattern, at least temporarily, beginning in early 2020. With many physical stores shuttered and millions of Americans sheltering in their homes, online sales soared. In the second quarter of 2020, for instance, e-commerce sales totaled $205.3 billion, up 55% from the $132.3 billion recorded a year earlier. In the fourth quarter of 2020, e-commerce accounted for 16.7% of all retail sales, still the record-high share.

That share fell back as stores reopened and consumers gradually resumed their old shopping habits. But the e-commerce share of all retail sales has remained well above pre-pandemic levels, suggesting that the COVID-19 outbreak gave online shopping a lasting boost. In the fourth quarter of 2022, 16.3% of retail sales were online, compared with 16.1% in 2021.

Which retailers benefit most from online sales?

The retailers that are getting the highest share of online sales tend to be those without physical stores.

Nonstore retailers , as the Census Bureau calls them, took nearly 62% of all retail e-commerce sales in the third quarter of 2023, versus just over 59% a year earlier. E-commerce sales at nonstore retailers rose 12.4% year over year, faster than the online sales sector as a whole.

Among retailers that do have physical stores, online sales rose 8.7% at general merchandise stores, 5.1% at food and beverage stores, and 4.7% at health and personal care stores. But online sales fell 1.6% at electronics and appliance stores, 3.2% at motor vehicle and parts dealers, and 16.2% at furniture and home furnishings stores.

Where does Black Friday get its name?

For years, the claim circulated that Black Friday got its name because of its role in retailers’ profitability. The notion was that most retailers operated at a loss, or  “in the red,”  for most of the year and relied on holiday sales to become profitable, or “in the black.”

However, the  actual origins appear to be more prosaic . Philadelphia police began calling the day after Thanksgiving “Black Friday” in the 1950s because the floods of holiday shoppers into downtown  made their jobs extra difficult .

• Economic Conditions

Drew DeSilver is a senior writer at Pew Research Center .

On alternative social media sites, many prominent accounts seek financial support from audiences

Majority of americans aren’t confident in the safety and reliability of cryptocurrency, for shopping, phones are common and influencers have become a factor – especially for young adults, payment apps like venmo and cash app bring convenience – and security concerns – to some users, 16% of americans say they have ever invested in, traded or used cryptocurrency, most popular.

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