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Internet Marketing: Prospects and impacts on consumer’s online purchase decisions A Dissertation Submitted to the……………………………………… Submitted By Mayank………. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This dissertation is produced to fulfil the partial requirement for Master’s Degree in Management. I am gratefully indebted to my dissertation supervisor, Mr. ………………………………… , lecturer and module leader of ………………… College, School of Business and Enterprise, for his valuable idea and guidelines for me, in the entire period of research preparation.
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all my friends and family members, who shared their time and experience with me, guided me on my path, and who tolerated my rudest remarks on the tension of making this project, and for always being there as a source of inspiration throughout the period of this research work. I am deeply indebted to all the respondents who filled the questionnaire for me, without which this research paper would not have come into existence.
Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to my parents, my family and friends ??? who form an important part of my social life ??? for being my source of encouragement in study, and for their invaluable support, care and love in every step of my life. Mayank ………… 26th September, 2011 Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENT1 1. 1 Background5 1. 2 Current Scenarios6 1. 3 Research Questions7 1. 4 Research Objectives8 1. 5 Significance of the Research8 1. 6 Structure of the Research9 2. 1 Fundamentals of Internet Marketing10 2. 3 Channels of Internet Marketing13 2. 4 Facts and Figures of E-commerce17 . 5 Attitude and Perception towards online purchasing behaviour19 3. 1 Research Philosophies and Paradigms22 3. 2 Research Desigon22 3. 3 Study Area and Sampling Procedure23 3. 4 Tools and Techniques of data collection23 3. 4. 1 Questionnaire24 3. 4. 2 Case Study24 3. 5 Nature and Sources of Data24 3. 6 Method of Data Analysis25 3. 7 Limitation of the Research25 3. 8 Ethical Considerations26 4. 1 Reliability analysis27 4. 2 Descriptive Analysis27 4. 2. 1: Major driving factor for shopping online29 4. 2. 2 Top ten most preferred items intended to buy online29 4. 2. Kinds of websites preferred to purchase from online30 4. 2. 4 Channels of product awareness31 4. 2. 5 Use of social media or in-site product reviews31 4. 2. 6 Use of search engines32 4. 2. 7 Attention paid to online advertisements33 4. 2. 8 Attention towards the online banner ads33 4. 2. 9 Attention towards the online video ads34 4. 2. 10 online ads as the source of product information35 4. 2. 11 Effects of favourite ads35 4. 2. 12 Impact of internet marketing on online purchase decision36 4. 2. 13 Security on the trusted sites37 4. 2. 14 Feeling of insecurity on the unsecured sites38 . 2. 15 Online Shopping vs. Traditional Shopping38 4. 2. 16 Prices on the online store39 4. 2. 17 Impact of provision of warranty and refund policy40 4. 2. 18 Issues on the delivery of purchased item41 4. 2. 19 Impact of customer support/Service on purchase decisions42 4. 3 Inferential Statistics43 4. 3. 1 Cross tabulation and mean analysis43 4. 3. 2 One way ANOVA test44 4. 3. 3 Pearson’s Correlation Analysis46 5. 1 General Internet Use and Online Shopping Patterns48 5. 2 Internet marketing and impact on online purchase decisions49 6. 1 Conclusion54 6. 2 Recommendations55 . 2. 1 Recommendations for the internet marketing practitioners56 6. 2. 2 Recommendation for the further research57 Reference58 Appendix 166 Appendix 268 Appendix 370 Appendix 471 Appendix 572 Appendix 673 List of Figures Figure 2. 1: e-communication tool for media channels15 Figure 2. 2: SEO and PPC listing on google search engine16 Figure 2. 3: Affiliate Marketing16 Figure 2. 4: Online product/service intended to purchase in next 6 months (Global Average)18 Figure 5: Age and Gender Distribution28 Figure 4. 6: Sources of product awareness before buying online31 Figure 4. : Frequency of social media or in-site product reviews32 Figure 4. 8: Frequency of search engines use32 Figure 4. 9: Attentive towards online ads33 Figure 4. 10: Attentive towards online banner ads33 Figure 4. 11: Attention towards the online video ads34 Figure 4. 12: Online ads as the source of product information35 Figure 4. 13: Effects of favourite ads36 Figure 4. 14: Impact of internet marketing on the purchase decisions36 Figure 4. 15: Feeling of security on trusted sites37 Figure 4. 16: Feeling of insecurity on the unsecured sites38 Figure 4. 17: Online Shopping vs. Traditional Shopping39 Figure 4. 8: Impact of provision of warranty and refund policy40 Figure 4. 19: Issues on the delivery of purchased item41 Figure 4. 20: Impact of customer support/service on purchase decisions42 Figure 4. 21: Cross tabs ??? level of expertise and use of internet a day43 Figure 4. 22: Cross tabs ??? level of expertise and experience of internet use44 Figure 4. 23: Cross tabs: level of expertise and experience of online shopping44 Figure 4. 24: means plot of use of internet a day by level of expertise on online shopping45 Figure 4. 25: means plot of experience of internet use by level of expertise on online shopping45
Figure 4. 26: means plot of experience of online shopping by level of expertise on online shopping45 Chapter 1: Introduction 1. 1 Background With the advent of internet and rapid growth of online marketing and sales functions, virtually all the companies had to be bound to accept and adopt this information and communication technology (ICT) in their business functions, not only to safeguard the transitioning conventional methods of marketing and sales, but also to reap the fruits of new possibilities of e-commerce arising mainly from the gift of internet (Linh, 2010).
The UK office for National Statistics (ONS) states that the e-commerce, emerging as the whole new episodes on the business panorama, is changing not only the scope and size of the businesses, but also the perception of the way we do business. It holds potentials to uphold unprecedented growth in national and international trade, soaring up the market possibilities, improving effectiveness and increasing efficiency in business functions, and transforming the business processes (Online-media-marketing. com, n. . ). Today’s businesses, all large, medium, and small, can hardly ignore the fact of being influenced by the global economy and information and communication technology. The internet, ICT and e-commerce have led to the ever more complex marketing strategies and business models (Golbal Marketing Network, 2011). As a result marketing is becoming important and unavoidably internet based exceeding the functions of online promotional campaigns and sales transactions to new innovative approaches every day.
The internet is unique in the sense that it is both a medium and a market. It plays a multi channel role by creating a computer mediated market where sellers reach buyers and providing a medium for the execution of business functions like marketing, sales, and distribution (Farhoomand and Lovelock, 2001). Internet marketing has become a benchmark service as well as a standard practice among the companies seeking a global exposure of their offerings in a cost effective way.
Companies are bound to make some plans and allocate some resources, even if they do not operate through internet, for the web presentation or URL (Uniform Resource Locator) design for the informative purpose of their establishments and offerings; if they are to stay competitive on the marketplace. However, to reap the fullest benefit of the internet and ICT, companies need to have a separate internet marketing unit with its own e-marketing strategy (Bevec, 2007).
ICT, apart from just as a marketing channel, can be supportive to a consumer to make buying decisions even if the purchase does not happen online, and could be facilitating to shift buying channels to enter into ‘mixed-mode buying’. Secondly, it can be used as a source of information of buying patterns of the customer to get a ‘360 degree view’ as in the call centres. Thirdly, it is useful as a tool for customer service for receiving, processing, and delivering orders through electronic means (Chaffey, et. al. , 2009). 1. 2 Current Scenarios With over 2. 9 billion global internet users in 2011, up from 360 million in 2000, making internet penetration of more than 30 percent of the global population (Internet World Stats, 2011); there seems to be huge prospects of internet marketing and greater impacts on consumers’ purchasing decisions around the world. Similarly, according to International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN specialized agency, there are 83. 56 percentage of internet users in UK along with 76. 69 percent of household having internet connection in the year 2009 (ITU, 2011).
For data table see Appendix 1. Similarly, data on the online or e-commerce sales are even more exciting; the global B2C (business to customer) e-retail sales reached ??? 591 billion, a increase of almost 25 percent in 2010, and expected to grow by two fold marking trillion-euro by the year 2013 (Weening, 2011). In UK alone, the adjusted average weekly value of internet retail sales reached ? 536. 5 million, 9. 6 percent of ? 25. 4 billion all sector total retail sales (excluding automotive fuel) in August 2011, up from ? 383. 7 million in August 2010 (ONS, 2011).
Similarly, data from another source reveals that the e-retail market in UK is growing at the rate of 18 percent per annum; having British shoppers expended ? 5. 2 billion online on various items and services in a single month of August 2011 (IMRG, 2011). Furthermore, evidence from the 2009 annual survey done by ONS (Office for National Statistics) on e-commerce and ICT business activities reported a total value of e-commerce sales by non-financial businesses as ? 408. 3 billion in 2009, an upsurge of 24. 9 percent on 2008 e-commerce sales, indicating a sign of relief from the recession.
Among those total e-commerce sales, sales through the website account ? 115 billion, whereas e-commerce non-website sales like EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) reached ? 293. 3 billion. Similarly, on the purchase side, 51. 9 percent of the businesses placed orders and purchased through computer networks reaching a record figure of ? 466. 3 billion in 2009, with 33. 7 percent growth from 2008 estimate of ? 348. 9 billion. The report also informed that the access of internet in the business firms reached 91. 1 percent, and 76 percent of the total UK business organizations employing 10 or above employees had a company website (ONS, 2010).
For data table, see Appendix 1. Additionally, In terms of global advertisement expenditure, the current overall global all sector ad expenditure is estimated to reach US$471 billion in 2011. Among many sectors, internet is predicted as a fastest growing medium of global ad expenditure with an average growth of 14. 2 percent per annum between 2010 and 2013. By virtue of social media and video streaming advertising, internet is forecasted to be the second largest medium for advertisement after television by the year 2013, reaching global expenditure of US$95 billion, 18. 3 percent share of total spend, in 2013, up from US$ 63. billion in 2010 (ZenithOptimedia, 2011). For data table, see Appendix 1. Above scenarios present an excellent condition for the internet marketing of goods, services and other types of entertainment and software sales. Both the sales and expenditures over the internet is increasing manifold day by day, and the proportion of people making online purchases are growing with the same manner. Internet is an essential marketing tool also because of the various reasons: it is one of the least expensive mediums to communicate to the target market and most effective marketing tool with capabilities of text, audio-visual, and graphical presentations.
It helps to convey messages and information regarding sales and marketing, creates one-to-one relationship, educate future prospects, support existing consumer, and generates feedbacks for the companies on the global scale (Janal, 1998). 1. 3 Research Questions As the current marketplace is swept by the buzzword internet or online marketing and online purchases with the phenomenal rates of growth day in day out, it has got much of the attentions from the academia as well as professional researchers.
Internet and the way products and services are marketed through it are not only opening up new possibilities and innovations, it is also having a huge impact on the purchasing patterns and shopping behaviour of the consumers; yet, as Roldan (2001) states, it has a long way to go to harness its endless possibilities to the fullest degree to effectively reach the targeted markets and maintain a long term customer relationships. However, realising the fact of its undeniable encroachment in the public purchasing decisions, both online and offline (Chaffey, et. l. , 2009), this research tries to seek answer to the following questions: 1) What are the prospects of internet marketing in the future? 2) How does the internet marketing impact the consumers’ purchase decision? 3) What are the influential factors that affect the purchasing decisions and patterns? 1. 4 Research Objectives Every research has to have its research objectives not only to fulfil the criteria of research, but also to guide the research to be in a right direction.
Research objectives are the crux of the research process, be it an empirical undertaking with the primary data, or a qualitative analysis of secondary information. In an attempt to assess the prospects of internet marketing and its impact on buyers’ purchasing decision, this research is guided by the objectives that are tried to be met by this undertaking. The objectives go: * To assess the future prospects of internet marketing. * To investigate the impacts of internet marketing on the buyer’s purchasing decisions. * To find out the factors that affects consumers purchase decisions and patterns. . 5 Significance of the Research The current research, seeking to assess the prospects of internet marketing as well as its impact on the consumers’ purchase decisions, holds a great significance on the future of marketing in particular and business orientation in general. As is has been known that the internet is transforming the way we do business and reshaping the entire business world, not to mention the future of marketing, the findings of this research sheds light on the way and factors responsible for making the impacts on consumers’ purchase decision.
The findings are also expected to be helpful for the marketing as well as corporate managers to devise and align the marketing strategies so as to reap the highest possible outcomes through the internet. Similarly, the research adds up to the vast array of e-commerce literature, thus deemed helpful for the professionals as well as academicians for future researches in the field of internet marketing in particular and e-commerce in general. 1. 6 Structure of the Research Though there is no hard and fast rule for a research to be in a particular structure, this study is organized on a most standard format of the research.
Chapter one introduces the research purpose on various sub-headings like background, current scenario, questions, objectives, significance and limitations of the research. Chapter two sheds light on the literature review of the study. Literatures from traditional marketing to the internet marketing are arranged in several sub headings. Chapter three consists of the research methodologies selected for this study. Research methodologies include philosophies, design, sampling procedures, methods and tools of data collection, and analysis process.
Chapter four of this research is composed of the data analysis, and interpretation which has been arranged under several sub-headings. Chapter five presents the findings and discussion of the analysed data. Chapter six includes the conclusion and recommendations of the study. Chapter two: Literature Review The internet has touched and affected every nooks and crannies of day to day living of people of almost all walks of life; and also become one of the most talked about topics not only in business and academic institutions, but also in other sectors of everyday life.
For the businesses, the internet can be a useful weapon to fortify them with the extended market reach and increased operational efficiency (Porter, 2001). 2. 1 Fundamentals of Internet Marketing According to Owing to the recent developments in the internet, the area of marketing has become much more significant and wide ranging than it has been ever before (Barwise, et. al. , 2002).
It has got some extra ordinary and unique tenets that no other mediums of marketing have ever got; that holds potentials to transform many aspects of marketing from local to global, from segmentation to managing markets, from customer service to customer relationship management, and from advertisement to promotion and brand recognition (ibid). It has been seen that the term ‘internet marketing’ has used interchangeably with various other terminologies such as ‘interactive marketing’, ‘digital marketing’, ‘web marketing’, ‘online marketing’ and so on in the various academic as well as professional publications (Varadarajan ; Yadav, 2009).
Sometimes, it is also described as ‘electronic marketing’, which, of course, denotes the marketing done employing any electronic device that can electronically deliver or retain information like radio, television, telephone, mobile phone and computer, and only differentiates it from print media marketing (Barwise, et. al. , 2002). Similarly, purchase of goods and services through the internet on a website, i. e. online shopping, is denoted under the area of e-commerce, though e-commerce has a much wider scope which includes all the electronic wire, wireless or chip technology of ICT developments (ibid).
However, the terms ‘internet marketing’ and ‘e-marketing’ are often found to be used as synonymous words denoting the same meaning (Gilmore, et al. , 2007). Referring to a host of terminologies used to describe the same phenomena of e-marketing making it nothing more than a blurry image for individual perception, Otlacan (2005) states: “e-marketing is still a controversial subject to talk about since no one really succeeded to unify the various terminologies and theories around it. In response to the confusion created by the random use of terminologies, Chafey & Smith (2005) argue: “an organization should develop a common understanding for terms such as e-commerce, e-business and e-marketing, and how they interrelate, to enable development of a consistent, coherent strategy” Nevertheless, some researcher tried to define internet marketing and e-marketing, and among the wide accepted ones is one from Imber and Betsy-Ann (2000): “Internet marketing is defined as the process of building and maintaining customer relationships through online activities to facilitate the exchange of ideas, products, and services that satisfy the goals of both buyers and sellers. Similarly, Bevec (2007) opines that the elements of the e-marketing cannot be separated from the traditional corporate philosophy of marketing. She further states: “e-marketing places the customer in the central position of all online business activities ??? creating online value for the customer and offering more options and flexibility, providing instant customer services, creating a loyal customer base and increasing sales. ” Similarly, Canzer, (2003) states that e-business can be defined as: “the organized effort of individuals to produce and sell, for profit, products and satisfy society’s need through the facilities available on the internet”
Although the internet marketing unfolds endless opportunities for the marketers, it cannot be separated from the fundamental principles of traditional marketing. Researchers like Rayport, J. (1999); Roldan, M. (2001); and Barwise, et. al. ( 2002) argue that in spite of much hype that the internet is going to reshape and reinterpret the entire marketing world, the fundamental principles of traditional marketing still remains the same, even after 10 years of interactivity’s inception as digital direct marketing; although the internet has an impact on all aspects of business functions and marketing procedures (Deighton & Kornfeld, 2009). However, there are some researchers who believe that internet marketing affects the basic 4Ps of marketing (Price, Place, Promotion, and Product) nd adds its own 4Cs (Customer, Cost, Convenience, and Communication) as its fundamental characteristics and (Smith, 2003). He, furthermore, opines that the businesses today must know what exactly does the customer need or want, rather than focusing on selling one’s own products (ibid). Extending the 4Cs of internet marketing, Chaffey ; Smith (2005) propose the 6Cs as the motivating factors for buyer’s purchase decision over the internet: Content, Convenience, Cost reduction, Choice, Customization and mass-customization, and Community. Similarly, Walsh & Godfrey (2000) emphasize on the benefits that internet has brought for the businesses to cater efficiently to the customer and improve customer service.
The internet can be used for offer customization for the target customers, personalization of sites with user friendly interface, and adding value to the overall customer experience, which will help the outcome result in increased customer loyalty (Walsh & Godfrey, 2000). Likewise, Kiang, et al. (2000) denotes that the internet can be used as a communication channel between the businesses and customer in exchanging information with each-other; which Smith (2003) says the two way communication: the need of the hour. Farhoomand and Lovelock (2001) describe internet as having the unique characteristics as it can serve as both a market and a medium ( a computer mediated market providing multi channel facilities and a medium for the execution of business functions like marketing, sales and distribution).
The internet is also one of the least expensive as well as faster mediums for marketing, surprisingly lowering down the cost of advertising and promotions, increasing the efficiency of communication between buyers and sellers, shortening the conventional supply chain mechanism, reducing the cost and time of transportation and delivery, providing faster transaction, and minimizing the physical limitation of time and space (Janal, 1998; Chan, 2001; Schneider, 2002). Larsen & Bloniarz (2000), in an attempt to identify the tools for performance measurement of adopting ICT in the businesses, postulated a model of benefits; categorised under three main themes: better, cheaper, and faster; that an organization can achieve once it goes online. Similarly Payne (2002) suggested a bundle of useful yardsticks that can be used to quantify the impact of e-commerce on the businesses. Those measures are revenue per employee, degree of customer satisfaction; reduce of inventory; sales per salesperson; ratio of market share; and level of profitability (Larsen & Bloniarz, 2000; Payne, 2002; Wen, et al. 2003) In the pursuit of achieving the major marketing goals of internet era ??? customer acquisition and monetizing markets (Rayport, 1999), Roldan (2001) postulates three major dimensions of web or internet marketing practices. First, technological capabilities: refers to the unique features of web and ICT providing excellent platform to the marketers for marketing; second, marketing approaches: refers to the marketing strategies that have been employed to capitalize the web and ICT resources; and customer orientation: the inclination of a customer towards online or internet driven shopping (Li, Kuo, and Russel, 1999). 2. 3 Channels of Internet Marketing One of the benefits that internet provides for the e-marketers is that it gives a multi-channel access to the target market through the concerted marketing efforts of e-marketing mix (Bevec, 2007).
According to Burmann & Wenske (2007), multi-channel marketing allows businesses to simultaneously make use of the integrated and coordinated application of various communication, sales and service channels. Furthermore, use of multi-channel strategy of marketing can contribute to increase the productivity as well as to build and maintain customer relationships (Bachem & Merx, 2004). The channels are generally categorised based on different utility values such as media channel: e-mail, RSS and website in the case of online marketing; institutional channel: agency, branch or call centres; communication channel: advertising and promotions; sales channel: the place where actual purchase happens, online, offline or mixed mode; service channel: mechanisms for building and maintaining customer relationships (ibid). Chaffey (n. d. argues that e-marketers have to be cautious about using the permission marketing among the multi-channel functioning; knowing which mode of communication the customers would best likely to pay attention to is what he calls ‘Right Touching’. He further says: “Right Touching is: A Multi-channel communications strategy customised for individual prospects and customers forming segments across a defined customer lifecycle which delivers the right message, featuring the right value proposition (product, service or experience), with the right tone, at the right time, with the right frequency and interval, using the right media / communications channels, to achieve right balance of value between both parties” (Chaffey, n. d. ).
Melewar & Smith (2003) discuss that the digital media brings forth the new possibilities for the traditional organizations adding up new channels for marketing strategies. In the same way, Pentina et al. (2009) argue being a ‘late entrant’ in the digitally enabled multi-channel strategy would rather empower a company if it seeks to learn from the past mistakes of others. Contrarily, the environment of the multi-channel marketing does not come with all the benefits, it poses some challenges as well (Neslin et al. , 2006). The challenges a marketer has to deal with are: integration of data from various channels; understanding and predicting consumer behaviour; evaluation of channel; allocation of resources across channels; and effective coordination among channels with a single integrated strategy (ibid).
As every organization’s marketing goals tend to be same that they want to establish a good and long term customer relationships, the best way to achieve them is to blend the channels of both traditional and internet marketing into one to produce required synergy (Chaffey ; Smith, 2008). However, with the pan geographic effects of internet and digital media, and its growing popularity day by day, proper orientation and utilisation of online media can help companies achieve the marketing goals drawing the uncontrollable mass of traffic towards them (Chafey ; Smith, 2008). The different channels used for the execution of internet marketing are demonstrated in the figure below: Figure 2. 1: e-communication tool for media channels Source: Chaffey, D. ; Smith, P. R. , 2008. E-marketing Excellence: Optimising your digital marketing (3rd ed. ).
The above diagram summarizes the different channels under the six main categories which can be used for internet marketing (Linh, 2010). Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is one of the important channels mainly to encourage click-through to a website when a user types a specific keyword on the search engine. SEM can be further divided on two major techniques ??? Search Engine Optimization (SEO): opt in to get highest position on search engine, and Pay Per Click (PPC): paid listing as a sponsored link on the major keyword/phrase search in the search engine (Chaffey ; Smith, 2008). Figure 2. 2 shows the example of SEO and PPC. Figure 2. 2: SEO and PPC listing on google search engine Source: Chaffey, n. d.
Effective E-marketing: E-permission marketing and right touching ??? Guide 1 Online PR is another technique for getting visibility among the target audience, employing channels like third party websites, blogs, online communities and social networks, RSS, podcast, and online events (Bevec, 2007). Likewise, Online Partnership is another technique of internet marketing used to create and manage long term relationships especially to promote one’s online services on third party websites or e-mail communications (Chaffey, n. d. ). There are different kinds of online partnerships like affiliate marketing, link building, online sponsorship, co-branding and widget marketing (Linh, 2010). Figure 2. 3: Affiliate Marketing Source: Linh, 2010. E-marketing Channels: The digital influence on small sized businesses The figure 2. demonstrate an example of affiliate marketing, where seller puts the free ad on the publisher’s website, when a customer visits publisher website and purchases the product or service of that producer, the publisher usually gets a commission or percentage of the sale amount, which makes a win-win situation for both the parties (Linh, 2010). Another form of internet marketing is Interactive Advertising, which uses online ads like display banner, skyscraper and rich media ads to get visibility and attention among the site visitor to encourage click through (Chaffey, n. d. ). Opt-in email is also one of the major ways of online marketing where renting email lists from the third party or co-register or co-brand of emails and newsletters, ad in third party e-newsletter or even email campaigns are some of the techniques of opt-in email marketing (Chaffey ; Smith, 2008).
Last but not the least is the viral marketing, an online word-of-mouth-messaging-system, forwarding and re-forwarding from one to many to generate awareness, and blended with messages, quotes, jokes, poetry or graphical presentation so enticing that makes compulsive viewing (Chaffey ; Smith, 2008). Viral marketing, obviously, is a bad name given to a great technique of internet marketing (Strauss, et. al. , 2005). 2. 4 Facts and Figures of E-commerce E-commerce has become an essential factor in the post-modern internet era, and it has transformed many aspects of public life including the shopping behaviour of the consumers. Although it is nice to shop at a store where you can see and touch a product, the convenience of shopping online for some sectors cannot be beaten (Nielsen, 2010).
A global online research conducted by Nielsen (2010) informed that one-third of the global online buyers prefer online shopping from pure-play online businesses such as amazon. com, 20 percent would like to shop at who have both online and physical “brick and mortar” presence such as sportsdirect. com, and only 16 percent of the global online respondents never shopped online. Furthermore, in terms of online purchasing list, 44% out of 27,665 total respondents are keen on purchasing books in the next six months followed by clothing line 36%, air ticket / reservation 32%, electronic equipment 27%, and tours / hotel reservations 26% (Nielsen, 2010). Figure 2. : Online product/service intended to purchase in next 6 months (Global Average) Source: Neilsen, 2010. Global Trends in Online Shopping: A Nielsen Global Consumer Report Another important feature of the Neilsen (2010) research is that it informed the importance of opinion count for the online shoppers while making purchases over the internet, since the online shopping environment provided the facility of posting reviews and feedbacks on the website as well as other community and social sites. Globally, 57 % of online buyers are found to consider reviews prior to make any purchase of electronic equipments, followed by 45 % on cars, and 37 % on software (ibid).
The same report also indicated that the percentage of European average of online buyers planning to shop online in the next 6 months stands at 79 percent, whereas the figure for UK alone stands for 86 percent, meaning that 86% of the UK shoppers are planning to purchase goods or services online in the next six months (ibid). Moreover, data on the search engine market shows that the global search market boasted over 131 billion searches by the people aged 15 and above from home and work locations in the month of December, 2009, a 46 percentage growth from the same month in 2008. This implies that there is more than 4 billion searches a day, 175 million an hour, and 2. 9 million a minute (ComScore, 2010).
The source also reveals that the UK ranks fourth position on the global search market with 6. 2 billion searches in December, 2009 after US, China, and Japan, having of 22. 7, 13. 3, and 9. 2 billion searches respectively and retaining top three search market positions in the world (ibid). Similarly, in terms of top search properties worldwide, google sites ranked first place with 87. 8 billion search in December 2009, or 66. 8 percent of the global search market, making it the largest search property than all the other combined. Yahoo! Sites and the Chinese search engine Baidu ranked second and third with 9. 4 and 8. 5 billion searches in December 2009 respectively. Similarly, Facebook ranks the 8th position with 1. billion searches, with a 54% growth in a year between December 2008 and December 2009; and the Russian search engine Yandex is growing with the highest growth rate of 91% in the same period (ibid). For data on the top ten global search properties see Appendix 1. 2. 5 Attitude and Perception towards online purchasing behaviour Technology has much influenced the way people make purchase decisions (Nielsen, 2010); but it is not the technology that people are interested in, it is how the internet can help make better purchase decisions and pleasing shopping experience instead (Burke, 2002). In an attempt to find correlation between demographic and online shopping behaviour, Bellman, et al. (1999) found that people who have ‘wired lifestyle’ and ‘time-constrained’ are more likely to shop online than those who have not.
Similarly, another study revealed that convenience of internet use and perceived risks are two factors correlated positively and negatively with the online shopping behaviour (Bhatnager, et al. , 2000). Jahng, et. al. (2001) opine that two main factors ??? internet friendliness and appeal of online store ??? affect the purchase decision of the consumer which are negatively correlated with the third factor ??? perceived risk. Perceived risk, hence, has been contextualized by Lee, et al. (2001) into two major categories: risk associated with product/service, and risk associated with online transactions. Product/service risk includes loss of finance, time, opportunity, function, and product risk; and the transaction specific risks comprises risks of privacy, security, and no repudiation (ibid).
Furthermore, a number of researchers (e. g. , Batnagar et al. , 2000; Borchers, 2001; and Senecal, 2000) believe that financial risk, product risk, privacy and security risks are significant among many. Nevertheless, the fourth dimension, the consumer trust in the online store, can significantly reduce perceived risk (Osman, et al. , 2010). Another study also discloses that store size and reputation influence consumers’ trust in the store that consequently increases the likeliness of shopping from online store (Jarvenpaa, et al. , 2000). Childers et al. (2001) postulate two major motives for shopping online: hedonic (shopping for fun) and utilitarian (shopping with a goal in mind).
Similarly, online shopping is viewed as time saving option (Alreck & Settle, 2002); but Bhatnagar, et al. (2000) reported that time does not matter for those who use internet as a source of information in purchasing goods and services online. In an effort to outline the consumer perception towards online purchase, Jarvenpaa & Todd (1996-97) denoted four major elements of perception: product perception, shopping experience, customer service, and consumer risk. Price is an important yardstick for monetizing product perception; and since dynamic pricing strategies for products are applied on the web where prices vary across customers, across product bundles, and over time, product perceptions tend to change (Kannan & Kopalle, 2001).
Similarly, online shopping experience tends to vary from person to person as it is closely associated with the lifestyle and shopping patterns of the individual (Vellido, et al. , 2000). However, ‘playfulness’ and perceived ‘fun’ factors are important determinants of a consumer’s satisfaction with the shopping experience (Goldsmith, et al. , 2001). Additionally, subtle factors like inability to locate store, find size and colour can also downgrade the shopping experience (Osman, et al. , 2010). Furthermore, customer service can greatly affect the online buying decisions mainly through three reasons: vendor knowledge, responsiveness, and reliability (Gefen, 2002).
At last, consumer risk such as credit card risks, identity theft, and privacy risks are the factors that can negatively affect the online purchase transactions (Vijayasarathy, 2002). Minimizing these risks can uplift buyer’s online purchase decision positively. Some researchers tried to examine the link between website design/quality and consumers’ online purchase attitudes in a detailed way. Studies from Zhang ; von Dran (2000) and Zhang, et al. (2001) reported that website design and quality shares a great link with the consumer satisfaction index. The website features are generally categorized into two major themes: hygiene factors and motivation factors. Hygiene factors, containing privacy, security, technicality, navigation, impartiality, and content information, has a greater impact on the overall atisfaction index of a consumer helping them to make safer online transactions; whereas, motivation factors are those that add value to the product and make it worth the experience of the buyer (ibid). Similarly, Liang and Lai (2001) added another factor, computer factor, for the measurement of functionality of the web sites taking elements from hygiene factor except privacy and security. The features employed for measurement of website quality by most of the researchers came down to content information, presentation, customer-vendor interaction, navigation, search mechanism, technical features, security, privacy, and media richness (Cho, et al. , 2001; Grandon ; Ranganathan, 2001; Kim, et al. , 2001; Koufaris, et al. , 2002). Chapter Three: Research Methodology
According to Saunders, et al. (2009) research is planned and systematic sets of activities undertaken in a field of study to increase knowledge. In terms of business research, it is all about collecting business related information to reach to a logical decision (Wilson, 2010). 3. 1 Research Philosophies and Paradigms Since the philosophical aspect and paradigm selected by a researcher can fundamentally affect the way a research is undertaken from topic selection and research design to the selection of the methodologies (Saunder, et al. , 2009), it is worthy of sparing some lines on this section, also to shape the orientation of the current research.
Positivism is a paradigm in research which believes that the world is based on the objective reality; that for every effect, there must be a cause; and for every knowledge, a universal law can be applied (Blaikie, 1993; Saunders, et al. , 2009). Interpretivism holds the opposite view to that of the positivism; where knowledge is regarded as individual experience conditioned with the social reality, constructing and reconstructing the multiple realities for the individual subjective thoughts (Denzin and Lincoln, 2003). Realism, as a research paradigm, takes into consideration the bests of both thoughts. Taking a midway between highly deterministic positivism and over relativist interpretivism, realists believe that knowledge is independent of human experience, that it exists already, but creating it is conditioned by individual social reality (Saunders, et al. 2009). 3. 2 Research Desigon The primary purpose of this research is to investigate the prospects of internet marketing and its impact on the consumers’ online purchase decisions under the broader scope of e-commerce. The research design adopted for this study contains instruments like semi structured questionnaire to collect primary quantitative data. A number of case studies have been reviewed to increase and update the researcher’s understanding of current scenarios on e-commerce as well as internet marketing and its impacts on buyers’ online purchasing decisions. But, the research design for this study remains purely a quantitative one.
The questionnaire were emailed to the respondents to be filled in their convenient time, alphabetical responses were coded in numbers appropriately to be filled in the analysing software SPSS 17. 0 to allow the researcher make quantitative analysis. 3. 3 Study Area and Sampling Procedure Due to the pervasive nature of internet and its implications, any research done in the ICT and e-commerce related areas or its affiliated areas are not simply tend to be area specific. However, this study is done primarily among the people who live in the city of London and its surrounding towns, and who use internet as a source of various information as well as online purchase. In terms of sampling procedure, random probability sampling was used to select a sample without any hypocrisy and discrimination from the researcher own email list.
A total of 152 emails were sent requesting to fill up the questionnaire attached, but only 74 samples turned the questionnaire in. So the total sample of this study turned out to be 74 and most of them found to be technological savvy. 3. 4 Tools and Techniques of data collection Almost all researches need at least a tool for data collection except for those using secondary sources. Among many tools for collecting primary data, questionnaire has been selected for this study. Since the study tries to investigate the prospects of internet marketing and impacts on buyers’ purchase decisions, the orientation of the research becomes a technological one; so the technique of data collection adopted by the researcher is email.
Applying this technique is highly beneficial for the researcher especially for two reasons: 1) it saves time and resources, and 2) the sample selected automatically turns out to be technology savvy, which has an implication on the research agenda ??? prospects of internet marketing and impact on online buying decisions ??? that only the ICT friendly sample would best be able to answer not the general public. 3. 4. 1 Questionnaire Questionnaire is an important tool for collecting data that forms the backbone of the research. The structured questionnaire is formulated after reviewing the past researches on the similar topic by various researchers. The questions contained in the questionnaire are close-ended; as Bryman ; Bell (2007) suggest that close-ended questions allows researcher to process and compare the responses in an easy way, and also helps the respondents to understand the exact meaning of the question. A total of 29 questions are included in the questionnaire, which are primarily divided into 3 sections.
The first section comprises 7 questions related to respondents’ biographic information; second section, having 7question, deals with the use of internet and respondents online purchase patterns; and the third section is composed of 16 questions related to prospects of internet marketing and its impact on consumers’ purchase decisions. The questionnaire used in this research can be seen in Appendix 6. 3. 4. 2 Case Study Case studies are a helpful tool to understand a situation or a complete phenomenon in a very persuasive way. The researcher reviewed a number of case studies related to ICT and e-commerce and its pervasive use across the business sectors.
The success stories like Amazon. com and failures of many dot coms gave insights to the researcher for better understanding of the current situation of e-commerce and internet marketing. Thus, case studies have been a source of building understanding of the researcher by providing secondary information on the topic. However, case study is not the primary tool for analysing data in this study. 3. 5 Nature and Sources of Data The primary data collected in this study is purely a quantitative in nature obtained through the questionnaire; and the technology savvy respondents are the sources of primary data. However, qualitative nature of secondary nformation obtained by the researcher is through case studies and various reports on success and failure stories on the e-commerce, found from the sources like books, organizations’ periodic reports, journals, research reports and publications, e-newsletters, bulletins, and press releases, etc. 3. 6 Method of Data Analysis For the purpose of data analysis, statistical software SPSS 17. 0 is used in this research. The obtained data from 74 samples were first tabulated on the database converting the responses into numeric coding and filled into the software in a proper format. Data analysis has been done on the basis of the major research themes extracted out of the main bulk of data. Mainly two forms of analysis have been done ??? descriptive and comparative ??? and presented in tables, figures and charts.
Prior to begin analysis, reliability co-efficiency for the internal data consistency has been done on the measurement scale of cronbach’s alpha. The first part of the analysis consists of the respondents’ biographic profile; second part includes the respondents’ perception towards prospects of internet marketing; and the last part deals with the factors influencing buyers’ online purchase decisions. 3. 7 Limitation of the Research In spite of its trans-national significance and applicability in a global scale, owing to the similar internet experience around the globe, the study has some limitations of its own. The research is undertaken with a small sample size of 74 respondents from the UK shoppers and consumers that may not hold relevance for the pan UK or global application.
Given to the size of the universe of the UK shoppers too, it is doubtful for this research to be up to the standard based on which million pounds marketing plans could be devised. In other words, because of the limitations of time and resources, the current undertaking has got its own limitations in terms of wider and real practical application. 3. 8 Ethical Considerations Ethical considerations are one of the major responsibilities that every researcher should follow. It is very important to have regard for the respondents’ privacy and protection of their personal information, since the Data protection Act, 1998 (www. legislation. gov. uk) prohibits such activity and doing so is an illegal activity.
So, in the current study, the personal information of all the respondents is kept secret regarding their right to privacy, and will not, in any case, be distributed to the third party. The respondents were notified about this provision on the every email sent by the researcher, and also mentioned the aim and purpose of the research as a dissertation in the partial fulfilment of the requirement in Master’s degree in Business Management (MBA). Chapter Four: Data Analysis and Interpretation This chapter presents the analysed data and findings of the research. With the help of SPSS 17. 0 statistical software, data has been analysed and presented with the help of tables, figures, or charts wherever appropriate. 4. 1 Reliability analysis
In an attempt to find out reliability coefficient value (Cronbach’s alpha) of the collected data, among 38 total variables only 22 dependent variables (likert scale data) were processed through the SPSS 17. 0 software. A total of 16 independent variables were excluded from the reliability test because they were measured as nominal data type, which this software can not estimate the coefficiency perfectly. The result showed that cronbach’s alpha value of the collected likert scale data is 0. 702 on N=22. Therefore, it can be said that the internal consistency of the data is reliable and any analysis done through this data would easily be considered valid and credible. For the reliability score, see table 4. , and for the individual item total statistics for alpha value, please go to Appendix 2. Table 4. 1: Reliability Coefficient Score Reliability Statistics| Cronbach’s Alpha| N of Items| .702| 22| 4. 2 Descriptive Analysis The age and gender distribution shows that out of 74 respondents, 43 were male and 31 were female. Similarly, figure 4. 2 presents that either bachelor or master degree holders are more than non degree holders. Figure 5: Age and Gender Distribution Figure 4. 2: Education and employment status 4. 2. 1: Major driving factor for shopping online In an attempt to investigate what the participants think the driving factor for shopping online, the researcher asked a question about this.
The responses revealed that the primary factor for shopping online is utilitarian (shopping with a purpose in mind) as almost 96 percent of the respondents accounted for this, leaving only about 4 percent who said online shopping is done for hedonic (for fun or pleasure) purposes (See table 4. 11). Figure 4. 3: Driving factors for shopping online 4. 2. 2 Top ten most preferred items intended to buy online N=74 Figure 4. 4: Most preferred items The figure 4. 4 suggests that the most preferred item to be bought from the internet shopping is books with 57 percent of the total 74 respondents preferred to buy, followed by clothing/Accessories/Shoes with 47 percent intending to buy online. Similarly, Event tickets through internet are the third most preferred item to be bought as 44 percentage intended to buy it.
Airline ticket/reservation and electronic equipments are the fourth and fifth most preferred items to be bought online with 42 and 38 percent of the total respondents intending to buy online. Likewise, computer software/games; music/DVDs/videos; tours/hotel reservations, computer hardware; and groceries are ranked sixth to tenth respectively on the top ten list of most preferred item to be bought from online shopping. 4. 2. 3 Kinds of websites preferred to purchase from online When asked what kind of websites you prefer to purchase the goods and services from, 29. 7 percent of the respondents replied they would buy from the websites for stores that you can only shop online, followed by 24. 3 percent claiming that they would buy from the websites that also have traditional “brick and mortar” stores. Similarly, 17. percent replied that it does not matter what kind of websites they are shopping from as long as they get their things done in a pleasant manner, followed by 14. 9 percent that they would go for the sites which also sell through catalogues or over the phone. The remaining 13. 5 percent answered that they would prefer to buy from the web sites that allow you to select products from many different online stores (Figure 4. 5). Figure 4. 5: website Preferred for online shopping 4. 2. 4 Channels of product awareness In terms of channel or source of awareness about the products before making purchase decisions, a majority, 56. 8 percent, of the respondents responded they use the internet sources for the awareness, followed by 18. 9 percent relying on friends and family as a source of product information.
Furthermore, sources like newspapers or magazines, and television accounts for 18. 9 and 12. 2 percent of the respondents respectively. And only 2. 7 percent were found relying on other than above mentioned sources for product awareness before making online purchase decisions. Figure 4. 6: Sources of product awareness before buying online 4. 2. 5 Use of social media or in-site product reviews In an effort to find out the use of social media for communication and reviews about the product as well as in-site product reviews before making purchase decisions, the respondents were asked how often they use those sources for product reviews before buying things online.
The result showed that although the percentage of respondents who always use product reviews through these sources is just 5. 4 percent, an overwhelming percent accounting 45. 9 percent replied they do it quite often. 33. 8 percent are found to do product reviews sometimes, whereas only 14. 5 percent seemed not interested in reviewing product reviews prior to make purchase decisions. Figure 4. 7: Frequency of social media or in-site product reviews 4. 2. 6 Use of search engines The use of search engines among the participants was found prevalent with nearly 46 percent of the respondents using it quite often to locate the websites they want to open, followed by 28. 4 percent using it always.
Similarly, over one fourth of them replied that they use it sometimes while accessing to locate the websites of their choice as well as seek the information online. The mean value and the measure of dispersion denoted by standard deviation show that more than 68% of the respondents use the search engines more than quite often (mean=1. 97, ? = 0. 74, minimum value = 1, maximum value = 5), where 1 refers to always and 5 refers to never. Figure 4. 8: Frequency of search engines use 4. 2. 7 Attention paid to online advertisements In an attempt to find out how much attention does the respondents pay on the online advertisements, the researcher received a king of mixed results. More than 43 percent stayed neutral, while 36. percent of the respondents agreed that they do pay attention to the online ads. On the other hand more than one fifth responded that they do not pay attention to the online ads. Figure 4. 9: Attentive towards online ads 4. 2. 8 Attention towards the online banner ads When asked how much attentive the respondents get when they see an online banner ad, 33. 8 percent of the respondents agreed that it is exciting enough to click through, followed by 39. 2 percent who stayed neutral on the topic, and 27 percent of them disagreed that it does not excite them to click through the link of online banner ads. Figure 4. 10: Attentive towards online banner ads 4. 2. 9 Attention towards the online video ads
In the same way to know what kind of internet marketing the respondents would give their best responses to click through, researcher tried to know their reactions towards online video ads. Nearly 46 percent of the respondents agreed that online video ads are the best thing exciting them to click through the page. Similarly, 37. 84 percent of the respondents neither agreed nor disagreed on the statement; whereas, only 16. 22 percent of the respondents disagreed on the statement (Figure 4. 11). Figure 4. 11: Attention towards the online video ads 4. 2. 10 online ads as the source of product information When asked if they take online ads as the source of information about the product or services, 8. percent of them are strongly agreed that they take it as a source of product information, followed by 31. 1 percent who agreed on the statement. Contrarily, 20. 3 percent of the respondents do not think online ads as the source of product information, whereas, a large proportion of the respondents accounting 40. 5 percent remained neutral to the statement. Figure 4. 12: Online ads as the source of product information 4. 2. 11 Effects of favourite ads To test the assumptions that if somebody run into their favourite advertisements, i. e. the ads of their favourite products, they are most likely to click through, making way for the internet marketing prospected towards the target audience.
Results showed that an overwhelming 69 percent of the respondents agreed that the favourite ads of their favourite products fascinate them to click through. 21. 6 percent remained neutral, and only a small proportion, 9. 5 percent, disagreed on the statement. The mean value of 2. 15 and standard deviation value of 0. 917 on the scale of 1 ??? 5, where 1 is strongly agree and 5 is strongly disagree on the statement that favourite ads fascinate to click through on the page, denotes that majority of the respondents agree it does fascinate people to click through (Figure 4. 13). Figure 4. 13: Effects of favourite ads 4. 2. 12 Impact of internet marketing on online purchase decision When asked internet marketing does have an impact on the purchase decision of online buyers, 63. percent of the respondents agreed on the statement, followed by 29. 7 percent who neither agreed nor disagreed, and only a small 6. 8 percent responded it does not have any impact on the purchase decisions of online consumers. The figure 4. 17 below suggests that with a mean value of 2. 22 and standard deviation value of 0. 864 on the scale of 1 ??? 5, where 1 is strongly agree and 5 is strongly disagree on the statement that internet marketing has an impact on the online buyers’ purchase decisions, we can rightfully say that majority of the respondents believe that it does have an impact on the online buyers’ purchase decisions. Figure 4. 14: Impact of internet marketing on the purchase decisions 4. 2. 3 Security on the trusted sites As the security is becoming an issue in online purchasing behaviour, the researcher tried to investigate the degree of secured feeling while doing transactions through secured or trusted sites. The results showed that 47. 3 percent of the participants believe that transactions through trusted site is secured or risk free, whereas 20. 3 percent do not get the feeling of security even if they are doing transactions through the trusted sites. And almost one third of the respondents did not like to either agree or disagree on the statement. Figure 4. 15: Feeling of security on trusted sites 4. 2. 14 Feeling of insecurity on the unsecured sites
To find out how much hesitant do the respondents feel to do transactions through the unknown or unsecured site, they were asked to respond on the statement that “I feel hesitation to shop from unknown/unsecured sites”. Findings showed that more than 82 percent of the respondents agreed on the statement and only about 18 percent neither agreed nor disagreed on the statement. The mean value of 1. 82 and standard deviation value of 0. 709 on the scale of 1 ??? 5, where 1 is strongly agree and 5 is strongly disagree on the statement that “I feel hesitation to shop from unknown or unsecured sites”, it is highly affirmative that the statement is unbiased and accepted by the respondents (Figure 4. 16). Figure 4. 16: Feeling of insecurity on the unsecured sites 4. 2. 15 Online Shopping vs. Traditional Shopping
In an attempt to find out online shopping is quick and efficient than its traditional counterpart, respondents were asked to answer on it. An overwhelming 78. 4 percent of the respondents agreed that online shopping is quicker and more efficient than the traditional one; and only 21. 6 percent of the respondents remained neutral on this statement. Whereas, no respondents were found disagree on this statement. The mean value of 2. 01 and standard deviation value of 0. 652 on the scale of 1 ??? 5, where 1 is strongly agree and 5 is strongly disagree on the statement that online shopping is quicker and more efficient than the traditional one, it is highly affirmative that the statement is unbiased and accepted by the respondents (Figure 4. 17). Figure 4. 7: Online Shopping vs. Traditional Shopping 4. 2. 16 Prices on the online store To know the fact that what do the respondents think about the prices on the online store is really lower than that of the traditional “brick and mortar’s”, the researcher got the mixed responses on this statement. Still half of the respondents found to believe that prices on the online store are really lower than that of its traditional counterpart. 28. 4 percent of them neither agreed nor disagreed, whereas 21. 7 percent of the respondents disagreed on the statement. Figure 4. 25: Prices on the online store 4. 2. 17 Impact of provision of warranty and refund policy
To know the impacts of the provision of warranty and refund policy of the products those are bought online, the researcher put forward a statement “I would prefer to buy goods those have warranty and refund policy”. The results shocked the researcher that almost 90 percent of the respondents agreed that they would prefer buying goods online that have product warranty and refund policy, and only about 10 percent stayed neutral on this statement. As the figure 4. 26 suggests the mean value of 1. 61 and standard deviation value of 0. 674 on the scale of 1 ??? 5, where 1 is strongly agree and 5 is strongly disagree on the statement that “I would prefer buying goods online hich have product warranty and refund policy, it is highly affirmative that the statement is unbiased and accepted by the overwhelming majority of the respondents (Figure 4. 18). Figure 4. 18: Impact of provision of warranty and refund policy 4. 2. 18 Issues on the delivery of purchased item Among the many issues as a bone of contention between the e-marketer and consumer groups, one is about the time taken by the organizations to deliver the products. To know the intentions of the participants on this matter, the researcher put forth a statement that delivery time of the products bought online takes more time than reasonable. The responses showed that almost 42 percent of the respondents agreed on the statement, i. e. hey believe the time taken for delivery is more than reasonable. 33. 8 percent of them found to be neutral on this statement; and 24. 3 percent do not believe that the time taken is more than reasonable, i. e. it is within the reasonable. Figure 4. 19: Issues on the delivery of purchased item 4. 2. 19 Impact of customer support/Service on purchase decisions In an effort to investigate the impact of customer support/services provided online from the business organizations to the consumer, the researcher asked a question to the respondents whether they believe the online customer support/service have an impact on consumers’ purchase decisions.
The results came out as an overwhelmingly high proportion accounting almost 88 percent of the respondents believe that it does have an impact on the consumer’s buying decisions; and only around 12 percent remained neutral to the statement. Figure 4. 20: Impact of customer support/service on purchase decisions The mean value of 1. 68 and standard deviation value of 0. 685 on the scale of 1 ??? 5, where 1 is strongly agree and 5 is strongly disagree on the statement that “customer support/services make an impact on the buying decisions, it is highly affirmative that the statement is unbiased and accepted by the overwhelming majority of the respondents (Figure 4. 20). 4. 3 Inferential Statistics
Inferential statistics are the true analysis of data where the complex relationships between variables can be detected and analysed in such a manner that can be described in simple format later on. In this section the researcher has attempted to present analytical results. The relationship between the independent and dependent variables through analysis of variance (One way ANOVA), mean analysis; as well as relationships within the dependent variables (Pearson’s correlations) using SPSS 17. 0 is presented in this section. 4. 3. 1 Cross tabulation and mean analysis It has been spotted that level of expertise on online shopping has an impact on the variables like use of internet in a day, experience of internet use, and experience on online shopping depicted through the figure 4. 12, 4. 13, and 4. 14 below. Figure 4. 1: Cross tabs ??? level of expertise and use of internet a day As the figure 4. 12 shows, the average hours of use of internet increases, as the level of expertise on online shopping rises from none to expert. In the same way, figure 4. 13 and figure 4. 14 shows the same kind of relationships where, as the level of expertise rises, the experience on both the internet use and online shopping rises. The one way Anova analysis further sheds some light on the kind of this relationship. Figure 4. 22: Cross tabs ??? level of expertise and experience of internet use Figure 4. 23: Cross tabs: level of expertise and experience of online shopping For mean analysis table, see Appendix 3. 4. 3. One way ANOVA test The researcher tried to establish impact of an independent variable (level of expertise of online shopping) upon the three dependent variables such as use of in