The boom of
internet technologies and digital marketing has enabled several new and old
businesses to develop their online presence and to sale products and services
online. Though, a business may develop an excellent online store, it may not be
successful if it is not aligned with their buyer’s preferences. An online
business may be doing all necessary efforts to sell products and services
online but it would eventually go out of business if it does not understand how
its consumers act in web space. It is not so simple that an online buyer would
come to business website, search a product, like the product, and eventually
buy the product. It is not that simple. It is very important to understand
online consumer’s behaviour to be a successful online seller.
Internet has
changed the way buyers are purchasing products these days. With ever evolving internet
commerce, consumers’ buying styles are also changing. With the development of
newer technologies, consumers’ learning curve is also changing. Though volume
of e-commerce is increasing every day with increasing online buying habits of
more people, there are many consumers who are still reluctant to purchase
through online channels. There are many factors which affect online consumer’s
actions. These factors explain why some consumers prefer to buy online products
and services while other consumers abstain from entering these relatively new
avenues. Some of the factors that affect online buyer’s behaviour are as follows.
- Online channel characteristics/ knowledge
- Online shopping exposure
- Buyer’s Demographics
- Pricing Preferences
The three main characteristics
which distinguish a marketing channel from another are communication,
distribution, and accessibility. A marketing channel would perform better than other
on the basis of these three main characteristics. Online consumers believe that
internet provides better services in terms of said qualities to do transactions
as compared to purchases through non-online channels. However, it should be
noted that online purchasing requires a device that can be connected to
internet as well as knowledge of internet to complete an online transaction.
The consumers who have resources as well as knowledge and skills in web
browsing would be more comfortable in purchasing online as compared to
consumers who lack such skills and resources. It can be easily said that one
who has more web channel knowledge and skills is more likely to do online
purchases. Therefore, web channel knowledge and skills would impact the decision
as well as frequency of purchasing on internet. Moreover, frequent online purchasers
would be more comfortable and knowledgeable than occasional online purchasers. The
following picture shows different factors which influence online consumer’s
behavior.
Even before the
convenience of online shopping, consumers were used to do shopping through
printed catalogues and TV shopping channels. Convenience and recreation are two
major aspects of non-store or home based buying. Young, recreational, economical,
low-income, and adventurist are some characteristics of these kinds of buyers. These
day similar shoppers are also attracted by online shopping. In addition, online
shopping is also preferred by some web based buyers over in-store shopping
because of the time savings and convenience it brings. One of the major
arguments in-store buyers give that in stores and shopping malls they can see,
feel, touch, and try the products they want to buy before they pay for the
products. So, those shoppers who want to physically check the product before
buying would be less likely to buy online since online buying does not provide
physically touching the product experience on the internet. On the other hand,
buyers who do not care for experiencing the product before buying and prefer convenience would be more inclined to purchase online. Similarly, buyers
who make online purchases would become more convenient toward future online
purchasing than those who do not purchase online.
These characteristics
are consistent with existing situation of e-commerce. Internet has proved its
power to spread different kinds of information. Today, online stores provide
large amount of searchable information about products. Online consumers can
find various characteristics of products such as size, color, and prices using
search function. Even consumers are able to conduct search to compare products’
features available in different online stores. Though online buyers can also experience
certain digital products online such as they can play a part of a music track
or download a trial version of a software program, today's online stores still
have a limited capacity for consumers to experience tangible products online.
It is evident
that existing online stores have some limitations as compared to the
conventional stores. For example, web based stores present the product
information in a way that reduces the impact of brand quality. The display
screen of device provides a list of brand names with features like flavors,
sizes, and prices. Online buyers do not see the brand product packages. As a
result brand awareness is lost. Moreover, most of online shopping stores allow
buyers to go directly to specific product categories to make their selections
which lacks buyer looking at other products on the way to buying any specific product.
Due to this online space shoppers make relatively fewer purchases or only those
products which they actually want to buy.
The demographics of online buyers are
also related to their buying behaviour online.
Since education is highly correlated with a person’s income as well as predicts
the internet knowledge and skills, it can be said that education is a major factor
that affects a person’s online buying behavior. It is also not difficult to say
that young internet users spend more time on the web as compared to the older
users. Similarly, young users have more skills and knowledge about the newer
web based technologies than the older users. Therefore, buyers who are more
educated are more likely to purchase online as compared to the buyers who are
less educated, and frequent online buyers are even better educated than less
frequent online buyers.
Some studies have found out that male users
of internet do more of online purchasing than female user of internet, and they
are more frequent online buyers as compared to females. Moreover, online consumers
have higher incomes as compared to in-store buyers and they buy more frequently
than in-store buyers.
In
summary, whether buyers purchase online and how frequently they buy online relates to some extent of their channel skill, knowledge, and views about channel
utilities. Buyers’ online buying behavior is also influenced by shopping
convenience as well as shopping experience. Online buying convenience preference
would have a positive impact on their future online buying endeavours; however an
experience preference would have a negative effect on future tries. Similarly,
recreational and economic preferences would have minimal impact on consumers’
online buying behavior since generally recreational buyers spend more and are
not money savers. Also, gender, income, and education would also predict and impact
the level of web channel skills, knowledge, and indirectly influence online
buying behavior.
References:
Birchall,
C. (n.d.). Understanding online consumer behaviour – the different online
shopper personality types. In Kerching
retail. Retrieved November 28, 2015, from http://www.kerchingretail.com/understanding-online-consumer-behaviour-the-different-online-shopper-personality-types
Grabowski,
P. (May 30, 2014). Key factors influencing online consumer behavior – backed by
research. In Ecommerce insiders. Retrieved November 29, 2015, from http://ecommerceinsiders.com/key-factors-influencing-online-consumer-behaviour-backed-research-1981/
Li,
J. (May 10, 2013). Study: Online shopping behavior in the digital era. In iAcquire. Retrieved November 29, 2015,
from http://www.iacquire.com/blog/study-online-shopping-behavior-in-the-digital-era
Roberts,
M.L., Zahay, D. (2013), Internet marketing: Integrating online and offline
strategies (3rd ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Stokes,
Rob., The minds of quirk, e-marketing: The essential guide to marketing in a
digital world (5th ed.). Quirk eMarketing (Pty) Ltd.
Shazia Karrar
