A Study about Impact of Customer Characteristics on Online Purchase Behavior in Indian Context

The recent growth of e-commerce and the consumer’s increasing interest in purchasing over the net have significantly changed the landscape of Indian retail market. Today customers are inclined to accept the changes and keep their eyes on the benefits they can obtain from online retailers. The recent example of changing consumer purchase pattern is the flipkart’s ‘Big Billion day’ Sale. The growth in online sales can be partially attributed to the Internet’s advantages of providing large amounts of information quickly and inexpensively and it’s growing accessibility. Yet, to reach its full potential, business owners who use ecommerce as a distribution channel need a clearer understanding of who buys online, what they buy online, why they buy online and how the non-Internet buyer can be transformed into an online buyer in order to increase online sales. The purpose of this study is to understand and analyze the factors effecting online purchase decisions of Indian customer. The paper attempts to identify the determinants of online purchase intentions of youths in Indian context. Based on extensive literature review, factors effecting online purchase intentions, antecedents of service quality and consumer attitudes were identified and a structured-non-disguised questionnaire was prepared. The data was collected through survey of 200 students of graduation and post-graduation courses in Moradabad region of Uttar Pradesh. The questionnaire contained questions about consumer demographics, security and privacy concerns, technological familiarity, past online shopping experiences and intentions to buy various types of products through internet in future. The findings of the study indicate that customer online purchase intentions are significantly related to their gender, education, age, security concern, technological familiarity and past online purchase frequency. Consumer buying behavior is also affected by product type, purchase frequency and expensiveness. Their purchase decisions are also found to be related with the online retailer’s services like return, refund and delivery services. The framework of the research enhances understanding of the factors affecting customer online shopping behaviour, helps in profiling typical Indian online shoppers and may help e-marketers developing more specific marketing strategies to increase e-commerce sales.