The Increasing Popularity Of Internet Marketing Essay

The Increasing Popularity Of Internet Marketing Essay With the increasing popularity of internet, we see that online shopping is penetrating in the lives of people. It is so, because of the wide distribution and rapid progress of computer use and internet, it has offers consumers not only access to an endless amount of information but also an opportunity of making purchase at home. However, due to this change, online shopping has been regarded as very popular for consumers and it has become an accepted way of purchasing different types of goods and products. Online shopping also known as internet shopping, e- shopping, e- commerce, and online purchasing is viewed as a process where consumers buy directly from a seller without any intermediary throughout the net. Thus, in a more general sense, consumers can stay at their own leisure or at their own comfort of their house and browse through the internet to buy goods or products according to their desires or specifications anywhere in the world. Moreover, changes in the lifestyles are pushing consumers to go for online shopping. Instead of spending times and doing shopping activities in a retail stores, consumers are finding it easier and pleasant to shop online at any time or during festival season. People are now buying many types of goods and services as well, on the internet. Thus, according to a survey it has been found that due to the growing trend of online shopping, many companies are finding it advantageous to join the bandwagon and offers their consumers to shop online, otherwise they could have incurred losses if only they would concentrated on retail store. Further to that, in this new age, technology is actually the main motive that is in terms of e-commerce which has become an integral part for most youngsters. Nowadays, it is very common especially for youngsters to go online and buy their desires needs and wants. Moreover, in todayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s time, there are apps (short for application) i.e. software that you buy from your preferred online store, which has different functions that has makes life more easier or simply for entertainment and which has mostly attract the youngsters due to its various purpose that is; gaming, variety of news and information, social networking, sports news, weather forecasting and amongst others. Thus, with all these facilities, people are benefitting enormously. At the present time where people have smartphones, IPhone, android and amongst others they are always connected with Internet and at any point in time they can buy anything that they want. When you log onto your iPhone or android phone, y ou get updates about new games and new apps. Some free, some try and buy. With this temptation, no one actually can resist and 95% eventually end up buying something. Although, we see that some companies are also making online shopping easier and more interesting by giving some facilities such as to try and then buy. Thus, through this, people are finding it relatively easier and are adopting it. However, due to this new trend, we see that the behavior of consumers are changing as well as their attitudes, that is by having all this facilities, they are engaging more upon that. Hence, this study will try to investigate the internet usage pattern and also the attitude of internet users toward online shopping. It will also examine to which extent are the consumers being influenced toward online shopping and also the benefit and drawbacks associated to it. Further to that, this research will also attempt to provide a holistic view of those shoppers and online shoppers. Their demographics, psychographics, shopping experience and level of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with online shopping will also be analyzed in details. 1.1 Motivation My motivation in conducting this study is simply because nowadays, with the rapid change in the technological advances, it has revolutionaries the way people do their shopping. In this era, online shopping has created a unique stand and thus become very popular for everyone whether youngsters or adults. Everyone keeps an interest to that. Moreover, internet has been introduced in Mauritius since 1996 and the number of people connecting to internet is constantly increasing. Thus, undoubtedly online shopping is a new feature that has been recently created. Definitely, online shopping has a double side coin which consists of some benefit and drawbacks as well. Since it is a relatively new occurrence, this has encouraged me more on doing this typical survey. In addition to that, products such as laptop, camera, mobile phone, all the technological gadgets, cloths, shoes and amongst others are the main stuff for the online shoppers. There are a number of websites such as amazon, e-bay and many others that provide consumers a wide choice of products so that they can make their purchase. Nevertheless, these websites also provides guarantee to their product, thus as a result it gives assurance to their consumers. Through its risky yet people like to do online shopping. Further to that, it is believe that nowadays, online shopping has become a lifestyle as everyone finds it more interesting and they are making online shopping some part of their life. Thus, I was motivated to do this survey as it is something new and people are finding adaptable and interesting. 1.2 Background Due to the invention of computer use and internet, it has created a paradigm shift of the traditional way people shop. People used to go to market, retails stores to purchase the products but nowadays, we see that consumers is no longer bounded by any opening or closing hours nor by any specific location. Meaning that at any time and place, he can purchase products and services as well. Hence, indeed internet has become a medium for communication and information exchange which has become very essential and present in everyday life. Long ago, people used to go to market, retails stores to find and make a purchase of the products they required. Normally, they had to travel to go to these shops. Before buying a particular product goods, they would choose their products very carefully and once they were sure about the products, they would buy it. Thus, these were the traditional shopping method but nowadays, it is not the only shopping method that exists. The rapid growth of internet has brought another way of making purchase that is online. Customers search on the internet for products according to their specific needs. Today, internet is considered as a mass medium as it provides consumers with purchase characteristics that is in term of convenience. It provides consumers the ability to view and purchase product at any time and also to visualize their needs of the products. In addition to that, there are already a number of websites created for selling products such as amazon, eBay and amongst others. In this environment of customer choice, people have the ability to search for a range of products on the internet and that too with a variety of better choices and experienced as compared with traditional retail stores. They have also given the opportunity to the same people to sell their items online. In the study of Oppenheim and ward (2006), he explained that earlier people use to shop on the internet because of the price but now it has been converted into convenience. Thus the current primary reason for people to shop online is just because of convenience. Hence, online shopping is just a process where consumers decide to shop on the internet. Moreover, many previous papers have analyzed this concept of online shopping in respect of consumerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s attitudes and behavior for example, Hunt (2007) has discuses about the various methods of online shopping and Wolfinger has studied the situation involves in online shopping and many others . In present times, it has become more easier, it is so as people who have IPhone, Android, Smartphone or tablets can easily have access to internet easily and then whenever, they want to shop they can shop at anytime and anywhere. Due to the progression of technology, a software called apps have been created which give many facility in various ways. Thus, through all these, online shopping is becoming more accessible to all. We even see that in other countries, some companies are emphasing more in online shopping. They are giving option of trying before buying, thus this is a newly designed features that been created to attract more consumers. Thus to conclude, due to the improvement of technology, it has given more facilities to consumers to shop online and to experience new things. A as a result, internet has developed a highly competitive market, where competition over the consumers is fierce. Objectives of the project To gain an insight about the profile of current internet users. To examine the factors which encourage and discourage consumer from purchasing online. To identify the key factors which influence the Mauritian online shopping behavior. To investigate the level of consumerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s attitude toward online shopping. To determine how socio-demographic affect consumer attitude toward online shopping. Research questions; What are the factors that influence decisions on whether to purchase online or at physical store? What are the advantage and disadvantage of purchasing online or at the physical store? How do these factors influence the consumer to purchase online? What are the mode of payment and delivery of goods being done when purchasing online? What is the level of consumerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s attitude toward online shopping? What is the relative impact of socio demographic and attitude in online shopping and purchasing behavior? Layout of the project Chapter 2; literature review This chapter will presents a critical summary of all previous researches that has been done on attitude and behavior of people toward online shopping. It is divided into many sections which will be further elaborated. Chapter 3; research methodology It will describe the research process that has been used to carry out for this study. The research design and sampling plan will be further described. The sources of data both primary and secondary sources will be used and the questionnaire design will also be presented. Chapter 4; analysis and findings of the study Chapter 4 will deals with the analysis of data collected. This analysis has been in line with the objectives and therefore the finding will be extracted from this analysis and which will be presented in a way that would be easily understood. Chapter 5; recommendation and conclusion It will present the conclusion that has been drawn from the analysis of the research. Further scope for the research and some implication also will be discussed. Summary Since the rapid development of the internet, online shopping has become a new and widely used medium. Despite the fact it is relatively a new thing peoples especially youngsters always keeps an interest to that ant that also do not have any problem using this medium. Thus, I wanted to have a clear information about the current usage pattern on online shopping and also about the benefit and risk associated to online shopping. What actually I want in this research is understand the consumers and what influence them toward online shopping and also their attitude and behavior toward this new occurrence of technology. This is what I want to accomplish with this research.