I) CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION

In the last few decades internet has revolutionised the lives of millions of users with

its immense applications. With the growing proclivity and economic growth online

shopping has increased drastically. The world of electronic commerce, also known as

e-commerce, enables consumers to shop at online stores and pay for their purchases

being contented at home. By just clicking a mouse, shoppers can buy any product

online -- from household items to home loans. Consumers expect merchants not only

make their products available on the Web, but also to make payments a simple and

secure process. Online shopping is beneficial for both consumers as well as

merchants. With the fast growing technology online shopping is emerging in India at

a very faster rate. According to a new report, India saw a 128% growth in interest

from consumers in 2014 as compared to that of 2013.

Online shopping portals are witnessing a whopping 200% growth in the sale of

electronic items every year. This is driven by the demands like mobile phones, iPods

and MP3 players not only from metros but also from small cities. Apparels and

accessories (30%) emerged as the second biggest product category after consumer

electronics (34%) and is expected to become bigger than consumer electronics this

year. Other popular searched categories include books (15%), beauty & personal care

(10%), home & furnishings (6%), baby products (2%) and healthcare (3%).Fitness

equipment like treadmills and lifestyle items like sunglasses are a big hit among

Punjabis. Some Online Shopping portals in India are www. Homeshop18.com,

www.flipkart.com, www.yebhi.com, www.myntra.com.American online retail giant

Amazon.com has also made an entry into the Indian market in 2012 with

Junglee.com, an online shopping site powered by the $ 48 billion company.

A. ONLINE SHOPPING IN INDIA

Online buying is growing exponentially throughout the world. UK is biggest online

shopping nation in the world followed Denmark, Norway and Korea. In Nigeria and

other African countries the number of users is still far below the world average which is

around 30%. Now-a-days due to the availability of faster internet networks E-commerce

activities are expanding at a faster rate in Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya. In South

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Africa, 51% of individuals with internet access shop online whereas, in Kenya, only 18-

24% makes online purchases. In Nigeria approximately 28% of the population has

internet access according to ITU figure. According to the study the swiftness of online

shopping in Pakistan is slugging as compared to India and other countries. The total

value of E-Commerce activities in India has surpassed Rs.5.7 billion during 2004-05

and Rs.23 billion by the year 2006-07.According to Rajan Anandan, VP & Managing

Director of Google India, with approximately 8 million Indians shopping online in 2012,

online shopping industry in India is growing rapidly and will continue to see

exponential growth. According to a survey conducted by IMRB International and

IAMAI , there was an estimate of 137 million Internet users in the country as of June

2012. Of which, 99 million were from urban parts of the country, the remaining 38

million were from rural India. So, online shopping is flourishing not only in metros and

urban areas but also in rural areas. Of which Hyderabad sits a big hit. Online shopping

in China topped 59.4 billion Yuan in 2005, more than 90 per cent from previous years.

B. RATIONALE FOR ONLINE SHOPPING

People like to buy things from web-marts (Online stores) rather than virtual markets

because of their hectic routines. Here are some reasons how online shopping is taking

place of virtual shopping.

a) Ease - Ease and convenience in shopping as it is available 24*7 access.

b) Availability of Assortment - The key benefit people get is increased variety.

Online shopping sites contain wide variety of goods both high-quality and mild-

quality keeping in mind the level of people.

c) Information - The consumers can get full information about the product with its

reviews being posted by existing users.

d) Difficulties with offline shopping - Personal circumstances had made people to

rely more on the internet. These factors help to underline the benefit of the

internet, as well as how some come to rely on it. • Poor choice of local shops •

Non availability of the transport facility

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e) Time Saving - Now-a-days lifestyle is so busy that people are unable to go to

crowded markets so E-shopping is a boon as it saves a lot of time.

f) Review of products - Now if one wants to buy a product, he/she is no longer

limited to asking his/her friends and families because there are many product

reviews on the Web which give opinions of existing users of the product.

g) Lower price - Online stores provide consumers with lots of new schemes and

discounts on different range of purchases.

C. FLIPKART: REASON BEHIND POPULARITY OF E-COMMERCE

7 years back a computer engineer from a leading Indian institute co-founded what is the

largest e-commerce company in India today. We are talking about the very well know

company Flipkart founded by Mr. Sachin Bansal and Mr. Binny Basnsal in 2007. With

an investment of just Rs. 4 lakh in total they started the company that today generates

crores everyday. When it was just four years old, the company used to sell 15 products

per minute. It took a lot of hard work and time in reaching there. "We didn't draw our

salaries (from the business) for almost a year and a half," says Binny. The idea behind

the site was a “price comparison website” but they finally decided upon an e-commerce

portal.

Flipkart started as an online book retailer. Later they expanded themselves in areas like

fashion & technology. Other areas are also in pipeline like furniture and white goods.

"In March 2011, we announced that by 2015, we wanted to hit USD 1 billion in GMV.

At that point in time, our run rate was USD 10 million. Today, we are really proud and

excited to announce that we have hit a run rate of USD 1 billion GMV one year before

our target," Flipkart co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in a statement.

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D. STRENGTHS OF FLIPKART

a)  Regular penetration in all possible areas. They started with books, entered later in

fashion, electronics, apparel etc.

b) Inflow of investment: They have taken seven round of investment from investors like

Naspers, Tiger Global, Accel Partners, Dragoneer, Morgan Stanley, Sofina and Vulcan

Capital.

c) Excellent service: They deliver the product within a span of 24 hours.

d) Earning Customer`s trust: Easy returns policy which helped consumers to trust them

more.

e) Internet reach: Indian youngsters have become so active on internet in the past decade

and so has their tendency to shop online.

f) Convenience: It’s extremely convenient to shop online, comparing the product price &

features sitting in the comfort of your home.

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II) CHAPTER II – RESEARCH METHODOLGY

A. WHAT IS RESEARCH METHODOLOGY?

The process used to collect information and data for the purpose

of making business decisions. The methodology may

include publication research, interviews, surveys and other research techniques, and could

include both present and historical information.

Research Methodology is a way to find out the result of a given problem on a specific

matter or problem that is also referred as research problem. In Methodology, researcher

uses different criteria for solving/searching the given research problem. Different sources

use different type of methods for solving the problem. If we think about the word

“Methodology”, it is the way of searching or solving the research problem.

B. TYPE OF RESEARCH

It is a Qualitative type of research which is based a SURVEY conducted. Survey Method

of data collection is used in order to accomplish the research objectives

A well-structured and closed ended questionnaire was used for data collection from the

respondents.

C. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

To achieve the goal of the study, the following research questionnaire addressed as

primary research objectives :

1. The primary objective of this project is to know about online consumer’s buying

behaviours towards online shopping (specially in case of flipkart users).

2. To identify the respondents perception about online shopping.

3. To find out various attitudes of flipkart users towards the online shopping.

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D. HYPOTHESIS

Young generation is more active for purchasing item from flipkart.com

Flipkart.com is more popular e-commerce website than other sites.

E. TYPES OF DATA

Both primary data and secondary data were used for this study

F. SOURCES OF DATA

Primary data have been collected with the help of structured questionnaire by respondent

field survey method. Information was collected from students above 18 years of age and

working professionals from Mumbai by medium of questionnaires.

Secondary Data was collected from the internet, articles and journals.

G. SAMPLE SIZE

Sample size consists of 50 people between the age group of 18 to 50 selected at random

from Mumbai

H. TECHNIQUE OF DATA COLLECTION

Technique of Data collection for this survey was a basic technique. The primary data

collected from respondents was by way of survey method and secondary data was

through the internet, journals and articles

I. TECHNIQUE OF DATA ANALYSIS

The data collected was analyzed by using quantitative and qualitative techniques. Basic

excel functions i.e. filtering, sorting and excel calculations, along with, mathematical and

statistical calculations were used. Graphs, Pie Charts and Tabular representation of

statistics were used in order simplify analysis of data.

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J. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The frequency of B2C transactions has certainly increased over time in the Indian

subcontinent. There are many shopping websites, which are now witnessing a decisive

surge in traffic (this statement is being made while keeping in view the performance of

shopping websites in the last five years). With an increase in the number of persons

visiting these websites, they have also become ideal platforms for advertisements and

banners of different brands. Online shopping in India, is certainly witnessing a period,

which entails things such as rising number of online sales and fantastic revenue and profit

figures. They always strove to provide great customer service. Flipkart customers are

happier than with some of their competitors like Tradus.in, Indiaplaza.com; i have myself

experienced this a couple of times. Their website is great, easy to use, easy to browse

through the products, add products to wish list or to a cart, get product reviews and

opinions, pre-order products, make payments using different methods, in short hassle-

free and convenient. A very important point is that they introduced the option of cash on

delivery and card on delivery, this way people demonstrated more confidence in buying

products. Based on literature review it is safe to say that there is no evidence of any

comprehensive research on this phenomenon. There is not much literature available

regarding this in the Indian subject. The field remains largely unexplored and hardly any

study has been conducted on this phenomenon by using primary data. Hence, the present

study could help in giving an idea about the consumer buying behaviour and patterns for

Flipkart.

III) CHAPTER III- ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

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Data Analysis is a process of inspecting, cleaning, transforming, and modeling data with

the goal of discovering useful information, suggesting conclusions, and supporting

decision-making. Data analysis has multiple facets and approaches, encompassing diverse

techniques under a variety of names, in different business, science, and social science

domains.

Data analysis is a process for obtaining raw data and converting it into information useful

for decision-making by users. Data is collected and analyzed to answer questions, test

hypotheses or disprove theories. The process of evaluating data using analytical

and logical reasoning to examine each component of the data provided.

This form of analysis is just one of the many steps that must be completed when

conducting a research experiment. Data from various sources is gathered, reviewed, and

then analyzed to form some sort of finding or conclusion. There are a variety of specific

data analysis method, some of which include data mining, text analytics, business

intelligence, and data visualizations.

There are several phases that can be distinguished. The phases are iterative, in that

feedback from later phases may result in additional work in earlier phases.

The process by which sense and meaning are made of the data gathered in qualitative

research, and by which the emergent knowledge is applied to clients' problems. This data

often takes the form of records of group discussions and interviews, but is not limited to

this. Through processes of revisiting and immersion in the data, and through complex

activities of structuring, re-framing or otherwise exploring it, the researcher looks for

patterns and insights relevant to the key research issues and uses these to address the

client's brief.

Data interpretation is part of daily life for most people. Interpretation is the process of

making sense of numerical data that has been collected, analyzed, and presented. People

interpret data when they turn on the television and hear the news anchor reporting on a

poll, when they read advertisements claiming that one product is better than another, or

when they choose grocery store items that claim they are more effective than other

leading brands.

Data analysis and interpretation is the process of assigning meaning to the collected

information and determining the conclusions, significance, and implications of the

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findings. The steps involved in data analysis are a function of the type of information

collected, however, returning to the purpose of the assessment and the assessment

questions will provide a structure for the organization of the data and a focus for the

analysis.

Main aim of this research is to understand online shopping process and the efficiency and

effectiveness buying goods with respect to filpkart.com in comparison to other online

shopping websites with respect to various factors such as quality, product availability,

discount of goods and security etc. Data for this research has been collected by using a

questionnaire and study purpose various aspects are considered like type of respondent

(Student, Business, Employee & Others), age, gender, flipkart references etc.

QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY

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The following questionnaire includes 7 questions and the sixth question includes a set of

10 rating sub-questions on the topic Flipkart.

1. The primary objective of this project is to know about online consumer’s buying

behaviours towards online shopping (specially in case of flipkart users).

2. To identify the respondents perception about online shopping.

3. To find out various attitudes of flipkart users towards the online shopping.

QUESTION 1 – GENDER OF CUSTOMER

Category Number Percentage

Male 15 30

Female 35 70

Male Female0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Gender Of Customer

Gender Of Customer

Interpretation – More number of females prefer online shopping than males. As shown in

the figure, 70% of females have chosen to answer the questionnaire.

QUESTION 2 – AGE OF CUSTOMER

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Category Number Percentage

18 – 25 23 46

26 - 35 12 24

35 - 50 8 16

Above 50 7 14

18 -25 26 - 35 35 - 50 above 500

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Age Of Customer

Age Of Customer

Interpretation –Flipkart’s main customers range from 18 - 25 since they are 46% of all.

Approximately 24% customers range from 26 - 35. Fewer number indicates age of 50 above.

This shows that the youth prefers online shopping particularly at Flipkart

QUESTION 3 – EDUCATION OF CUSTOMER

Category Number Percentage

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M.Com 32 64

MBA 12 24

Others 6 12

M.Com MBA Others0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Education of Customer

Education of Customer

Interpretation – Most of the people who answered the questionnaire were from the M.com

background. About 24% were MBAs and very few were in the others category.

QUESTION 4 – PROFESSION OF CUSTOMER

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Category Number Percentage

Student 17 34

Service 13 26

Self Employed 5 10

Business 12 24

Retired 3 6

Student Service Self Employed Business Retired0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Profession Of Customer

Profession Of Cutomer

Interpretation –Flipkart’s main customers are student i.e. the younger lot of people. They

engage more in online buying. The next category is the service category with almost 26% and

the business category with 24%. Very few are from the retired category.

QUESTION 5 – INCOME OF CUSTOMER

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Category Number Percentage

Less Than 25,000 8 16

25,000 – 50,000 10 20

Above 50,000 32 64

Less Than 25,000 25,000 - 50,000 Above 50,0000

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Income Of Customer

Income Of Customer

Interpretation –This shows that there is direct relationship between online shopping and

income levels. Those with higher income levels indulge the most in online shopping at

Flipkart amounting to almost 64% which is a huge percentage. The lowest one is 16% of

people who have incomes less than 25,000.

QUESTION 6

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i. Do You Prefer online shopping?

Category Number Percentage

Yes 43 86

No 7 14

Yes No0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Do You Prefer online shopping

Do You Prefer online shopping

Interpretation –This shows that it can be concluded that 85 %of the population prefer online

shopping while remaining 15 % does not prefer online shopping

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ii. Reason of Offline Shopping

Category Number Percentage

Dont have trust 32 64

Dont have knowledge 10 20

Dont like to wait for delivery 8 16

Dont have trust Dont have knowledge

Dont like to wait for delivery

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Reason for Offline Shopping

Reason for Offline Shopping

Interpretation – Study reveals that approx. 64 percent respondents don’t have trust for online

shopping and maximum 20 percent respondents stated that they don’t know how to shop

online. And in other reason respondent stated that they don’t want to wait for delivering item

after purchasing and some respondents stated they have to give more time for online

shopping compare to flipkart.com.

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iii. Do You Consider Online Shopping Safe?

Category Number Percentage

Yes 45 90

No 5 10

Yes No0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Online Shopping Safe?

Online Shopping Safe?

Interpretation – It clearly shows that 90% of respondents feel that shopping online is a safe

affair ,While 10% among them are still conservative an avoid shopping online due to fear of

quality of products and payment options.

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iv. First Experience With Flipkart?

Category Number Percentage

Excellent 40 80

Good 7 14

Average 1 2

Bad 1 2

Excellent Good Average Bad0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

First Experience

First Experience

Interpretation – shows that 80% of the respondents shows that they have excellent first time

experience with flipkart while 14 % said they have overall good experience and reamaining

said that they have average or bad experience while shopping first time with flipkart.

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v. How frequently do you buy products/items from flipkart.com ?

Category Number Percentage

Once in a week 13 26

Once in a month 23 46

Once in 6 months 14 28

Once in a week Once in a month Once in 6 months0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Frequency of purchase

Income Of Customer

Interpretation –We can analyze that majority of the respondents i.e. 46% of respondents have

bought products online once a month. 28% of respondents bought online items once in a six

months. 26% of the respondents bought online product once in a week.

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vi. Why did you choose flipkart.com for online shopping?

Category Number Percentage

Attractive Prices 23 46

Reliable 6 12

Variety & Products 7 14

Popularity 14 28

Attractive Prices Reliable Variety Popular0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Why Choose Flipkart?

Why Choose Flipkart?

Interpretation –It is clear that maximum 46% respondents said that they choose online

shopping with flipkart.com for attractive prices, 28% choose flipkart.com for its popularity,

14 % (Approx.) respondents choose flipkart.com for mass variety of products and rest

minimum 12% (Approx.) respondents said that they choose flipkart.com for its reliability.

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vii. Do you visit retail stores first before online purchasing with flipkart.com?

Category Number Percentage

Yes 20 40

No 27 54

Cant say 3 6

Yes No Cant say0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Visit retail stores first before online purchas-ing with flipkart.com?

Income Of Customer

Interpretation – 40% of the respondents said that they visit retail stores before online

purchasing with flipkart.com to see and check actual product face, Prices etc, maximum 54%

of the respondents do not visit retail stores before online purchasing with flipkart.com as they

believe in flipkart.com prices, quality etc. Least 6% (Approx.) Respondents can’t say for this

regard.

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viii. When did you like online shopping with flipkart.com?

Category Number Percentage

Festive season 14 28

Heavy Discount period 28 56

When needed 8 16

Festive season Havey discounts When needed0

10

20

30

40

50

60

When did you like online shopping with flipkart.com?

Income Of Customer

Interpretation – It clearly shows that most of the 56% of the respondents do like online

shopping with flipkart.com in a heavy discount time period. However 28% (Approx.) of the

respondent do shopping with flipkart.com in festive seasons and 16% of the respondents like

shopping with flipkart.com when they have need.

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ix. What would you like buy on online shopping with flipkart.com?

Category Number Percentage

Apparel 20 40

Electronics 9 18

Home Appliances 6 12

Accessories 15 30

Apparel Electronics Home Appliances Accessories0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

What would you like buy on flipkart.com?

Income Of Customer

Interpretation – This shows that 40% Respondents bought Apparel from flipkart.com and

30% respondent purchased Accessories (Like : perfumes, make-up kit, watches etc.) from

online shopping via flipkart.com, 18% Respondents like to purchase Electronic goods and

Least 12% Respondents like to buy home & kitchen appliances from flipkart.com

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x. Would you like to continue online shopping with flipkart.com?

Category Number Percentage

Yes 40 80

No 9 18

Cant Say 1 2

Yes No Cant say0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Would you like to continue online shopping with flipkart.com?

Income Of Customer

Interpretation –This shows that there is direct relationship between online shopping and

income levels. Those with higher income levels indulge the most in online shopping at

Flipkart amounting to almost 64% which is a huge percentage. The lowest one is 16% of

people who have incomes less than 25,000.

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QUESTION 7 – ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR FLIPKART

This question is the last one in the questionnaire which asks the respondents whether they

have any comments or suggestions for the online shopping facility Flipkart offers.

Following is a summary of the responses that were received:

• Product variety is too vast and must be categorized systematically to help shopping.

• Many a times, there are defective products that are shipped to customers.

• Return/Exchange is a very complicated and time consuming procedure

• A lot of false reviews are given under good products which creates a negative image in the

minds of buyers.

• Accounts on Flipkart get hacked and used by frauds.

• In watches latest products are not updated quickly.

• Flipkart.com has to increase number of cities for delivering a product.

• Schemes should be introduced for housewives and middle – class to motivate them o use

these facilities.

• Flipkart.com has to increase languages option.

• Sometime discount rate in some products is low compared to other online shopping

websites.

• Flipkart.com has introduced EMI but not advertised properly

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FINDINGS OF THE SURVEY

The first and foremost finding of this study is that most No. of users are happy on

online shopping with flipkart.com because most of the users responces are in

favour of flipkart.com

Most respondents (users) are satisfied for online shopping with flipkart.com. So

most respondents want to continue online shopping with flikart.com, they believed

in flipkart.com reliability, its policies and they said that flipkart.com is reliable

etailer in the field of online shopping.

On the basis of user responces we can easily analyze that users of flipkart.com

mainly interested in buy online apparel- Like mens, womens and kids clothes,

watches, home & kitchen appliances etc. and they dislike buy online perfumes &

footwear etc. they bought products online once in a week and like to do online

shopping mostly on discounted time period and festive seasons.

Users of flipkart.com believes that flipkart.com products prices is lesser than the

prices in the market.

Mostly youngesters and youth generation (18-25 Age group) are very much

interested in online shopping with flipkart.com because they know about

technology,

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IV) CHAPTER IV - SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATION &

BIBLIOGRAPHY

SUMMARY

The research showed that the popularity of e-commerce facilities has gradually increased

over the years and popularity of flipkart.com is popular in young generation. In today’s fast

moving life people want to purchase all the products as per their convenience, at cheap rate

and high quality which is provided by flipkart.com and this is one of the reasons for growing

popularity of flipkart.com. Still a large proportions of people today refrain themselves from

using these e-commerce websites due to security reasons or their familiarity with retail shops,

wholesalers, etc. The research shows that a few of them have encountered mishaps while

using e-commerce websites. Compare to other online shopping websites, flipkart.com is way

ahead in competition for its products availability, quality, discount rate, user interface, etc.

From the research the researchers can also conclude that the Cash on delivery facility

provided by the flipkart.com is the most popular among all the payment method for the

products. This shows that the future scenario of the cash on delivery is bright and will slowly

and steadily replace a large proportion of people using prior payment facilities.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

1) As still in India large segment of population is untapped regarding the online shopping the

available online shopping stores can widen their market by getting into expansion strategies

2) There is also need to remove the fear in the minds the customers regarding the product

quality, durability and payments etc. in online shopping

3) Wide expansion of internet facilities in rural areas can bring the more

customers for the online shopping sites

4) Through prompt service, wide variety and easy accessibility even consumers

from the remote areas can be tapped

5) As Indian consumers are much more cautious about shopping online as

compared to the West. They are reluctant to divulge credit card details. The cash

on delivery service has will help a lot of traditional consumers turn to online

shopping

6) India’s e-commerce companies have far too often concentrated on the bells and

whistles instead of focusing on deploying and customizing technology to serve

customer needs, so their need more customer centric approach.

7) Calling facility to make an order and change an order as well as, Urgent

delivery with no extra cost service can add a cherry on the cake and would help

flipkart to perform even better than its competitors

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://ijcsmc.com/docs/papers/June2013/V2I6201328.pdf

http://www.academia.edu/6324047/

Case_Study_of_an_Emerging_Giant_in_the_Online_World_-_FLIPKART

http://www.jagranjosh.com/articles/case-study-indian-ecommerce-giant-flipkart-

acquiring-myntra-1404300029-1

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/research-methodology.html

http://www.howtodo.dissertationhelpservice.com/what-is-research-methodology-and-

its-importance

http://www.euroasiapub.org/IJRIM/Mar14/7.pdf

http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/INF4260/h10/undervisningsmateriale/

DataAnalysis.pdf

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/data-analysis.html

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