Trends in Online shopping

Presented by:AMRITA GHOSHPARMITA DASMRINMOY DAS

ARPANA CHOUDHURY

Introduction

Online shopping: concept, history

Consumer Behaviour with regards to online shopping

Effect of Social media on online shopping

Case study

Evolution of online shopping in India

Video

CONTENTS:

In today’s busy world, people may not always have the time go for shopping. But that does not

necessarily mean that they would be bereft of the shopping experience. With the bloom of online

media, the trend of online shopping has come as a solution to such people’s problem where by sitting at home or at workplace they can enjoy the benefits

of shopping and that too at a affordable range.

Introduction

Online shopping: concept

Online shopping or online retailing is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser. Alternative names are: e-shop, e-store, Internet shop, web-shop, web-store, online store, and virtual store. 

Online shopping: history

The first World Wide Web server and browser, created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990, opened for commercial use in 1991. Thereafter, subsequent technological innovations emerged in 1994: online banking, the opening of an online pizza shop by Pizza Hut and the like.

i. Convenience: What could be easier than shopping from your own home anytime you want?ii. Communication: Instantly correspond with company representatives to easily gather information about a purchase.iii. Choice: Consumers can rapidly search through multiple stores from all over the globe instantly. 

Consumer Behaviour with

regards to online shopping

iv. Cost: Consumers feel empowered when they can shop around at such a fast speed, they can make more informed purchasing decisions especially when it comes to prices. 

v. Customization: Another positive aspect of the Internet is the ability for the customer to purchase a product exactly how they want it; and the company avoids paying inventory storage costs and overhead for a retail location since the products are made and then shipped directly to the customer.

vi. Control: Customers seem to have more control over quantity, size, style, color, price and the type of vendor that they purchase from when using the Internet. 

Consumer behaviour progresses by 4 steps :In the typical online shopping process, when potential consumers recognize a need for some merchandise or service, they go to the Internet and search for need-related information. However, rather than searching actively, at times potential consumers are attracted by information about products or services associated with the felt need. They then evaluate alternatives and choose the one that best fits their criteria for meeting the felt need. Finally, a transaction is conducted and post-sales services provided. Online shopping attitude refers to consumer’s psychological state in terms of making purchases on the Internet.

Eff ect of Social media on online

shoppingA recently study showed how online shopping and social media activities are connected.

One in four frequent online shoppers who also log into their Facebook account on a monthly basis have made purchases based on social recommendations

 Over 60% of consumers have read a friend’s Facebook comments about a brand

Over half say they have learned about a company or a brand because of a friend’s social comments

   3/5th online shoppers are more likely to stay and shop on a site if they are shown that their friends have used the site as well

Almost 60% are more likely to make purchases if they know their friends have purchased as well

Social media’s affect on ecommerce is huge. Consumers not only pay attention to other users recommendations through social media, manyconsumers learn about brands because of what other users have written. 

Case studyFlipkart started its journey as an online book seller, now it 

has diversified its portfolio to target different market segments. It’s an Indian online company that lets people buy books, electronic gadgets, beauty products, toys and etc.Flipkart, after careful market research, introduced cash on delivery; in addition to other online payment methods. This was because there is a large slice of population in India, who are not interested in online credit card transactions. Flipkart has headquarters stationed in Bangalore and network of offices around the country.

It was launch in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Basal; who used to work for Amazon before starting this project.  Bansals went to Indian Institute of Technology for getting their graduation degrees. They initially invested their own money into this business and later raised capital from big guns like; Accel India, Tiger Global and Naspers Group.

Flipkart initially adopted guerilla marketing strategy and created buzz about them through positive word of mouth strategy. This helped them a lot to stretch their capital and getting maximum out of it. Today Flipkart is offering more than 11 million book titles for instant purchase.

Flipkart have acquired several businesses since its inception. This list includes; We Read, Mime 360, Chakpak.com and Let’s Buy.com.  According to Sachin Basal, they have reinvented the wheel of e-commerce in India.

Evolution of online shopping in India

Online shopping has had a rather slow and tumultuous journey in India, it has not picked up as much as it should have primarily due to the fact that internet penetration itself is quite low and secondly (and importantly) the online shopping experience has been bad to say the least.

Traditionally, Indians are conservative in their approach to shopping. They want to touch and feel the products and test its features before buying anything.

With the passage of time came an era of less popular tele-shopping which dealt in limited range of products such as Astrology and spirituality products (such as Rudraksha Mala, Hanuman Kavach, Bal Raksha, etc), Health and fitness equipments (such as Tread Mill, Leg Massager, Height Increaser, Sauna Belt, etc) and even some of the Cooking ranges (including Juicers and Mixers, Vegetable Choppers, etc). But, most of these products could be termed as low-intensity and niche products which could interest only a limited target of people.

Most of us are also a witness to the recent mall culture where all the products are available under a single roof and at competitive price points. Little needs to be analyzed about it over here as most of you might have visited a mall at least for once as a past time on a weekend, if not for shopping precisely.

Next in line is the concept of virtual mall or online shopping which is already existent at its preliminary stage in India and is gradually growing exponentially. The market opened up with innovative online shopping initiatives from eBay, Rediff shopping and futurebazaar.com just to name a few.

In a sort of change of version from tele-shopping to a broader form of online plus television shopping saw the emergence of a 24-hour shopping channel from Network 18 – TV 18 Home Shopping Network.

As per the report, this fast growing channel has spread speedily with market presence across a range of products. It accounts for 4.5% of all digital camera sales in the country and largest seller of Reebok merchandises. In fact, the report further says that Home Shop 18 sells 480 brands under its portfolio.Thus, with modernization and fast paced life, came the constraints of time and eventually increasing dependence on online shopping. This has led to online shopping coming off age in India. People have commenced shopping through the convenience of online portals from the comforts of their drawing rooms.

With case study of Home Shop 18 narrated above also points towards a new trend of convergence of online and TV shopping. It is needless to say that shopping has been revolutionized by its wide spread presence across the various mediums such as TV, online portals and even cell phones now that even internet can be accessible through affordable category smart phones.

Given above all the facts, Indian marketers are also increasingly becoming conscious about the viability of returned goods, if customer is not satisfied with the product. This may not sound true over here, but it is a part-and-parcel of the game involved in online shopping.

It is estimated that about a fifth of the buy orders get returned for the goods bought online. As such, most of the online sales are carried out on the condition of ‘If not satisfied with the product, full money to be returned’. Another factor is that most buyers pay on delivery(cash on delivery) which also keeps their options to return good open, if they do not like a particular product.