WEBSITE CHARACTERISTICS

Website Characteristics and Its Effect on Women's Online Purchasing Behaviour

Table of Contents

BACKGROUND1

LITERATURE REVIEW1

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:4

RESEARCH QUESTION:5

RESEARCH VARIABLES5

METHODOLOGY5

Research Sample6

Questionnaire Design6

ANALYSIS6

RELIABILITY9

VALIDITY10

CONCLUSION11

REFERENCES12

Website Characteristics and Its Effect on Women's Online Purchasing Behaviour

Background

With the advent of internet, the trend of online shopping has increase. This trend has increased due to the increased online advertising. The companies have found a new way to market their products. This change in marketing is the main driving force behind the increased online purchasing. The marketers have contracted with websites to market their products on their website (Donthu and Garcia, 52). When people visit websites, they come across the advertisements which attract them. Advertisements that are attractive cause people to purchase those products. Except for the product, the sales of the product, depends on the product, as well. The website should be effective and attractive enough to force the consumers to buy the product that the company has advertised on the website. Companies should make sure that their own website is attractive and user friendly, so that the consumers do not face any difficulty while buying products. The consumers who are buying these products are usually, though there are studies that contradict this; however, if we take a look at the past trends we can conclude that females purchase more online. The impact of website on the buying behaviour is huge; therefore, care should be taken while designing websites and placing advertisements (Featherman and Pavlou, 2003, 454).

Literature Review

The trend of online shopping has increased. There is a direct relation between the website quality and the frequency of online purchasing. A number of studies have been carried out to investigate the relationship between websites and the trend of online purchasing. According to Gefen and Straub (2000) the perceived usefulness (PU) has a direct impact on the online shopping behaviours of consumers when they use a website for shopping, whereas, the perceived ease of use (PEOU) has an indirect impact on the online shopping behaviours of consumers, but it directly affects the PU. Another study by Lee et al. (2001) also found the same result when he investigated the relation between the quality of website and its impact on the online buying behaviours. Song and Zahedi (2001) categorized the elements of website in accordance with their purpose; service, self-efficacy, promotion, influence of the information and the facilitation of resources. After the study was conducted it was found that each of the categories had a significant and positive influence of the perceptions of the consumers. These factors reinforced the consumers to buy online and influenced their buying behaviour.

Another studied was conducted to research the relationship between the quality of website from the perspective of user satisfaction and dissatisfaction. This study conducted by Zhang, von Dran, Small and Barcellos (1999, 2000) and Zhang and von Dran (2000) divided the design featured of the website into two broad categories; hygiene and motivator factors. They described the hygiene factors as those that make a website functional and in the absence of which the users will be ...