The role of choices in an online shopping

By



ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am very grateful to God who has given me the grace to start this course and end it successfully. I would like to thank my family especially my dad, who worked really hard and stood by me all the way. God bless my family who gave me full support and encouraged me. I would like to thank my supervisor, for her patience and support. Finally to my friends and all who have made the completion of this project a success, thank you and God bless you.

DECLARATION

I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out by me. The project is my own original work and has not been submitted elsewhere in fulfillment of the requirements of this or any other award.

SIGNED: ............................................................. DATE: ..........................

ABSTRACT

The concept of online shopping has achieved a lot of value among the consumers over the past several years. The purpose of this research project was to examine usage of online shopping websites by the consumer's intent to purchase goods. A number of websites have been assessed including Ebay.com, Amazon.con and Shopzilla.com and to determine the consumer's preference in this regard. The survey and interview questions were conducted with 250 respondents. The questionnaires were also given by asking several questions from various respondents that formed a part of the sample size. The responses generated with the help of questionnaires and surveys indicated that the consumers spend their time at least 4 days a week in online shopping. It was seen that majority of the consumers prefer Ebay.com as the best choice for online shopping as compare to Amazon.com and Shopzilla.com. Therefore, these were the major issues related to research study that was discussed in detail.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

DECLARATIONIII

ABSTRACTIV

CHAPTER 11

INTRODUCTION1

Statement of the Problem3

Statement of Objectives4

Definition of terms5

CHAPTER 27

LITERATURE REVIEW7

Introduction7

The importance of social networks10

Different Features related to Social Shopping14

The importance of internet in online shopping20

Major characteristics of online shopping22

CHAPTER 325

METHODOLOGY25

Developing Survey25

Collecting Data26

Distributing the Survey26

Tabulating Data27

CHAPTER 428

FINDINGS28

Results Generated from the Questionnaires29

Outcomes of the Processes33

CHAPTER 537

CONCLUSION37

Introduction of the Study37

Implications of the Study37

Directions for Future Research38

Caution for the study in future40

REFERENCES41

APPENDIX44

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Consumers are increasingly making decisions in computer-mediated environments since Web 2.0 has offered a useful and essential interactive media tool and platform for communication, information search, and shopping. Although websites offer consumers immense amounts of information and choice and great convenience, the tasks of finding the exact products that meet consumer needs and making a purchase decision with confidence and credibility can be complicated. The concept of E-commerce is increasingly a global activity. It is therefore imperative that research be undertaken and models be developed that test the understanding of the interplay between privacy, attitudes, trust, and culture. Over three-quarters of online shoppers are significantly influenced by the quality of content, relative to text, image, and tools (e.g., ratings/reviews, product comparisons) (Benbasat, 2008). However, shoppers reported that website content is insufficient to complete research or purchase online always, most often, or some of the ...