Predicting Shoppers' Acceptance of E-Shopping on the Internet

Introduction

E-shopping is a fast growing area of technology and establishing a virtual store on the internet allows the retailers to expand their market and reach out to consumers who may not otherwise visit the physical store.Internet has very differentiated impact along the various stages of the consumer decision-making process and the true value-added of the Internet to consumers materializes at very specific points in the purchase process (Zeng & Reinartz, 2003). Retailers are doing business online and trade has become more easy and fast. The e-vendors have become the essence of e-business as to show their services and products. Internet gathers all competitors and consumers in one place. It brings new lane to promote, advertise products and services in market (Silverstein, 2002).

Online shopping attitudes refer to consumers’ psychological state in terms of making purchase in the internet (Li & Zang, 2002). In the existing circumstances, many companies have started using internet with the aim of cutting marketing costs, thus, reducing the price of their products and services in order to hang about further on highly competitive markets. Companies also use internet to convey, communicate and disseminate the information, to sell product, to take feedback, to compare prices, product features and after sale service facilities they will receive if they purchase the product from a particular store (Shergill & Chen, 2005). Most of the physical retail stores have expanded their market by using the internet to get the best of both worlds. Stores that are marketing their products in both areas can take advantage of the high demand for e-shopping availability.

Online buyers are always seeking new items, new magnetism and the most important thingbeing price compatibility with their budget. The internet is the best way to save time and moneythrough purchasing online within their range of budget from home or anywhere. They also useinternet for comparison of prices and items, news, visit social networks and search information and so on (Katta & Patro, 2017). Culture, social, personal, psychological behaviour also affects the buyers’ attitude in online shopping. E-shoppers always want to seek information within few clicks and reach to themost relevant information according to their requirements such as competitive brands, best priceoffers, product specification and consumer word-of-mouth (Gao, 2005). To enhance and attract the buyerit is very important to know about their attitude and understand what they require and need. Sincee-shopping is the new medium of shopping with new demands of buyers. All buyers have their owndesires and demands for products so, that it is crucial for all e-retailers to identify and know about their consumers (Hasslinger, 2007). The main barrier in the process of e-shopping is the safety andprivacy issue. Due to which the buyers are reluctant to make online purchasing, another most familiarbarrier is the low level of trust on e-stores therefore the e-retailers have to make proper strategies toincrease the buyer’s level of trust on them.

In order to remain competitive the online marketers need to adopt effective strategies to satisfy their customers’ needs and wants. But the shoppers’ behaviour in a virtual environment often seems to be a complex, as their expectations change with the change in time and technological advancements (Patro, 2016). Moreover, in a virtual environment where next web store is just a mouse click away, it becomes extensively difficult to understand the consumers’ behaviour and take effective measures to attract them to make purchases online and from the same store (Tanadi, Samadi, & Gharleghi, 2015). Thus, researchers and managers have often acknowledged that the source of competitive advantage is closely related to the long-term relationships between customers and the e-retailers.