The Effect of Demographic Factors of Consumers Online Shopping Behavior in a GCC University

Introduction

Online shopping is one of the fastest growing technologies in the world as people from all over the world are engaging in online shopping (Monsuwe, Dellaert, & Ruyter, 2004). However, online shopping is considered as one component of any economy in any developed country since it might reinforce and enhance that economy in all circumstances (Bhattacherjee, 2001). The focus of businesses now revolve around cross-national and cross-cultural Internet marketing (Griffith, Davis, Myers, & Harvey, 2006). However, customers are always keen on receiving the goods or services on time with no delay. This applies to online shopping as customers prefer having different products and services from different brands to be able to have numerous alternatives to choose from (Al-Alawi & Al-Ali, 2015). The more options available, the more customer sales will exist. This study aims to determine the factors that may affect online shopping, such as gender, education level, and income.

This study also focuses on whether there is a positive or negative relationship between online trust and online purchase intention. In addition, the study attempts to identify the relationship between the consumer’s ability to use the Internet and how that might affect online shopping.

Al-Alawi and Al-Ali (2015) stated that “Currently, the Internet has affected our day to day activities in a crucial way. It grows to be part of our routine due to the substantial yield.” Online shopping is the act of purchasing products and services over the internet, online shopping has grown in popularity over the years. The communities must keep pace with this development. There are many factors affecting online shopping, therefore the statement of the problem can be represented in the following questions:

• •

  What are the demographic factors that affect e-Shopping?

• •

  What are the factors (in general) that affect e-Shopping?

• •

  What encourages people to use e-Shopping?

The research significance due to the following:

• •

  Millions of people are online on the Internet daily to search about products and purchase from thousands of different online merchants.

• •

  Many literatures, such as Çelik and Yilmaz (2011), Al-Alawi and Al-Ali (2015), Rittibooncha, Kriwuttisom, and Ngo (2019) show that e-Business, which includes e-Shopping, has been expanding in the last few years. Due to various benefits of e-Shopping, more people today prefer this method over conventional shopping, as the consumer decision-making behavior has changed significantly toward e-Shopping. Many consumers from every age are making more e-Shopping via their cell phone, hesitantly going to brick-and-mortar places.

Online shopping involves purchasing products or services over the Internet. E-Shopping is done through an online shop, e-shop, e-store, virtual store, or web-shop, and all the products in the online store are described through photographs and text. The objectives can be summarized as:

• 1.

  Identify the various demographic factors such as (age, education level, gender, income, salary, online trust) of Internet users who purchase online.

• 2.

  Study the effect of demographic factors on the online shopping behaviors of consumers.

• 3.

  Identify the main goods that consumers are interested using e-shopping to purchase.

• 4.

  Explore the advantages and disadvantages of e-shopping.

• 5.

  Shed light on the nature of e-Shopping and the importance.

• 6.

  Contribute to the development of electronic shopping through the final results of the search.

• 7.

  Review the identified consumer-perceived benefits obtained from online shopping.