“A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

“A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE

WEBSITES”

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the

Award of the Degree

BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Of
BENGALURU CITY UNIVERSITY

By
Ms. NISHA KUMARI R
Register Number: B1826212

Under the guidance of

Mr. CHETHAN.S, [Link]
Assistant Professor,
Department of Management, AIGS.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES

Soldevanahalli, Bangalore
2020-2021

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 1

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

CERTIFICATE BY THE GUIDE

Certified that the dissertation entitled “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER

PERCEPTION ON E- COMMERCE WEBSITES” is based on a
original study conducted by Ms. NISHA KUMARI Under my guidance
sessions held. This dissertation report has not formed a basis for the
award of any Degree/Diploma of any University or Institution.

Place: Bangalore

Date: / / [Link].S

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 2

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that dissertation titled “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER

PERCEPTION ON E- COMMERCE WEBSITES” is an original
work of Ms. NISHA KUMARI R bearing university register number
B1826212 and is being submitted in partial fulfillment of the award of
the bachelor’s degree in Administration of Bengaluru City University.
The report has not been submitted earlier either to this
university/Institution for the fulfillment of the requirement of a course of
study Ms. NISHA KUMARI is guided by [Link].S, Assistant
Professor, Department of Management of this college.

PROJECT GUIDE PRINCIPAL

Mr. CHETHAN.S Dr. GURUNATH RAO VAIDYA

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 3

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

DECLARATION

I NISHA KUMARI R hereby declare that this project entitled with “A

STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E- COMMERCE

WEBSITES” is a bonafide record originally done by me under the

guidance of [Link].S. being submitted to Bengaluru City

University, in fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the Degree

of Bachelor of Business Administration during the 2020-2021.

I declare further that this report is my original work and has not been

submitted to any other University, Institute for the award of any Degree,

Diploma or any other similar titles

Place: Bangalore NISHA KUMARI

Date: / / (B1826212)

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 4

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
T

The sense of achievement and euphoria that company’s completion of

any task this project work would being incomplete without expression of
simple gratitude to the people who made it possible because success is
the culmination of hard work cogency for fulfillment the mission. I
would acknowledge all those responsible for making me successful in
this project work.

At the very first outset I would like to thank Dr. GURUNATH RAO
VAIDYA, Principal, Acharya Institute of Graduate Studies for giving
me an opportunity to do this project work.

I would like to thank Mr. Chethan.S, Assistant Professor, Acharya

Institute of Graduate Studies for her kind support in shaping this report.

I avail this opportunity to express my deep sense of gratitude to my

internal guide, [Link].S, and this report would not have reached
this stage without his immense help.

I would like to thank God, My parents, and my best friends.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 5

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

CHAPTE PAGE
R TITLE OF THE CHAPTER NO.

1 INTRODUCTION

2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

3 RESEARCH DESIGN

4 COMPANY PROFILE

5 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

6 FINDINGS, SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 6

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

LIST OF TABLES
TABLE PAGE
NO. PARTICULARS NO.

 5.1 Table showing usage frequency of internet usage.  

 5.2 Table showing the purpose of internet usage  

 5.3 Table showing the experience of online shopping  

 5.4 Table showing the online purchase destination  

 5.5 Table showing payment method in E - commerce  

 5.6 Table showing the items preferred online  

 5.7 Table showing the respondents experience in E commerce website  

 5.8 Table showing the purpose of online shopping  

 5.9 Table showing the customer benefit from E – commerce  

 5.10 Table showing the response against elimination of middlemen cost  

Table showing the challenges to the implementation of e-commerce in

 5.11 India  

Table showing the Government of India initiation in promoting E –

 5.12 commerce  

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 7

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

LIST OF GRAPHS

GRAPH PAGE
NO. PARTICULARS NO.

5.1  Graph showing internet usage of Respondents  

 5.2 Graph showing the purpose of internet usage  

 5.3 Graph showing the experience of online shopping  

 5.4 Graph showing the online purchase destination  

 5.5 Graph showing payment method  

 5.6 Graph showing the recent purchase of Respondents  

 5.7 Graph showing the website experience of respondents  

 5.8 Graph showing the Respondents purpose of online shopping  

 5.9 Graph showing the customer benefit from E – commerce  

 5.10 Graph showing the response against elimination of middlemen cost  

Graph showing the challenges to the implementation of e-commerce in

 5.11 India  

Graph showing the Government of India initiation in promoting E –

 5.12 commerce  

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 8

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 9

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

INTRODUCTION:
Internet provides virtual platform for online shopping of products and services to

customers’. A great variety of products and services of different brands can be

accessed and compared quickly, easily on a click of mouse in online shopping.

access of large source of information in online shopping helps customers’ to make

customized purchase decision based on comparative prices, product features and

after sale services offered by competitive marketers. In the emerging global

economy, e-commerce and e-business have increasingly become necessary

components of business strategy and a strong catalyst for economic development.

The term commerce is treated as transaction between business partners. Computer

and their used become the international language. Computer today is not only the

language of people but also for business. Internet is the tool used by business in

term of electronic commerce. One of the fastest growing industries today is

electronic commerce. Almost anything can be purchased, traded, or sold all via the

internet.

India being ranked as face book’s second largest audience after the us. Pwc

research of 2015 reported that an increase in e-commerce has slowed in us. Retail

foot traffic. In 2009 there were 35 billion visits, plus or minus. But by 2010, that

figure had fallen to about 25 billion visits. By 2012, that number was even lower,

to the low 20s billions of visits. In 2013, it had fallen to 17 billion. Digital natives

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 10

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

shopped via phone more than the rest of sample in every category: daily, weekly,

monthly, a few times a year, and once a year. Moreover, just 39% of digital natives

said they never shop via their smart phone, while 56% of other age groups said

they never shop via their smart phone. Credit cards (40%), debit cards (28%), cash

(20%), and even payment by invoice (6%) all beat out mobile phones (3%) as the

preferred method of payment to conclude a purchase.

Placing “e” in front of any process or function seemed to be the magic prescription

for never ending story of success and rapid returns for enterprises. E-commerce in

the near future will be in every business and in everywhere in our live. It is the

time for all businesses to get themselves in e-commerce either big or small or else

they will lose in the globe or quit.

INTERNET REVOLUTION

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 11

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTERNET REVOLUTION

What is the Internet?

The internet or “the Net” is a worldwide connection of computers where any

computer user can get information from any other computer in the world, if it has

access and authorization to do the same. The internet has several benefits which

include – being always available, large amount of information about almost

anything and everything, online shopping from places worldwide, downloads many

games/ videos/ music usually free of cost and helps to reduce the distance barrier

among people.

The internet has come a long way from its early development stages. The history

and the development of internet which revolutionized the computer are briefed

below.

HISTORY OF INTERNET

The development of the internet started in late 1960’s when the world was amidst a

cold war. Two centers – Leonard Klein rock’s Network Measurement Centre at the

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Douglas Engelbart’s NLS

system at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park, California, decided to

connect with each using a network to send data; called the ARPANET .

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 12

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

This was the first network to use the Internet Protocol that forms the basis of the

Internet we know today.

The ARPANET achieved expanded access in 1981 when National Science

Foundation (NSF) funded the Computer Science Network (CSNET). 1982 marked

the recognition of the Internet Protocol as a standard networking protocol on the

ARPANET. ARPANET was withdrawn in 1990 when various internet service

providers emerged.

Since, then the Internet has come a long way from sharing a few bytes of data for

communication with each other, to sending terabytes of information across the

globe.

The common man gained access to the modern Internet in the late 1980’s based on

the work of Tim Berners-Lee on the World Wide Web, which stated that protocols

could link hypertext documents into a computer. However, the development of the

internet was mostly restricted to the developed countries with mostly application

limited to data/ emails.

By the late 1990’s the internet grew rapidly with a growth rate of 100% year on

year with the rise in instant two-way communication by means of email, instant

messaging, telephone calls, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), World Wide Web

and video calls. Till 1993, the internet carried a mere 1 % of all the information in

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 13

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

a two-way communication system with this figure jumping to over 90% in less

than half a decade thereon.

The past decade has seen the maximum growth from less than 15 % of the world

population using the Internet to over 40 % using it today.

The Internet, a very complex and revolutionary invention of 1965, has changed our

world. The Internet can be defined as a global communications network consisting

of thousands of networks typically interconnected by fiber optic cabling (1). The

internet is always transforming into new complex hardware and software, in

addition to the services it offers. Another definition of the internet is as follows:

1. The Internet is at once a world-wide broadcasting capability, a mechanism for

information dissemination, and a medium for collaboration and interaction

between individuals and their computers without regard for geographic location

(2). my objective for this paper is to demonstrate and explain what the Internet is,

including its components and history.

The Internet can be explained as a network of networks, linking numerous

government, university and private computers to one another, while providing

many services such as E-mail, hypertext documents, instant messages, and data

exchanges. The Internet is the largest network of networks worldwide. The Internet

uses many different protocols, the most important being TCP/IP.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 14
 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

The computer networking revolution began in the early 1960s and has led us to

today’s technology. The Internet was first invented for military purposes, and then

expanded to the purpose of communication among scientists. The invention also

came about in part by the increasing need for computers in the 1960s. During the

Cold War, it was essential to have communications links between military and

university computers that would not be disrupted by bombs or enemy spies. In

order to solve the problem, in 1968 DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects

Agency) made contracts with BBN (Bolt, Breakneck and Newman) to create

ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network).

The invention of the Internet, along with the field of computer networking, was

derived from the invention of the telephone network. Unlike the telephone

network, the Internet uses packet switching. Packet switching was invented by

three different independent research groups around the world.

MIT graduate student Leonard Klein rock, one of the first people to invent packet

switching, was also the first person to publish work on packet switching.

The work done at MIT, Rand and NPL helped lay the foundation of today’s

Internet. Klein rocks colleagues J.C.R. Licklider and Lawrence Roberts of MIT

went on to head the computer science program at the Advanced Research Projects

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 15

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

Agency (ARPA). Roberts published a complete plan for the Arpanet, which is the

first packet-switched computer network.

Packet-switched and circuit-switched networks, two different technologies used for

sending messages, each have their advantages for specific applications. The

telephone network uses circuit switching, meaning that whenever a call is made, a

circuit will be connected among two or more phone lines. Circuit switching

networks require point to point bonding prior to transfer (there is only one path

dedicated for the connection), and networks also require sending and receiving

information constantly. On the other hand, the packet switching network, which

has been used in the Internet, is different. Packet switching networks divide the

data into small blocks; each block or packet has the possibility of taking a different

path than the other to the destination; at the destination, the packets will be

recompiled into the original message.

We live in an age of easy global communications, instantaneous information

access, and the ability to store, search, and manipulate large amounts of

information. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the

Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) sector became the largest

commercial sec-tor in the US in 1999, with a rate of employment growth that was

six times the national average. Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the United States

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 16

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

Federal Reserve, estimates that the growth of business in ICT contributed at least

one-third of the total growth of the United States’ economy since 1992.

The ICT sector represents a variety of devices, technologies and services built on

scientific breakthroughs in computers, software design, photo-optics, circuit

switching, and satellites, among others. The most visible representation of the ICT

revolution is the Internet, which integrates telecommunications and computing.

What is most profound is the accelerating rate of acceptance of ICT. Radio was

in existence for 38 years before it achieved a market of 50 million. It took 16 years

from the release of the first personal computer kit in 1973 to the point where there

were 50 million users. Once the Internet was open to commercial traffic in 1993, it

took four years to reach this point.

One specific application, Napster, a proto-col for transferring music files,

registered 25 million users within one year of its introduction.

The Internet allows anyone with a small capital investment in a computer and

access to a server to connect to other computers all over the world in an

interconnected web of machines, data, and people. Estimates are that 320 million

people will be using the World Wide Web by 2002 (Lange 1999). The number of

messages sent via email is currently about 6.5 billion per day worldwide and

growth will be exponential as more users come online. In addition, the technology

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 17

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

is going wireless; further decreasing the costs of being connected and potentially

bringing more people into the digital world.

Digital information is compact, transport-able, and, therefore, more efficient to

use. Economists note that information is costly to create but once it exist the cost

of reproducing information is significantly lower. With new digital media, the cost

to reproduce and transmit information approaches zero. Multiple copies can easily

be made and it is difficult to control dissemination and access. This contrasts to the

physical goods that economists typically con-side. The ease of transmitting

information raises a set of issues about intellectual property protection and fair use

and concerns about privacy, unauthorized access, and data piracy.

Few empirical studies, to date, analyze the ways in which business uses the

Internet. Litan and Rivlin (2001) consider the impact of the Internet on different

sectors and cite three distinct economic impacts: decreasing the cost of

transactions; increasing the ease of management; and, moving the economy closer

to the model of perfect competition. The greatest impact of the Internet has been to

decrease the cost of transactions. Faster than conventional post, more accurate than

telephone, Internet commerce is predicated upon the rapid exchange and eased

coordination of transactional information between firms and their suppliers and

customers. From the perspective of business, the Internet facilitates lower

purchasing costs, reductions in inventories, lower cycle times and allows for lower
ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 18
 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

sales and marketing costs and more efficient and effective targeting of customer

services and sales materials. From the perspective of consumers, the Internet

allows for greater choice, convenience, and the potential for increased

customization. Second, the Internet allows for more efficient management by

increasing the ease of information access, searching, and sharing. When

information is available in a digital form it is easier to use than in the alternative

paper form.

This has greatly reduced costs for business in terms of their routine internal record

keeping, inventory control and the costs of processing transactions. Finally, the

Internet moves the economy closer to the economist’s ideal model of perfect

competition, which implies greater efficiencies. It is easier for suppliers and

consumers to find information about one another search for alternatives, and

complete transactions. This direct access reduces the need of middlemen and

distributional intermediaries. Better information, greater choice and lower

operating and transaction costs are expected to drive reductions in prices or

improvements in quality. In sum, these three factors are expected to contribute 0.2–

0.4% per annum in future productivity growth to the U.S. economy. In addition,

the Internet and power of digital distribution may lead to new products and

services not previously imagined offering further increases in economic growth

(Economist 2000).

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 19

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

The economic impacts of the Internet are profound but they pertain to routine

economic activities that rely on information flows with well-defined parameters

and using relatively standardized content. Innovation, by contrast, is a special type

of non-routine activity and we may expect the Internet to have a different impact.

Innovation is a specific type of economic activity that is concerned with the

development of products, processes, or organizational methods that create novelty

– the stroke of human genesis that produces originality and uniqueness. Innovation

is typically associated with commercial applications and we draw a distinction

between invention, the original idea, and innovation as its commercial realization.

Not all inventive activity has commercial application, although invention is

certainly a part of innovation.

The most decisive input for innovation is knowledge. While information is the

flow of data, knowledge is a stock of information that is organized into a

conceptual schema. Innovation is the ability to blend and weave different types of

knowledge into something new, different, and unprecedented that has economic

value. Similar to art, innovation is a creative expression. However, unlike art, the

measure of innovation is not in the eye of the beholder, but in acceptance within

the marketplace that brings commercial rewards to the innovating entities and

returns to society in terms of economic well-being, prosperity, and growth.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 20

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

INTERNET HISTORY TIMELINE

Early research and development:

1966: Merit Network founded

1966: ARPANET planning starts

1969: ARPANET carries its first packets

1970: Mark I network at NPL (UK)

1970: Network Information Center (NIC)

1971: Merit Network's packet-switched network operational

1971: Tymnet packet-switched network

1972: Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) established

1973: CYCLADES network demonstrated

1974: Telenet packet-switched network

1976: X.25 protocol approved

1978: Minitel introduced

1979: Internet Activities Board (IAB)

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 21

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

1980: USENET news using UUCP

1980: Ethernet standard introduced

1981: BITNET established

Merging the networks and creating the Internet:

1981: Computer Science Network (CSNET)

1982: TCP/IP protocol suite formalized

1982: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

1983: Domain Name System (DNS)

1983: MILNET split off from

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 22

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

ARPANET

1985: First .COM domain name registered

1986: NSFNET with 56 Kbit/s links

1986: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

1987: UUNET founded

1988: NSFNET upgraded to 1.5 Mbit/s (T1)

1988: OSI Reference Model released

1988: Morris worm

1989: Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)

1989: PSINet founded, allows commercial traffic

1989: Federal Internet Exchanges (FIXes)

1990: GOSIP (without TCP/IP)

1990: ARPANET decommissioned

1990: Advanced Network and Services (ANS)

1990: UUNET/AlterNet allows commercial traffic

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 23

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

1990: Archie search engine

1991: Wide area information server (WAIS)

1991: Gopher

1991: Commercial Internet exchange (CIX)

1991: ANS CO+RE allows commercial traffic

1991: World Wide Web (WWW)

1992: NSFNET upgraded to 45 Mbit/s (T3)

1992: Internet Society (ISOC) established

1993: Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR)

1993: InterNIC established

1993: AOL added USENET access

1993: Mosaic web browser released

1994: Full text web search engines

1994: North American Network Operators' Group (NANOG) established

commercialization, privatization, broader access leads to the modern Internet:

1995: New Internet architecture with commercial ISPs connected at NAPs

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 24

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

1995: NSFNET decommissioned

1995: GOSIP updated to allow TCP/IP

1995: very high-speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS)

1995: IPv6 proposed

1996: AOL changes pricing model from hourly to monthly

1998: Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

1999: IEEE 802.11b wireless networking

1999: Internet2 / Abilene Network

1999: vBNS+ allows broader access

2000: Dot-com bubble bursts

2001: New top-level domain names activated

2001: Code Red I, Code Red II, and Nimda worms

2003: UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) phase I

2003: National Lambda Rail founded

2004: UN Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG)

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 25

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

2005: UN WSIS phase II

2006: First meeting of the Internet Governance Forum

2010: First internationalized country code top-level domains registered

2012: ICANN begins accepting applications for new generic top-level domain

names

2013: Montevideo Statement on the Future of Internet Cooperation

2014: Net Mundial international Internet governance proposal

2016: ICANN contract with U.S. Dept. of Commerce ends, IANA oversight passes

to the global Internet community on October 1st

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 26

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

EXAMPLES OF INTERNET SERVICES:

1989: AOL dial-up service provider, email, instant messaging, and web browser

1990: IMD Internet movie database

1995: [Link] online retailer

1995: eBay online auction and shopping

1995: Craigslist classified advertisements

1996: Hotmail free web-based e-mail

1997: Babel Fish automatic translation

1998: Google Search

1998: Yahoo! Clubs (now Yahoo! Groups)

1998: PayPal Internet payment system

1999: Napster peer-to-peer files sharing

2001: Bit Torrent peer-to-peer files sharing

2001: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2003: LinkedIn business networking

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 27

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

2003: MySpace social networking site

2003: Skype Internet voice calls

2003: iTunes Store

2003: 4Chan Anonymous image-based bulletin board

2003: The Pirate Bay, torrent file host

2004: Face book social networking site

2004: Podcast media file series

2004: Flicker image hosting

2005: YouTube video sharing

2005: Reddit link voting

2005: Google Earth virtual globe

2006: Twitter micro blogging

2007: Wiki Leaks anonymous news and information leaks

2007: Google Street View

2007: Kindle, e-reader and virtual bookshop

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 28

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

2008: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)

2008: Drop box cloud-based file hosting

2008: Encyclopedia of Life, a collaborative encyclopedia intended to document all

living species

2008: Spotify, a DRM-based music streaming service

2009: Bing search engine

2009: Google Docs, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, form,

and data storage service

2009: Kick starter, a threshold pledge system

2009: Bit coin, a digital currency

2010: Instagram, photo sharing and social networking

2011: Google+, social networking

2011: Snap chat, photo sharing

2012: Courser, massive open online courses

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 29

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

ONLINE SHOPPING IN INDIA

The birth and growth of Internet has been the biggest event of the century. E-

commerce in India has come a long way from a timid beginning in the 1999-

2000 to a period where one can sell and find all sorts of stuff from a high end

product to a meager peanut online. Most corporations are using Internet to

represent their product range and services so that it is accessible to the global

market and to reach out to a larger range of their audience.

Computers and the Internet have completely changed the way one handles

day-to-day transactions; online shopping is one of them. The Internet has

brought about sweeping changes in the purchasing habits of the people. In the

comfort of one's home, office or cyber cafe or anywhere across the globe, one

can log on and buy just about anything from apparel, books, music, and

jewellery to digital cameras, mobile phones, MP3 players, video games,

movie tickets, rail and air tickets. Ease, simplicity, convenience and security are

the key factors turning the users to buy online.

It is a fact that a great online shopping revolution is expected in India in the

coming years. There is a huge purchasing power of a youth population aged 18-

40 in the urban area.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 30

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

FEW FACTORS THAT BOOST ONLINE SHOPPING IN INDIA

 Rapid growth of cybercafés across India

 Access to Information

 The increase in number of computer users

 Reach to net services through broadband

 Middle-class population with spending power is growing. There are about

200 million of middle-class population good s p e n d i n g powers. These

people have very little time to spend for shopping. Many of them have

started to depend on internet to satisfy their shopping desires.

CHANGING ATTITUDE TOWARDS ONLINE SHOPPING

“Awareness, Future Demand Focus for Emerging Markets & Current Issues”

Mal s springing up everywhere and yet people are E-shopping! And not in small

numbers either. Consumers are more rational nowadays and have ability to get

the choices from the market. Awareness among the consumers is spread through

internet. The number of internet users is increasing day by day which attracts

people who have an option to buy online. It was never thought that Indians would

go in for e-shopping in such a big way. Ticketing, travel bookings and even books

and movies

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 31

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

Seem fine to buy online. Knowing that in India sizes vary from brand to

brand and quality is inconsistent, even of some electronic items, how is it

that there are people buying these items online? In India there are some

segments of people who have not yet tried purchasing over internet.

Here is the few reason why internet shopping is preferable:

1. Convenience

Online stores are usually available 24 hours a day, and many consumers have

Internet access both at work and at home. Other establishes such as internet

cafes and schools provide access as well. A visit to a conventional retail store

r e q u i r e s travel and must take place during business hours.

2. Information and reviews

Online stores must describe products for sale with text, photos, and

multimedia files. Some stores even allow customers to comment or rate their

items. There are also dedicated review sites that host user reviews for

different products. Reviews and now blogs give customers the option of

shopping cheaper organize purchases from all over the world without having to

depend on local retailers.

3. Home delivery concept

In any case, home delivery is a concept that Indians are familiar with and

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 32

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

love. The mall craze has started only now. Earlier it was a choice between

sweating it out in small crowded markets, or asking a friendly neighborhood

kirana (grocer) to deliver groceries home and this system is still thriving.

4. Increase in the Internet users

Increasing penetration of Internet connectivity and PCs has led to an increase

in the Internet users across India. The demographic segments that have

witnessed maximum growth comprise college going students and young

persons. These segments are the users of advanced applications and

technologies online and are most likely to be heavy E-Commerce users.

5. Increase in the number of buyers and sellers

The success of a marketplace depends on the presence of a large number of

buyers and a large number of sellers. In addition to online buyers, many

offline stores have begun to sell their products in the online marketplace.

The greater the number of sellers and buyers, the faster the market grows.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 33

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

HISTORY OF ONLINE SHOPPING

Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce whereby consumers directly

buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet without an intermediary

service. An online shop, e-shop, e-store, Internet shop, web-shop, web-store,

online store, or virtual store evokes the physical analogy of buying products or

services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or shopping centre. The process is called

business-to-consumer (B2C) online shopping. When a business buys from

another business it is called business-to-business (B2B) online shopping.

1979

Videotext was being researched since much earlier for supplying the end users

with textual information. Much work was done in UK on videotext, it was a two

way message service and developed basically y for information sending where

“many companies” were interested in, but on the backdrop of al that Michael

Aldrich in 1979 gave the “concept of teleshopping” (today online shopping)

which revolutionized the way businesses happen. Same happened in the US

around that year with services like The Source and CompuServe.

1987

With Swreg (offshoot of CompuServe) the community of software developers

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 34

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

and shareware authors got an online market where they could sel their product

using “Merchant account”. Thus online shopping started for then software

industry people.

1990

Tim Berners-Lee wrote the World Wide Web and gave the first browser

to view the web which changed most of things; a whole new revolution

started, which till date is on.

1992

Revolutionary book by J.H. Snider and Terra Zippering namely; Future Shop:

How New Technologies Will Change the Way We Shop and What We Buy.

St. Martin’s Press.

1994

Netscape released Navigator browser, later introduced Secure Sockets Layer

(SSL) encryption for secure transaction. Pizza Hut started online ordering on their

webpage, cars, bikes and adult content as well started selling on the internet.

1995

[Link] started selling each and everything online, and along with

that Jeff Bozos starts first commercial-free 24 hour, internet-only radio stations.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 35

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

Then Radio HK and Net Radio start broadcasting. Companies like Dell and Cisco

started u s i n g internet in all their transactions. Online auction started by eBay.

1998

United States started selling Electronic postal stamps online wherein they

could be purchased and downloaded for print.

1999

Acquisition of [Link] by e-Companies in US $7.5 million. Napster the

peer-to-peer file sharing software launches. Home decorative items started

selling on ATG Stores.

2000

The dot-com bust as we know it today wasn’t something that happened in a

day, over speculation for a period of time (approx. 1995-2000) where just the

prefix “e-” or “.com” in names could make stock prices rise at great rates. This

saw a great many companies rise and fall. Many entrepreneurs came up with

brilliant plans and most got pretty “generous” venture capitalists, most of

these firms started working on the principle “expand the market and later

profits will cover all present debts and losses.” This speculation was constantly

taking the market upwards with NASDAQ at a peak of 5132.52 points on

March 10, 2000. After this the market goes down and with them the over

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 36

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

speculating ones were just wiped off the market.

2002

PayPal the company which offered an alternative (through internet) to cash

or check payment was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion. CSN Stores and Net

Shops were founded with the concept of domain specific commodity and sprung

with many online stores, going for one item on each website.

2003

Online shopping matures showing to the world their confidence [Link]

posted first yearly profit and thus again making presence on the stock market.

2007

Acquisition of [Link] by R.H. Donnelley for $345 million, making

way for bigger players in technology domain.

2012

Tremendous growth in US in Ecommerce with sales figures touching $204

billion, a decent 17% rise from the previous year.

2014

Online Retailer – [Link] has an estimated turnover on a daily basis is over

US $2.5 trillion with growth rate of 14% annually. EBay having sales of US $1.89

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 37

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

billion, these numbers alone speak.

2016

average online purchases are expected to increase by 78 percent in 2016 from 66

percent in 2015, due to attractive deals and aggressive marketing of ever-

expanding range of merchandise from clothes to jewellery, from electronics to

books," said a study by Assoc ham and international accounting firm Price water

house Coopers.

ONLINE SHOPPING SITES

PC Data Online issued top 20 web retailers on January 2001. The chart below

is based on PC Data Online data.

(1) Amazon. In Score (4.75) - World leader in e-commerce market recently

started operation in India, Now Indians can buy Books, CDS and Electronic

at cheaper price from Amazonian. For limited time they offering free

shipping.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 38

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

[Link] – Score (4.78) – Founded in 2004 with only Rs. 400000 now in 2014

tuned over 60,000 Crore company. You can not only buy books online through

Flip kart, but also mobile phones & mobile accessories, laptops, computer.

accessories, cameras, movies, music, televisions, refrigerators, air-conditioners,

washing-machines, Clothing’s, Footwear’s, Accessories, MP3 players and products

from a host of other categories. After takeover of [Link] now flip kart is largest

player of e-commerce of India.

[Link] -Score (4.90) Snap deal offers everything from

local daily deals on restaurants, spas, travel to online products deals. They offer you

best price with free shipping.

(1) [Link]– Score (5.01) – Started with Mobile Recharge and Bill

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 39

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

Payment website now Pay tm selling everything from Home Decor,

Clothing, Laptops to Mobile at killer price. In very short time period Pay

tm has grown very fatly and able to place under our Top 10 Indian Shopping

Website list.

e.d

(1)E Bay. In -Score (5.02) after almost 6month of dominating at

number 1 eBay has come down at number two on India free

stuff in list. E Bay In is the Indian version of the popular online

shopping portal [Link] – world’s online marketplace. EBay

has a diverse and passionate community of individuals and small

businesses. EBay offers used and fresh items with a wide

network of international shipping.

(1) [Link]:- score (5.11) Jabong Fashion & Lifestyle Store offers you

great discount on all listed product. They offer wide range of products from

Apparel to Home needs.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 40

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

[Link]:- score (5.16) [Link] is leading online retailer of lifestyle

and fashion products. Myntra offers T-shirts, Shoes, watches and more at

Discounted price.

[Link]:- score (5.55) - Shop clues are famous for their heavily

discounted Jaw Dropping deals. Shop clues is one of the best online stores that

offers a wide variety of cameras, Computer accessories, Mobile, Gift, Jewellery,

Cosmetics, toys, clothes, books and bag. Their Jaw Dropping deal has

become most liked deal of 2012.

(1) [Link] :- score (5.81)-Pepper fry is one of leading Indian website in

selling lifestyle products ranging from men and women’s clothing, home decor,

jewellery, perfumes and cosmetics, furniture’s, bags and accessories.

Mobiles, laptops, site, Indian, gifts, apparel, buy, online, gifts. And more,

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 41

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

HomeShop18 is a venture of theNetwork18 Group, India’s fastest growing

media and entertainment Group. Network18 operates India’s leading business

news television channels – CNBC TV18 and CNBC Awaaz. HomeShop18

has also launched India’s first 24 hour Home Shopping TV channel. The

company has its headquarters in Noida, UP. The website has received the ‘Best

shopping site” award from PC World Magazine in 2008.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 42

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

CHAPTER-2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 43

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

LITERATURE REVIEW:

Theory of Consumer Buying Behavior Process:

Consumer decision process carries five stages, starting with Problem recognition
and following Information search, Evaluation of alternatives, Purchase decision and
finally Post Purchase behavior. Problem recognition starts with the perception of
need and moves towards information search where consumer uses internal and
external sources to analyse given information and use that information in the next
step of evaluation of alternatives. While evaluating alternatives one assessing values
of the products by giving weights. After evaluation of alternatives consumers move
towards purchase decision where they may encounter three possibilities, from
whom to buy, when to buy and do not buy. Once they have actually made the
purchase now it comes to Post purchase behavior, whether they are satisfied or
dissatisfied with the purchase. (Kilter, 2012)

Soonyong Bae, Taesik Lee (2010) they investigates the effect of online consumer
reviews on consumer’s purchase intention. In particular, they examine whether
there are gender differences in responding to online consumer reviews. The results
show that the effect of online consumer reviews on purchase intention is stronger
for females than males. The negativity effect, that consumers are influenced by a
negative review more than by a positive review, is also found to be more evident for
females. These findings have practical implications for online sellers to guide them
to effectively use online consumer reviews to engage females in online shopping.

Isaac J. Gabriel (2007) studied online consumers’ risk perceptions and will reveal
a “cognitive map” of their attitudes and perceptions to online risks. It was
accomplished by composing a master list of online hazards and activities,
ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 44
 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

measuring current level of perceived risk, desired level of risk, and desired level of
regulation associated with them, composing a master list of online risk
characteristics, determining online risk dimensions, and revealing position of each
online hazard or activity in the factor space diagram. A factor space diagram
captures a graphical representation of the results of the factor analysis. This study is
still in progress and results are not available yet.

Guda Van Noort, M.A., Peter Kerkhof, Ph.D and Bob M. Fennis, Ph.D. (2007)
in two experiments, the impact of shopping context on consumers’ risk perceptions
and regulatory focus was examined. They predicted that individuals perceive an
online (vs. conventional) shopping environment’s more risky and that an online
shopping environment, by its risky nature, primes a prevention focus. The findings
in Study 1 demonstrate these effects by using self-report measures for risk
perception and prevention focus. In Study 2, replicated these findings and
demonstrated that the effect of an online shopping environment carries over to
behavior in a domain unrelated to shopping.

Seyed Rajab Nikhashem, Farzana Yasmin, Ahsanul Haque. (2011) Studied that
investigated peoples‟ perception of online buying tickets (e-ticketing) as well as
why some people use this facility while some who do not use it stick to the
traditional way to fulfill their needs. In addition, factors such as what inform
peoples‟ eagerness and unwillingness to use internet facilities are also examined.
The outcome of this research showed a comprehensively integrated framework that
can be utilized by policy makers and business enterprises to understand the dynamic
relationships among dimensions of perceived risk, user trustworthiness, usefulness,

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 45

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

familiarity and confidence. Also, this study considered how price perception and
internet security can be utilized to understand the consumers‟ perception.

Yu-Je Lee, Ching-Lin Huang, Ching-Yaw Chen The purpose of this study is to
use structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore the influence of online
bookstore consumers’ perception on their purchase intention. Through literature
review, four constructs were used to establish a causal relationship between
perception of online shopping and consumers’ purchase intention. Results of this
study show that product perception, shopping experience, and service quality have
positive and significant influence on consumers’ purchase intention, but perceived
risk has negative influence on consumers’ purchase intention, and shopping
experience is most important.

Ramin Azadavar, Darush shahbazi, and Mohammad Eghbali Teimouri. (2011)

examined the factors influencing consumers’ perception of online shopping and
developed a causal model that explains how this perception affects their online-
shopping behavior. Research found that factors like, trust, customer service,
customers’ income, price of products or services and security are more important to
encourage people to purchase online the computer related products and services. In
other side factors like product customization and price of product were not much
effective on purchasing behavior of the respondents. So high level of security in
online marketing of computer related products and services has this potential to
growth more and more to encourage people to reduce the time and cost of
transaction. Most important concern regarding to online shopping is the security of
transactions. The study intends to explore the understanding of consumer behavior
regarding to the direct and indirect influences of the perceptions of online shopping

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 46

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

on consumer behavior. Based on our analysis first, a factor analysis was conducted
on the student’s perception of 13 items, and three factors, “convenience, anxiety
regarding security, and “poor navigation”, were extracted. A model was created
reflecting the direct influence of these three “perception”-related factors on
behavior or their indirect influence through consumers’ attitudes.

Kanwal Gurleen. (2012) focuses on the understanding of demographic profiles of

adopters and non-adopters of online shopping. For this purpose the data from 400
respondents was collected in the form of questionnaires. The study has been
conducted in 3 cities of Punjab, a sample of urban respondents were selected from
the Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Amritsar The paper also analyses the various reasons
for adoption and non-adoption of online shopping.
Haq (2014) revealed that the perception of online shoppers is independent of their
age and gender but not independent of their qualification and income on gender.
Four key dimensions (website quality, commitment factor, customer service and
security) of online shopping are identified and more specifically, consumers’
perceptions of the customer service, commitment and web security of online
purchasing exhibit significant relationships with their online buying intention.
Ranganathan and Ganapathy (2002) identified that the website dimensions such as
purchase intention, security and privacy have greater impact on the purchase
behavior of online buyers. Minjoon, Zhilin, & Daesoo (2004) exposed six key
online retailing service quality dimensions as perceived by online customers:
reliable/prompt responses, access, ease of use, attentiveness, security, and
credibility. The results reveal that there is significantly a positive relationship
between the overall service quality and satisfaction.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 47

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

Gupta and Khincha (2015) identified that time saving and cash on delivery
facilities are major factors that influence the online shopping behavior of customers
and are satisfied with online shopping. The other attributes like appropriate pricing,
responsibility, website information quality, and reliability should also be added into
the websites since people consider these variables to support their decision.
Jiradilok, Malisuwan, Madan, and Sivaraks (2014) stated that variety, website
system quality, and tangibility have no influence on purchasing intention in
customer’s decision even though the respondents were quite satisfied with these
dimensions. Yulihasri, Islam and Daud (2011) identified that ease of use,
compatible, privacy, security, normative beliefs, self-efficacy, and attitude also
influenced the customer’s buying intention on shopping online. Liao and Cheung
(2001) prove that the life content of products, transactions security, price, vendor
quality, IT education and Internet usage significantly affect the initial willingness of
consumers to shop on the internet. The factors that influenced or prevented online
consumer behaviors need to be carefully concerned by the online retailers, who can
utilize the appropriate marketing communications to support the customer’s
purchase decision making process and improve their performance (Mittal, 2013).

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 48

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

CHAPTER-3

RESEARCH DESIGN

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 49

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

RESEARCH DESIGN

Statement of Problem:

The present study concentrates on knowing the customer perception towards e

commerce websites. Knowing the customer expectation and acting upon is needy

for sustaining in this market. Overcoming the drawbacks by identifying would be

the key mantra for reaching more customers and enhancing the income of the

organization.

Objectives:

1. To know about the growing status of e- commerce in India.

2. To understand the customer awareness on e-commerce and about various

popular e-business organizations.

3. To study customer perception about various e-commerce services.

4. To measure customers rate of usage of products/services.

5. To identify the common problems prevalent in e-commerce.

6. To measure customers degree of satisfaction on e-commerce.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 50

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

DATA COLLECTION PLAN

Primary Data

The primary data will be collected through structured questionnaire.

Secondary Data

Secondary data like business statistics will be collected from relevant books and

periodicals, referring to previous research studies on the same sector would be

useful. Internet surfing largely can give the background material of the industry.

Latest developments in this sector will be traced from newspapers, magazines,

industrial association and statistical reports.

Scope of the study

Knowing the pulse of the customer is basic oblige for business survival. To be

competitive and maintain the sustainability in the current competetitive

environment the companies need to produce and make it available as per the need

and requirement of the customers. Identifying the changes in customer wants and

needs would help the organization to withhold the existing customers and to

acquire new customers and expanding the operations.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 51

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

The present study concentrates on identifying the customer satisfaction level

towards E - Commerce websites through structured questionnaire. The respondents

were informed about the objective of the study.

Limitation of the Study

a) The present study concentrates only selected websites of E commerce.

b) The suggestions cannot be generalized since study consists of less sample size.

c) Shortage of time is main constraint as in depth study can’t be taken up.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 52

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

CHAPTER-4

COMPANY

PROFILE

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 53

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

1. SNAP [Link]

Snap deal is an e-commerce company based in India. It is a daily deals' website

that features discount offers across lifestyle segments such as dining, health

& beauty, entertainment and travel. It also offers discounts on products like

electronics, perfumes, watches, bags, sunglasses, apparels and mobile phones.

Headquartered in Delhi, [Link] was launched in February 2 0 1 0 . The

company was founded by KunalBahl, a Wharton graduate and RohitBansal,

alumnus of IIT Delhi who are friends since school. They had agreed that after

finishing their studies and gaining required work experience, they would start a

project of their own.

[Link] serves as an advertising platform for merchants and a discount

platform for customers. For the merchants who partner with Snap deal, it is a

cost-effective channel for acquiring new customers. It also works as a risk-free

alternate marketing channel. From the merchant’s standpoint, they are passing

on the customer acquisition cost in the form of a discount offer.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 54

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

PRODUCT CATEGORIES PROVIDED BY [Link]

 Mobiles & Accessories.

 Men’s & Women’s Apparel.

 Watches, Bags & Accessories.

 Electronics & Cameras.

 Computers & Peripherals.

 Perfumes, Beauty & Health.

 Jewelry

 Books & Movies

 Footwear

 Home, Kitchen & Appliances

 Infants, Kids & Toys

 Sports & Hobbies

 Travel Packages

 Adventure & Entertainment.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 55

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

2. [Link]

[Link] is an American multinational electronic commerce company with

headquarters in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world’s largest online

retailer. The company also produces consumer electronics - notably the Amazon

Kindle e-book reader - and is a major provider of cloud computing

[Link] has separate retail websites for the following countries: United

States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan and

China, with international shipping to certain other countries for some of its

products. It is also expected to launch its websites in Poland, Netherlands and

Sweden.

Jeff Bozos’ incorporated the company (as Cadabra) in July 1994, and the site

went online as [Link] in 1995. [Link] started as an online

bookstore, but soon diversified, selling DVDs, CDs, MP3 downloads, software,

video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry. The

company was founded in 1994, spurred by what Bozos called his "regret

minimization framework", which he described as his effort to fend off regret for

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 56

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

not staking a claim in the Internet gold rush. The company began as an online

bookstore. While the largest brick-and-mortar bookstores and mail-order

catalogs might offer 200,000 titles, an online bookstore could sell far more.

Bozos wanted a name for his company that began with "A" so that it would

appear early in alphabetic order. He began looking through the dictionary and

settled on "Amazon" because it was a place that was "exotic and different"

and it was the river he considered the biggest in the world, as he hoped his

company would be. Since 2000, Amazon's logotype is an arrow leading from A

to Z, representing customer satisfaction. A goal was to have every product in the

alphabet.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 57

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

PRODUCT CATEGORIES PROVIDED BY [Link]

 Books

 Movies, Music & Games

 Electronic & Computers

 Home, Garden & Tools

 Pet Products

 Kitchen & Dining

 Furniture & Decor

 Toy, Kids & Baby

 Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry

 Sports & Outdoors, Automotive & Industrial.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 58

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

2. [Link]

EBay is an American multinational internet consumer-to-consumer corporation

that manages [Link], an online auction and shopping website in which people

and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide.

Founded in 1995, eBay is one of the notable success stories of the dot-com

bubble; it is now a multi-billion dollar business with operations localized in over

thirty countries. EBay expanded from its original “set-time” auction format to

include "Buy It Now" standard shopping; shopping by UPC, ISBN, or other kind

of SKU; online classified advertisements; online event ticket trading; online

money transfers and other services.

The online auction website was founded as Auction Web in San Jose,

California, on September 5, 1995, by French-born Iranian-American computer

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 59

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

programmer Pierre Omidyar as part of a larger personal site that included,

among other things, Omidyar own tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Ebola virus.

One of the first items sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer for $14.83.

Astonished, Omidyar contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the

laser pointer was broken. In his responding email, the buyer explained: "I'm a

collector of broken laser pointers."The frequently repeated story that eBay was

founded to help Omidyar fiancée trade Pez candy dispensers was fabricated

by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media, which were not

interested in the company's previous explanation about wanting to create a

"perfect market". This was revealed in Adam Cohen's 2002 book, The Perfect

Store, and confirmed by eBay.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 60

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

PRODUCT CATEGORIES PROVIDED BY [Link]

 Fashion

 Motors

 Electronics

 Collectibles & Art

 Home, Outdoors & Décor

 Entertainment

 Deals & Gifts

 Sporting Goods.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 61

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

3. [Link]

Flip kart is an Indian e-commerce company headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka.

It was started by two IIT graduates, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, in the year

2007. They were working in [Link] previously. Earlier, Flip kart mainly

dealt with books but now, it has expanded to electronic goods and a variety of other

products. Flip kart was founded in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, both

alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. They worked for [Link]

before quitting and founding their own company. Initially they used word of mouth

marketing to popularize their company. A few months later, the company sold

its first book on [Link]—John Woods' Leaving Microsoft to Change the

World. Today, as per Alexia traffic rankings, Flip kart is among the top 30

Indian Web sites and has been credited with being India's largest online

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 62

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

bookseller with over 11 million titles on offer. Flip kart broke even in March

2010 and claims to have had at least 100% growth every quarter since its founding.

The store started with selling books and in 2010 branched out to selling CDs,

DVDs, mobile phones and accessories, cameras, computers, computer

accessories and peripherals, and in 2011 Pens & stationery, other electronic items

such as home appliances, kitchen appliances, personal care gadgets, health care

products etc.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 63

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

PRODUCT CATEGORIES PROVIDED BY [Link]

 Books

 Mobiles & Accessories

 Computers

 Gaming

 Movies & TV Shows

 Music, CDs, DVDs & Vinyl

 TV, Video & MP3 Players

 Personal & Health Care

 Home & Kitchen

 Pens & Stationary

 Fragrances

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 64

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

CHAPTER – 5

DATA ANALYSIS

AND

INTERPRETATION

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 65

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

TABLE 5.1

Table showing usage frequency of internet usage.

Criteria No. Of Respondents Percentage (%)

1-2 hours 55 55

2 - 4 hours 16 16

4 - 6 hours 17 17

6 + hours 12 12

Total 100 100

ANALYSIS:

From the above table it can be observed that 55% of the respondents use the

internet between the frequencies of 1 - 2 hours, 17% use between 4 - 6 Hours, 16%

of the respondents are using between 2 - 4 Hours and 125 of the respondents use

6+ hours per day.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 66

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

Graph 5.1

Graph showing internet usage of Respondents

INTERPRETATION

From the above graph it can be inferred that major of the respondents use internet

on an average of 1 - 2 hours.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 67

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

Table 5.2

Table showing the purpose of internet usage

Criteria No. of Respondents Percentage (%)

Mailing 45 45
Social Networking 25 25
Gaming 10 10
Listening Music/Watching video 5 5
Shopping 15 15

ANALYSIS:

From the above table it can be observed that 45% of the respondents use

internet for mailing , 25% use for social networking, 15% for shopping, 10% for

gaming and remaining 5% for listening music and watching video.

Graph 5.2

Graph showing the purpose of internet usage

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 68
 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

INTERPRETATION:

From the above table it can be inferred that major respondents using internet

for the sake mailings.

Table 5.3

Table showing the experience of online shopping

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 69

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

Criteria No. of Respondents Percentage (%)

Yes 60 60
No 40 40
Total 100 100

ANALYSIS:

From the above table it can be observed that 60% of the respondents bought

goods online and remaining 40% did not buy anything online.

Graph 5.3

Graph showing the experience of online shopping

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 70

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

120

100

80

60 No. of Respondents
Percentage (%)

40

20

0
Yes No Total

INTERPRETATION:

From the above graph it can be inferred that majority of respondents are

having experience of online purchasing.

Table 5.4

Table showing the online purchase destination

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 71

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

CRITERIA NO. OF Percentage (%)

RESPONDENTS

India 68 68

Other European 8 8

country

USA 14 14

China 6 6

Other 4 4

Total 100 100

ANALYSIS:

From the above table it can be observed that majority of respondents

i.e.68% of respondents purchased India made products in online shopping,14% of

respondents are purchasing USA based products,8% of respondents purchased EU

based products,6% respondents purchased China based products and remaining 4%

of respondents purchased other country based products.

Graph 5.4

Graph showing the online purchase destination

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 72

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

INTERPRETATION :

From the above graph it can be inferred that majority of respondents prefer

to purchase indian based products because of reknown products and easy

availability of the user feedback and accessibility.

Table 5.5

Table showing payment method in E - commerce

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 73

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

Options No. of Respondents Percentage (%)

Credit card 5 5

Debit card 40 40

Cash on delivery 35 35

E Wallets 20 20

Total 100 100

ANALYSIS:

From the above table it can be observed that 40% of respondents use debit

card for making payment, 35% of respondents prefer cash on delivery , 20% of

respondents prefer to pay through E - wallets and 5% use credit card.

Graph 5.5

Graph showing payment method

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 74

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

120

100

80

60
No. of Respondents
Percentage (%)
40

20

0
Credit card Debit card Cash on E Wallets Totals
delivery

INTERPRETATION:

From the above graph it can be inferred that Debit card and cash on delivery while

making payment in E - commerce because of the security issue.

Table 5.6

Table showing the items preferred online

Variants No. of Respondents Percentage (%)

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 75
 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

Music/Videos 2 2
Clothes / Accessories 8 8
Sports Equipment 27 27
Electronics 63 63
Total 100 100

ANALYSIS:

From the above table it can be observed that 63% of respondents purchased

electronics items, 27% of respondents purchased, 8% of respondents purchased

Cloths and accessories and 2% of respondents purchased music and videos.

GRAPH 5.6

Graph showing the recent purchase of Respondents

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 76

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

INTERPRETATION:

From the above graph it can be inferred that major of the respondents

purchased electronic items through E- commerce.

Table 5.7

Table showing the respondents experience in E commerce website

Particulars No. Respondents Percentage (%)

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 77

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

Very Good 47 47

Average 45 45
Need to be improved 8 8
Total 100 100

ANALYSIS:

From the above table it can be observed that 47% of respondents are

satisfied with the website operations, 45% of respondents felt less satisfied and

remaining 8% are not happy with the website operations.

Graph 5.7

Graph showing the website experience of respondents

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 78

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

INTERPRETATION:

From the above graph it can be inferred that majority of respondents are satisfied

with the website operations.

Table 5.8

Table showing the purpose of online shopping

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 79

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

Criteria No. Of respondents Percentage

For personal use 55 55%

For business use 25 25%
For both personal and 20 20%

business use
Total 100 100

ANALYSIS:

From the above table it can be observed that 55% of respondents use online

shopping for personal use, 25% uses for business purpose and remaining 20% for

both.

Graph 5.8

Graph showing the Respondents purpose of online shopping

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 80

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

INTERPRETATION:

From the above graph it can be inferred that majority of the customers uses the

online shopping for personal level because of less cost and also less secured.

Table 5.9

Table showing the customer benefit from E – commerce

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 81

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

Criteria No. of Respondents Percentage (%)

Broadens consumer choice 40 40
Encourages price transparency 23 23
Fastens business process 37 37
Do not know/ Cannot say 10 10
Total 100 100

ANALYSIS:

From the above table it can be observed that majority of respondents i.e.

40% expressed broader choice is the benefit of e commerce, 37% expressed that

fastest business, 23% expressed that it encourages price transparency and

remaining 10% are nullified.

Graph 5.9

Graph showing the customer benefit from E – commerce

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 82

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

INTERPRETATION:

From the above graph it can interpreted that E – commerce broaden the choices of

customer which facilitate better quality, quantity and at the best price.

Table 5.10

Table showing the response against elimination of middlemen cost

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 83

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

Criteria No. of respondents Percentage (%)

Agree 73 73
Disagree 21 21
Can’t say 6 6
Total 100 100

ANALYSIS:

From the above table it can be observed that 735 of respondents are expressing that

middlemen cost will be eliminated through online shopping, 21% respondents

expressed that there won’t be change between online and offline shopping and

remaining 6% expressed no idea about.

Graph 5.10

Graph showing the response against elimination of middlemen cost

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 84

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

120

100

80

60 No. of respondents
Percentage (%)

40

20

0
Agree Disagree Can’t say Total

INTERPRETATION:

From the above table it can be inferred that majority of respondents expressed that

through online the middlemen cost will be eliminated and the products will be

available at cheaper than offline shopping.

Table 5.11

Table showing the challenges to the implementation of e-commerce in India

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 85

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

Criteria No. Of Percentage (%)

respondents
Slow penetration of internet 20 20
Security concerns 27 27
Lack of trust 35 35
Consumers’ awareness level is low 15 15
Other factors 3 3

ANALYSIS:

From the above table it can be observed that 35% of respondents expressed that

people distract because of lack of trust, 27% expressed that security concern are

avoiding people to make online shopping, 20% mention the reason of slow

internet, 15% mentioned the reason of less awareness and remaining 65 mentioned

other factors.

Graph 5.11

Graph showing the challenges to the implementation of e-commerce in India

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 86

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

INTERPRETATION:

From the above graph it can be interpreted that lack of trust in online

shopping reducing the customers in online shopping and by providing strong

security and guarantee the online buyers can be improved.

Table 5.12

Table showing the Government of India initiation in promoting E – commerce

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 87

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

Criteria No. of respondents Percentage (%)

Yes 64 64
No 24 24
Can’t say 12 12
Total 100 100

ANALYSIS:

From the above table it can be observed that 64% of respondents expressing that

the government taking necessity initiation to improve E – commerce, 24%

expressing that still the efforts need to be made and 12% people neutralized.

Graph 5.12

Graph showing the Government of India initiation in promoting E –

commerce

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 88

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

INTERPRETATION:

From the above graph it can be inferred that the government has taken

necessary steps to improve the E – commerce trade in country but still

development need to be established

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 89

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

CHAPTER – 6

FINDINGS,

CONCLUSION

AND

SUGGESTIONS

FINDINGS

1. The major respondent’s internet usage limited to 1- 2 hours per day that to on a

frequent breaks.
ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 90
 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

2. The mailing is important intention of surfing.

3. The percentage of online shoppers increasing with the development of

technology.

4. Irrespective of technology globalization, still customers prefer to purchase

Indian branded products because of awareness and guarantee.

5. Debit card payment is considered as one of the safest payment since the

transaction get acknowledge.

6. Electronics items are the most purchased in online shopping.

7. Majority of online shoppers are having good opinion towards E - commerce.

8. Major of customers uses E - commerce only for personal uses.

9. Vague choices are importance cause of selection E- commerce by many users.

10. Major customer feel that E-commerce eliminates middlemen cost.

11. The income expansion is getting limited because of lack of trust.

SUGGESTIONS:

1. Since we are in the era of globalization, the connectivity of global companies

can be expanded to attract most customers toward E - commerce.

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 91

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

2. Increasing the opportunities for B2B trade in E- commerce can expand the

activities.

3. Improving the security measures and providing the customer safety can enhance

the E - commerce boundary.

4. Establishing the grievance handling and quick resolving model for customer

grievances can improve the trust on online shopping can expand the E - commerce

activities.

5. Technology expansion as well as creating awareness among the public can

motivate the activity of going online.

6. Avoiding fake companies and ensuring proper legal policies can enhance the

online activities in the country.

CONCLUSION

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 92

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

Recent demonetization process forcing the people to go for online shopping and

make payments through online banking providing better development in E -

commerce. flipping from traditional commerce practice to online shopping felt

difficult at the earlier stage but as the improvement in literacy of technology and

change in life style, the people are slowly adopting the E - commerce which will in

turn help the government to track the savings, income and expenditure of the

citizen and easy for differentiating between low, middle and high level income

group. Providing strong technology with the accessibility at a lower cost can

expand the application of E - commerce.

REFERENCES:

1. [Link]/documents/publication/2016V8N1/[Link]

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 93

 “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES”

2. [Link]/definition/Internet

3. [Link]

4.

[Link]

5. [Link]

6. [Link]

7. [Link]

8. [Link]

9. [Link]

10. [Link]

11. [Link]

ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES Page 94