Exploring the Factors Influencing Customers Purchase Intention in Online Shopping

Abstract

Online shopping has increasingly become popular in Bangladesh with the introduction of globalization. Many people, specifically the younger generation, are purchasing various types of products every day online as it is convenient and saves time. Consumers are influenced to purchase online as a result of many factors including time-savings, fast delivery, ease of the transaction, and a website's user friendliness, and many more. The consumer evaluation is important to explore why a consumer intends to purchase online. The present study is an attempt to determine the factors that influence consumers' online shopping in Dhaka. Through this process, this study attempts to identify the critical factors that influence consumers' online shopping in Dhaka and to evaluate the association between these factors and consumers' online shopping habits. It also tries to determine the importance of these factors on consumers' online purchasing habits and to identify problems and suggest possible recommendations. The factors that are being considered include convenience factors, psychological factors, promotional factors, technical factors, and motivational factors. Each factor has some distinct variables. Convenience factors include less time, home delivery, and ease of transaction. Psychological factors include domain specific innovativeness, and opinion of friends and peers. Promotional factors include online ads, and social media exposure. Technical factors include user-friendliness of websites, and display of product details. Motivational factors encompass utilitarian and hedonic values. For this study the Multiple Regression Analysis Model was used. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted on 120 consumers to obtain consumers' opinion regarding how their purchase habits are sparked by different factors. The results reveal that only the home delivery system and utilitarian value of online shopping makes customers consider purchasing online. The other important influences were opinion of friend and peers, social media exposure, and display of product details. This study can hopefully shed some new insights into consumers' online purchasing habits.