ADOPTION OF

ONLINE BUYING PLATFORM FOR

HIGH INVOLVEMENT PRODUCT
SUBMITTED BY :
AWIRAL KUMAR DAS (2015PGP016)
BOLLA MONIKA RAO (2015PGP017)
SUBASHINI V

(2015PGP046)

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ABSTRACT
Internet has developed rapidly and is been used in a number of sectors worldwide. Online
shopping websites are the ones which have developed at a pace to make complete use of this
commodity. As internet becomes reliable and secure day by day with the introduction of
various technologies, shoppers seem to show increased interest in online shopping.
In this report, we study the shopping behaviour of the consumers when it comes to high
involvement products like laptop, phone, jewellery among others. High involvement products
are those products which usually needs to be touched and felt before going to opt for it. But
nowadays there has been an increase in the shift towards online even for such high
involvement products which are expensive. The risk of purchasing a costly product in terms
of monetary cost and mental cost is higher as compared to a cheaper product. A person is
more cautious when purchasing a costly and non-routine product. Thus it is seen that a
consumers approach towards purchasing a product having high involvement compared to a
product with low involvement is different. Involvement can be defined as perceived relevance
of the object on the basis of the needs, values and interests (Zaichkowsky1985).
There are a number of factors which have contributed to this change and these factors have
been studied and analysed in this report. By the end of this report, we intend to prove that
online platform is being widely adopted for high involvement products and also have a clear
study of the factors which have made this possible.

KEYWORDS
High involvement, Low involvement, Payment mode

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Contents
Introduction 3
Literature Review ....... 3
Research Objective . 3
Research Methodology ... 4
Collection of Data ............... 4
Sample Size 5
Data Interpretation and Analysis of Responses

Factors/Priority Rating 5
Discount Deals 6
Mode of Payment 7
Trust and Security ... 8
Availability/Options ... 9
Convenience . 10
Time .. 11

Notes on Research 12
Conclusion 14
References 15

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INTRODUCTION
The risk of purchasing a costly product in terms of monetary cost and mental cost is higher as
compared to a cheaper product. A person is more cautious when purchasing a costly and nonroutine product. Thus it is seen that a consumers approach towards purchasing a product
having high involvement compared to a product with low involvement is different.
Involvement can be defined as perceived relevance of the object on the basis of the needs,
values and interests (Zaichkowsky,1985).

LITERATURE REVIEW
Sherif and Cantrill introduced the concept of involvement in the year 1947 in the area of
psychology. If involvement can be defined based on stimulus, products can be categorized by
marketers into different product involvement categories and markets can be segmented on the
basis of product involvement (Grunig,1989;Taylor & Joseph,1984).Solomon(1998) studied
the consumer behaviour and said that it is the study of the processes involved when an
individual selects, purchases , uses or disposes off products, services, ideas or experiences to
satisfy needs and desires. In view for the internet to spread out as a retail channel, it is
imperative to realize the consumers mind-set, intention and conduct in light of the online
buying practice. Bellman, Lohse and Johnson (1999) examined the relationship among
demographics, personal characteristics and attitudes towards online shopping. These authors
found that people who have a more wired lifestyle and who are more time constrained tends
to buy online more frequently i.e. those who are more time starved prefer shopping on the
internet. A study conducted by Lina Zhou, Liwei Dai and Dongsong Zhang(2007) resulted in
a model known as OSAM (Online Shopping Acceptance Model). Dr. Ashutosh A.
Sandhe(2014) studied the consumers approach towards high involvement and low
involvement products and found that buying behaviour of consumers towards high
involvement products is different from low involvement products and the preferred mode of
payment is also different. Prof.Jiger Manek and Dr. Ruta Khaparde(2015) did a research on
consumer buying behaviour towards online jewellery shopping and concluded that consumers
are finding more designs available while online shopping which makes their shopping
experience more attractive and festival seasons has experienced the maximum sale, that
means traditional approach still continues in certain extent and Diwali seemed to be the
festival where maximum number of consumers prefer shopping. They also found that
consumers are aware that online jewellery shopping has less making charges in comparison to
retail shopping and trust factor plays a vital role from consumers point of view towards
online jewellery shopping.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

What is the general notion of consumers towards online buying when it comes to high
involvement products?
What are the factors that contribute towards the shift in the behaviour?

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The data for this research project is collected through questionnaire and personal interviews.
A structured questionnaire was developed to collect data and test hypothesis. Both type of
questions i.e. open ended and closed ended were used. A pilot study was conducted to
identify products with high involvement and low involvement..In the final questionnaire,
questions were framed to __. Convenience sampling method was used and questionnaires
were got filled by email and personal interview methods. A target of _ respondents was set,
but many of the respondents provided half completed questionnaires, therefore only _
questionnaires were entertained for final analysis and data interpretation. Based on the data
obtained, mean values and significance was calculated to find out the reliability. Simple
charting and tabulation tools are used to understand the behaviour of the respondents for
shopping of high involvement products online. The following table gives a depiction of
demographic profile of the respondents.
Table 1: Demographic Profile of Respondents
DEMOGRAPHIC
FEATURES

NUMBER OF
RESPONDENTS

PERCENTAGE IN TOTAL
SAMPLE

GENDER
MALE

45

75%

FEMALE

15

25%
AGE

18-22

17

28.34%

23-26

35

58.33%

27-30

13.33%
OCCUPATIONAL
STATUS

Student

11.67%

Job

53

88.33%

COLLECTION OF DATA

Primary Data: They were the main source of data collection. The method of
collection of primary data would be direct personal interview through a structured
questionnaire.
Secondary Data: It was collected from internal sources. The secondary data was
collected from the articles, newspapers, management books and the internet.

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SAMPLE SIZE
The total sample size for this research project was 60, out of which 45 were personally
interviewed and the other 15 have filled the questionnaire through email. Qualitative research
to understand the latent needs.

DATA INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS OF RESPONSES

The major factors that are responsible to lure the customers towards online shopping are
listed below. The factors have been rated on a scale of 1-6 based on the priority of the
consumers where 1 is given to the factor with the highest priority to a consumer and 6 with
the least.
The overall priority ratings as given by the participants is shown below:
FACTORS/PRIORITY RATING

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

Discount

33

17

10

Mode of Payment

15

28

Trust & Security

11

34

10

Availability/Options

26

12

10

Convenience

10

31

15

Time

14

35

Table 1

Graph 1
As seen from the graph above, maximum participants have rated the discount rates as their
first preference, followed by the mode of payment. Trust and security is the third most
preferred factor to choose online shopping, fourth being availability or presence of options

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that is closely followed by convenience. Time is the sixth most preferred factor, seems though
the participants do have a lot of time indeed.

Bar Graph 1
Discount deals :
The prime reason behind the success of online platforms is the discount deals and
considerable price difference compared to physical shopping. It is evident from our research
as majority of respondents have voted discount deals as the most important factor which they
consider while going for online shopping of high involvement products.
Priority Ranking

Number of Respondents

Percentage of Total Sample Size

1st

33

55%

2nd

17

28.33%

3rd

10

16.67%

4th

0%

5th

0%

6th

0%

Total

60

100%
Table 2

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Bar Graph 2
Mode of Payment :
Means by which payment is made such as Cash on Delivery (COD), Credit cards, Debit
cards, Net Banking or via third party like Paytm wallet. From our survey, we found that
majority of the respondents voted mode of payment as their second priority while shopping
online for high involvement products.
Priority Rating

Number of Respondents

Percentage of Total Sample Size

1st

15

25%

2nd

28

46.67%

3rd

10%

4th

13.33%

5th

5%

6th

0%

Total

60

100%
Table 3

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Bar Graph 3

Trust & Security :

In case of purchasing high involvement products online, trust and security becomes a crucial
factor due to the high monetary and mental cost involved with the product. Any case of
transaction failure, delivery problem or issues with quality of the product might upset the
consumer to a great extent. Hence trust and security has been rated as third most important
factor while shopping online for high involvement products in our research.

Priority Rating

Number of Respondents

Percentage of total Sample Size

1st

8.33%

2nd

11

18.33%

3rd

34

56.67%

4th

10

16.67%

5th

0%

6th

0%

Total

60

100%

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Table 4

Bar Graph 4

Availability/Options :
Many people prefer online mode of shopping because of the wide array of choices available
to them in online platform as compared to traditional markets. Also they can compare
between various sites selling the same product or similar product. Hence majority of the
respondents have voted availability of products and number of options available as their
fourth priority.
Priority Rating

Number of Respondents

Percentage of total sample

1st

8.33%

2nd

3.34%

3rd

8.33%

4th

26

43.33%

5th

12

20%

6th

10

16.67%

Total

60

100%
Table 5

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Bar Graph 5

Convenience :
People nowadays want everything at their doorsteps and online shopping has greatly
contributed towards it. Convenience becomes an important factor when it comes to choosing
between online shopping and traditional markets. However in case of high involvement
products, people value the product more than the convenience and are ready to compromise
with the convenience. It has been voted as fourth among the six important factors.
Priority Rating

Number of Respondents

Percentage of total Sample Size

1st

3.33%

2nd

1.67%

3rd

1.67%

4th

10

16.67%

5th

31

51.67%

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6th

15

25%

Total

60

100%
Table 6

Bar Graph 6

Time:
In todays world with things happening at lightning fast pace, nobody has time to do shopping
by visiting a number of shops. Hence they go for online shopping even for high involvement
products. However people like to touch and feel high involvement products before buying
them, so they have rated time as the least important factor.

Priority Rating

Number of Respondents

Percentage of total Sample Size

1st

0%

2nd

1.67%

3rd

6.67%

4th

10%

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5th

14

23.33%

6th

35

58.33%

Total

60

100%
Table 7

Bar Graph 7
NOTES ON RESEARCH :

54 out of 60 participants have opted online platform for the purchase of high
involvement product
The purchase of high involvement products through online means have seen a rise
since 2013

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Depending on the responses obtained, we have found that people prefer- Electronics
products (because they are assured of the quality as both companys and sellers
guarantee is there) and dont prefer - Apparels and shoes (due to size and quality
issues) and jewellery(lack of trust) buying online.

The most preferred websites by the respondents were Amazon and Flipkart for buying
high involvement products. A few of the respondents said that they might prefer
Paytm and Bluestone (for diamond jewellery) as well. .

Almost all of the respondents accepted that the chances of defective products are
more in case of online shopping.

Despite the possibility of security issues and some defaults in delivery and transaction
process, the majority of the respondents said that in future too, they will continue their
shopping through web stores and they love to compare the various features of the

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selected product with the competitor product. The results obtained have shown that
majority of the people (%) are in favour of continuing with online shopping.

Most of the respondents replied that they are comfortable in buying more expensive
products than they have bought till date.

Almost none of the participants of the research have experienced any online theft till
date.
When we asked the respondents whether price difference has any impact on their
decision, everybody replied with a Yes.
Many respondents said that they may wait for festivals for buying high involvement
products online depending upon time and necessity.
Majority of the respondents accepted that Generation Gap plays a role in decision
making in online shopping. The older generation is not much comfortable in shopping
online owing to the factors like lack of technical know-how, perceived insecurities
with online transactions and lack of trust. The young population is the biggest
attraction of this industry and they may contribute substantially to the growth of
online shopping in India.

The respondents accepted that availability/unavailability of time drives their decision

to go for online shopping to a good extent.

CONCLUSION
The current study is descriptive in nature and it has made an attempt to understand the
behaviour of indian consumers towards online shopping of high involvement products. It has
been found that the indian consumers are very quickly drifting towards online even for high
involvement products. These products which usually modelled in high-tech showrooms are
now finding asylum in online websites. The reliability and the quality provided by online
retailers as a result of high competition to excel and sustain customers has ended up in a huge
growing customer base. The participants even felt that they would always choose online
shopping for high involvement products over traditional methods thanks to the ease of
shopping and easy replacement options provided.

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REFERENCES
[1] Prof. Jiger Manek & Dr. Ruta Khaparde, (2015). Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards
Online Jewellery Shopping. International Journal of Science Technology and Management,
4(01), .
[2] Dr. Ashutosh A.Sandhe,(2014). Consumers' Approach Towards High Involvement
Products and Low involvement Products: A Study of Buying Behaviour in Vadodara. Pacific
Business Review International, 7(5), .
[3] Dr. Renuka Sharma, Dr. Kiran Mehta & Shashank Sharma(2014). Understanding Online
Shopping Behaviour of Indian Shoppers. IJMBS, 4(3), .
[4] Lina Zhou, Liwei Dai & Dongsong Zhang (2007). Online Shopping Acceptance Model- A
Critical Survey of Consumer Factors in Online Shopping. Journal of Electronic Commerce
Research, 8(1),
[5] Anubhav Singh. (2016). E-Commerce in India- Consumer Buying Behaviour and Growth
Trends an Exploratory Study. Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 4(2), .

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