Online Shopping Versus Offline Shopping: What Are the Perspectives from Four

Chinese and American participants at UC Davis?

Huiling Chen
I. Abstract

Currently, the online market is growing (Kim & Park, 2005). This paper explores

the how American and Chinese students at UD Davis view about online purchasing and

offline purchasing so that understand how to develop a better economic in various

culture. I interviewed four UC Davis students from both China and America, female

and male. The results show that 1) participants purchase more frequently online and

Chinese participants purchase more frequently than American participants; 2)

Participants focused on money, fast, and convenient when they compared online

shopping and offline shopping; 3) most participants’ shopping choices were influenced

by past experiences ; 4) participants have different opinions about which shopping

method should take the main market.

II. Introduction

As the online stores catch people’s attentions, increasing population purchase

products online (Kim & Park, 2005). From 2014 to 2017, the world e-commerce sales

approximately double, growing from 1336 billion dollars to 2842 billion dollars

(statista, 2019) (Figure 1).

Figure 1:

Retail e-commerce sales worldwide from 2014 to 2021 (in billion U.S. dollars)
Note. Source from Statista, 2019.

In China, the overall online purchasing sale keep growing from 2006 to 2016

(People’s Network, 2017). The trend toward online purchasing also grow dramatically

in the US. From 1999 to 2016, the e-commerce grow form 11,615 million of dollars to

332,681 million of dollars (United States Census Bureau, 2018). Specifically, more than

61% of 1,622 respondents purchase online one or more times every month in 2017 in

the US, indicating a regular online buying behavior (statista, 2017) (figure 2).
Figure 2:

Online shopping frequency of internet users in the United States as of March 2017

Note. Source from Statista, 2017

In figure 3, it explores the reasons of online shopping tendency. In 1,649

respondents, 43% percent of them consider online shopping is convenient and 19% of

respondents consider online shopping have lower price while 17% of them rarely

purchase online (statista, 2018) (figure 3).

Figure 3:

Primary reason that internet users in the United States make digital purchases as of

March 2018
Note. Source from Statista, 2018

According to available data, people incline to buy online more than offline.

However, seldom of the researches compare the shopping approaches between counties

to explore the online growth. As a Chinese student at UC Dais, I want to explore

following questions in this paper: Are there similarities and differences in the interview

responses between Chinese students and American students at UC Davis regarding

whether online shopping or offline shopping should be more prevalent? If there are

similarities and differences, what are they? Why the differences exist?

I am interested in this topic because when the product need is fixed in the society,

the grow of the online shopping means the decline in offline shopping. In this case,

when customers are shifting from offline stores to online stores, some offline stores
might not be capable to make changes which lead to the shutdown of the companies.

Thus, I want to explore whether the shift in shopping method exist

III. Literature Review

Numerous studies about online shopping and offline shopping since the shopping

method influence people’s daily life significantly. When shifting from offline shopping

to online shopping, people’s behaviors changed correspondingly (Kim & Park, 2005).

For example, instead of shopping in the mall, people type letters in the search engine

(Kim & Park, 2005). Buying online, people just communicate with their technological

devices instead of person which gradually interact less with others. In this case, buying

online might higher the rate of loneliness.

Many researchers research about the reasons of the shift from offline shopping to

online shopping and find that some people consider the price online is cheaper than that

of the offline stores (Cavallo, 2017). This perspective supported by Liu, Feng, and Wei

(2012) that when the prices of products posted online explicitly, companies in

reputation levels will lower their prices to attract more customers. Sometimes, high

reputed companies might lower their prices even more than low reputed companies (Liu,

Feng, & Wei, 2012). And the more intense the price competition is, the more negative

influences on the prices (Liu, Feng, & Wei, 2012). Companies compete prices to attract

as many customers as possible to maximize companies’ profit when they have access

to the prices form other companies. Buyers can buy everything cheaper while it might

hurt the overall economic development in the country, or even in global scale.
 However, Cavallo (2017) researches indicates that roughly 72% of the prices are

the same in both online stores and offline stores. Based on this research, it seems that

people won’t choose to buy online merely because of the price because there are no

significant differences in prices. Also, comparing to purchase online people show lower

price sensitive when they purchase offline (Chu, Chintagunta & Cebollada, 2008). In

this case, when people are purchasing online, they tend to spend more time to

comparing the price among several stores while people might purchase directly in

offline store without comparison in price. Thus, people might accept wider price range

offline than online.

Instead of considering expenditure, people might think of time. Some people

might purchase more in physical stores because they don’t want to wait for the shipping,

considering shipping exists high cost of waiting. Nevertheless, Hsiao (2008)

demonstrates that the cost of travelling to the offline store is higher than waiting for

shipment in average because the cost of travelling is roughly 5.29 US dollars per hour

while the cost of waiting shipment is 0.53 US dollar per day. But, as Mokhtarian (2004)

mentions that the cost of waiting the shipment and going to physical store are

approximately the same. Since the researches of waiting are contradicted, it is hard to

distinguish whether the time of waiting affects people to buy online or offline.

Many researches dig into specific reasons to explain the shift from shopping

offline to online. However, little research of these shopping methods under a specific

culture, not to mention a comparison between two shopping methods in China and

America. In this paper, I aim to explore following questions: Are there similarities and
differences in the interview responses between Chinese students and American students

at UC Davis regarding whether online shopping or offline shopping should be more

prevalent? If there are similarities and differences, what are they? why the differences

exist?

IV. Method

a. Research Context

Since my research questions are complicated by exploring both the similarities and

differences, comparing the interview responses between Chinese students and

American students at UC Davis, interpreting the reasons, I conducted interviews for

four UC Davis students separately so that their responses are not affected from each

other and I can analyze their free responses. Before interviews, I asked for permission

to record the interview so that I can listen the records for analyzing.

b. Participants

Even though the research participants are Chinese and American students at UC

Davis, many variables might influence the result including age, location, gender, years

in US. To lessen the influences, I chose the first-year students to be my research

participants, so all the participants are around 18 years old (table 1); I chose both male

and female from both cultures so that my research results were not design for a specific

gender (table 1); I chose the Chinses students didn’t live in another country before they

enrolled in UC Davis and the American students I chose lived in the US since they born
so that it can minimize the influence of other cultures.

The people I interviewed are Jenny, Vanessa, Mark, and Allen which fulfilled all

the requirements I listed (table 1). All the names I listed are make-up names. In this

context, Jenny is a Chinese first-year female student at UC Davis. Venessa is an

American first-year female student at UC Davis. Allen is a Chinses first-year male

student. And Mark is an American first-year male student.

Table 1:

Basic Information of Interviewees

Mark Vanessa Allen Jenny

Age 18 19 18 18

Grade Freshman Freshman Freshman Freshman

Gender Male Female Male Female

Nationality America America China China

Years in their Since born Since born Since born, Since born,

nation First year in US First year in US

Note. Original Table Based on Interview Responses

c. Data collection and analysis

In the interviews, the questions are mostly free responses so that I could analyze

the responses. I first asked for permission to record the interviews. Most of the

interviewees agreed with this, except Allen because he was uncomfortable about
recording. I asked Allen to speak slowly which gave me time to take note. Also, Allen

hoped to speak in Chinese, so the entire interview was in Chinese. Thus, Allen’s words

were translated from Chinese to English in this paper.

The interview for another Chinese student Jenny was mostly English and spoke

Chinese when she was confused about the English expression, so she could express

herself accurately. Further, two American participants all responded in English. To

make sure that I interpreted the points currently I asked for explanation and listened to

the recording

I record the nationality and gender at first to remind me the characteristic of these

interviewees so that I wouldn’t mix up the information. And then I just ask the interview

questions that listed in the appendix in order.

After I interviewed all the participants individually, I read the key words that I

jotted down during the interviews and transcription of all the available records into text

and mark the key sentences to mark the similarities and differences. I listed the major

differences and similarities in a piece of paper so that it might be easier to compare.

V. Results and Discussion

Based on the interview questions in the appendix, the responses I gained include

basic purchasing frequency, the comparison and the perspectives of online shopping

and offline shopping.

a. Finding 1: All participants Purchased More Online & Chinese Participants

 Purchase More Frequently Than American Participants in Both Online and

Offline Shopping

Based on the interviews (showed in the appendix), the four participants purchase

online more frequently than offline. Offline purchasing excludes supermarkets because

students might frequently go to the supermarket and only buy a package of snacks or a

bottle of water. If I include the purchasing from supermarkets, the offline purchasing

frequency will be far more than online purchasing, making the analysis inaccurate.

As shown in figure 4, Jenny and Allen purchase online more than Venessa and

Mark. Take the average buying frequency of the range they provided. In online

shopping, Jenny purchases 4 times a month and Allen buys 5.5 times a month, while

Venessa only buys 2 times a month and Mark buys 3 times a month. In offline shopping,

Jenny purchases 1.5 times per month and Allen buys 2.5 times a month, while Venessa

buys once a month and Mark purchases approximately 1.5 times a month.

Figure 4:

Purchasing Frequency Online and Offline in a Month

 6

0
Jenny Allen Vanessa Mark
Online Purchasing Offline Purchasing

Note. Original Figure Based on Interview Responses

1. Participants Purchased Online in A Higher Frequency Than Offline

As figure 4 shows, all participants purchase more frequently online than offline.

This finding corresponds to the phenomenon of increasing online purchasing (Kim &

Park, 2005; statista, 2019; United States Census Bureau, 2018; People’s Network,

2017). As China and America heavily develop online technology, they already have

been creating sophisticated online purchasing systems over the years. Participants can

access the online stores immediately if they have internet and phones or computers. In

this case, they can purchase goods online in minutes instead of spending hours to buy

products offline. So, they can get what they want even though they are busy.

2. Chinese Participants’ Shopping Frequency of Both Online and Offline Is

 Higher Than That of American Participants

From the data above, the Chinese participants show higher purchasing frequency

than American participants in both online and offline shopping. This might relate to the

differences that Jenny mentioned of the business situation between China and America.

She considered that many Chinese people buy the products on others popular online

purchasing apps while most American buy the product through companies’ websites.

Jenny also indicated that Amazon is the major comprehensive shopping website in the

US while the online market in China is consisted by many different websites. For

example, Chinese people buy electronic devices through JingDong, daily staffs on

TaoBao, branded products from Tmall.

Further, supermarket and shopping mall usually separate in the US which is

inconvenient. However, in China, shopping mall includes shopping area, dining area,

entertainment area, market area, which can attract more people to go shopping because

they can do many things in one place. In this case, Chinese participants purchase more

in both manners might because they have both comprehensive but specialized online

purchasing websites and convenient shopping malls.

b. Finding 2: Participants Consider Cost, Time, and Convenience the Most When

They Compared Online Shopping and Offline Shopping.

Based on the table 2 and table 3, the advantages and disadvantages that four

participants listed can mostly be categorized into three groups:

 1. money saving “ ”;

2. fast: “ ”

3. convenience: “ ”

Table 2:

The Advantages that Interviewees considered

Interviewees Online Shopping Offline Shopping

Mark Fast See

Buy at home More consumers’ support

More choices Save money

No buying time limits Touch and try

More information

Get immediately

Vanessa Fast Try

Advantages

No need to leave the house More sales

Save money More information

No buying time limits Get immediately

More choices

Allen Fast Get immediately

Save time Touch and try

Convenient in buying More information

No buying time limits

 More choices

Jenny Fast Try

Convenient Get immediately

Lower price More information

More choices

No buying time limit

Note. Original Table Based on Interview Responses. Different underlines show

different categories

Table 3:

The Disadvantages that Interviewees considered

Interviewees Online Shopping Offline Shopping

Mark Cannot see Hard to find specific products

Cannot try Expensive

Unknown quality Waste of time

return Physical limitation such as energy

Disadvantages

Risk of privacy

No sales assistance or wait response

Too many distracting advertisement

Vanessa Cannot try Out of house

No sales assistance or wait response Waste of time

 More unqualified products Less variety

Physical limitation such as energy

Expensive

Spend more than expected

Allen Wrong size Need to go out

Return Waste of time

Less variety

Physical limitation such as energy

Jenny Wrong size Cannot find specific products

Incorrect information (picture) Expensive

Waste time compare price Go far to compare

Cannot get immediately Less variety

Distracting advertisement Physical limitation such as energy

Buy more than expected

Cost of waiting

Risk of privacy

No sales assistance or wait response

Note. Original Table Based on Interview Responses. Different underlines show

different categories

1. Money saving
 Jenny, Vanessa and Mark consider online shopping save more money, while Allen

considered the prices for online stores and offline stores are roughly the same figure 5).

Figure 5:

Whether Online Shopping or Offline Shopping Save Money

1: Allen

3: Jenny,
Vanessa, Mark

Online Shopping Offline Shopping No Differences

Note. Original Figure Based on Interview Responses

Based on the results mentioned above, four participants had two different

responses which shows the complexity of whether online shopping is more welcomed

is because of money saving. The perspective from Jenny, Vanessa and Mark correspond

to that of Cavallo (2017) that online shopping saves more money. These three

participants considered that online shopping is cheaper might because online shopping
is easier to compare the prices from different stores. They mentioned that offline store

needs to physically travel far to compare. Because travelling far for product comparison

is irksome, Jenny, Vanessa, and Mark might just buy the products directly without

comparing the prices in different stores. This might be one of the reasons that buyers

are less price sensitive offline (Chu, Chintagunta & Cebollada, 2008) when it compares

to online because even though buyers know the price might not be the cheapest, they

are unwilling to travel far to compare. In contrast, they might purchase more online so

that they can choose the lowest price through comparing. This might be one of the

reasons that they consider online price is cheaper than that of offline.

However, Allen considered that the price from online store shopping and offline

shopping is similar, which is also the same point that Cavallo (2017) shown in his

research. This response might be influenced by the fact-to-face interview setting which

make Allen felt embarrassed to show which purchasing method is cheaper. I made this

interpretation because he rejected to record the interview because he considered that is

embarrassed. Thus, I have reason to believe this answer of money saving might be

inaccurate. Another possible reason might be some specific product he purchased don’t

have significant price differences in two purchasing method. He mentioned sneakers a

lot during the interview and I noticed that he wore branded sneakers. If he purchases

brand sneakers, the price of online shopping might not be that significant because the

brand companies usually have unified price no matter online or offline. The third

possibility might be his family income is high that he doesn’t really notice the price

differences.
2. Fast

All participants in this interview considered that online shopping is fast in buying

and offline shopping is fast in getting the products immediately. However, based on the

researches, the word “fast” that participants mentioned is different in two shopping

methods. Participants indicated that they consider the time of traveling in offline

purchasing because of the need to travel far to buy specific products. However, they

demonstrated that purchased online is faster by using their smart phones.

Further, they seldom considered buying online have the problem of waiting the

shipment which is contradicted to Hsiao’s (2008) and Mokhtarian’s (2004) researches.

In their researches, they assumed that people worried about the time problem of waiting

but that is not the case in these participants. As all the interviewees mentioned, when

they purchased online, they had the expectation of waiting. Both Vanessa and Mark

indicated that when they need some goods fast, they would search for one day shipping

so the goods they order arrived very fast. As Allen explained, the goods he brought

online were usually daily staff such as clothes for next season, toothpaste for next month

so that he would buy them in advance. When the time he needed the goods, he already

received the package.

For the online shopping, all the participants considered that getting the products

immediately is good. The advantages they considered are related to “fast”. In this case,

quick facts, short video, fast food will be more popular. But whether this is a good

phenomenon need further exploration. Some people thought that having the concept of
fast in mind will higher working efficiency. However, when people value fast more than

health, they choose fast food instead. In this case, when people value fast more than

others would it has negative effects like being lazy, having unhealthy habits and so on.

3. Convenience

Four participants reached consensus that online shopping is convenient in some

aspects because buying online they have more choices and buy at home. However, they

cannot get sufficient information online.

As Mark and Jenny pointed out that online shopping has more choices than offline

shopping, especially when they wanted to search specific products online. They

mentioned that had hard time to find specific products they want offline, but they can

find the products they want by simply typing the key words online. For instance, Jenny

cannot find the in-ear monitor silicone tips from beats in any offline store. But when

she searched online by typing “beats” and “silicone tips”, she found the thing she want

immediately.

Further, all the participants considered buying offline they need to travel around

which is inconvenient. During the interviews, Mark and Vanessa emphasized that they

don’t want to be “out of the house”. And, Jenny indicated that online shopping is easier

to compare different product because in the offline shopping, she needed to travel far

to different places to compare the products.

However, online shopping is not always convenient, for some of the disadvantages

of online shopping the interviewees mentioned can be categorized into not having
sufficient information for them to decide whether to buy the product or not. They all

mentioned the problem of not trying when they buy online. Without trying the products,

they don’t know the quality, texture, size of the product. And this results in many

problems. As Jenny mentioned, the product that shown in the picture is different to the

one she received. As Mark mentioned that sometimes he receives broken products from

online store. Also, they all considered that online store provided more unqualified

products than offline. As Allen and Mark mentioned that the process of returning the

unsatisfied product to the stores is troublesome.

According to the participants responses, it seems like buying online is convenient

only if that specific product is hard to find offline. Because in most case, offline stores

can get more information which can avoid a series of problems that participants listed

above.

c. Experiences Did Change Most Participants Behavior by Shifting More from

Offline to Online

The good online shopping experiences provided by Allen, Vanessa and Mark are

related to money. Allen mentioned the sale prices in festival; Vanessa mentioned the

cost of waiting online shipping is lower than physically buying in store; Mark

mentioned the free shipping.

The bad online shopping experiences provide by Vanessa, Mark and Jenny

associated with the unexpected and terrible orders. They indicated that he might get the
order mix up so that the goods he received were not they ordered. And Jenny also

considered that when she received the wrong order and found the online salesman, the

salesman asked her to pay for the transportation fee which she considered unfair.

While the good offline experience they listed are convenient, fast and trying

clothes, congratulation in festival, their bad offline shopping experience were wasting

time to wait, buying unnecessary goods, having less choices and experiencing terrible

service. As Allen mentioned, when he brought the bike from Walmart offline, only a

few bikes available. And among the available bikes, he considered that the quality of

the bike he brought is not equaled to the price he paid. And as Jenny mentioned, when

she brought a pair of shoes offline and found the broken box of her new shoes. She

asked for a new shoe box or bag to replace the broken one, the saleswoman just ignored

her. When she asked the same question for more times, the saleswoman got angry and

threw the pen on the desk.

After recalled all the experiences listed above, most participants considered that

they would change their shopping method (as showed in figure 7). Jenny, Vanessa, and

Mark showed that they shift the shopping method from offline stores to online stores.

However, Allen still considered that the experiences he had didn’t change him because

some products need to buy offline. For example, he considered if he brought a bike

online, he would need to assemble the bike on his own which would be a waste of time.

Figure 7:

Whether the Purchasing Experiences Change the Interviewees’ Shopping Method

 1: Allen

3: Jenny, Vanessa, Mark

Yes No

Note. Original Figure Based on Interview Responses

Based on the shift from offline to online that Jenny experience, it shows that people

care about the services. Is that mean if the service Jenny experienced was perfect, Jenny

wouldn’t have this shift? If yes, maybe the offline shopping can revive through

improving the quality of services and defeating that of online shopping. If no, whether

many other negative factors contribute to this shift that making the offline shopping

keep losing its customers. This is the topic that worth for further exploration.

d. No Consensus on Which Shopping Method Should Replace Another, at Least

for Now

The interviewees held different perspectives in which shopping mode should take

the main market (as showed in figure 8). Mark considered that the online shopping

should be more prevalent while Jenny thought offline store should be more popular.
Jenny demonstrated that the technology in present is not advanced enough to make

people feel like they are shopping in store. Without this experience, she thought she

would lose the happiness of shopping. Also, she mentioned that maybe VR can help

customers try the products at home in the future. But she still considered that people

need to communicate with others and keep in touch with the rest of the world.

Figure 8:

Whether Online Shopping or Offline Shopping Should Be More Prevalent

1: Mark

2: Allen,
Vanessa
1: Jenny

Online Shopping Offline Shopping In Between

Note. Original Figure Based on Interview Responses

Compared to Mark and Jenny, Venessa and Allen had hard time to choose one of

them to take the main market (based on figure 8). Vanessa considered offline store

should be more popular because it provides more job opportunity even though she
personally like to shop online. However, different form Vanessa considering the

problem from the individual level and societal level, Allen considered the problem from

the aspect of human behavior. He indicated that online shopping and offline shopping

should split the market evenly because different method is suitable to different people.

Some people like him hope to stay at home while some people enjoy walking around.

So, there should be a place for both shopping methods.

When they considered whether offline store can be more popular than online store,

most of them also said “no” because once people experience the convenient of online

shopping they won’t go back to shop physically because people are too lazy. However,

Jenny considered it still have possibility because she considered shopping with family

members is a good way to boost their relationship instead of shopping online in the

bedroom separately.

VI. Conclusion

This paper study the similarities and differences in the interview responses

between Chinese students and American students at UC Davis regarding whether online

shopping or offline shopping should be more prevalent. Also, the paper explores the

what are the similarities and differences as well as the reasons.

The results show that 1) participants purchase more frequently online and Chinese

participants purchase more frequently than American participants; 2) Participants

focused on money, fast, and convenient when they compared online shopping and

offline shopping; 3) most participants’ shopping choices were influenced by past

experiences ; 4) participants have different opinions about which shopping method

should take the main market.

This paper also offers practical implication: would it better to balance the online

shopping and the offline shopping? For the online buyers, the pursuing fast in the

buying process might lead to obesity because people buy more at home instead of in

store. For the online sellers, they spend time and energy to sell a product, but if the

customers choose to return the products just because the products are different from

their expectation, the sellers just loss their money and sometime even need to pay the

transportation fee. For the society, the convenience that people thought might lead to

high rate of returning because of limited information online. When buyers return the

products online, it pollutes the land by using plastic packaging; it pollutes the air

through transporting the packages; it wastes the human resources through home

delivery.

This research is not without limitations. Since this interview is conducted in the

UC Davis with only four interviewees with different characteristics, the research results

cannot fully represent the relationship of online shopping and offline shopping in China

and America. More precise result should get from larger population interview because

the sample size I take too small to draw conclusion.

Future study may focus on the comparison among different countries in larger

sample so that buyers can cultivate better shopping habits, the sellers can develop more

effective selling strategies, and the society can provide suitable policies for regulation.
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 Appendix

Interview Questions

Nation：

Gender:

1) Which method you purchase the good more, online or offline?

2) How often you buy goods online? How often do you buy goods offline in a month?

Frequency of buying online:

Frequency of buying offline:

3) What do you think both the advantages and disadvantages of buying online and

offline? (Description: Ask them first, they come up with the answers by themselves and then

provide choices)

Online shopping Offline shopping

Advantages

Disadvantages
Advantages:

A. Save money

B. Save time

C. Convenient in buying

D. Try and touch

E. More information

F. No time limits

G. More choices

H. No need to wait

I. Get product fast

J. Provide more job opportunities for the society

K. More accessible

Disadvantages:

1. Cost of waiting

2. Risk of privacy

3. Waste of time
 4. No sales assistance or wait for response

5. Less variety

6. More unqualified products

7. Physical limitation (energy, number of bags to carry)

8. Expensive

9. Too many distracting advertisements

10. Spend more than expected

4) What are your best and worst shopping experiences to both online shopping and

offline shopping?

Best online experience:

Worse online experience:

Best offline experience:

Worse offline experience:

5) Did these positive and negative shopping experience change your shopping method?

How it changes? / why it didn’t have any influence?

 6) Which shopping mode you consider should take the main market? Why?

7) Do you know anything about the situation of online shopping and offline shopping in

another country? What it is like? Are there any differences?

8) Do you think online shopping can totally replace offline shopping? Why or why not?

9) Do you think the trend toward online shopping can ever be reversed, so that offline

shopping is more prevalent again?