Study of relationship between the availability of product information and the decision making pattern in online shopping in Sri Lanka.

Abstract

The objective of this research is to investigate how consumers may use product information on their online decision making. The rapid development of Information and Communication Technology along with the globalization forced the firms to become online business seekers. Online businesses have been opening up in each and every corner around the world. All the business activities, logistics, processing, selling and even payments are being completed online. Research has identified the recent development in online shopping in today’s businesses and that consumers search products online and purchase offline. An effective website should provide product information which the consumer looks for, to give total consumer satisfaction. This research was conducted in online shopping companies in Sri Lanka. Majority of Sri Lankan company’s websites provide product information but the quality and the information provided to the consumer to take a decision is insufficient. Further, Sri Lankan online shopping sites (virtual market) have not been designed for the consumers to feel that they are in actual shopping environments. Online shopping is facilitating the growth of the business and it is an advantage to the organization to directly sell their products to consumer without having an interpreter. Therefore this will provide an exciting shopping experience for the consumer. But through the research it has shown that business organizations have not understood the consumer decision making facts and the importance in providing sufficient product information for consumer satisfaction, in online shopping. In this research, researcher examines whether consumers use product information when shopping on the Internet. The results suggest that product information can facilitate consumer acceptance of electronic commerce. iii To-date consumers in Sri Lanka have trusted the process of face to face interaction more than online interaction. In developing relationship the most concerned difficulty the electronic world is facing, is the lack of trust. For online trust development, study of consumer behavior is a must. In the present context, websites have become more unpredictable and limited in range of products sold. They should provide systems or level of checking consumer satisfaction. Without monitoring this it will not be possible to decide the success and failure rate in online shopping. Online shopping site should understand the value of their online consumers. These companies who host the web sites and the web site designers should be more concerned and capture the attitude of online consumers. This research was done using analysis of consumer preferences based on data collected from 105 consumers who did online shopping. Results indicate that the three most important attributes of consumers for online satisfaction are privacy (Website & Technology Factor), merchandise (Product factor), and convenience (Shopping factor). These are followed by trust, delivery and guarantee, usability, product information, product customization, product comparison, product quality, and security. The growing use of the internet in Sri Lanka provides a developing prospect for online shopping. If the companies who hosted online shopping sites knew the factors affecting online Sri Lankan consumers’ behavior, and the relationships between these factors and the type of online consumers, then they would be able to further develop their marketing strategies to convert potential consumers into active ones, while retaining existing online consumers. It also investigates how different types of online consumers perceive websites differently. This research found that design of websites and their reliability/fulfillment, and customer service and security/privacy influence consumer’s perception of online purchasing.