CONSUMER PERCEPTION TOWARDS ONLINE

SHOPPING IN TAMILNADU

A THESIS
Submitted by

Deekshith D
Registration Number: (1115914101)

In partial fulfillment for the Award of the Degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Under the Supervision of

Dr. D. Kinslin

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

NOORUL ISLAM CENTRE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
(Deemed-to-be-University Under Section 3 of the U.G.C. Act 1956)

Accredited by NAAC with ‘A’ Grade

KUMARACOIL, KANYAKUMARI DISTRICT

TAMILNADU, INDIA - 629 180

SEPTEMBER 2021
NOORUL ISLAM CENTRE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
Accredited by NAAC with ‘A’ Grade

KUMARACOIL, KANYAKUMARI DISTRICT

TAMILNADU, INDIA - 629 180

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the work reported in the Ph.D. thesis entitled "CONSUMER
PERCEPTION TOWARDS ONLINE SHOPPING IN TAMILNADU" submitted by me
to Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education, Kumaracoil is a bonafide record of original
research work carried out by me under the supervision of Dr. D. Kinslin. I, further, declare
that the work reported in this thesis has not been submitted, and will not be submitted, either
in part or in full, for the award of any other Degree of this University or of any other Institute
or University.

Signature of the Research Scholar

Deekshith D
Registration Number: 1115914101
NOORUL ISLAM CENTRE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
Accredited by NAAC with ‘A’ Grade

KUMARACOIL, KANYAKUMARI DISTRICT

TAMILNADU, INDIA - 629 180

BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

Certified that this thesis entitled, "CONSUMER PERCEPTION TOWARDS ONLINE

SHOPPING IN TAMILNADU", submitted for the award of the Degree of Doctor of
Philosophy in Department of Management Studeis of the Noorul Islam Centre for Higher
Education, Kumaracoil is a bonafide Research work done by Deekshith D., Registration
Number: (1115914101) under my Supervision. Further certified that to the best of my
knowledge, this work has not been part of any other thesis or dissertation for which any
Degree has been conferred by any University or Institution.

Signature of the Supervisor

Dr D. Kinslin,
Former Professor & Head,
Department of Management Studies,
Noorul Islam Centre For Higher Education, Kumaracoil.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, I would like to thank God for his blessing and the guidance at all stages
of execution of this work and providing me with the unique opportunity to finalize the thesis.
Foremost, I would like to thank Janab Dr. A. P. Majeed Khan, Chancellor, Noorul
Islam Centre for Higher Education for giving me a chance to do research in this esteemed
organization.
I like to thank Pro-Chancellor Academic Dr. R. Perumalsamy for his advice
and support. I owe my thanks to Dr. A. K. Kumaraguru, Vice-Chancellor, Dr.
N. Chandrasekhar, Pro Vice-Chancellor, and Dr. P. Thirumalvalavan, Registrar for
providing excellent research support and facility in the campus.
I am thankful to Dr. M. Dev Anand, Director, Research & Development for his
encouragement during the course of my work. I’m grateful to, Dr. K. A. Janardhanan,
Professor and Dean, Faculty of Management Studies. I am thankful to Dr. M. Janarthanan
Pillai, Head of Department, Faculty of Management Studies, for providing assistance on this
research work.
I take this opportunity to express my heartfelt praise and gratitude to my supervisor
Dr. D.Kinslin, Former Professor and Head, Faculty of Management Studies, NICHE, for
his valuable guidance and continuous assistance extended to me in this endeavour.
I would like to thank my friends helping me putting pieces together. I would like to
thank my Family and my parents for their endless love and for supporting me throughout
writing this thesis and my life in general.

Deekshith D

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 ABSTRACT

Over the last decade, maximum business organizations are running with technological
change. Online shopping or marketing is the use of technology (i.e., computer) for better
marketing performance. The number of online shoppers is greater than the growth in
Internet users, indicating that more Internet users are becoming comfortable shopping
online. The capability of purchasing without leaving your place is of great interest to many
consumers. Not only does online shopping offer really good deals, but it also brings optimum
convenience to the consumers. Moreover, Internet tools for price searching and comparison
provide an additional advantage in consumers’ final decisions, as they can purchase their
desired products at the lowest available price.
And retailers are devising strategies to meet the demand of online shoppers; they are
busy studying consumer perception in the field of online shopping to see the consumer
Buying Behaviour towards online shopping. Therefore, we have also decided to study
consumers’ perception of online shopping and specifically study the factors influencing
consumers’ purchase intention in online shopping. The population selected for the research
is from Tamilnadu and narrowed downed to nine districts of Tamilnadu based on the highest
population. The sample size selected for this research is 1008. This study revealed that
the factors such as perceived risks, hedonic motivation, design of the website, and various
psychological factors, namely trust and security, affect online shopping consumers’ buying
behaviour. Convenience and Consumer service were primary motivating factors, and the
lack of these factors acts as great difficulty in online shopping. Saving time, convenient
shopping, information about the products, and easy comparison of prices are beneficial for
the consumers. The convenience of shopping and availability of detailed product information
attracted the consumers towards shopping online. The consumer’s attitudes towards online
shopping were related to the objective of shopping.
It is also clear from the study that the place of location and educational qualification
of the respondents at Tamilnadu has not influenced Offer, Security, and Transparency in
Consumer Perception. But the gender and educational qualification of the respondents had
made an influence on the Consumer Perception. This implies the change in gender and
educational qualification has been influenced Consumer Perception. Also, it noted from the

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study that the place of location and educational qualification of the respondents at Tamilnadu
had not influenced Cultural factors, Social factors, and Personal factors in Buying Behaviour.
But the gender and educational qualification of the respondents had influenced Consumer
Satisfaction and Purchase Intention..

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 List of Tables
3.1 Sampling Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.2 Ist Stage - Multistage Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.3 IInd Stage - Multistage Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.4 IIIrd Stage - Multistage Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.5 IVth Stage - Multistage Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.6 Vth Stage - Multistage Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.7 VIth Stage - Multistage Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

4.1 Table Showing the Demographic Profile of Sample Respondents . . . . . 51

4.2 Association between Age groups and Geographical Region . . . . . . . . 52
4.3 Association between Gender and Geographical Region . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.4 Association between Educational Qualification and Geographical Region . 53
4.5 Association between Income per year and Geographical Region . . . . . . 54
4.6 Descriptive Analysis of the Offers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4.7 Descriptive Analysis of the Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.8 Descriptive Analysis of the Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.9 Descriptive Analysis on the Offer, Security and Transparency . . . . . . . 60
4.10 Tests of Between-Subjects Effects on the Offer, Security and Transparency 63
4.11 Correlation on the Offer, Security and Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.12 Descriptive Statistics on Consumer Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.13 Tests of Between-Subjects Effects on Consumer Perception . . . . . . . . 65
4.14 Association between Age group and Consumer Perception . . . . . . . . 66
4.15 Association between Region and Consumer Perception . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.16 Association between Occupation and Consumer Perception . . . . . . . . 67
4.17 Association between Gender and Consumer Perception . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.18 Association between Education Qualification and Consumer Perception . 69
4.19 Association between Income per year and Consumer Perception . . . . . 69
4.20 Descriptive Analysis of the Cultural Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.21 Descriptive Analysis of the Social Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.22 Descriptive Analysis of the Personal Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.23 Descriptive Analysis of the comparison of factors at Buying Behaviour . . 76
4.24 Descriptive Statistics on Buying Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.25 Tests of Between-Subjects Effects on Buying Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.26 Association between Age group and Buying Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.27 Association between Region and Buying Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.28 Association between Levels of Occupation and Buying Behaviour . . . . 80
4.29 Association between Gender and Buying Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.30 Association between Levels of Education Qualification and Buying
Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.31 Association between Levels of Income per Year and Buying Behaviour . . 82
4.32 Anova Test on Prediction of Cultural Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.33 Coefficients on Prediction of Cultural Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.34 Anova Test on Prediction of Social Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

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4.35 Coefficients on Prediction of Social Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4.36 Anova Test on Prediction of Personal Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.37 Coefficients on Prediction of Personal Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.38 Anova Test on Prediction of Consumer Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.39 Coefficients on Prediction of Buying Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.40 Descriptive Analysis of the Customer Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4.41 Descriptive Analysis of the Overall website quality . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.42 Descriptive Analysis of the Convenience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.43 Descriptive Analysis of the comparison of factors at Customer Satisfaction 92
4.44 Descriptive Statistics on Customer Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.45 Tests of Between-Subjects Effects on Customer Satisfaction . . . . . . . . 94
4.46 Association between Levels of Age groups and Consumer Satisfaction . . 94
4.47 Association between Levels of Region and Consumer Satisfaction . . . . 95
4.48 Association between Levels of Occupation and Consumer Satisfaction . . 96
4.49 Association between Gender and Consumer Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.50 Association between Levels of Education Qualification and Consumer
Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.51 Association between Levels of Income per year and Consumer Satisfaction 98
4.52 Anova Test on Prediction of Customer Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.53 Coefficients on Prediction of Customer Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.54 Anova Test on Prediction of Overall Website Quality . . . . . . . . . . . 100
4.55 Coefficients on Prediction of Overall Website Quality . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4.56 Anova Test on Prediction of Convenience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4.57 Coefficients on Prediction of Convenience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4.58 Anova Test on Prediction of Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4.59 Coefficients on Prediction of Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.60 Descriptive Statistics on Purchase Intention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4.61 Tests of Between-Subjects Effects on Purchase Intention . . . . . . . . . 104
4.62 Association between Levels of Age groups and Purchase Intention . . . . 105
4.63 Association between Levels of Region and Purchase Intension . . . . . . 105
4.64 Association between Levels of Occupation and Purchase Intention . . . . 106
4.65 Association between Gender and Purchase Intension . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.66 Association between Levels of Education Qualification and Purchase
intension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.67 Association between Levels of Income /Year and Purchase Intention . . . 108
4.68 Association between Buying Behaviour and Consumer Perception . . . . 109
4.69 Association between Buying Behaviour and Consumer Satisfaction . . . . 110
4.70 Association between Purchase Intention and Consumer Satisfaction . . . 111

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 List of Figures
4.1 Consumer Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.2 Factors on Buying Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.3 Consummer Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

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 ABBREVIATIONS

ACM Association for Computing Machine

ANOVA Analysis of Variance
ASSOCHAMAssociated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India
B2B Business to Business
B2C Business to Consumers
BMI Business Monitor International
COD Cash on delivery
e-commerce Electronic Commerce
e-exchange Electronic Exchange
e-form inquiry
Electronic Form Inquiry
e-loyalty Electronic Loyalty
e-mail Electronic Mail
E-retailers Electronic Retailers
e-service Electronic Service
e-shopping Electronic Shopping
e-store Electronic Store
eWOM Electronic Word of Mouth
GDP Gross Domestic Product
IAMAI -Internet and Mobile Association of India
IP Internet Protocol
IRCTC Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation
IT Information Technology
M Mean
m-commerce Mobile Commerce
OLS Equationordinary least squares
PC Personal Computers
TAM Total Available Market
TRA Theory of Reasoned Action
WWW World Wide Web

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