A Study on the Behaviour of Shoppers Towards Online and Offline Platforms Using a Qualitative Approach

Purpose:  Online shopping has been the main mode of purchase for most of the shoppers and events like COVID have increased the intensity. Many factors impact the choice of the platforms that provide services to the shoppers. For a few products, shoppers use offline platforms and other factors may impact their choice. Earlier studies have focused on adopting a quantitative approach to identify the factors, where the respondents have answered a questionnaire and couldn’t express their opinion openly. Also, earlier studies did not focus on finding the type of products preferred by either an offline platform or online platform and other related aspects, which can be identified using a qualitative study. There is a need for a study that identifies the factors that impact the choice of both online and offline factors in detail using a qualitative approach. The current study is taken up to fill this gap.

Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research design has been adopted to achieve the objectives of the study. A sample of 30 shoppers who use various purchasing platforms were considered and their in-depth interviews were conducted, each spanning from 30-35 minutes. Each of the recordings was converted to text and text analysis was adopted to extract the information. Word clouds that explain their behavior were constructed and inferences were drawn based on the same.

Findings:  The study identifies factors that impact the choice of online and offline platforms and the findings are different from the traditional findings. Shoppers preferred purchasing Fashion, apparel, footwear, etc., with high frequency online as compared to products such as electronic are preferred with less frequency. Both offline and online platforms are preferred equally, based on the type of products. Offline platforms are preferred for products that need touch and feel and online are preferred because of discounts, variety, less time for purchase, and offers. Similarly, we have found other factors such as products, information, etc. impact the choice. Detailed findings can be found in the findings section.

Limitations: We have considered the investors and collected data within India and don’t include investors outside India. Considering them will enable one to compare the perceptions and also the factors that impact the perceptions towards risk-taking readiness.

Contribution:  Our study captured the perceptions of both offline shoppers and online shoppers and identified the factors that impact their choices. Service providers can adopt the results to optimize their offerings and increase their customer base. Shoppers can use the results to choose the platforms appropriately based on the type of products and also find other shopper’s choices that can be used for future selection.