Information technology is all pervasive and the strength the Internet offers to marketers is incredible. Online purchasing has empowered customers to know the various products available in the global market, the innovations made to those products, and compare the products and their prices just by a click of the mouse without walking into many retail stores. Many Indian portal sites, which earlier depended on the advertising revenue, have now shifted towards e-commerce and selling products ranging from movie tickets and food items to computer hardware and software. India Plaza and Rediff have started online shopping sections, as their content site generates numerous visitors. Many e-commerce sites have followed suit.
No player seemed to be wavered by the low PC and credit card penetration in India, which led to many e-commerce sites coming up and hawking products like books, gifts, bakery items, audio and video cassettes, computer hardware and software.
The future of e-commerce in India looks very bright, as even the stock exchanges are going online, providing the stock portfolio and status online. Specialized services like Schwab and e-trade are not far away and moreover, the sale and transfer of stock with the support of RBI regulations is soon to happen.
While online purchasing is catching up fast in the Indian market, the topic caught the interest of the researcher. A research was conducted, where the sample constituted 75 respondents representing the genders, different age groups, educational qualification, and employment. There were 15 variables related to the behavior of online consumers and the customers who preferred purchasing at retail shops. The respondents were to specify their preference for each variable on a balanced four-point scale that ranged from the most preferred to the least preferred. The four-point scale was selected to avoid the central tendency error. There were 15 sentences-seven for the customers who do online purchase and eight for those who don't like online purchase and buy from the retail shops instead. The research shows an overall positive inclination towards online purchasing (grand mean 2.54).
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