Online Purchasing
Introduction
Online Purchasing has grown substantially in recent years with an increase in technological advances, new technology tools and more user-friendly online payment systems. With the growth of online sales businesses, shoppers now have the widespread convenience to purchase goods and services from the comfort of their own home. While online purchasing is gaining increasing popularity in our society, there remain a significant number of concerns about this method of retail shopping. In order to assess the concerns about online purchasing and make recommendations for further research, a survey was conducted with respondents from around the world.
Survey Results
The survey responses revealed that more than half of the respondents (57%) had purchased a product online within the last year. Of these shoppers, 40% reported shopping online two to three times per month, while 29% reported shopping online once per month. Furthermore, a staggering 65% of respondents indicated they were highly satisfied with the overall online buying process.
In addition, the survey results revealed that the main reasons people favored online shopping over traditional in-store shopping was convenience (82%) and specialized product selection (67%). Moreover, respondents mostly disagreed with the assertion that online shopping was more expensive than traditional in-store shopping (58%).
When asked to explain the negative aspects of online purchasing, the most frequent responses were security concerns (59%) and the inability to try items on before purchasing (31%). Response regarding other concerns were quite low in terms of overall percentages, with issues such as problems with returning items (6%), customer service availability (8%), and delivery times (6%) being much less prevalent among the surveyed population.
Conclusion
Overall, the results of this survey suggest that online purchasing is becoming increasingly more popular and a more preferred form of shopping for many people. Furthermore the findings indicate that shoppers are mainly satisfied with their online experiences. Although there are still some concerns about online purchasing such as security and product returnability, these concerns appear to be decreasing as technology advances and new online shopping products become available. Based on these results, further research should focus on overall user satisfaction, customer service availability, and delivery times.