The Relationship between Online and In Store Shopping

Electronic Retailing (E-tailing) 5 2. Mobile Commerce (M-commerce) 5 2. Characteristics of online shopping: A Customer Perspective 6 2. Online consumer behavior and omnichannel consumer experience 8 2. Personalization 9 2. Conclusion 19 7. Works Cited 20 Abstract The introduction of the internet could as well become equally important as that of the automobile in shaping the daily activities of people. Hong Kong has not only embraced the functionalities enabled by the use of the internet but has also rapidly welcomed the whole process. The internet touches on every aspect of the community, from the education system where Google helps out with assignments, to the labor market where applications are made on a daily basis (Ferreira 1). The rise of internet challenges the need for being at a specific place before the close of time and performing activities before the deadline.

It has become an integral part of its retail industry (Häubl, Gerald, and Valerie 4). Various platforms for online shopping have been formed and are in use, and they all have high sales volume. The first integration is between in-store and online shopping, and there is an existing mutual influence between the two. The goal of this study is describing the way online information search and buying frequencies and non-daily shopping behavior related to one another. In beginning a purchasing process, many people go to the physical stores and buy goods which they have searched about on the internet. Competition has always existed between online and in-store shopping. However, these two aspects have complemented each other positively. In-store and online shipping have various characteristic, while the former produces more travel costs.

Unlike in-store shopping, online platforms do not involve any transportation expense as people have ease of access to their computers, mobile phones, and related mobile devices. Also, in-store shopping provides longer time compared to online shopping. Literature Review The goal of this section is to offer a background overview of the theoretical concepts necessary for supporting the research questions. With the highlighted goal kept in mind, this literature review is categorized into many topics. It starts with the definition of m-commerce and e-tailing. It then focuses on shopping characteristics for online customers in a customer perspective and the online consumer behavior. This chapter continues to explain what the omnichannel platform means for shopping activities. Mobile Commerce (M-commerce) The use of mobile devices in shopping is considered for this work.

Thus, understanding the peoples’ availability in behaving in offline shops in the same way for online stores is relevant for the extraction of some useful information on e-commerce. M-commerce is used in referring to mobile commerce, and it has emerged and evolved with mobile internet and introduction of different portable categories of the appliance (Pavlou et al. M-commerce is an e-commerce’s subset, and it includes any transaction which involves transferring rights or ownership of using goods or services. It is initiated or completed through the use of mobile access to computer networks through the use of mobile devices. Search convenience The aspect of search convenience is dependent on the speed of download, the design of the website, product classification and search function.

When these aspects are all designed and operate, online shopping gives time for searches for quality products. Transaction convenience This refers to using flexible e-payment systems for performing transactions. Online shopping does not have any queues. But the process of checkouts is regarded as convenient when the methods of payment are easy to follow and simple. It follows with searching for information in websites and their specific needs. After making a decision, there is the performance of transaction and provision of post-sales services (Li and Zhang). The process includes five same steps to those of traditional consumer behavior. The internet offers particular tools which assist consumers in the performance of the identified actions in different ways from the traditional ones. Brynjolfsson et al.

identified many context elements useful in context modeling. These include location, time, activity or identity. Understanding the context and provision of contextual personalization experience offers gains into the performance of services. Permission Marketing Using a smartphone to shop offline and having an online shopping experience is one which is satisfactory to a client. It is essential to understand PM which represents the evolving digital marketing where clients are responsible for starting the relationship with a given company by allowing it to send product related information and selling messages. CRM improves the performances of businesses. Resource-based view Resource-based view theories are essential product-market economic tools which are used in the studying of competitive advantage. The resource of an organization is defined as assets which are connected to the organization such as in-house knowledge, brand names, and trade contacts.

Wernelfelt (171) formulated simple economic tools which were used for the analysis of the position of an organization. Wernelfelt also assessed the relationship between resources and profits as a means of managing the resource position of an organization over time. Positive in-store shopping attitude affects frequency of in-store shopping positively. Frequency of in-store shopping and positive e-shopping attitude will positively affect frequency of online buying. Positive in-store shopping attitude affects frequency of in-store shopping (1)Internet experience will positively affect positive e-shopping attitude. Frequency of online buying is positively influenced by frequency of in-store shopping and positive e-shopping attitude. Positive e-shopping attitude will positively affect the frequency of online searching. Discussion 5. From the results, positive in-store shopping attitudes affect frequency of in-store shopping.

The results of the regression model showed significant values, meaning that customers value the characteristics of online-offline shopping. Possibly, one can conclude that many clients engage in offline-online shopping since they regarded them as the type of process which response to the more personalized shopping experience. Had the traditional offline retail stores been equipped with technology which guarantees online-offline shopping scenario, clients would develop the process of online-offline shopping. When customers consider that shopping process as valuable, retail companies should approach it for adequately responding to this new set of demand. It is also relevant to understanding why or why not the shopping process for in-store and online platforms are strategic for retail companies, whether they can provide a competitive edge.

Positive e-shopping attitude will positively affect the frequency of online searching. Many respondents from the survey provided definite information on the shopping experience. Many of them are willing to allow the recording of their personal information, data, and knowledge through the process of online-offline shopping. Retail stores must adapt their stores with the technological infrastructure that assists in the fostering of the offline-online shopping process. This study has significant limitations, including budget and sample constraints. The samples are not represented in the entire defined population. However, it is still a platform for providing general information on the central tendency and helps in fostering the existing relationship. Given the broad concept of online-offline shopping, there is the need for the future study to the discipline and exploring further ideas.

Customer Relationship Management as a tool for sustainable competitive advantage and exemplar companies with worldwide success. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences 4. Ferreira, José Pedro Santos. Online shopping behavior in offline retail stores: strategic value for companies?. Diss. Permission marketing: Turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers. JMR, Journal of Marketing Research 37. Lee, Gwo-Guang, and Hsiu-Fen Lin. Customer perceptions of e-service quality in online shopping. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management 33. ACM, 2000. Pavlou, Paul A. and Mendel Fygenson. Understanding and predicting electronic commerce adoption: An extension of the theory of planned behavior. MIS quarterly (2006): 115-143.