Online Shopping Acceptance Model

Question: Discuss about the Online Shopping Acceptance Model. Answer: Introduction: Online shopping is done from home or office where a person can conveniently use the computer for searching goods online. As in case of online shopping, the purchasing is done through an Internet website, location does not play a significant role in this case. These days, online shopping has become very common. As a result of the convenience it offers, a lot of people shop online for different items like clothes, books or even tickets for movies and concerts. As these online retailers are starting to take over the industry, a question is being asked that what is the impact of online shopping on the retail industry. In order to deal with this issue, it is important to have a look at the advantages and disadvantages that are associated with online shopping. Advantages of Online Shopping: It cannot be denied that online shopping provides certain advantages to its customers. These advantages include convenience, better price, more options and C2C. but at the same time, it also needs to be mentioned that there is certain disadvantages present for the customers in case of online shopping (Kothari, 2010). These include shipping, which is time consuming and may damage the product during transit, misleading pictures, social interaction and security. It cannot be denied that online shopping provides the advantage of convenience to the customers. In case of online shopping, the customers are not required to step outside and go to a shop but the product can be purchased by then simply by a click of their fingers (Dobbs, Chen, Orr, Manyika and Chang, 2013). Similarly, in case of online shopping, the customers can have a look at the products offered by different online retailers at the same time and as a result they can get better quality at a lower price (Tripathi, 2007). Parti cularly the persons who are living in a big city and do not own their own convenience like a car, online shopping could be the best way to purchase different things conveniently. In the same way, in many cases, online shopping also presents the advantage of privacy (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard and Hogg, 2006). The reason is that in case of online shopping, the consumers can purchase whatever they want but they are not required to meet people face-to-face. In the same way, as people are becoming more and more familiar with these technologies, it is easy for a person to be a customer or even to be a supplier (Smith and Rupp, 2003). Certain Disadvantages: At this point, it is worth mentioning that online shopping has some advantages as well as certain disadvantages for the retailers. The advantages for the retailers include that online shopping has less cost than physical stores, the orders can be accepted by the retailers 24x7 and hence the sales volume may increase and in the same way, it is easy to advertise (Bellman, Lohse and Johnson, 1999). But online shopping also has certain disadvantages for the retailers. Therefore in this case, returning the product is too easy for the customers and C2C is also too common in this case. In case of online shopping, it is easier for the retailers manage the business. They only need a warehouse and office, hire some persons to start their online retail business. Along with it, the cost of running the business is also low as compared to running a physical store. The reason is that in case of online retail, stores are not required to be opened at various locations for the purpose of finding the customers and as a result, the retailers do not have to pay any event for these stores and similarly they do not need to pay to the employees that have to be hired for managing these stores (Liang and Huang, 1998). The event can be considerably high at some expensive locations. Another benefit available in case of online retail is that the online store can be open 24x7. As a result, the online retail business can be exposed to the consumers at all times to cater to the needs of different customer groups (Stephen and Toubia, 2009). However, it also needs to be noted that the online retailers should immediately adapt to the changes taking place at all times in order to fulfill the needs of the customers. For example, in case of online shopping, it is easy for the consumers to return the goods. Therefore, there are chances that some consumers may take an undue advantage of this service by buying a lot of clothes, trying them on and probably attending some functions and then decide to return them (Zhou, Dai and Zhang, 2007). Although it is reasonable that the consumers may want to try on clothes and they also want a right to return the clothes if they do not fit properly but in such a case, a lot of extra work will be created for the online retailers and it will lower the efficiency. Therefore, it is always advisable that such situations should be considered while planning the business policies. Therefore, such situations should be managed to very carefully by the retailers so that they can reduce unnecessarily re turn processing and at the same time, make sure that the service quality is not lowered (Mellahi and Johnson, 2000). Conclusion: In the end, it can be said that online shopping is witnessing an unparalleled expansion, particularly during the last decade. Therefore, what was only a few percent 10 years ago, has became nearly to the person in case of certain categories of products and the Internet is being considered as a major sales channel in B2C trade and commerce. This expansion has been further fueled by the process of globalization. But, while there are a number of advantages that are present in case of online shopping, there are certain disadvantages also. References Bellman, S., G. L. Lohse, and E. J. Johnson, (1999) Predictors of Online Buying Behavior, Communications of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), Vol. 42, No, 12: 32-38 Kothari, C. R., (2010) Research Methodology Methods and Techniques, 2nd Revised Edition, New Age International (P) Ltd. Publishers Liang, T. P. and J. S. Huang, (1998) An Empirical Study on Consumer Acceptance of Products in Electronic Markets: A Transaction Cost Model, Decision Support Systems, Vol. 24: 29-43 Mellahi, K., Johnson, M. (2000), 'Does it pay to be a first mover in e.commerce? The case of Amazon.com, Management Decision, Vol.38, pp.445-452. Richard Dobbs, Yougang Chen, Gordon Orr, James Manyika, Micheal Chui, Elsie Chang, (2013) Chinas e-tail revolution: Online shopping as a catalyst for growth, McKinsey Co Smith, A., D., Rupp, W., T. (2003), 'Strategic online customer decision making: leveraging the transformational power of the Internet', Online Information Review, Vol.27(6), pp.418-432 Solomon, M., Bamossy, G., Askegaard, S., Hogg, M., K. (2006), Consumer Behaviour, A European Perspective, (3rd Edition), Essex: Pearson Educated Stephen, A., T., Toubia, O. (2009), 'Explaining the power-law degree distribution in a social commerce network', Social Networks, Vol.31(4), pp.262-270 Tripathi, P. C., (2007) Research Methodology in Social Sciences, 6th Revised and Enlarged Edition, Sultan Chand Sons Zhou, L., L. Dai, and D. Zhang, (2007) Online Shopping Acceptance Model A Critical Survey of Consumer Factors in Online Shopping, Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, Vol. 8, No. 1:41-62