Methodology

Research Design

Phase 1(a): Secondary Research

The secondary research will be done to understand

 The Indian online scenario and the Indian e- commerce industry

 To understand the international perspective on the problem statement under research
 How does gender affect online buying behaviour
 To understand burgeoning segment of women in India who are internet savvy and what are they using
the internet for.

Phase 1(b): WEBSITE Analysis

A comparative analysis of Indian apparel retail sites and successful foreign apparel retail sites to find out the
core differences.

Phase 2: Primary Research- QUALITATIVE

Taking the above observations into consideration the next phase of research is a qualitative study to
understand the problem to be addressed through primary research. This will enable us to identify the
underlying trends and motivations for online buying for both men and females and for different age groups.
This will be followed by analyses of findings of the qualitative research to zero down on the parameters that
can help us frame the questionnaire for the quantitative research.

Tools to be used:

 Focus Group Discussion

o Buyers 1
o Non-buyers 1
 In-depth Interviews

Phase 3: Primary Research- QUANTITATIVE

The next phase will be a quantitative research to accept or refute and quantify the findings of the qualitative
research using a largely close ended questionnaire. These interviews will be conducted in both modes, online
and offline.

Information area Research Research Tool Type of Analysis

Method

Online buying habits of consumers in Secondary Industry reports Trend analysis

India research and trends study

Key drivers and barriers for apparel Primary Quantitative: Factor analysis to
buying online research Questionnaire arrive at key barriers
and drivers
Perceived differences in brick and mortar Primary Qualitative: FGDs
format and online retail of apparels research and in-depth
interviews

Present apparel retail websites’ Primary Qualitative: FGDs Qualitative: to arrive at

consumer friendliness analysis research + and in-depth factors to be looked at
Secondary interviews for questionnaire
Research design

Quantitative:
Website Attribute Preferences Questionnaire Quantitative: mean
and standard deviation
of attributes under
study

Current characteristics and consumer Secondary Industry reports

profile of online apparel buyers in India research and trends study

Effect of gender on online buying habits Primary Qualitative: FGDs Correlation of gender
research and in-depth and buying
interviews characteristics
Sampling Plan & Sample Size

Target Population
 Males and females aged between 20-45 years
 Belonging to SEC A1, A2 and B1
 Shopping enthusiasts
 Age group: 20+
 Geographical area: NCR region

Total number of respondents

 Quantitative: 180
 Qualitative: 32
 FGD: 20
 In-depth interview: 12

Sample split
Methodolog Categor Age-
Tool No. of Respondents
y y group

20-30 35

User 31-40 35

40+ 35
Quantitative Questionnaire
20-30 25
Non-
31-40 25
user
40+ 25

1 group: 10
User 20-50
respondents
FGD
Non- 1 group: 10
20-50
user respondents

20-30 2
Qualitative User 31-40 2

In-depth 40+ 2
Interview 20-30 2
Non-
31-40 2
user
40+ 2
Secondary Research

Web Usability Heuristics

The heuristics are general rules applied to web site design prescribed by Nielsen refined from an original list
developed by Molich and Nielsen in 2007:

Visibility of system status: The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through
appropriate feedback within reasonable time.

Match between system and the real world: The system should speak the user’s language, with words, phrases
and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making
information appear in a natural and logical order.

User Control and Freedom: Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked
‘emergency exit’ to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support
‘undo’ and ‘redo’.

Consistency and Standards: Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions
mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.

Error Prevention: Even better than a good error message is a careful design which prevents a problem from
occurring in the first place.

Recognition Rather than Recall: Make objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to
remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be
visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.

Flexibility and efficiency of use: Accelerators unseen by the novice user may often speed up the interaction for
the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to
tailor frequent actions.

Aesthetic and minimalist design: Dialogues should not contain information that is irrelevant or is rarely
needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and
diminishes their relative visibility

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors: Error messages should be expressed in plain
language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.

Help and documentation: even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be
necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the
user’s task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.

Website Attribute Preferences

With the objective of suggesting taxonomy of website features, and thereby aiding practitioners in their efforts
to boost ecommerce and sales figures, the study explored online shoppers’ preferences for 18 different website
features. These eighteen features were a subset of the 23 website attributes that had been originally suggested
by Blake and Neuendorf (2004) to provide readers a framework for website appeal and assessment across
different nations. The present study chose these specific features among others as they seemed to pertain to
several realms suggested in past studies to be important to consumers’ preference for a B2C website. Later
work by Blake, Neuendorf and Valderserri (2005) clearly pointed out the merit of charting a broad range of
features as they existed across a wide range of websites. When a fundamental set of preferred website
attributes is established, it often acts as a yardstick for practitioners to gauge what consumers’ value in a good
website, and as a heuristic for researchers to guide them in their future investigative endeavors.

 The order process is easy to use

 The products I am looking for are easy to find
 The website is new and different
 Product price
 My friends and family have been happy when they have shopped there
 Reputation and credibility of the company on the web
 It is enjoyable to visit
 Low or no charge for shipping and handling
 It has entertaining graphics and displays
 Provides product information, including FAQs – frequently asked questions
 A good place to find a bargain
 Fast response time from customer service
 I hear about it on the radio, television or in newspapers
 A return policy that is easy to understand and use
 Price incentives (coupons, future sale items, frequent shopper program, etc.)
 Interactive web design (try it on, design your product /services)
Discussion Guide for in-depth interview

Non buyer
Introduction

No right or wrong answers

Free and Frank answers

 Could you tell me about your daily schedule? - this is to basically find out whether surfing features in
the daily schedule of the individual at all
 How often do you surf the net (in a day, week)
 Where do you surf the net from?
 Have you heard about any online apparel stores? Name any.
 From whom? (Probe)- This is to see if the candidate actually meets the respondent criteria.
 What do you think about online shopping? Are you comfortable with the idea of placing an order
online? (Probe)-To find out whether the respondent has any negative association with shopping online
 Have you ever tried placing an order online? What happened? Share your experience (probe) - To
ascertain shopping experiences online
 Why have you never bought online? Security, Inertia, some other reason (probe gently, in depth) - To
find out what all deters respondents from shopping online
 Awareness about sales promotions, other schemes run by the store
 General likes and dislikes about online shopping. Bad experiences if any? –Detailed Discussion

General Conversation

Thank you

Buyer
Introduction

No right or wrong answers

Free and frank answers

 Could you tell me about your daily schedule?

 Have you visited any online apparel shopping sites?
 How did you come to know of it?
 To find out what influences the customer to go to the site.
 When did you make your first purchase? Details of purchase, type of product, value of transaction?
Subsequent purchases? Time spent on transaction? - To ascertain buying habits of the respondent
 Discuss the sites they visited, its merits and demerits - To get a general feeler into what the
respondent feels about an online store.
 What was the overall experience of shopping for apparels online
 Unfulfilled expectations from online shopping experience (probe, detailed discussion)
 Experiences with the sites, with respect to delivery, response and feedback. (detailed discussion)

General Conversation
Thank you
FGD Guidelines

Ice-breaking
Objective: Introduction

Hello! I am Charu, a student of Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad. I am doing my post‐

graduation final year report / thesis on transaction‐based online communities, for which I need your opinion.
This discussion will take about thirty‐forty minutes. Please feel free to express your views towards the
questions and issues in the discussion. In order to retain as much of this valuable discussion, I would like to
record the proceedings with your permission. I assure you these will be kept strictly confidential.

To know the respondent’s internet usage habits

 Since how long have you been using the internet?

 Has the way we use the internet change over that period?
 Which online activities do you spend most of the internet for?

Section 1: Differences in online and physical store(s) and shopping experience

Buying and channels

 Do you shop?
 Where all do you buy?
 Let us discuss all these channels one by one.
 Describe your experience in each of the channel/medium.
 How is the shopping experience of one channel different from the other?
 Do you think any one medium is better? Why?

Section 2: Website attributes preference

Shopping Procedure

Let us see shopping as a process. How would you describe it? So how do you go about for each of these steps?
What are various concerns in different mediums? E.g. before any purchase when you are searching for
information, how do you go about it? Etc.

It has to be made sure that none of the important steps is missed during the discussion. The important steps
being:

 Need/Desire
 Search/Information gathering
 Evaluation/Comparison
 Transaction
 Post purchase – usage, service]

Risk perception

 How would you characterise the decision to buy a product through this website? (a very small risk – a
very big risk).
  How would you characterise the decision to buy a product through this website? (high potential for
loss –high potential for gain).
 How would you characterise the decision to buy a product through this website? (a very negative
situation – a very positive situation).
 What is the likelihood of your making a good bargain by buying from this store through the Internet?
(very unlikely – very likely).

Ease-of-use

 Learning to use the website is easy.

 It is easy to get the website to do what I want.
 The interactions with the website are clear and understandable.
 The website is flexible to interact with.
 The website is easy to use.

Usefulness

 The online purchasing process on this website is fast.

 It is easy to purchase online on this website.
 This website is useful to buy the products or services they sell.

Section 3: Effect of gender

Attitude towards online purchasing

 The idea of using this website to buy a product of service is appealing (modified).
 I like the idea of buying a product or service on this website (modified).
 Using this website to buy a product or service at this store would be a good idea (modified).
 Online purchase intention

Feelings & Emotions

 Why according to you people shop?

 What are the feelings that you associate with shopping? Why?

Online v/s offline

 What are the things that you think are available online?

For buyers only

 What all have you bought online? Why?

 How is the experience different from the offline experience?
 What else did you think of buying online but never bought? Why? Any concerns?
 What if some of the concerns were removed? Would you still consider?

For Non-buyers only

 Is there any friend or relative of yours who buys online?

 (If yes) Why do you think he/she buys? If you were in his/her shoes would you also consider buying?
 Is there something that you would never buy online? Why?
 Group dissolution

Questionnaire
Following the literature review, questionnaires will be developed to determine the extent of Internet users'
motivation (drivers) and concern (barriers) factors when browsing or purchasing through the Internet. The
questions will be designed and presented within two sections of the Questionnaire, stated as follows:

Section A will require the users to furnish the factors that motivated them to browse or purchase through the
Internet and also the concerned factors. There are 38 statements in question 1 of section A, while 44
statements are placed in question 2 of Section A. Six-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 6
(strongly disagree) will be applied in both questions as it allows the respondent to evaluate each item on its
own merit, to rate different items equally, and to consider each item without the confounding influence of
other items.

Questions will be set in close-ended structure by applying interval type of scaling method. A six-point scale will
be used to minimize tendencies of respondents who prefer the "central or mid -point" as found for instance, in
a five-point or seven-point scale.

Section B will comprises of the respondents' personal background, such as gender, age, present occupation,
highest educational level, monthly income, and work/study place. Additional questions on how long they have
used the Internet, how frequently they use it their past experience shopping online, will also be included in this
section. The interval scaled measurement will be selected as the level of measurement in this section.

The responses will then be subjected to a factor analysis.

Motivation Factors: will lead to drivers

 Easy access to wider information
 Faster access to latest news
 The best source to search for information
 Cheaper source of information
 Can customise level of detailed information required
 Can download free software on the Internet
 No restriction in browsing Internet
 Can browse Internet for 24 hours a day, every day
 Broad range of products available on the Internet
 Reduce need for intermediaries
 Shipping cost clearly stated
 Product prices clearly stated
 Special offers clearly stated
 Customer service contact number clearly stated
 Web pages are updated frequently
 More interesting sales promotional activities
 Web pages are loaded faster
 No crowd of people shopping
 No traffic jam
 No hassle of queuing to counter for payment
 Reduced waiting time for searching products
  Convenient ordering process
 More product variety for selection
 Orders are delivered in good quality
 Better product return service
 Orders are delivered on time
 More convenience shopping on the Internet
 Can have friends from foreign countries
 Can practice use of foreign language by communicating with people from other countries
 Allows unrestricted discussion of current issues
 Owning a credit card
 Need lesser movements to find products
 Availability of products on the Internet that cannot be found locally

Concern Factors: will lead to Barriers

 My database may be sold to other people
 My personal information may be shared with other businesses without my consent
 Others may intercept my message
 Internet sellers may overcharge my credit card
 Misuse of my personal information by Internet merchants
 Uncomfortable giving my credit card number on the Internet
 Overloaded unwanted messages sent by people
 Product may be delivered to another person
 I don't trust digital signature
 Wrong keyword types bring to negative sites
 Limited credit card company offers online payment
 Virus transmission occur when purchasing online
 I prefer to support local businesses
 No knowledge on digital signature
 Cannot see the real product
 Difficult to judge product quality
 Perishable products cannot be purchased safely
 High tax for overseas order
 No after sales service for product purchased
 Worried of doing business with un-reputable firms
 Product return information not clearly stated
 Line congestion
 Web pages are updated rarely
 Unavailability of shipment to buyers from other countries
 Security guarantee not clearly stated
 Cannot find the product desired
 Free promotional gift may not be as valuable as they promise
 Limited method of payment
 Slow connection speed
 Longer time taken to download information
 No credit card
 Longer delivery time involved
 Non-disclosure of complete company information
 Non-disclosure of complete product information