Perception of Southern Luzon State University - Lucena Campus Students on the

Efficiency of Online Sites as Alternative Shopping Preference

Del Monte, Trisya Eysel

Calucin, Jasper

Minaya, Chris Jhan T.

Introduction

Increasing numbers of people are gravitating towards more intensive use of the Internet as

the accessibility of technology, the availability of information, and the ability to interact through

the Internet increase and evolve. Obvious capabilities of the Internet include avenues for gathering

information, purchasing a product, or rendering a service. These advances in Internet technology

allow for the expansion of shopping options beyond traditional methods that may be more time

consuming. Issues with having to physically gather information with offline shopping methods are

alleviated, and customers are better able to efficiently use their time. For instance, instead of having

to physically visit different stores to compare prices or rely on circular pamphlets in newspapers,

a consumer is able to search and retrieve needed information through the Internet (Changchiz,

2006).

Internet is not only a networking media, but also as a means of transaction for consumers

at a global market. Online shopping has become the third most popular internet activity,

immediately following e-mail using or instant messaging and web browsing. As the world adapts

itself to the technological advances that have brought us into the next century, people are growing

more and more comfortable with searching for products on the net and shopping online. Hence the

shopping industry is growing in number as the years progressed, as it is gaining acceptance to

people throughout the world. Until recently, the consumers generally visit online to reserve hotel

rooms and buy air, rail or movie tickets, books and gadgets but now more and more off line

products like clothes, gadgets, accessories, T-shirts, shoes and consumer durables are being

purchased online. The capability of purchasing without leaving their place is of great interest to

many consumers. The online shopping not only offers really good deals, but also brings optimum
convenience to the consumers. Moreover, the use of internet tools for price searching and

comparison provides an additional advantage in consumers’ final decision, as they can purchase

their desired products in the lowest available prices. These inherent benefits induced the people to

purchase goods through online.

Background of the Study

Online shopping is the process of buying goods and services from merchants who sell on

the Internet. Since the emergence of the World Wide Web, merchants have sought to sell their

products to people who surf the Internet. Shoppers can visit web stores from the comfort of their

homes and shop as they sit in front of the computer Now a day, online shopping has become

popular among people, they have become techno savvy and feel very comfortable in using

internet. So online shopping has becoming a trend that is why it is necessary to make a study on

online shopping usage and perception.

Hence there is a need to analyze the factors that influence the people to choose online

shopping. As the youngsters especially the college goers want to be more modern in every part of

their life, the study on their perceptions and expectations towards the modern purchases namely

‘online purchase’ becomes the need of the hour. Hence, there is a need to examine their perceptions

towards online shopping. Southern Luzon State University Lucena Campus, Lucena City was

chosen as the study area and the students are the respondents.

Objectives of the Study

following aspects of online shopping and how the presence or lack of these aspects in an online

shopping environment affects customer satisfaction in SLSU Lucena Campus.

Specifically, it sought to attain the following:

1. To determine the demographic table of the students as the basis of the research

respondents in terms of:

1.1 Sex

1.2 Course/Program

1.3 Age

2. To identify the online sites being visited by the respondents;

3. To identify the products categories that customers purchase online;

4. To determine the efficiency to online shops in terms of:

4.1 Service

4.1.1 Online Delivery

4.1.2 Packaging

4.1.3 Courtesy of the delivery boy

4.1.4 Mode and Speed of delivery of the product

4.1.5 Product price / Offers provided for online shoppers

4.2 Quality & availability of the product

4.3 Shipping, Return and Exchange policies

4.4 Payment options available for the customers

4.5 Features of the shopping website such as

4.5.1 Design
 4.5.2 Information provided

4.5.3 Accessibility

4.5.4 Ease of use

5. To identify the factors that influence students in using online shops.

Scope and Limitation of the Study

This study is limited on the investigation of the perception of students on the efficiency of

Online Shop as alternative shopping preference. The study will be conducted on Southern Luzon

State University, Lucena Campus, Lucena City, Quezon Province for the purpose of determining

the factors that influence the students to choose online shopping. The respondents of the study

were randomly selected regarding with their sex, course and age. The study will be start in March

2019 and it will end expectedly on May 2019.

Significance of the Study

The finding of the study would be beneficial to the following:

Learners:

Consumers:

Future Learners:

Motivations of consumers to engage in online shopping:

Usefulness

Usefulness is the perception that customers will feel comfortable while using the new

technology. Usefulness refers to ease to use, because the easier is the technology to use the more

useful will be the technology. Customers expect that the new technology will be effort less. If
customers find online shopping ease to use, this perception leads to more growth in this field.

Enjoyment

Enjoyment is the intrinsic motivation factor that customers appreciate of an experience for

their own sake. Enjoyment is the strong and consistent force towards the online shopping. In case

customers finds the enjoyment in online shopping then they will have strong attitude towards

online shopping that will leads to adoption of internet as shopping medium.

Consumer Traits

Consumers’ traits play an important role in online shopping; these traits depend on four

demographic factors that are age, gender, education, and income. These traits have a significant

effect on the relationship between basic forces “usefulness” and “enjoyment”. Old consumers may

perceive the benefits of online shopping less than the traditional approach. Females that do prefer

to shop on the internet, shop frequently rather than male. Higher educated consumers prefer online

shopping rather than traditional. Incomes are positively correlated with possession of computers,

internet access and higher education levels of consumers. Some personality characteristics also

influence the online shopping like self-efficiency and need of interaction.

Situational Factors

A wide variety of situational factors also moderate the relationship between online

shopping and consumer behavior. These are time pressure, geographical distance, lack of

mobilization, need for special items and attractiveness of alternatives.

Product Characteristics

Consumers decision that whether to shop online or not also influenced by the product types

and characteristics. It is because of some product categories are more suitable for online shopping
i.e. books, magazines, videotapes, CDs, groceries, flowers. On the other hand personal care

products like perfume and lotions are most likely need personal experience and knowledge are

considered to less likely for online shopping.

Trust in online shopping

Lack of trust is one of the most frequently cited reasons for consumers not shopping on the

Internet. Since this shopping medium is relatively new and most of them have only little experience

with it, online shopping provides a challenge to many customers. Customers cannot physically

check the quality of a product or monitor the safety and security of sending sensitive personal and

financial information while shopping on the Internet. Contextual factors like security and privacy

have a great impact on consumer trust in shopping on the Internet.

Social Media

Today’s customers are considered louder. The customer’s loud voice can be heard

everywhere, including, blogs, complaint and review of website, YouTube videos, Facebook,

tweets, and other social media websites. Therefore every company has to pay attention because

social media is changing the way customers do business. This power of loudness is influencing the

entire buying process. If a company doesn’t pay attention, they have a strong rick of losing

customers and getting upstaged by their once small and powerless competition.

Online shop owners

It aims to help Online shop owners have an idea on how to strategize and work on their

business plan. It will also be beneficial for them to gain customer's loyalty and to promote their

products/services in a more effective and attractive manner to be able to make internet users be

their online customers.

buying online products. Moreover, they would know which factor affect customer the most so that

they can pay attention to it and come up with a strategy to achieve their goal of earning profit.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

This section of the research includes important or key terms that substantially and clearly

defined in order to facilitate understanding of the problem and avoid ambiguous meaning to terms

which can be otherwise interpreted in different ways.

The following is a list of terms that will be used in this study:

Online Shopping –

Perception –