Internet Marketing influences online shopping

1. Consumer Behavior
Topic: Influence of internet marketing on
Consumer behavior in online shopping
Submitted to: Dr. Asir Ajmal
By: Irfan Ghafoor
(810-MBA-11)

2. INFLUENCE OF INTERNET MARKETING ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
IN ONLINE SHOPPING
Abstract
Internet has a significant role on E-marketing. The accessibility of the Internet and lower costs
of doing transactions has given rise in customers bargaining power and intense global
competition. In this study we try to explore the factors which that are affecting the consumer
behavior and how internet marketing is helping the marketers to influence consumers for online
shopping. It also addresses the fundamental factors of E- marketing that how to attract and win
over the customers in highly competitive marketplace. Hence, this study also aims to understand
the relationships between consumer behavior and internet marketing programs.
Introduction
Internet offers multiple features (capacity, speed, precision and convenience) that help to attract
a large number of potential customers. Consumer uses the Internet for different reasons ranging
from only gathering information to purchasing product online. Buying over the Internet is more
fun, safer, quicker and they were more confident about their ability to buy online. Although,
purchasing online is still a small portion of Internet usages, most analysts expect it to increase
tremendously once customers feel satisfaction and safe about their purchases and protection of
their privacy.
Internet has changed the communication way of people. The emergence of Internet, particularly
the World Wide Web, as a digital medium of business offers various opportunities to companies
to adopt the e marketing as their alternative marketing tools. The consumers’ buying behavior
has been always an important marketing topic, extensively studied and debated and discussed in
contemporary textbooks.
Online shopping is defined as the process whereby consumers buy products directly from a seller
in no time without any intermediary involve on the internet. Online shopping starts with
searching the online shop that sells different type of products they are tend to buy. Then they go
to online shop and select the product that suits to their needs. After that the shop confirm the
order via email and elaborate the details that how to pay. They offer payment process via credit
card, pay pal, visa and any other kind of payment. But some consumers feel curious about the
providing the information of their financial cards. Trust plays a critical role in order to purchases
over the Internet.
This literature review presents the results of the review of 10 academic papers selected from
large pool of articles on internet marketing, consumer behavior and online shopping. The

3. criterion for the paper selection was the focus on studying the effects of the influencing factors
on the online shopping.
Internet Marketing
Internet marketing is known as the process of creating and handling customer relationships
through online activities in order to share ideas, products, and services that satisfy the goals of
both buyers and sellers.
The advent and development of Internet has brought new opportunities for marketers to make
better current marketing programs. Internet marketing depends on a large extent on the
characteristics of the products and services being marketed. Internet marketing can be a cost and
time-saving tool to marketer in the corporate marketing strategy. Since, Internet marketing is the
tool of marketing that deals with the pricing, planning, promotion and distribution of products
and services online
The fundamental benefit of the Internet marketing is the number of alternatives that become
available to customers within a specific product category. Due to low searching costs on the
Internet, customers have a chance to consider a numerous alternatives, which are not present in
traditional shopping. Internet marketing is capturing marketers’ attention and becoming more
important strategy for the sellers to promote advertises and interact more customer online.
Internet marketing can significantly reduce the costs for searching, widened the selection of
vendors, deliver lower priced products, and increase comfort, providing greater control over
products offered. This reduction in cost has encouraged marketers’ to expand information
services and new competitors to enter in the market. It is essential for sellers to understand
customers’ adoption behavior, their investment decisions in technology infrastructure should be
driven by consumer acceptance and long-term profitability.
The nature of Internet marketing is likely to take shape around several key factors:
 Enable direct communication between buyers and sellers.
 Provide thousands of alternatives to customers as well as sellers.
 Enables storing large amount of information at relatively low costs, provides interaction
between buyers and sellers and gives the opportunity of customization to customers.
 Providing strong and inexpensive ways to search, manage, and distribute such
information.
 Providing enrichments (e.g., 3D image and video preview);
 Serve as a digital medium for some products as well as a physical medium for certain
goods.
 Enable presence at relatively low costs.

4. Consumer Behavior
The consumers’ buying behavior has been always an important marketing topic; extensively
studies and every textbook have covered this discussion. The predominant approach, explaining
the fundamentals of consumer behavior, describes the consumer buying process as learning,
information-processing and decision-making activity divided in several consequent steps:
(1) Problem identification.
(2) Information search.
(3) Alternatives evaluation.
(4) Purchasing decision.
(5) Post-purchase behavior
The difference is frequently made between high and low involvement purchasing, implying that
in practice the actual buying activity can be more or less consistent with this model. It depends
on the buyer’s perceived purchasing risks. High or low level of involvement is also a question of
buyer experience; products purchased for the first time, in general, require more involvement
than frequently purchased products.
Most researchers agree that demographic, economic, social, psychological, cultural and other
personal factors, largely beyond the control and influence of the marketer, have a major effect on
customers’ behavior and purchasing decisions. The types of activities conducted on the Internet
indicate the level of perceived. Users, who are merely information seekers deal with less risk
compared to users who purchase product online.
To compete in the virtual marketplace, the marketers need to understand the key mechanism of
virtual shopping and the behavior of the online consumer.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.
References
 The influence of online product recommendations on Consumers’ online
choices by Sylvain Senecal, Jacques Nantel
 Influencing the online consumer’s behavior: the Web experience by
Efthymios Constantinides
 Internet Marketing: An Overview by Jianwei Hou and César Rego
 Consumers’ behavior towards Internet technology and Internet marketing
tools by Noor R. Ab Hamid
 Factors Determinate Customer Shopping Behavior Through Internet by
Ahasanul Haque, Ali Khatibi and Shameem Al Mahmud
 Digital Influence Index (DII) - a study designed to track and measure the
influence and impact of the internet on consumer behavior and decisions by
Fleishman-Hillard
 How social media influences consumer behavior by David Smith
 Consumer Behavior and decision making process (Wikipedia.org)
 Internet Marketing (Wikipedia.org)