Abstract :

Shopping has seen dramatic changes over the past few years. The mode of shopping has been made convenient for consumers. On one side of the globe, people may still prefer the local shops still there is a large number of consumers who prefer online shopping. The main merit of shopping online is that the consumer never needs to leave his space to other spaces for shopping. Shopping decisions can be made easily in his/her own comfortable space. Prices can be easily compared in this process. Shopping online allows the consumer an opportunity to compare the products from different sellers within short time duration. The present time being positive for both buyers and sellers it creates a pathway for new sellers and creates optimum value for the customers. Most of the blue-chip companies have taken the technology in hand and have started to step in their bigfoots in the field of online shopping. Any business needs customer loyalty and trust to run them over the long run. Loyalty and trust can be obtained easily in a physical retail store whereas it's a big headache for online retailers. It is the need of the hour to study the issues faced by online consumers for any size of online retailer whether big or small.

Keywords :

Shopping, online, space, consumer, blue-chip companies, online retailers.

Introduction

India as a nation is one of the biggest potential market and tends to expand year after year. [NET(nd)]The main motivation of the study is based on the report of “e-marketer” which says that an average adult in India spends about 3 hours 52 seconds in Internet which is nearly half the time of an average adult free time space away from work [NET(nd)]. So people have started to get connected through internet to the outer world and internet has started to serve as a working hand for most of the humans. Customers use internet not only to explore a product but it also turned to be helpful in decision making before buying a product.

Review of literature

“Customer satisfaction of online shopping

[CDS(nd)]V.Mathan Kumar (2017) in his study says that customers don't care about low level problems in online shopping. Online shopping websites should express only genuine information about the product and correct delivery date. [CDS(nd)]

“A study on problems faced in online shopping by customers in Kanyakumari district” [ARL(nd)] Dr.R.Sivanesan (2017) in his study has revealed that most of the customers have favourable attitude towards online shopping and also majority of the customers suffer due to unnecessary delay. So they should take care to improve their environment to avoid delay. [ARL(nd)]

Statement of the problem

In today's world every part of consumerism has upgraded to online. As consumers tend to lean more interest on the online retailing there are a number of articles on the usage of online retailing among different parts of the nation there is also a voice which demands to focus on the problems in the process of online retailing. The study is focused on the problems encountered by consumers during the process of online retailing.

Objectives of the study

To study about the various issues faced by consumers in online shopping.

To study about the notion of the customers for the problems in online shopping.

Limitations of the study

The study is based on Tirunelveli city only and may not serve as a choice of the state or nation.

The opinions of the sample may be biased.

Research methodology

Research Design

Descriptive research design is used for the study as the objective is to find out the attitude of the sample population regarding a problem.

Sample Area

The sample area has been fixed as Tirunelveli city as there is a growing trend for online retailing among the total population.

Sampling Technique

Convenience Sampling Method has been adopted for the study with a sample size of 73.

Data Collection methods

Primary data has been collected through questionnaire. Secondary data was collected from different websites, research papers, newspapers etc.

ANALYSIS & FINDINGS

62% of the respondents are male and 38% of the respondents are female.55% of the respondents have completed P.G 41% of the respondents have completed U.G.4% of the respondents have completed school level education.69% of the respondents are between the age group 24-29 years old.22% of respondents is between age group 18-23 years.5% belong to the age group 29-34 years.4% of respondents are above 35 years age.

67% of the respondents check the supplier's name during online shopping and 33% of the respondents don't check supplier's name during online shopping.79% of the respondents check the guarantee of the product during online shopping whereas 21% of the respondents do not check the guarantee of the product during online shopping.

53% of the respondents have received defective products while shopping online. About 50% of respondents say they face hidden charges in online shopping.67% respondents prefer cash on delivery as preferred mode of payment.40% of the respondents are satisfied with the product return/refund policies.

Chi-square analysis

Chi-square has been applied to check whether there is any significance between Gender and respondents checking the guarantee of the product.

From the above table it is inferred that null hypothesis is accepted (x2=0.201, p=0.65)

Chi-square has been applied to check whether there is any significance between Gender and preferred mode of payment.

From the above table it is inferred that null hypothesis is accepted (x2=0.201, p=0.654)

Conclusion

Online retailing has been reshaped into different forms each and every day. The deviations in taste and preference of the customers have been varied on a larger base, which compels the online retailers to take consideration of the customers of each and every region. Online retailers should also focus on expanding their market boundaries and spread it to different geographical locations and demographic factors. Online retail websites should have a transparent process in order to gain the confidence of the customers to gain success in the long run.

Suggestions

The online retailers have failed to grab the market circle of the age group which receives a prominent income on a normal periodic basis which could turn to be a dominant buying force of the future.

A meagre portion of the respondents are from rural areas followed by sub urban areas which alarms us that even though in a society with fast internet connection system, it has failed to reach the rural areas. Online retailers should look to expand their horizon to both sub urban and rural areas should not be limited only to urban areas.

A majority of the respondents check the guarantee of the product as compared to only a lesser percentage of respondents check the supplier's name. The awareness about checking the whole information about a product should be made practised by the consumers.

A major portion of the respondents are facing hidden charges. If this trend tends to continue customer will lose the tendency to shop online and online retailing will lose the track which it is created.

Today even though we have developed numerous online payment applications, only a minor percentage of respondents are making the use of it. A majority of respondents are still hesitant to make use of the online payment applications. Online retailers should encourage its customers to pay online and customers should be made sure the retailers follow safety payment options and all the customer's information saved by them are safe.

References:

• N E T ( n d ) ] w w w . n i e l s e n . c o m / pressroom/accessed on 24/05/2019.
• CDS(nd)] V.Mathan Kumar (2017) “A study on customer satisfaction of online shopping”, International journal of retail and distribution management. Vol - 4. Issue - 2 accessed on 24/05/2019.
• ARL(nd)] Dr.R.Sivanesan (2017) “A study on problems faced by customers in online shopping with special reference to kanyakumari district. ISSN: 2348-6503 Vol 4. Issue 3.