A Critical Study of Online Shopping Behaviour of Customers and its Impact on Traditional Trade and Business

Abstract

The ecommerce revolution and digital growth has transformed consumer experiences and their expectations, and given rise to a whole new way of doing trade and business. This research focuses on analyzing and critically discussing the attitude of customers towards the online purchase and its impact on the traditional retailers and traditional practice. This study is mainly focused on the aspects that affect consumers' preferences to buy online which are convenience, price saving/discounts, variety of products, accessibility, payment facilities, digital payment, reviews by others, delivery services, perceived security etc. It also focuses on the implications of e-commerce 'stores' surging out of the vaults on traditional stores regarding sales, customers, profits, job losses, pricing policy, inventory policy and customer relations. This study was used descriptive and analytical research and data analysis technique used in this study is descriptive qualitative. The types of data collection tools employed are primary data collection techniques which include survey of consumer, traditional trader; secondary data collected from other sources were adopted. A few statistical techniques are recommended to study the relationships among the Consumer characteristic, preferences toward online shopping and their role in the conventional trading. The report should bring to light issues and opportunities that come with digital commerce. Both results can contribute towards traditional retailers and policy makers developing new strategies and tactics to better engage with customers, understand the implications for omnichannel considerations and boost the competitiveness and sustainability of traditional retail businesses while adapting to the transformation of the retail sector.