International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research (IJMSSR) Volume 2, No.

8, August 2013

ISSN: 2319-4421

62

A Sociological Study on the Emergence and Growth of Online Shopping in India

Manjunatha S., Research Scholar, DOS in Sociology, University of Mysore, Mysore, India

ABSTRACT
Today, in India the total number of online shoppers has tremendously increased. The magnitudes of these online shoppers are culturally, religiously, linguistically and regionally differ. Their attitudes and expectations towards online shopping also differ widely. There is a need to understand the emergence and growth of online shopping in India. Hence, the present study is placed in this context to examine the emergence and growth of online shopping in India. And also to analyse the attitudes and expectations of online shoppers in India. The said purpose has been accomplished with the help of primary as well as secondary data. In the present study it is found that since last two decades the number of online shoppers has largely increased along with the rise of online shopping websites. It was also found that the attitudes and expectations of online shoppers have dramatically changed. In this study the major detrimental factors of online shopping in India has been dealt scientifically. Further, the positive and negative aspects of online shopping have been analyzed to know the current trends of online shopping in India, and certain recommendations also were suggested for the inclusive growth of online shopping in India.

to reality only after 1990s. The concept of teleshopping was first introduced by Michael Aldrich in 1979 and in the same year Videotex was being researched. In France Mintel succeeded on the research of Videotex which allowed online purchases, check share market, etc in 1982. The actual growth of online shopping started in 1990, when the first World Wide Web server and browser, created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990, opened for commercial use in 1991. Thereafter, with the advancement in I T, in 1994 an online pizza shop has been opened by Pizza Hut. Later, Intershops first online shopping system and Netscapes SSL systems have been developed with the advent of these above, in 1995 Amazon.com has launched its online shopping sites and later in the same year eBay also opened up its online shopping websites, which is the first online action website. The story of emergence and growth of online shopping in India is not uni-linear; actually its more complexive in nature, with the constraints posed by the culturally and linguistically diverse India. Indian society took more time compared to any other society to adopt for this unique culture of online shopping, which is contextually different. Hence, the present study is placed in this context to examine the path of emergence and growth of online shopping in India, along with to understand the attitudes of the people towards online shopping and also to find out the detrimental factors of online shopping through sociological perspective.

Keywords:
Online Shopping, Internet, Social Networking, Attitudes of Online Shoppers

INTRODUCTION
The 21st century in India has witnessed for enormous increase in the number of online shoppers. The trend is common in western countries. But, in India with the advancement of Information Technology (IT) the growth of online shopping has immensely raised. Online shopping is a form of electronic or e-commerce which allows consumers or buyers to directly purchase goods or services from a seller over the internet using a web browser. Online shopping can be called as e-shop, internet shop, online store and virtual store. In the global level the emergence of online shopping is relatively a new phenomenon and it has only a few decades of history. It is quite interesting to examine the events took place before 1990s for the development of online shopping. Even though the research for developing online shopping started early 1960, online shopping came

METHODOLOGY
The present study tries to capture the profile of online shoppers in India, along with examining the emergence and growth of online shopping in India with the help of primary as well as secondary data. The desired primary data has been collected from 500 online shoppers, residing in Bangalore city. Many reports, books and other secondary material have been found largely helpful in this study.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

To examine the emergence and growth of online shopping in India

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International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research (IJMSSR) Volume 2, No. 8, August 2013

ISSN: 2319-4421

63

To understand the attitudes of the people towards online shopping in India To find out the detrimental factors of online shopping in India

countries was 8, in 2010 it was 21% and increased to 31% in 2013. (Percentage of individuals using the internet 2000-2011, Internet Telecommunication Union, accessed on August, 2012)

THE EMERGENCE AND GROWTH OF ONLINE SHOPPING IN INDIA

Today, India is on the path of materializing the phenomenon of Global Village, with the advancement of information technology which led the Indians to make best of internet, particularly for shopping through online. In India currently hundreds of online shopping sites are providing online shopping services. The major online shopping websites are; Flipkart.com, eBay.in, Tradus.in, Shopcluees.com, Myntra.com, Homeshop18, Yebhi.com, Snapdeal.com, Peppertry.com, Infibeam.com, Amazon.com, Futurebazaar.com, ShoppingIndiatimes.com, Jabong.com, Koovs.com, Bestylish.com, Goodlife.com, etc. According to India Online Landscape 2011 study conducted by Juxt, the total number of online shoppers in India in the year of 2011 was 60 millions. A report from Google India says that the online shopping in India saw 128% growth in interest from the consumers in the year of 2011 to 2012, compared to only 40% in 2010 to 2011. India held fifth rank in Keameys annual Gloal Retail Development Index (GRDI 2008) of largest online retail destination globally. Earlier the trend of online shopping in India was highly unorganized, but currently with the emergence of big shopping companies like Futurebazaar, Shoppers stop, Reliance retail, Spencer, etc., the outlook of online shopping here has completely changed for the best. In India the users of internet has significantly increased since last decade. The total number of internet users in India is 11,97,49,712 (10% of Indias total population) in 2011. But in U S their percentage is 77, UK 82%, Germany 83%, Japan 79%, Switzerland 88%, Denmark 90% and Norway 93% have highest number of internet users of the total population of their countries. (The data has been obtained from International Data Base, U. S. Census Bureau, accessed on August, 2012) Currently, in 2013 at global level 39% of the total population (7.1 Billion) are internet users. Hence even today 61% of the total population are not using internet. In the year of 2010 the number of internet users were 30%, in 2005% it was only 16%. In the developed world the percentage was 51 in 2005, 67% in 2010 and it increased to 77% in 2013. In contrary, among the developing countries the number of internet users remained less. In 2005 the percentage of internet users among these

DETRIMENTAL FACTORS OF ONLINE SHOPPING IN INDIA

Today, in India there are numerous determining factors of online shopping. First of all, the overall quality of the online website is one of the significant factors which influence or determine online shopping in India. While supporting this Shergill and Chess (2005) further discuss the characteristics of web design as the important factor which influences peoples perceptions of online shopping. Further Ranganathan and Ganapathy (2002) in their study four major factors of online shopping have been identified, namely, information content, design, security and privacy. Among these four factors security and privacy have greater impact on online shopping, they concluded. Turban (2002) and Kin & Lee (2002) say that the design of the online websites is a major one. Grandon (2002) too found that quality of online website is very important in determining online shopping. Secondly, the factor of commitment which determines online shopping very largely in India. Here commitment is about the consumers perceptions about the sellers ability to fulfil the order or purchase of any customer without fail. Studies of Vijayasarathy & James (2000), Jun et al. (2004) and Van Riel et al. (2003) have also confirmed that commitment from online website is very crucial factor in determining online shopping. The studies of Mayer et al. (1995), Hoffman et al. (1999) and Anderson & Norwn (1990) have revealed that trust is an another major factor which influences online shopping. Along with, another most important factor which determines online shopping is web security. Security for the purchase people made, mode of bill payments, etc. are expected to be well guarded.

THE ATTITUDES OF INDIAN PEOPLE TOWARDS ONLINE SHOPPING

Today, the Indian online shoppers have specific demands or expectations for online shopping websites in India. First of all, in India online shoppers have started expecting the option to return items purchased online, and some retailers already have made doing this convenient. Further, the retailers believe that this option is quite necessary to develop consumer trust and confidence in online shopping. Secondly, free door-to-door shopping is very much needed, say online shoppers. Already many online

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International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research (IJMSSR) Volume 2, No. 8, August 2013

ISSN: 2319-4421

64

shopping websites are providing these services. But, even today there are certain limitations regarding this. Today, in India online shoppers have been trained to expect low prices. Currently retailers face hurdles in matching the highly discounted prices. Further online shoppers also demand for a variety of payment types in online shopping. Even today in the 21st century, in India online shopping is not free from the serious problems, which are; lack of proper marketing and advertisement, inability to create a brand image of online shopping, lack of proper usage of all possible online means like search engines, paid marketing, online ads, social networking, blogs etc. to reach the customers, further inability of these online retailers to drive the value a customer can drive by shopping on online channels. Further, still some online portals are not up to the mark. In addition, many of the web portals do not support all online modes of payments.

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CONCLUSION
In India with the vast increasing of young population the demand for online shopping is largely increasing. So, no single online website company can cater the service required. Hence the joint venture is required, all these players have to work together to make things happen. These online shopping websites have to best make use of the available mobile technology. Today, in India reviewing the circumstances multi brand retailers have to be ready to launch more number of services. There is a need for online shopping services in multi languages than online in English language in India, since India is linguistically diverse country.
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