Factors Influencing the Online Shopping Buying Behavior of Consumers in Pakistan: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

The goal of this study was to examine the effects of various factors on customers' online shopping buying behavior. E-commerce has made life easier and more innovative for people. Online shoppers don't behave like they would in a physical store where they could touch, examine, and then purchase the goods. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is employed to identify the factors that influence online purchasing behavior.  The audio-recorded interviews were conducted for data collection. The sample size was 12 consumers from Sahiwal who used online platforms for doing online shopping. NVivo 14 software has been used for data analysis of conducted interviews. Many methodologies, such as Coding Nodes, Word Tag Clouds, and Word Tree Maps have been employed to validate the study's various themes.  The key determinants affecting online shopping were found to be promotions, comparison, time sensitivity, accessibility, attitude, trust, and advertisements on social media. The results disclose the most common practices that consumers adopt when purchasing products online via various platforms. The characteristics found in this study are few, and additional factors may have an impact on consumers' shopping habits. Future studies can examine the effects of other product categories, online retailers’ characteristics, and other environmental factors. This study did not explore the association between risk and online shopping intention. Therefore, future research could expand on this aspect to examine the impact of perceived risk on customers' online shopping intentions. The study has implications for online stores and consumers in Pakistan. Consumers in Pakistan are looking for promotions, comparison, time sensitivity, accessibility, attitude, trust, and advertisements on social media. Retailers should work on these issues and concentrate on making it simple to shop online. With the remarkable progress of e-commerce in Pakistan, there is a crucial need to recognize the factors that affect consumers spending online. The findings of this study can aid online merchants and vendors in creating their marketing strategies much more effectively because there are so few studies conducted in the setting of Pakistan. Our findings could assist large companies in implementing e-commerce strategies more efficiently.