A Report

On
Online vs. Offline Service Platforms:
Trends and Affecting Factors
Course: Humanities for Engineers (UHU005)

Submitted to:
Mrs. Anupam Sharma

Submitted by:
Akash (101703634)
Aseem Goyal (101883004)

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 Acknowledgement

First of all we would like to express our profound thanks to our research supervisor Mrs. Sheena
Chhabra for providing us with this opportunity to do this report and for providing us with
invaluable comments and criticism on many issues. Without her kind direction and proper
guidance this study would have been a little success. We would always be indebted to you
ma’am for constantly rendering timely advice and for giving us the moral support which we
required the most throughout this report work.

We are also grateful to all the faculty members and office staff of the department for their
cooperation. We are proud to be students of the department and grateful to be students of Thapar
Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala.

Our heartfelt appreciation goes to our interviewees who took time out of their busy schedule for
participating in this research.

Above all we would like to thank our families and friends for their unending support and
motivation.

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 List of Content

I. Acknowledgement

II. Abstract

III. Introduction

IV. Review of Literature

V. Statement of the Problem

VI. Methodology of Study

VII. Procedure

VIII. Analysis

IX. Conclusion

X. References

XI. Questionnaire

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 Abstract

With increasing boom in the E Commerce and fast life style there is a huge demand of online
services and home delivery services. Customers are using such services for Transportation, Food,
Personal Care, Health and many more. Our survey has been designed keeping this in mind. We
have prepared our survey for service industry. The service industry is designed for such
professionals that supply services to consumers. Unlike the manufacturing sector, which
produces physical product that is sold to the public, the service industry gives services to satisfy
the need of customer. The individuals who make up this industry are professionally hired to
perform tasks.
The study tries to understand that in which areas, consumers are facing issues while hiring for
the services. In this study, we saw that people are facing issues especially when they are moving
from one place to another. As they are new to that place, they don’t have many connections. So
they face issues while hiring for everyday service needs. Also, the new vendors face issues in
making the contacts and expanding their business. We also analyzed the different reasons for
facing these issues.

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 3. Introduction
3.1 Introduction

The increase in technology provides good opportunities to the vendors to reach the
customer in much faster, easier and in economic way. Now a day the internet holds the
attention of the market. Millions and millions of people shop online be it physical things
or the services. On the other hand, hiring the workers from the nearby locality is
continuing since years. Many customers have their regular vendors whom they will go
offline and hire them for their services as they already trust them based on their past
experiences. In this contemporary world customer’s loyalty depends upon the consistent
ability to deliver quality, value and satisfaction. Some go for offline services, some for
online and many go for both kinds of services. The focus of the study is on the
consumer’s choice to hire through internet and the traditional vendors. However online
services are easier for the people and less price than the offline services. While hiring any
professional, the customer can check the details about different vendors like their
experience, fees, rating, etc. Customers can hire the professionals according their own
convenient time, fees and location. In the typical way of online shopping when the
consumer need some product or service they go through the internet and browse or search
the things they need and their information. But rather than searching actively, many a
times potential consumers are attracted by the information about the product or the
service they want. They see many services online and choose the best one which suits
him/her. Then they select the service and finally the transaction takes. Online or e-
shopping is a kind of electronic shopping which allow the consumer to purchase goods or
services over the internet directly from the seller using a web browser. There are some
alternative names of online shopping those are as follow- e-web store, e-shop, e-store,
internet shop, web-shop, web-store, online store, online store front and virtual store.
Mobile commerce or m-commerce is described as purchasing from the online retailer by
the mobile optimized online sites or application (app).

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3.2 Factors affecting online services

Online shopping becomes relevant in the last decade. The kind of business online retailer
are doing is proof enough that they are providing some benefits to customer which offline
shopping does not give to the customer. These are the factors affecting online shopping:

a. Risk: When the customers hire the online services, they are not sure if the
vendors are reliable. Hence, a lot of risk is involved whether they are skilled
enough to do the job.

b. Convenience: Online services are much more convenient than offline services.
Instead of taking out vehicle and search for the services, you can just sit at home
and book for the online services. Also, you can hire the services at your own
convenient time and fees.

c. Anxiety: People’s anxiety of exploring the sites and experimenting over them is
also a matter of concern. Sometimes people those who are not very known to any
sites they just feel like it’s a tough kind of activity over net and its complicated in
there sense as they are not very fond of doing online shopping as it takes time to
understand the sites. This particular activity makes them irritated and anxious
over any kind of fatal online dealing.

d. Previous online experience: How has been a person’s experience in past with
online services is a major story of concern. Previous experience is what matters
actually as its hamper or sometimes it keep good view or mood of people. There
are two experiences one is about good and another is about bad. Both has its own
and different affect in the mind of customers. So these factors also influence
online services.

e. Quality: Quality also carries good affecting nature over any kind of services. A
consumer will want to have a good quality of services as they spent their huge
sum of money. In general, quality is a primary need over any kind of purchasing
as it somewhat secure or gives a good sense of buying or kind of guarantee about
the service preferred.

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3.3 Factors affecting offline services
Offline services have existed since the beginning. Offline services give different types of
benefits to the customer. There are some factors which affect the offline services those
are as follow:

a. Less number of choices: There are limited numbers of choices when it comes to
offline services. You will be aware of the professionals only in your own locality
or may be from nearby locations. But you don’t have access to more skilled
professionals from faraway places.

b. Time consuming: It takes a lot of time in offline services. You will have to go to
the professionals store to ask them for the services or maybe you can call them on
phone. But still they will give sometime but will not reach on time. Sometimes
you will have to call them two or three times to get your work done.

c. Information: What generally happens is that we are not always aware about the
person’s skill. For some services like carpenter, which you don’t need every day,
you will not have much connections. You will have to look for the information
about the carpenters from your friends or locality.

d. Bargaining: In offline services, a customer can do physical bargaining to the

vendors unlike online services. In online services, a customer cannot do
bargaining as the fees of the services are fixed. Some of the customer hire
services depending upon bargaining so they do not go for online services as they
feel online services are costlier than the market.

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 4. Literature Review
1. Online Shopping vs. Offline Shopping : A Comparative Study:
The retail sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in India. It is one of the backbones
of the economy and accounts for about 10 percent of the country’s GDP. The Indian retail
market is estimated to be valued at US$ 600 billion and one of the top five retail markets
in the world by economic value. The growth of retail sector in India is one of the fastest
globally. Indian consumers are very particular about their products. The consumer
choices vary based upon their preference towards online shopping versus offline
shopping. The internet and traditional shopping both have their own advantages and
disadvantages. Online shopping doesn’t require traveling long distances, offers more
variety, remains functional 24*7, offers huge discounts and extend the facility of
customer reviews. On the other hand, traditional shopping allows customers to physically
examining products which otherwise online shopping lacks. Consumers may be use both
the online and traditional mode of shopping depending on their preferences at a particular
moment, which results in fundamentally different behaviors across the two mode of
shopping. This article attempts to throw some light on the differences emerging out of
online shopping behavior and offline shopping behavior.

2. Online Shopping Vs Offline Shopping Customer Preference In Salem

District:
The study tries to recognize and process a conceptual that addresses customer’s value
opinion for using the internet shopping versus offline shopping. Observations of online
and offline buyers or customers can be evaluated to see how value is constructed in both
channels. It is either to recognize what factors influence online and offline choice
progression. The factors affecting online shopping are risk of purchase; delivery product
varied the buying product, delivery time very delay, quality. The factors affecting direct
shopping are the bargaining; time spends for purchasing, less number of choice. The
study showed that perceptions of price, service quality and threat strongly impact
perceived value and purchase intents in the offline and online network. Main Objective of
the study is to analyze the significant difference between the offline and online customers
group in terms of demographic, technology use, availability and attitude of the customers.
The research is based on primary information’s obtained from the customers of online
and offline shopping. Overall, customers, however the respondent and purchasing for
online and offline shopping.

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3. Young consumers online and offline channel purchase behavior:
Consumers purchase path has become increasingly fragmented, as consumers now shop
across various online and offline channels to complete a single transaction. Certain
aspects need to be taken into consideration, to understand how consumers choose
between these online and offline channels during their purchase journey to fulfill their
requirements. The main aim of this study was to understand young consumers online and
offline channel purchase behavior. This was done by evaluating channel usage from three
different directions, 1) channel influencers, 2) purchase journey, 3) value dimensions.
The empirical part of the thesis was based on quantitative research method. Primary data
for the thesis was collected through survey questionnaires in two phases. The research
revealed that young consumers preferred online channel for information search and
offline channels for product acquisition. Due to channel evolution, it was possible for
them to switch between online and offline channels effortlessly through search and
acquisition. It seemed obvious for the young consumers to prefer the circular journey, as
this journey narrows down the purchase path significantly compared to the other
journeys. Value dimensions play a very important motivating role in channel purchase
behavior among young consumers and an important deciding factor on their channel
specific usage during their purchases.

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 5. Statement of the problem
There was always a lack of skilled and affordable workers in the service sector and due to the
covid-19 pandemic; the situation has only got worse. To cope with this situation many people are
turning to online home services platform to hire maids and gardeners. But there is another group
of people who prefer not to utilize such services. This research aims to fill the gap between these
two groups of people. This study reflects the problems and factors of offline and online service
platforms. There are certain problems, why people do not go to online service platforms and hire
only from the local service providers? What are the major reasons behind the online and offline
hiring tendencies of people? This study helps the consumer to get an idea about the online
service platforms. The study makes the consumer clear about which option should be taken by
the consumer to get more benefit out of it.

6. Methodology of the Study

This study focused on online vs. offline service hiring platforms and how different factors affect
which platform the consumer uses for hiring services. For this study we needed to collect
descriptive quantitative data. A descriptive survey design was adopted for this study. The
primary data for this study was collected by us through an online survey.

The sample for this research comprises hundred and twenty (120) interviewees drawn mostly
from the cities of Sirsa, Bathinda and Delhi. The interviewees come from various backgrounds
and most of them are either students, housewives or office workers. The research instrument
used was structured questionnaire tagged: Online vs. Offline Service Hiring Platforms and
Factors Affecting Them developed by the researchers. The questionnaire was divided into two
sections. Section A dealt with demographic data of the respondents which include gender, age
and institution. Section B covers items on Effects of Internet on the Academic Performance of
Students. Six items were developed in this section that will measure how frequent the respondent
hire gardeners or sweepers, reveals which source they prefer hiring from and also indicate the
monthly wages they generally hire people on.

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 7. Procedure
First of all we made questioner regarding our topic Online Vs Offline Service Hiring Platforms which
helps us in defining the data to collect easily and can be summed up. We selected people from various
backgrounds and send them mail/message asking them to answer to our survey. We also made a Google
form which could be wide spread outside of just the local contacts of the researchers. We read different
research papers, articles & case-studies to know better about the topic. At the end we all summed up
our all the information we collected and on basis of that we drew data analysis, graphs and pie-charts so
the reader could easily understand.

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8. Analysis

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 9. Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to investigate the online and offline service hiring platforms and
how different factors affect which platform the consumer uses for hiring services. It was
paramount for this kind of study to be conducted so as to determine the various trends in the
service sector, to find out what is the demand of online services platforms, to find the factors
affecting the online and offline services platforms and issues faced by people in using online
platforms to hire a service. The study reveals that most of the people have problem finding good
quality service workers in the local market and so majority of the people would like to have a
certified online firm from where they can hire people. Despite that most people still hire from the
offline platforms. The major factors resulting in this choice is the lack of quality assurance in
online service platforms and the fact that majority of the employees/consumers have never used
online services to hire vendors.

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References

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334942312_Online_Shopping_vs_Offlin
e_Shopping_A_Comparative_Study

http://www.ijstr.org/final-print/feb2020/Online-Shopping-Vs-Offline-Shopping-
Customer-Preference-In-Salem-District.pdf

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/84798323.pdf

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 Questionnaire
Online vs. Offline Service Hiring Platforms and Factors
Affecting Them

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