A STUDY INTO FACTORS

AFFECTING COLLEGE
STUDENTS’ (GEOMATIKA
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE)
ATTITUDE TOWARD ONLINE
SHOPPING
Research Proposal

23 MAY 2022
CHONG JIN JIANG
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 INTRODUCTION 00

1.1 ** 00

2.0 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 00

2.1 ** 0
2.2 ** 00
2.3 ** 0

3.0 RESEARCH QUESTION 00

3.1 ** 00
3.2 ** 00
3.3 ** 00

4.0 SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY 00

4.1 ** 00
4.2 ** 00
4.2 ** 00

5.0 DRAFT LITERATURE REVIEW 00

5.1 ** 00
5.2 ** 00
5.2 ** 00

6.0 METHODOLOGY 00

6.1 ** 00
6.2 ** 00
6.2 ** 00
Introduction
Shopping has undergone a significant change because of technological influence, with most
consumers preferring online purchasing to traditional physical store shopping. The current
COVID-19 pandemic scenario has resulted in a shift in customer spending patterns both online
and offline, especially among the group of college students. This paper identifies and analyses
college students’ behaviour towards online and retail shopping based on various factors affecting
their behaviour on which mode of shopping most they prefer during the pandemic situation. The
previous research that is conducted by Muhammad Yasir Rafiq and Hafiz Muhammad Umair
Javeid, they mentioned that the consumers’ online and offline shopping preferences vary with
different products, consumers, and stage of shopping experience. Their research sample shows that
women are more likely than men to buy clothing online, while men are more likely than women
to buy electronic and computer products online. Those who study individual differences in online
shopping preferences need to consider that these may have different effects on different consumer
group, especially the consumer group of college students, which are the group of people that are
most likely to spend their money.

We can define variables as any aspect of a theory that can vary or change as part of the interaction
within the theory. In other word, variables are anything that can affect or influence subject of the
study. To understand the differences tested, we must include variables in the research papers. My
study will focus on the factors that influencing the GUC students’ online shopping behaviour.
From the previous research conducted by other researchers on different college students, the main
dependent variables that affecting college students’ online shopping behaviour are gender,
availability of the products in the online store, promotion of the products, time consciousness of
the online shopping & convenience of online shopping.
The variables used in this study are:

Independent variables:

1. Factor affecting GUC Students’ online shopping behaviour

Dependent variables:

1. Gender

2. Availability of the products in the online store

3. Promotion of the products

4. Time consciousness of the online shopping

5. Convenience of online shopping

The hypotheses of this study are:

H0 : There is no relationship between gender and GUC students’ online shopping behaviour

H1 : There is a relationship between gender and GUC students’ online shopping behaviour

H2 : There is a relationship between availability of the products in the online store and GUC
students’ online shopping behaviour

H3 : There is no relationship between availability of the products in the online store and GUC
students’ online shopping behaviour

H4 : There is a relationship between promotion of the products and GUC students’ online shopping
behaviour

H5 : There is no relationship between promotion of the products and GUC students’ online
shopping behaviour
H6 : There is a relationship between time consciousness of the online shopping and GUC students’
online shopping behaviour

H7 : There is no relationship between time consciousness of the online shopping and GUC students’
online shopping behaviour

H8 : There is a relationship between convenience of online shopping and GUC students’ online
shopping behaviour

H9 : There is no relationship between convenience of online shopping and GUC students’ online
shopping behaviour
Research Objective
The objectives to conduct this research are:

1. Determine the factors affecting consumer’s online shopping behaviour

2. Determine the significant factors that affecting GUC Students’ online shopping behaviour
Research Question
The questions of this research are:

1. What are the factors affecting consumer’s online shopping behaviour?

2. What are the significant factors that affecting GUC students’ online shopping behaviour?
Significant of the Study
This study’s findings will redound to traditional brick-to-mortar businesses’ benefit, considering
that shopping behaviour of the junior college students today. The greater demand for junior college
students’ consumer group justifies the need for these traditional brick-and-mortar businesses to
switch their business online to attract more customers. Especially, since COVID-19 pandemic, the
consumers had changed their interests from offline-shopping to online-shopping. Thus, by
conducting this research, we can find out the factors that influencing the preference of the college
students to shopping online. Hence, this research will summarize the reason the traditional brick-
and-mortar businesses should go online.
Draft Literature Review
Online Shopping has come very popular among teenagers, especially among students at university.
A lot of researchers have focused on this topic. This chapter includes the theoretical background
of this thesis. The researcher divided the literature review into 2 parts, including a brief description
of the differences between online and offline shopping and the factors influencing consumers’
intention to shop online.

Online shopping is the activity or action of buying products or services over the Internet. It means
going online, landing on a seller’s website, selecting something, and arranging for its delivery. The
buyer either pays for the good or service online with a credit or debit card or upon delivery. [Market
Business New, 2022] Consumers’ online and offline shopping preferences toward different
products, consumers and stages of shopping experience would be different. In addition, some
previous conducted research showed out that decision-making processes are very similar for
consumers no matter shopping online or offline. [Chayapa. K, 2011] However, some differences
about the shopping environment and marketing behaviour would influence consumers’ choice.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, most consumers still preferred to shop in traditional land-based
retail stores to have an authentic experience. Consumers differ from each other in their preference
for shopping online or offline. Some consumers highly value time-efficient shopping combined
with a broad variety of products and alternatives, whereas other consumers favour the personal
interaction with sales assistants and the ability to have physical contact with the product. Studies
have shown that consumers prefer direct physical evaluation of their desired products prior to a
completed purchase. Compared to online shops, brick-and-mortar stores have a greater maturity.
Consumers who chose those have fewer expectations of finding a lower price when comparing
prices with different stores close by. Conversely, consumers who shop online are more sensible
for prices and try to find the best deal by comparing several websites.

The global retail industry’s significant ongoing changes can also be noticed when analysing the
percentage share e-commerce has on all retail sales in the world. In 2015, global e-commerce
contributed a share of 7.4% to all global retail sales. Only four years later, in 2019, e-commerce
sales handled 14.1% of all global retail sales. The percent share of global e-commerce sales on all
global retail sales is expected to increase to 22% by 2023. [Future of Organizations and Work
After the 4th Industrial Revolution: The Role of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Automation, and
Robotics, 2022] However, the forecast of the expected sales for 2023 was estimated before the
global pandemic started. Mobile devices have an essential contribution to the thriving development
of online retail. In 2019, approximately 52% of the global online users had ordered a product or
service online.
Methodology
For this study, the researcher selected the quantitative research method as an appropriate method
to collect the needed primary data. The researcher used the non-experimental design survey. One
key advantage of a non-experimental design is the absence of the researcher caused manipulation
on the independent variable. Non-experimental designs mainly try to discover and describe the
relationships among variables without the active influence of the researcher. Another beneficial
factor of non-experimental designs is that a well-planned questionnaire can provide a high validity
and reliability of the measurement. An additional strength of a non-experimental design is that the
data can be collected completely anonymously. However, non-experimental designs such as
questionnaires have also many disadvantages, including the risk of a low participation, the
participant’s inability to complete the questionnaire successfully, and the relatively exorbitant
amount of needed time to analyse the survey data. The researcher used a questionnaire design as
an appropriate measure to identify the participants’ attitudes towards online shopping. The
questionnaire helps to identify relationships among the variables and helps to determine a result
for future research implications.

The researcher conducted the online questionnaire to investigate what factors affect consumers’
decision to shop. The researcher already introduced the basis of the topic in the literature review.
Now the researcher tries to collect enough primary data to answer the research questions and to
determine if the defined hypotheses are supported or rejected. In the first subsection, the
participants had to evaluate statements concerning factors that can influence an individual’s
intention to shop online and general questions concerning the participants’ preferences of where
to shop.
The researcher conducts this study at Geomatika University College. The researcher of this study
aims for 50 respondents in this research paper. The researcher has chosen the samples which are
among the teenagers and young adults which are age between 15 and 25 years old. This study used
a convenience sampling method as one of the non-probability samplings, which is an attempt to
get a sample of convenient elements, voluntary response samples and snowball samples.
Questionnaire was prepared and distributed among respondents using nonprobability convenience
sampling method. The data collected was then analysed by using IBM Statistical Package for
Social Sciences (SPSS) version 28.0.