Introduction
The evolution of e-commerce has undergone several stages, from being a novelty that lacks security and efficiency to an integral part of a modern person’s life. Some researchers focus on how consumer preferences changed the perception of shopping, leading to more retailers developing their online shops. This paper aims to examine a reversed connection between the two factors – how innovation and development of online stores led to customers choosing online shops instead of traditional shopping. Consumer shopping habits have changed to reflect the increased global dominance of e-commerce business, while brick-and-mortar stores become more obsolete.
The Efficiency of Online Shopping
Efficiency has led consumers to push for even more convenience when shopping. The main reason people choose online shopping is that it is more convenient than brick stores. According to data, 34% of total online shoppers polled decide to switch to online shopping solely due to its convenience (Dow Jones and Company Inc). Online shopping is compared to traditional brick-and-mortar store visits, with the latter having far more limitations and inconveniences for the customers. Customers are now expecting fast shipping that allows getting the purchased goods within a day or several days. Moreover, the marketplaces have a wide range and variety of products, meaning that a consumer can choose the best suiting option based on price and preferences. Christmann reports that because of the significant changes in consumer behavior, malls are struggling to attract people. Each year, more and more individuals choose online shopping over visiting a mall, which can adversely affect these businesses.
In comparison, traditional shopping requires one to dedicate time, usually at least several hours to get to a shop and choose the needed items. This, of course, is applicable when a shop of interest is located in a reachable area. The consumer is limited in their choice – they can only go to shops in their local neighborhood, which means that some brands or even products are out of their reach. Moreover, the expenses associated with maintaining the operations of a brick and mortar store imply effective inventory management, which means that the selection can be minimal. People can choose objects, compare prices, enter some data, press a button, and wait for a package to arrive two or three days later is attractive to many people, especially those who do not live close to retail stores (Batten). Therefore, another constrain is the lack of choice in terms of product type and price.
Increased security and better security make purchasing more convenient. One issue with online shopping during the first stages of its development was security, mainly the payment and shipping of goods. Since the technology and infrastructure were underdeveloped, people risked being hacked or having their credit card information stolen when shopping online. Currently, only shops partner with banks or third parties, and companies such as PayPal offer the security of processing payments without disclosing customers’ information. All of these developments lead to online shopping being safer in comparison to traditional shopping since with brick and mortar stores, and it is easy to lose something or have an item or a wallet stolen.
Improved technology that allows information to be encrypted when it is sent from one computer to another, it is challenging for an unauthorized person to obtain a consumer’s credit card number or social security number (Batten). Moreover, customer protection is no longer a concern of an online shop since banks, credit card issuers such as American Express, Visa, and Mastercard, and governmental agencies work on developing enhanced payment processing technologies. Thus, the risk of being hacked or losing money is no longer a problem with online shopping.
The reliability of the company, especially concerning businesses that operate online through their online websites, may be an issue. There are online forums to help you stay informed about a company, primarily if the company operates 100% online. In these cases, if returns appear to be a hassle from research, it may be best to shop the company in-person or avoid it altogether (Stuff Limited). This is especially important for fast-fashion businesses, where the determining factor of purchasing an item is its fit. Therefore, despite the risk of buying items from a company that has an inconvenient return policy, the variety of online resources that appraise websites and allow customers to leave reviews enable one to conduct independent research. As a result, a person has a choice – shop online and ship the items back if necessary or go to an offline store.
Consumers can easily organize what they need from what they don’t need. Online shops contain a variety of filters and tags that allow organizing the shopping experience. Moreover, significant marketplaces, such as Amazon, have a search tool that helps to find a product based on its characteristics and description. All of these features add convenience to the shopping experience, making it more pleasurable for the consumer since the latter does not have to spend time looking for a product in a brick-and-mortar store.
Digital shopping carts can be used for item organization as well, allowing the consumer to see what they are buying and what additional product they may need. Notably, “the organization and research of products within the cart had a positive impact on payment intention, meaning that the more the consumer organized and researched the products within their cart, the stronger their payment intention became” (Xu and Huang). Such an outcome can be a result of hesitance due to the price of a product and uncertainty. However, when having a product in a digital cart, a customer can further research other available options and compare the characteristics of different items, prompting a sale. With brick and mortar stores, if a consumer is unhappy with a price and benefit from a product and there are no other options, they will not purchase it.
Online shopping provides many opportunities for saving money. When asked why they use digital coupons for groceries, 69% said, “digital makes it so easy to save” (Dow Jones & Company). This may be associated with the specifics of using a coupon for online shopping – the ease of finding one and applying it to see the final amount of money due. Many online shops offer their customers an email subscription or feature a promo code that will allow saving up.
This practice changed the way consumers perceive online shopping since 74% of people report using digital coupons when shopping (“Holiday Survey Reveals Consumer Shopping Habits This Season”). Moreover, many of the respondents report using online shopping for buying groceries, and 27% state that they will purchase food for their holiday dinner in online shops (“Holiday Survey Reveals Consumer Shopping Habits This Season”). These findings suggest that online shopping has already transformed the way people approach choosing and buying things, especially when considering everyday necessities such as food. The features of online shopping enable consumers to look for the best deal they can get, which is a significant reason for choosing this option instead of visiting a brick-and-mortar store. Therefore, online shopping is convenient for customers since it provides many opportunities for saving money.
Personality Traits and Shopping
Consumers’ personality traits now play critical roles in research and purchasing. While the development of technology is making online shopping a more convenient option for customers, there is a connection to a person’s traits as well. Some people may prefer brick and mortar because of the physical presence of the product – they can touch it or try it on immediately, even before they decide to buy it. With online shopping, this is not an option, generating a lot of uncertainty. Consumers with personality traits that enable avoidance of risk may find online shopping dreadful, despite its benefits.
Other traits of consumers can make online shopping more suitable for them. Conscientious people engage in Internet shopping for convenience, and extroverted people shop online in response to social motivation. Those who were highly neurotic were motivated by the need not to socialize (Yang and Huang). The findings of this study suggest that for some people, online shopping is also a pleasurable experience. They can dedicate as much time and effort to researching and choosing products online, while with brick and mortar shops, there are time constraints such as stores’ work hours or the time needed to get to a location.
Online marketers could benefit from focusing on generating topics suited to different personality traits. For example, to attract extroverts, online marketers should create a platform for sharing information and related shopping experiences to meet social motivation (Yang and Huang). Hence, the development of online technology and online shopping supports the natural traits of these individuals, making the experience of purchasing goods better. The online stores use these traits to modify the behavior of consumers, for example, by encouraging them to explore their website or by sending promotional deals that help conscious consumers save money.
Naturally, online stores are interested in increasing their sales and consumer engagement. A lot of different personality traits see benefits from online shopping, which e-commerce stores have taken advantage of. These efforts will result in online shops and marketplaces that are even more tailored towards the needs, preferences, and personality traits. As Christmann mentions, malls that are struggling to attract consumers experiment with ways of increasing engagement to draw customers away from online shopping. One benefit is that they serve as community centers, allowing individuals to meet and interact. However, online shopping will soon address this problem as well by introducing technology where people can interact and socialize. Therefore, the shopping malls, which traditionally served as places for purchasing goods and interacting with friends, are losing their importance as customers’ behavior changes.
However, the reasons for choosing online shopping over traditional shopping differ. For instance, in research by Wang and Yang, individuals with higher passion and creativity are more likely drawn to online shopping, not only for the convenience it provides but also for the adventure and opportunity to find new and different products. Despite these significant differences, online shopping can satisfy the needs of extraverted, conscious, and neurotic individuals equally. Brick and mortar stores, however, cannot suit the needs of people with diverse traits, for example, more reserved and introverted individuals may find this type of shopping stressful. As a result, brick-and-mortar cannot satisfy the needs of people with different personality traits, making this type of shopping obsolete for some individuals.
To further leverage this engagement, stores can create pages, forums, and other forms of content to suit the needs of different individuals based on why those choose online shopping. Personality traits can function as strong predictors of online shopping motivations. Specifically, people with a high degree of openness tend to shop online to experience adventure and ideas (Yang and Huang). This further modifies the behavior of consumers because with these platforms and forums, people engaged in exchanging information about a product online, instead of communicating about it with friends.
Apart from individual stores, marketplaces, where people can choose products sold by different sellers are becoming more popular. A lot of different personality traits see benefits from online shopping, which e-commerce stores have taken advantage of. Online marketplaces “continue to command global purchasing power, the channel through which over 90 percent of participants living in the Americas, Europe, India, and the Asia-Pacific, make their purchases. Showing our social personality traits, many people see a trend and hop on” (Dow Jones and Company Inc). The most popular platform is Amazon, which has grown from selling books to having a wide variety of products that can be shipped to a customer within days. Such platforms allow people to leverage all benefits of online shopping – research, comparing prices, using promotions, having security, discussing and reviewing a product, returning it via mail if necessary, and others. These activities were not a part of the traditional shopping experience in a brick-and-mortar store, which highlights the changes in the behavior of consumers that occurred in recent years.
Conclusion
Overall, this paper examined how the evolution and efficiency of online shopping changed the behavior of consumers. The main reason why so many people choose to shop online instead of visiting a store is convenience, which is cited by 34% of individuals as the main reason for choosing this option. Next, the enhanced security of payments eliminated the threats of being hacked or having personnel information stolen. The ability to research products find promotions, and sell is another aspect that makes online shopping more preferable. Finally, online shopping can satisfy the shopping needs of people with different personality traits because of its diversity – extraverts, people with neuroticism and conscious consumers find online shopping more beneficial. Therefore, the development of online shopping has changed the habits of consumers since shopping online is more convenient when compared to buying in brick-and-mortar stores.
Works Cited
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