CONSUMER PURCHASING BEHAVIOR: INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ ONLINE SHOPPING IN BEIJING, CHINA

The study of Consumer behavior is one of the most important aspects of understanding how shoppers or consumers make buying decisions. In today’s economy, e-commerce plays an important role in most countries economic growth and sustainability. This study investigated consumer behavior towards online shopping of international students studying in Beijing. The study adopted a survey study design among international students in various universities in Beijing. The study was guided by the following objectives: The influence social characteristics of consumer behavior have on international students in Beijing on online shopping and the influence personal characteristics of consumer behavior have on international students on online shopping. These were drawn from the theory of consumer behavior as described by [4]. Random sampling technique was adopted to sample international university students in Beijing. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Keywords: online shopping, consumer behavior, e-commerce

Introduction

In this paper, the researcher sought to unravel the influence of students’ social and personal characteristics in Beijing on their online shopping behavior. There are a number of factors that affect online customers in China. The study revealed what influences their decisions on online shopping platforms like Taobao, JD, Tmall, Wechat, Alibaba, etc.

An individual’s own characteristics will influence their buying behavior online. These can be age and life-cycle stage, occupation, economic situation, lifestyle and personality, and self-concept, [8]. As the life of an individual progresses through different stages and situations, their tastes and preferences will change to fit into those situations and stages of life.

Social characteristics are generally generated by what and who is around us, through their thoughts and opinions on what we do, like and feel. The family is the most important social factor, [5].

Previous research has been done on consumer behavior online shopping by researchers such [3] at Kristianstad University who “found that the factor Price is of the highest concern to the students and that the factors Trust and Convenience had a lower impact on the students” [3].

E-commerce has made life simple and innovative to individuals and groups, which most international students from developing countries find as a great revelation due to limited or lack of e-commerce in their home countries.

Even with the increased availability of technology, recent research shows that shoppers have concerns, which may be contributing to the low level of adoption, [1]. These concerns can be attributed, but not limited to poor infrastructures like poor internet coverage, low competition, and lack of trust, poor addressing, insecurity, inconvenient payment modes or lack of proper payment channels.

Originally the internet was used by academics, research scientists and students; however, that scenario has changed as commercial organizations have moved to incorporate the World Wide Web into their promotional campaigns and by offering the facility of online purchasing, [9]. The researcher attributes this to the shift of interest from traditional media platforms that is, newspapers, magazines, television, radio etc. to the online platforms. These platforms have all been overridden by the internet.

Consumers are turning away from the traditional sources of advertising, [6]. Internet channels such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter have become major channels of advertisements. This means that people are bound to spend more time on the internet than actually going to the stores for window-shopping. When a customer views a product, impulse buying cannot be ruled out hence; providing an online shop fulfills the need to buy the product immediately. This was a missing link in the traditional channels of advertising.

Research methodology

In order to achieve the objectives, questionnaires were used as the primary data collection tool. The general sample consisted of all Internet users located in Beijing; therefore, convenient sampling technique was used to select the sample. We considered Generation Y thus selected university students to be appropriate subjects for our study since they are major Internet users.

The study adopted a cross-sectional study design because the researcher had the ability to explore and to understand situations within a short period of time. The researcher also used the Likert scale to scale the responses to 5.

Discussion, conclusions, and limitation

The findings indicated that there was an even distribution among both genders with 55 % of respondents being male and 45 % respondents female. Both genders were well represented in the study.

In Social characteristics, 30 % of the participants surrounded by family, agreed that family’s opinions and experiences affected their purchase decisions. Moreover, in a new environment, there is huge diversity within the international community, students generally tend to follow new trends and express themselves in ways they would not in close proximity to their families. 50 % of the participants agreed that friends’ opinions and experiences have an impact on their online purchase decisions wanting to fit in with those around them or be associated with those close to them. Moreover, 70 % of the students indicated that their experience online trends and the opinions discussed on the online forums greatly influence their opinions and purchase decisions. This was attributed to the fact that 80 % of the respondents indicated to use the internet for communication purposes and socializing through forums like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, WeChat etc. This shows internet trends about fashion, tastes, and preferences preferred on the online forums influence the decision of the participants to purchase online. Interactions have shifted from physical to virtual. People interact more online than physically with around them.

Personal characteristics vary but have a high reliance on one another. For example, Income level and age have a high influence when it comes to personal characteristics influencing online shopping decisions of the students in Beijing. 40 % of the students were between the ages of 24-26 years old, 75 % had an income range between 450USD – 750USD therefore, spending less on shopping. The factor of price explained the largest part of the variance in the data due to student’s limited financial budget.

The purchasing power and revenue of an individual affect what he or she can afford, the perspective of money and level of importance of price in his purchasing decision. Some might also look for a product with a “social value” to represent their income and level of purchasing power, [7]. Income is also an important factor as it influences the purchasing power of an individual and how much they are able to spend over a sustained period of time.

International university students were more likely to consider shopping online than walking to a physical store, due to the convenience and prices of the products online. In addition, According to [1] there is a perceived lack of security and potential for credit card fraud. The students have found this not to be a challenge here. Adequate security measures have lowered the risk thus raising the confidence level of the students. 75% of the students had online shopping accounts like in Taobao, Tmall, JD etc as well as 85% had banking accounts which require their personal information. This shows that they have developed a sense of security and trust in the online shopping platform in Beijing.

In conclusion, the E-shopping among the students in Beijing is growing at a very high rate, and this trend is expected to grow in the future. We are also likely to observe the same trends in developing countries as their economy continues to grow. Globalization, digital and technological advancements make the world a small community. Access to information on online platforms about the newest trends has a greater influence on consumer behavior towards online shopping thus leading to the growth of a country’s economy.

Some of the limitations included, age groups due to the age was capped at a specified age group which limited correspondents above 30 years. This limited the pool of data collected to evaluate the various aspects of social and personal characteristics in evaluating online shopping behavior. The method of data collection and analysis used present the researcher with challenges. Quantitative analysis in this research limited to obtain many kinds of information through structured data collection instruments on topics such as income. Also used Likert 5 scale option which gave the middle value and therefore limiting more precise results.

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