Online Shopping Experiences in the Middle of Pandemic

Table of Contents

Abstract ....................................................................................1

Introduction ..............................................................................2

Objectives.................................................................................2

Research Proposal..................................................... ..............3

Statement of the Problem.........................................................4

Scope and delimitation.............................................................4

Significance of the study..........................................................4

Literature review and Theoretical Framework..........................5

Methodology...........................................................................10

Reference................................................................................11
Abstract

This study tackles the issue of shopping experiences in an online

environment.This paper intends to examine online shopping
experiences of the consumers. As an exploratory research study, a
qualitative research method was used with twenty consumers who
differ in terms of age, gender and consumer experience. The results
highlighted the proposed dimensions and underline as core issues
online trust (or mistrust), age and online social interactions with
friends. The appropriation process of commercial websites is also
considered.

Introduction

This research takes place in Philippines where 67% of Internet

users declare that they use the Internet before making a purchase
decision, the final purchase not necessarily taking place online. Multi-
channel shopping behavior is not only a potentiality but reflects the
vast majority of shopping behaviors and modifies the consumer
experience as a whole. This paper tackles the issue of shopping
experiences in an online environment. Although numerous are their
contributions, these researches have focused on individual behaviors or
experiences in a particular channel. These contexts are quite separated
in the literature whereas consumer practices are becoming more and
more cross-channeled. Moreover, the

shopping experience has not been investigated yet. This paper

intends to consider online shopping experiencesas a whole – and not
just purchase experiences, considering shopping practices online and
offline, and the appropriation process of commercial websites. As an
exploratory research study, a qualitative research method was used
with twenty consumers who differ in terms of age, gender and
consumer experience.

Objectives

This study aims to know the online shopping experiences of the

consumers in the middle of this pandemic in Fernando Air Base..

Research Proposal

May 19, 2021

Mrs. Amy Villar

Fernando Air Base, Lipa City

Dear Maam,

The undersigned is a Grade 11 student of Fernando Air Base

Integrated National High School taking Principles of MI. As a
requirement, I am conducting a qualitative research entitled “Online
Shopping Experiences”.In connection with this, I am asking for your
time, and voluntary effort to answer the questionnaire that is
important for the completion of the study. Rest assured that all data
gathered from you will be kept in the highest level of confidentiality.
Your positive response will be valuable contribution for the success of
the study and will be highly appreciated. Thank you very much for your
cooperation.

Sincerely yours,

Althea S. Balita

Statement of the Problem

This study seeks answers to the following questions:

1. Demographic Profile
 1.2. Name

1.3. Age

2. Are you shopping online?

3. What are your most unforgettable experience when shopping

online?

4. Do you preffered to shop online than visit the store?

5. Why do you shop online instead of buying in the store?

Scope and Delimitation

This truly excluded only the consumers in Fernando Air Base.

Significance of the Study

This study helps us to know the online experiences of the

consumers in Fernando Air Base in the middle of the pandemic. It will
help us to know the different obstacles and moments they experience
and encountered every time they shop online.

Literature Review and Theoretical Framework

Experience and consumption

Etymologically, experience means a test, an attempt, and refers to
experimentation, that is to say the knowledge based upon sense
experience as opposed to a pure and a priori knowledge. So experience
is enabled by an individual learning process. Experience may also be
revealed (for instance the mystical experience), which means that
experience is part of the individual subjective insight experience. From
an anthropological perspective, experience refers to how each
individual experiments with his own culture (Bruner, 1986). Experience
differs from behavior, which is avisible part of experience (what is seen
from the outside) and differs from the situation itself. Research in
marketing defines experience as a personal and subjective moment
that may build and transform a person’s life (Arnould and Thomson,
2005); the principal dimension is the emotional and sensitive
dimension, followed by the cognitive dimension (Addis and Holbrook,
2001). The experience undergone in a shopping context is a whole
shopping experience (Arnouldet al., 2002). Consumers may live in many
ways; it depends on the social context, on the products and services
andon the personal relationships that are related to the situation
(Edgellet al., 1997). Moreover, the shopping experience is not just
under the influence of the environment: the personal experience is
influenced by the environment, and then the experience itself is
transformed.

In addition to the functional dimension of consumption items,

Heilbrunn (2010) brings out three components of consumption
experience which may be analyzed as latent dimensions of
consumption (Filser, 2008). Indeed, these components integrate three
salient aspects of the concept which have been pointed out in other
literature: - A physical dimension, linked to the fact the experience
takes place somewhere, in a particular context and in a period of time.
This dimension refers to the tangible base of the consumption
experience : experience is multi-sensory based (an individual may
see,touch, smell, taste, feel the consumption object) and takes place in
space and time (the consumer may choose, hesitate, reject, use the
object); this dimension is related to the physical participation in the
environment and the specific relationship the individual is committed
to (Pine and Gilmore, 1999); - An ideological dimension relating to the
ability of the object to promote values and an imaginary world. This
ideological dimension pertains to the way that consumer’s attitudes
and behaviors may be shaped and modified. This aspect of experience
refers to the marketing research on shopping value and consumer
behavior (Holbrook, 2000) and the search for identity and self-image
(Firat and Dholakia, 1998). - A pragmatic dimension, that is to say the
use of tools, artifacts and all the shopping practices which structure the
rituals of consumption and shopping. Thus, it is a practice based
dimension; depending on the culture, the consumption may be defined
by a precise setof acts and gestures so that the consumers make the
brand and products

theirs: they “appropriate” them (Holt, 1995). These dimensions

highlight that people do not undergo the experience: it brings into play
a learning process that modifies the individual who in his turn,
transforms the environment. The individual is intending to participate
in the experience, extra-ordinary or not; he/she wants to be part of the
experimentation (De Certeau, 1984); the consumer appropriates his
everyday life by conducting his own experiences.

Online shopping experience

An experiential framework based on the concepts of flow and cognitive
absorption has been purposed by (Hoffman and Novak, 1996, 2009;
Novak, et al. 2000; Agarwal and Karahanna, 2000). This framework is
accurate to analyze the online consumer behavior in general. The
central hypothesis of these models is that the online environment is
interactive by nature:consumers interact with websites, with other
consumers and with the interface itself. Another perspective is
proposed by Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004); they consider a
personalized consumer experience, referring to the concept of co-
creation. Unique experiences between consumers and companies are
considered and new product development is taken as an example.
Marketing research provides considerable evidence suggesting
shopping is a social experience. Thus, co-creation experiences may be
shared by consumers with their social network (family, friends,
members of the community: all types of companions). But surprisingly,

previous research on online consumption experiences, examines the

individual experience, but does not examine the global online
experience with a companion. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge,
online shopping in groups has not been examined in current research
yet. The literature on shopping behavior (and online shopping)
considers that consumers’ motivations when they shop online may be
hedonistic or utilitarian (for instance: Babin and Attaway, 2000; Sénécal
et al., 2002; Bridges and Florsheim, 2008).
Trust, experience and online shopping

Customers learn from their buying experience and product use. These
experiences shape their trust and behavior on the website and
generates word-of-mouth communication, through online and off line
social networks. Online trust is developed over a process of repeated
visits to a site as a user gains experience and believes that his/her
expectations are met during the visits, explain Urban et al. (2009). Trust
is thus considered as a process, a permanent and continuing consumer
experience. Bart et al. (2005) consider that « online trust includes
consumer perceptions of how the site would deliver on expectations,
how believable the site’s information is, and how much confidence the
site commands ». The state of the art realized by Urban et al. (2009)
explains that online trust extends beyond privacy and security, and is
closely connected to website design, and that its formation is an on-
going process, and is heterogeneous across individuals and products.

It is indeed fairly hard to identify a single behavior rule or model to

consider online trust worldwide... Multiple national surveys and
international comparisons are required (e.g. Dinev et al., 2006).
Moreover, recent national surveys in France suggest that online trust as
a topic might be over-estimated. The trust rate in online shopping is
growing, but remains pretty low (between 51% and 64% according to
various surveys1 – i.e. the percentage of internet users who declare to
trust online shopping). An “online trust paradox” is then evoked:
internet users massively shop online (85% of French internet users) in
spite of their trust level. Surveys usually conclude that the ‘use’ value is
considered higher than perceived risks. Trust rate in online banking
(69%) and e-administration (89%) are higher. So in this research, the
online shopping experience is examined through the three dimensions
described above. The extent research presented above drives us to
consider two general propositions. The first one deals with the
theoretical framework for online experiences. Are the three dimensions
of the experience developed by Heilbrunn (2010) accurate for online
shopping experience? Actually, shoppers who have experienced online
shopping are more familiar with e-commerce and should be more
confident to shop online, above all, the youngest shoppers, the “digital
natives” who are used to the internet environment. Their online
shopping experience must be different: they might be more curious,
fond of new brands with an appetite for novelty.

Methodology

One focus groups have been conducted with consumers from 21

to 35 years old: twenty respondents, tem male and ten female with
different professions.The aim of these homogeneous groups in term of
age/activity of the participants was to examine how this so-called
Generation Y, operate as a group in the internet context. In exploring
online experiences of shoppers who had not experienced the arrival of
pure players, who are used to the web 2.0, and in exploring their in-
group and out-group relationships, the research may investigate how
they behave as tribes, how deep their bonds are and what are their
shopping rituals. The group discussions may also offer participants an
environment where they may feel free to share their experiences in the
company of the same socioeconomic background. This methodology
may serve to facilitate conversation and dialogue between the different
participants of the study (Moisanderet al., 2009). A content analysis has
been conducted in order to reveal on the one hand, the use and
appropriation of websites and shopping environment and to distinguish
the adaptable strategies during the online shopping experiences.

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