Assistant Prof., Dept. of Commerce, College of Vocational Studies, Univ. of Delhi, New Delhi, India
Abstract
With the transformation in the information technology, easy accessibility of the Internet, improved and reliable banking services,
use of smartphones and tablets, e-commerce has given business an unprecedented marketing opportunity over the past few years.
It has also provided an opportunity to consumers to buy the products just by clicking the mouse. Online retailing has emerged as
a threat to the traditional retailing. Consumers have plenty of options to buy their products, not only from domestic market but also
from international market. In this study an attempt has been made to assess the consumer’s preferences while purchasing their
products online and offline. Further, it has also been tried to study the comparative advantages and disadvantages of traditional
stores and web stores. To attain the objectives, responses from 875 respondents were collected randomly between January 2012
and April 2012 from the consumers residing in Delhi and NCR. To evaluate their preferences 7 point scale rating method has been
applied where 1 indicates absolutely low and 7 indicates absolutely high. The study found that web stores have some competitive
advantages over traditional stores as they charge lower price, provide easy and effortless information about the products, provide
convenient mechanism to place orders and payment, better assortment, keep ample stock, and also provide wider options for
consumers to select their purchases. The study further reveals that traditional retailers also have some competitive edge over
web stores. Traditional retailers provide facility of physical examination of products, immediate possession, surety of delivering
the same product as specified, immediate satisfying consumer’s queries with the help of salesmen, better after sales services and
better return policy. Besides all these, it also helps consumers to have social and family experience while shop.
Keywords: Bricks and Clicks, E-commerce, Online, Offline, Assortment, Web Stores, Virtual Mall
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