Factors Affecting Online Purchase Decisions in Sri Lanka

The utilization of the internet for retail shopping has extended enormously as of late in the majority of the nations in the world and has impacted the shopping process for some customers. Online shopping is a wonder that is developing quickly these days. It’s an online market that is open 24 into 7 into 365 days, without the setup of a physical store. A peep into the remarkable development of the primary parts in this industry demonstrates there is as yet a huge supply of market potential for a web-based business. The convenience of internet shopping delivering it an arising pattern among customers.

There is a wide variety of products ranging from day-to-day groceries to sophisticated equipment and even rare products. Innovation is progressively assuming a larger part inside Sri Lanka’s retail area, with various conventional retailers receiving online business stages to supplement existing retail channels. The customer has the benefit of going through a catalog of products and compare the prices and buy what suits their needs the most. This can be done at home or workplace or any place. The seller also has the opportunity to display their products to a wider audience and especially the self-entrepreneurs have got a chance to sell their items without much problem.

In this article, we are going to talk about the factors that affect the purchase decision of a product. Many factors affect this decision. Let’s see what are those factors are in the Sri Lankan population.

Personal factors

Safety and privacy

Most of the customers give priority to the safety and privacy of their online transactions. 67% of the customers believe this is the most important factor. Especially the new customers without any prior experience in online shopping is more concerned about the safety of the transaction. They are concerned about credit card frauds and other frauds that can occur when doing an online purchase. Customers who have been using the online platform for few years are not much concerned about this as most of them have experience in how to prevent frauds and when to suspect.

Inability to touch and feel the product

You all might agree that there is no inner satisfaction about a product if you can touch and feel the product for yourself. That also gives the confidence in buying the product as well. In the online platform, you have to follow the photos and go along with the reviews if you haven’t purchased the product before. Most of the female customers are concerned about the inability to touch and feel the product before buying, especially jewelry, perfumes, and other small accessories.

Product-related factors

Product type

A product that is consumer durables and expensive are less bought online because of the inability to touch, feel and see if the product is of good quality and up to standard. 88% of the customers mentioned this factor. For example, if you’re buying a refrigerator you would want to see it from your own eyes and see if it’s working. Some of the other products like perfumes are difficult to buy online because they cannot be smell and you don’t know if you would like the smell if this is the first time. Therefore, most users avoid buying those types of products through the online platform. On the other hand, some of the rare products are only available in online shopping and most people use the online platform to buy these products.

The price

Most of the online products are cheaper compared it to a physical store product. This is one of the reasons most people seek the online platform to buy stuff. Most of the sellers also sell items cheaper than in a store to attract more customers. Even for sellers, it’s cheap to maintain an online shop rather than a physical shop because there is no electricity bill or manpower specifically needed to maintain the shop.

Web site factors

Trustworthy

Most of the online users have their own trusted websites/ agents/ online stores. They do most of their purchases on this site as it is safe, trustworthy, provide customer care after the product purchase, helps to troubleshoot products related problems, and have the refund option. When the trust is built, they tend to do more online shopping on those trusted sites rather than trying new ones.

Ability to locate a product

There are so many products available on the online shopping platform. You just have to type what you need and a list of sites, agents, or stores will appear. Most users like this as it allows them to correctly locate the product and know if it’s available in the store. It’s so much easy rather than going from one store to another asking if this certain product is available. 93% of the customers liked and used online shopping because of this factor.

That was a list of factors affecting the online purchase decision. Because of some reasons people are more into online shopping for example ability to locate the product easily, and cheaper prices. But some people don’t like online shopping much because of the inability to check the quality of a product and if it’s working. Also, some people are concerned about the safety and privacy in online shopping, can their credit card details be stolen and misused. Customers tend to choose online shopping based on the type of products as well. However, online shopping is quite popular now and has already become a lifestyle for many people. Some regular customers use online shopping for almost all of their shopping and they find it very convenient and easy. The choice is yours and you have to be careful to be safe and protect your personal information and avoid any thefts or frauds. When you decide to buy something think wisely if you buy this item through online platform whether the benefits are more or less considering all these factors.