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Journal of Human and Social Science Research Vol. 2, No. 1 (2013), 1-7

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Keywords: Shopping Orientation Online Purchase Intention Race Comparison

Received: 25 Jun 2013

Accepted: 08 Aug 2013

Benjamin Chan Yin-Fah

Faculty of Business and Management, Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation, Malaysia

Han Kok-Siew

Faculty of Business and Management, Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation, Malaysia Lim Yet-Mee

Faculty of Accountancy &Management Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia

A Study on Shopping Orientation and Online Purchase Intention: A Comparison of University Students among Three Races

Corresponding Author: Benjamin Chan Yin-Fah

Faculty of Business and Management, Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation, Malaysia

Abstract

Due to the prevalence of information and telecommunication technology, it is essential for

marketers to increase competitive advantages to compete with competitors in the

cyberspaces. This study aims to investigate the race differences in shopping orientation and

its correlation with the online purchase intention among university students. This research

had employed a quantitative approach through a collection of 300 useable questionnaires.

The study found that two in every ten respondents in this study never practice in online

shopping browsing. Pearson Moment Product Correlation Test showed that the respondents’

frequency of online purchasing was positively related to the frequency of online browsing.

Of the five types shopping orientations, convenience type of shopping orientation had the

strongest relation to online purchasing intention. Based on the research results of this study

implications for marketing and suggestions for future study were discussed.

1. INTRODUCTION

In the year 2013, there is 38.8% of the world population which are using the

internet (Internet Usage Statistic, 2013) and this number explained that the

world internet usage population is growing. The growth of internet access is

changing how and where peoples work, play, shop and other ways in our

lives. For instance, Forrester Research (2013) stated that e-commerce

continuing to grow at a rapid clip: 13% from $231 billion in 2012, to $262

billion in 2013. By 2017, sales are projected to reach $370 billion – a rise

from 8% t0 10% of total U.S. retail sales. An article by Handly (2005)

revealed that online advertisement spending is poised to grow by as much as

30 percent in 2005, the growing Internet advertisement market promises to

be a US$10 billion industry. Since the ad market is more mature and stable,

certain commercial retailers find themselves in a good position to take

advantage of it. In Malaysia, the development of technology is becoming

part of important issue in the nation. For example an article by

Abdul-Wahid (2005) explained that, Telekom Malaysia Bhd is expanding

its Global Internet Protocol network to position Malaysia as a hub for Asia.

They also deployed new infrastructure which brings a total equivalent

Internet access line capacity to 9.5 million lines. The improvement of

network and technology leads the prevalence of e-commerce in Malaysia. It

eases the way to conduct business online, enhance the security issue, and

also bring benefits to the retailer to do business more efficiently. Depends

on the underlying issue above, the online shopping climate is now getting

popular in Malaysia.

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© ORIC Publications/2013

Most of the retailers are aware that different demographic groups, as well as ethnic groups may have a

different perception or behavior toward online shopping (Yue-Teng, Osman and Yin-Fah, 2011). In

Malaysia, there are three largest ethnic groups - Malay, Chinese, and Indian - follow distinctly different

cultures and religions (Yin-Fah, Tengku-Aizan, Jariah and Laily, 2010). Depends on the economy, education,

culture, value and others background of each ethnic, retailers may seek different ways to satisfy their needs

in order to pursue a higher market share. The study, "The Face of the Web: Youth," (as cited in Pastore,

2001) is based on surveys with ten thousand youths between the ages of 12 and 24 in 16 countries. It found

that 54 percent of online young people around the world report using the Internet to gather information

about products and services, 27 percent are currently buying. No doubt that student has a potential market

share for online shopping. In the range of online shopping, there is a lot of factors influencing the

individual’s online shopping behavior. The online shopping behavior is different with traditional shopping,

and both types of shopping may complement each other.

2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY

Hence, this study seeks to examine the respondents’ online browsing experience, future online purchasing

intention, and types of shopping orientation among the undergraduates. This study also seeks to explore the

different types of shopping orientations by three main races in Malaysia. Since the late 1990s, many

companies in a range of countries have attempted to establish online grocery stores. However, a large

percentage of them experienced only a very short lifespan. It is important for businesses to understand the

motivations of consumers to enable them to target those motives in order to expand and maximize their

share of this market. A primary aim of the present study is to examine the relationships between university

students’ shopping orientations and their intention to purchase online. The types of shopping orientations

included in this study are price consciousness, convenience, variety-seeking, impulsiveness and recreational.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW

3.1 Online Browsing Experience and Future Online Purchasing Intention Browsing is defined as the “examination of a retailer’s merchandise for information and/or recreational

purposes without an immediate intent to buy”. It’s found that many consumers enjoyed the “act” of

shopping itself, without intention to purchase. Browsing has been found to be related to product interest,

product knowledge, product expenditure, product purchase satisfaction, level of word-of-mouth

endorsement, opinion leadership, and demographic characteristics (Lee and Kim, 2002). Some studies were

conducted to find out whether browsing on the Internet is correlated with purchasing on the Internet since

some of the shoppers enjoy browsing as a separate activity; while others buy the things without browsing if

their choice is clear and determined in advance (Kaufman-Scarborough and Lindquist, 2002). Some earlier

researchers suggest that “recreational e-shoppers” are also likely to virtually “stroll” through online

shopping sites for learning, social, or diversion-related purposes. Those e-shoppers may also enjoy gathering

online information and sharing their knowledge through online chat rooms and buyer forums. Such shoppers

appear to enjoy gathering information without preparing for an upcoming purchase (Kaufman-Scarborough

and Lindquist, 2002). Other studies found that browsing activities may be characterized as shopping

activities that may end up as direct shopping behavior (Karayanni, 2003).

According to the study of Elliott and Speck (2005), people who have previously purchased on the Internet

are more likely to notice, understand, and appreciate information and features required to search, compare

and order products. So the person who has experienced online purchasing before is having a higher

probability to purchase again in the future than those who has not experienced it before. Jha and

Ranganathan (2004) in their study concluded that past experience in online shopping is a strong determinant

of online purchase intention, and positive online purchase experience seems to cultivate customer loyalty in

terms of repeat and multiple purchases. A research by Xu and Paulins (2005) found that past online

shopping experiences influence attitudes toward online shopping for apparel products. Their results show

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Journal of Human And Social Science Research / Vol. 2, No. 1 (2013), 1-7

that the students who had purchased online before have more favorable attitudes toward shopping online.

The study by Korgaonkar, Silverblatt and Becerra (2004) suggests that consumers' preferences for shopping

from Internet retailers will be significantly related to their past purchase experiences.

3.2 Shopping Orientation Shopping orientations are one of the most axiomatic concepts in consumer behavior literature which is

referring to the general predisposition of consumers toward the act of shopping. This disposition may be

manifested in varying patterns of information search, alternative evaluation, and product selection. The

orientations are operationalised by a range of attitude, interest, and opinion statements related to the topic of

shopping (Brown et al., 2003). Brown et al. (2003) suggested that it is logical that consumers possess

different shopping orientations and these will affect their purchase behaviors in Internet shopping, and price

comparisons are a major reason why consumers use Internet shopping. A study asserted that the Internet

lowers consumers’ search cost in acquiring information about prices and product offerings, and reduce

inefficiencies caused by buyer’s search cost. Therefore, Internet significantly reduces the search cost for a

price conscious consumer by providing rapid access to the information of the products or services (Girard,

Korgaonkar and Silverblatt, 2003). Based on the research findings on the cost savings and benefits gained by

shopping on the Internet, the authors proposed that price-conscious customers would try to find the least

expensive items and reduce their search cost by purchase goods on the internet.

Some studies suggested that convenience is the main reason why consumers use the Internet for the purpose

of purchase (Brown et al., 2003). There is evidence to show that the Internet shoppers are convenience

oriented, variety-seeking, innovative, impulsive, and less risk averse than non-Internet shoppers. Earlier

studies also concluded that convenience shoppers are less traditional, less outgoing, and less socially

conscious (Girard et al., 2003). Perotti and Widrick (2005)found that customers' perceived convenience of

shopping on the Internet has a positive impact on online purchase behavior. Variety seeking consumers are

more willing to trade enjoyment for variety. A recent study suggests that when people are motivated to find

a variety of products in order to try different things, they will prefer to shop on the Internet because the

Internet provides an environment with a variety of goods and services. Therefore, people who are seeking

variety are more likely to shop on the Internet (Girard et al., 2003).

Studies found that not all consumer behaviors are well planned. A person may buy merchandise on impulse

while walking down an aisle in a store, or may suddenly decide to go inside a store on impulse while

walking down the street (Girard et al., 2003). Some consumers have used impulse buying as an interesting

and spontaneous way to complete their grocery shopping, as their shopping lists were often incomplete

(Ramus and Nielsen, 2005). Impulse purchase is more likely to be for inexpensive or less expensive items

seen in a store environment while shopping for other goods (Girard et al., 2003). However, people are less

likely to buy on impulse on the Internet because online shopping is regarded as a much more planned and

organized (Ramus and Nielsen, 2005) activity. Some earlier studies have identified some persons who enjoy

shopping as a leisure activity and tend to browse in retail outlets “without an upcoming purchase in mind,”

such shoppers are named as “recreational shoppers.” They are interested in gaining knowledge about a

specific product and actively seek for product information such as price and product quality. An earlier

study on recreational shoppers reveals that while convenience or economic shoppers do not enjoy shopping

or harbor neutral feelings toward it, recreational shoppers are the people who enjoy shopping as a

leisure-time activity (Girard et al., 2003). There were some arguments that people who enjoy the shopping

process are unlikely to buy online, and that purchasing via the Internet is a poor substitute for the leisure

experience associated with the conventional shopping (Brown et al., 2003).

4. RESEARCH METHODS AND INSTRUMENT USED

This is a quantitative survey study using university students as the target respondents. Four hundred survey

questionnaires were delivered to students of four institutes of higher education in Malaysia. Of the 400

potential respondents, 300 questionnaires were collected with a response rate of 75%. A pilot test of the

4 | A Study On Shopping Orientation And Online Purchase Intention: A Comparison Of University Students Among Three Races

© ORIC Publications/2013

questionnaire was conducted before collected the real data for this study. The purpose of the test was to

identify any items that may be difficult to comprehend and to revise them prior to conducting this survey. A

pilot test of the questions was also useful to check for the reliability of the questions and estimated time

required to complete the survey questions.

The respondents were asked to complete self-administered questionnaires for this study. Respondents were

first asked to provide demographic information including gender, age, race, the year and course of study,

monthly allowance, and average hours spent on the Internet per day. One single-measured item was used to

examine the online browsing experience among the respondent. Each respondent was asked to indicate how

frequently they indulged in online browsing over the last 12 months using a six-point scale, ranging from (1)

never, (2) rarely, (3) few times in a year, (4) few times in a month, (5) few times in a week, and (6) daily.

Besides, each respondent was asked to rank his/her degree of probability to purchase online in the future,

ranging from (1) definitely will not, (2) probably will not, (3) only if I cannot find the things in retail stores,

(4) probably will, and (5) definitely will. Meanwhile, the respondents’ shopping orientation was assessed by

an instrument adapted from Lesser and Hughes (1986). In details there were five types of shopping

orientations namely price consciousness (8 items), convenience (4 items), variety-seeking (3 items),

impulsiveness (6 items,) and recreational (6 items). All of these items were measured using five-point scales,

ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree in Table 1.

5. RESEARCH FINDINGS

5.1 The Characteristics of the Respondents The respondents of this study consisted of 103 male and 197 female students. Eighty-one of them were

between 18 and 21 years old (26%), 175 between 22 and 23 years (59%), and 44 were 24 years and above

(15%). Majority of the respondents (235 students) were from the public university (78%) and 65 students

were from the private setting (22%). Most of the respondents had a monthly allowance between RM250 and

RM499. In terms of the number of hours spent on the Internet, majority of the respondents spent one to three

hours on the Internet per day (62%).

5.2 Online Browsing Experience and Future Online Purchasing Intention Most of the respondents in the study rarely browsed for products or services information with about 23% of

the respondents browsed for the information few times a year. About 17% of the respondents indicated that

they will definitely buy online in the future; and about 57% would probably buy online again in the future

based on their experience of buying online. Seven of the respondents would buy online only if they could

not find the things they wanted in the retail stores. Only one respondent indicated that he/she probably

would not buy online in the future; and also one respondent definitely would not buy online again.

5.3 Types of Shopping Orientations in Relation to Decision to Buy Online and Race Differences To find out whether the Internet user’s probability to buy online in the future is related to their shopping

orientations, five hypotheses were developed to test on the relationships. The five shopping orientations

were price conscious, convenience orientation, recreational shopping orientation, variety seeking, and

impulsiveness. These five hypotheses were tested using Pearson Correlation analysis to determine the

strength of the relationships between each shopping orientation and the probability to buy online in the

future. The results of the present study showed that of the five types of shopping orientation, those

convenience shoppers have a higher tendency to purchase online (r= 0.571, p ≤ .01). However, the results

also showed that those impulsive shoppers have less intention in online purchasing (r= -0.308, p ≤ .01).

There is no significant correlation between the remaining three shopping orientations with the respondent’s

future purchasing intention. See Table 2 for the correlation results.

Looking into the race differences in shopping orientations, the results of the cross-tabs analysis showed that

B. C. Yin-Fah, H. Kok-Siew, L. Yet-Mee | 5

Journal of Human And Social Science Research / Vol. 2, No. 1 (2013), 1-7

there is a significant difference in recreational shopping orientation among races (Pearson χ2 (2, N =300) =

126.980, p≤0. 05). A close inspection for the pattern of differences revealed that Malay respondents have the

highest mean compared to the Chinese respondents, followed by the Indians respondents.

The finding of this study is consistent with the arguments made by Stevenson and Plath (2000) where racial

differences in values and attitudes would be manifested in their shopping and consumption patterns. See

Table 2 for the results of race differences in shopping orientations.

6. CONCLUSION

The findings of this study show that Malaysian student consumers are still relatively low in online browsing

and intention to purchase online. This low involvement rate in browsing and online buying provides a room

for improvements for marketers to promote their e-marketing channels to this targeted group. Marketers

need to approach and encourage student consumers to access to their e-marketing channels. Some pull or

even push strategies need to apply in nurturing the online browsing practices among the student consumers.

It is crucial as the more frequent they go for online browsing, the higher probability they opt for online

purchasing.

Looking into the relationships between the various types of shopping orientations and future online

purchasing intention, among the five shopping orientations, convenience orientation is having the strongest

relation with the probability to buy online in the future. Consumers who are convenience-oriented will have

a higher probability to purchase online. The several types of convenience provided by online shopping may

explain this relationship. The types of convenience provided by online shopping include access convenience,

search convenience, transaction convenience, time convenience, place convenience, schedule convenience

and comparison convenience (Kaufman-Scarborough and Lindquist, 2002).

Impulsiveness is one of the shopping orientations that have a negative relation with the probability to buy

online. Impulsive consumers will always buy something without planning. They will usually end up by

buying a lot of things that they do not need. Impulse purchase is more likely to be for inexpensive or less

expensive items seen in a store environment while shopping for other goods (Girard et al., 2003). Thus,

people are less likely to buy on impulse on the Internet because online shopping was regarded as much more

planned and organized (Ramus and Nielsen, 2005).

The results of comparison among three races on shopping orientations showed that there were no significant

differences among the three races in the types of shopping orientations except recreational shopping

orientation. Malay, Chinese, and Indian university students are similar in their shopping orientations in price

consciousness to the product or service, convenience, variety-seeking of the product or service, and behavior

of impulsiveness when purchasing. For the Malay consumer group, marketers may need to lure them to shop

by incorporating some entertainment theme in their promotion strategies.

On a final note, this research was clearly based on a relatively small sample size, and thus the results may

not be able to generalize to the whole Malaysian student population in general. Future studies on online

buying behavior may include non-student consumer groups with different age groups and races. The

inclusion of other segment consumer groups in future studies might produce more insights and implications

for online market segmentation and strategies.

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Table 1: Shopping Orientations

Price consciousness

1. I always look for bargain prices.

2. I notice price differences in products and services.

3. I always compare prices before making any purchase.

4. I buy items that are on sale.

5. I usually check prices for the things I buy.

6. I shop a lot for specials.

7. A person can save a lot of money by shopping around for bargains.

8. I usually pay attention to sales and specials.

Convenience

1. I shop from home for convenience.

2. I don’t enjoy searching around when I buy something.

3. I don’t like complicated products.

4. I prefer to shop at convenient places.

Variety-seeking

1. I like new style in the things I buy.

2. I like great deal of variety in the things I buy.

3. I like to try different things.

Impulsiveness

1. I think twice before I buy something.

2. I stick to my shopping list or the things I have planned to buy.

3. I spend time planning for my purchases.

4. I think I am an impulsive buyer.

5. I usually end up buying that I do no need.

6. I am more likely to plan my purchases than buy on impulse.

1. Shopping is fun.

2. Buying makes me happy.

3. Shopping is great for my mood.

4. I like to browse even though I am not buying anything.

5. Shopping gives me a lot of pleasure.

6. Going shopping is like an outing to me.

Table 2: Types of Shopping Orientation versus Online Purchasing Intention and Race Differences

Variable Price

Consciousness

Convenience

Shopping

Variety Seeking

Shopping

Impulsiveness

Shopping

Recreational Shopping

r F r F r F R F r F

Online

Purchasing

Intention

0.055 0.571** 0.091 -0.308** -0.002

Race 0.008 1.881 0.286 1.079 3.108**

Remark: *p ≤.05, **p ≤ .01