Your topic: To investigate if there ... - Dissertation KingdomI [type your full first names & surname here], declare that the following dissertation/thesis and its entire content has

Your topic: To investigate if there are difference consumer perception and attitude towards the Body Shop in the UK

Paper Type: Dissertation

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Number of page: 48

Chinese Perception And British Consumers ii

[Compilation Behaviour Chinese Perception and British Consumers the Body Shop in the

UK]

by

[Your official name]

B.S., [University], 2012

Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Bachelor of ________

University Name

[Last month of quarter you plan to graduate]

Date_______, 2012

Chinese Perception And British Consumers iii

DEDICATION

I dedicate this dissertation to my wonderful family, particularly to my Parents. Their time,

energy, and support were critical to the completion of my dissertation. I also my thanks to all my

class mates helped in this research project. I learned about the energy, enthusiasm and motivation

that one can achieve from someone else’s success. I hope to carry this lesson with me long after

new research has advanced our understanding of incidental learning. Special thanks to my

academic supervisor, [Dr____Name_____], for his/her commitment and guidance throughout the

project.

Chinese Perception And British Consumers iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Writing this thesis has been very demanding, challenging and time-consuming, but also

remarkable, informative and above all fun. Nevertheless, it feels great to have finally completed

my master’s thesis and I am now looking forward to a nice relaxing period for recovering. It has

been both advantages and drawbacks with the limited amount of earlier research conducted within

this area, even though I faced serious troubles but sometimes the advantages of this research

luckily were in my favour and have made this research both challenging and interesting.

I would like to thank my supervisor -------, professor at -------University, who has been

great in guiding my through this thesis, helping me through the difficulties I faced during the entire

process and motivated me to work hard. Furthermore, I would like to thank all my friends, for their

contributions by sharing their perceptions and opinions with me. Above all I would like to thank

my family and teachers that provided me with valuable and constructive criticism.

Chinese Perception And British Consumers v

DECLARATION

I [type your full first names & surname here], declare that the following dissertation/thesis

and its entire content has been an individual, unaided effort and has not been submitted or

published before. Furthermore, it reflects my opinion and take on the topic and is does not

represent the opinion of the University.

Signature: _________________

Dated: ___________________

Chinese Perception And British Consumers vi

ABSTRACT

All over the world purchasing over internet become more popular day by day and therefore the

importance of online marketing is augmented within the last couple of years due to prevalence of

internet usage and increase of confidence in the virtual world. UK is one of the countries where

online shopping is very common and China with its evoking economy moreover strong history and

culture is a very popular country to study therefore comparison of British and Chinese attitude

towards online shopping within the field of culture and infrastructural development give an insight

for online sellers to develop their strategies to these countries. The purpose of this research is to

determine Chinese and British customer attitude towards purchasing over internet in a comparative

way while evaluating cultural dimensions and infrastructural developments in both countries. This

research both includes qualitative and quantitative approach to keep the balance of efficiency and

reliability of our data we collected. Data collection method both lies on primary and secondary

research such as interviews, questionnaires and documentation. Surveys and interviews were

conducted over internet and secondary data was collected from articles, related studies and books.

The investigation shows that online shopping promise a bigger market share for both of the

countries in the future. The determination of consumer attitude relies on lots of parameters which

are playing a role stimulating each other interactively. However it is obvious that the main reason

for not buying online is the lack of trust and confidence. On the other hand, people prefer online

purchasing for lower prices.

Chinese Perception And British Consumers vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................... III

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. IV

DECLARATION ............................................................................................................................. V

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... VI

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1

1.1 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................................................. 1

1.1.1 Consumer Behaviour and Attitude ............................................................................................................ 2

1.1.2 Country and Product Choice ..................................................................................................................... 2

1.1.3 Factors influencing customer attitude ...................................................................................................... 3

1.2 RESEARCH QUESTION .................................................................................................................................... 4

1.3 TARGET AUDIENCE ........................................................................................................................................ 4

1.4 DEFINITIONS ................................................................................................................................................... 4

1.5 BACKGROUND OF THE COMPANY .................................................................................................................. 6

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................................... 11

1.1 LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................................................. 11

1.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ....................................................................................................................... 11

2.2.1 The Online Existence of the Company .................................................................................................... 11

2.3 CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR ............................................................................................................................... 12

2.3.1. Involvement .......................................................................................................................................... 12

2.3.2. Attitudes ............................................................................................................................................... 13 2.3.2.1 The ABC Model of Attitudes ............................................................................................................................ 13 2.3.2.2 Using social responsibility to Create Positive Consumer Attitudes ................................................................. 14

2.3.3. Decision-Making Process .................................................................................................................... 15

2.4 IMPORTANT FACTORS WHEN BUYING THE BODY SHOP ............................................................................ 17

2.5 EFFECTS OF CULTURE ON CONSUMER ATTITUDE ...................................................................................... 17

2.6 HOFSTEDE’S CULTURAL DIMENSIONS ......................................................................................................... 18

2.7 PSYCHOLOGY AND ONLINE SHOPPING ........................................................................................................ 19

2.3 INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT ............................................................................................................ 20

2.4 CONSUMER ATTITUDE TOWARDS SHOPPING............................................................................................... 21

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ......................................................................... 23

3.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................................... 23

3.2 TOPIC SELECTION ........................................................................................................................................ 23

3.3 RESEARCH DESIGN ....................................................................................................................................... 24

3.4 RESEARCH MODULE ..................................................................................................................................... 26

3.5 DATA COLLECTION ...................................................................................................................................... 27

3.5.1 Quantitative and Qualitative Data collection methods ........................................................................... 27

3.6 QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN ............................................................................................................................. 28

3.6.1 Part 1: Online Cosmetic Buying Behaviour ............................................................................................ 29

3.6.2 Part 2: Attitude Towards Online Cosmetics Buying ............................................................................... 29

3.6.3 Part 3: Demographics .............................................................................................................................. 29

3.7 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................................... 30

3.8 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY ........................................................................................................................ 30

3.9 LIMITATION .................................................................................................................................................. 31

CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS ......................................................................... 32

4.1 FINDINGS OF SECONDARY DATA .................................................................................................................. 32

4.1.1 The Comparison of Infrastructural Development in China and in UK ................................................. 32

4.1.2 Online Shopping Demographics .............................................................................................................. 34 4.1.2.1 Gender .............................................................................................................................................................. 34 4.1.2.2 Age .................................................................................................................................................................... 35

4.1.3 Cultural differences between British and Chinese Online Shoppers ..................................................... 36

Chinese Perception And British Consumers viii

4.2 ANALYSIS OF SECONDARY DATA ................................................................................................................. 39

4.3 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS FROM QUESTIONNAIRE AND OFT SURVEY ........................................................ 42

4.4 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS FROM INTERVIEWS ............................................................................................. 51

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 54

5.1 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................................. 54

5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................................................................................... 55

5.2.1 Culture influence ..................................................................................................................................... 55

5.2.2 Infrastructure development ..................................................................................................................... 57

5.3 LIMITATIONS ................................................................................................................................................ 57

5.4 IMPLICATIONS .............................................................................................................................................. 58

5.5 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ....................................................................................................... 59

APPENDICES ................................................................................................................................. 61

APPENDIX 1 ............................................................................................................................................................. 61

APPENDIX 2 ............................................................................................................................................................. 63

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................... 66

Chinese Perception And British Consumers 1

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Consumer perception and attitude towards a brand is a topic that has become increasingly

important over the last few years. As information about third world working conditions and

environmental issues reaches the consumers much faster today, consumers are starting to put

pressure on companies. Consequently, the marketplace is becoming increasingly conscience-

focused and the demand for more ethical businesses is increasing. This means that companies need

to take more responsibility now than in the past to keep the trust and loyalty of the consumers.

Consumer perception and attitude is not a new concept, however. The question of whether

or not firms should be concerned with Consumer perception and attitude has been widely debated

since the 1950’s. It has previously been argued by some, such as Friedman, that businesses should

limit their actions only to profit maximization (Boulstridge, 2000, 355-368). But, while the goal of

firms may be to gain profit, more recent research has shown that Consumer perception and attitude

can actually be a way of raising profit for a company, as Consumer perception and attitude can

serve as a powerful tool in creating competitive advantage (Lantos, 2001, 595-632).

To survive in today’s fierce competition, companies need to establish some kind of

competitive advantage, and there are two ways of doing this: through differentiation or cost

leadership. Differentiation is considered to be a more secure basis for competitive advantage, since

it will not be as vulnerable to innovation as cost leadership. The differentiation strategy has to

exploit the uniqueness of the each individual company’s resources and capabilities, and build upon

the company’s key strengths and core competencies (Mohr, Webb and Katherine, 2001, 121-147).

This is where Consumer perception and attitude can play a crucial role, as it may be used as a basis

to differentiate the brand by incorporating it in the corporate image. This may lead to positive

brand attitudes, positive purchase decisions and eventually competitive advantage in the form of

brand loyalty (Freeman, 1984, 65-77). Loyal customers will create barriers for competitors who try

to take over the company’s customers, and this will allow the company to mark up the prices of

their products (Bryman, and Bell, 2007, 56-77).


These days, most companies present their Consumer perception and attitude on the website

or in information brochures, but few base their competitive advantage on being socially

responsible. One example of a company known for their extensive Consumer perception and

attitude is, however, The Body Shop. The company was regarded a pioneer when it comes to using

Consumer perception and attitude as a major tool in their marketing strategy, and is still a company

that many people associate with strong consumer perception and purchasing behavior (De

Chernatony, & McDonald, 1992, 112-123).

1.1.1 Consumer Behaviour and Attitude

The shopping behaviour (in other words “buying behaviour shopping/buying behaviour”)

refers to the process of purchasing products or services over the Internet. In the typical shopping

process, when a need for some merchandise or service is recognized by potential customers, search

process for need-related information on the internet starts. However, potential consumers mostly

are attracted by information about products or services associated with the felt need instead of

searching actively. They then assess alternatives and choose the most suitable one fitting their

criteria for meeting the felt need. Lastly, a transaction is processed and post-sales services

provided. “The shopping attitude refers to consumers‟ psychological state in terms of making

purchases on the Internet.” (Li & Zhang, 2002, p.508)

1.1.2 Country and Product Choice

In order to have more concrete results from our deep examination into evaluation of virtual

shopping we decided to make our research in country level and product basement. We chose China

and UK to develop the comparative approach since they are different in terms of infrastructural

development, cultural dimensions and perceptions of shopping. Additionally we chose cosmetics

industry since most of the brands are global, well-known and standardized. Thus we try to avoid

the effect of type of product on customer’s perceptions and we could have a sheer picture of

consumer perspective towards purchasing. Since the purchase size and low or high-involvement


purchase affect the criteria of shopping, to narrow the boundaries down to product type provide a

specific area to search.

1.1.3 Factors influencing customer attitude

First, we start to build up our research with country’s infrastructural development since

they depict the roots of internet usage and the mentality of people towards activities. We try to

answer how a country’s infrastructure capability can affect the buying behavior and contribute to

diversity of the outcomes of electronic marketing.

The emergence of country-level factors is an important determinant in global electronic

commerce. The significant proportion of particularly online buyers today is non- English speakers

and it causes increasing in language translations for localization of websites and even emerging of

language-specific URLs and multilingual domain names. It has been demonstrated that cultural

factors have compelling impact on how internet users browse, shop, and even influence their

expectations from a particular web site. Additionally research has also shown that adaptation of

web content to culture creates better usability, more favourable attitude toward the site, and higher

purchase intentions. (Krishnamurthy and Singh, 2005) In the light of this information we compared

China and UK in cultural and attitudinal context to get the overview for national aspects of

shopping behaviour. In addition to all, Hofstede’s cultural dimension regarding China and UK shed

light on analysis of national drawbacks and backbones of online shopping in international context.

Since The Body Shop products are mainly produced for women, Hofstede’s masculinity/ feminity

findings help in depiction of gender demographics of countries. Moreover, since companies are

highly dealing with ambiguity concerns over internet, Hofstede‟s uncertainty avoidance clarifies

countries approach towards online shopping.

Aside from country-level issues, human beings have a lot in common and psychology is a

science which should be sometimes evaluated globally besides national psychology. Milutinovic

and Patricelli (2002) state that electronic marketing without taking psychology into consideration


is impossible. Overall, we merged all these terms mentioned above and analyzed and compared

the Chinese and British consumer attitude towards online shopping.

1.2 Research Question

What is the Chinese customers‟ attitude towards online purchasing of The Body Shop

comparing with British customers?

1.3 Target Audience

The primary focus group:

The Body Shop sellers ( even other products sellers can share the similar features of

shopping knowledge and skills): E-bay, Taobao, Strawberry users

The Body Shop online buyers : About what they should pay attention to when they are

making an online purchase

The Body Shop store retailers if they want establish a online store

1.4 Definitions

Many of the concepts used in this research can be ascribed a wide variation of definitions.

Below follows a list of key concepts and words that will be used frequently throughout the thesis.

This will ensure that the reader will interpret the concepts in the same way the researchers have

done while conducting the study.

Consumer perception and Behavior: Consumer perception is the study of consumers and

the methods that is selected by consumer to use and dispose of services and products, it also

involve that how these method leave impact on the world (Smith, 2003, 52-76). Consumer

perception integrates ideas from various sciences i.e. psychology, chemistry, economics and

finance, biology. This definition was selected for the purpose of this thesis because it gives a clear

explanation of the concept and fits well with the consumer perception, behaviour and attitude

undertaken by The Body Shop.


The Body Shop: When the Body Shop is mentioned in this study it is referred to both as a

company and brand. This because it is believed that the consumers see little difference between

The Body Shop as a brand and as a company, since the company and the products the company sell

go under the same name (The Body Shop).

Visitor (to The Body Shop store): A person entering through the doors of The Body Shop

store in UK

Cosmetics: The US Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act defines cosmetics as “articles intended

to be rubbed, poured, sprinkled or sprayed on, introduced into or otherwise applied to the human

body or any part thereof for cleaning, beautifying, promoting attractiveness or altering the

appearance” (Saunders, and Thornhill, 2007, 90-110). This definition has been used in this study

because it includes all of the products in The Body Shop product range.

Brand: A name, term, sign, symbol or a combination of these, that identifies the maker or

seller of the product, designed to enhance the identity of the product.

Competitive Advantage: A firm has a competitive advantage over its competitors when it

earns, or has the potential to earn, a continually higher rate of profit. This can be due to higher

market share, customer loyalty etc (Grant, 2008, 23-44).

Corporate Identity: A step in the branding process, the picture that the company is trying

to create about who they are in the minds of the consumers.

Corporate Image: The picture that the consumers actually have of a company.

Attitude: An individual's evaluation of people, objects or issues, generally positive or

negative.

Attitude Object: The object which a person has the attitude towards. In this study, the

attitude object referred to will be The Body Shop.

Consumer: A person who consumes, or uses a certain category of products (i.e.

cosmetics).

Online shopping: It is defined as “The act of purchasing products or services over the

Internet. Online shopping has grown in popularity over the years, mainly because people find it


convenient and easy to bargain and shop from the comfort of their home or office. One of the most

enticing factor about online shopping, particularly during a holiday season, is it alleviates the need

to wait in long lines or search from store to store for a particular item.(Business Dictionary, n.d.).”

Such as An online shop, electronic shop, electronic store, internet shop, web-shop, web-store,

online store, or virtual store

Electronic Service Quality: Recently electronic service has become popular in the world

with the proliferation of the Internet, but the theory and practice of electronic service is still in its

infancy, and there is not an agreement on the definition of electronic service. (Li & Suomi, 2007)

In general electronic service can be defined as interactive, content-centred, and Internet-base

customer service that is driven by the customers and integrated with the support of technologies

and systems offered by service providers, which is aiming at strengthening the customer provider

relationship (Li & Suomi, 2007)

With the rapid global growth in electronic commerce, businesses are attempting to gain a

competitive advantage by using electronic commerce to interact with customers. Businesses with

the most experience and success in using electronic commerce are beginning to realize that the key

determinants of success or failure are not merely web site presence and low price but also include

the electronic service quality (electronic service quality) (Yang, 2001; Zeithaml, 2002). Santos

(2003) defined electronic service quality as overall customer assessment and judgment of

electronic service delivery in the virtual marketplace (cited in Li & Suomi, 2007).

1.5 Background of the Company

The Body Shop is a multinational company, producing and selling beauty and cosmetic

products. The brand was founded in the UK by Dame Anita Roddick in 1976, and has grown

significantly since (cited in Smith, 2003, 52-53). The shops can now be found in 61 countries,

including Sweden. The five core values expressed on The Body Shop’s home page are the

following:

Support Community Trade


Defend Human Rights

Against Animal Testing

Activate Self-Esteem

Protect Our Planet

These core values serve as a foundation to The Body Shop’s mission statement, as it relies

heavily upon social responsibility, it does not even mention products or any financial expectations

or goals.

The company clearly bases its core values on Consumer perception and attitude and then

uses these core values as a basis for their differentiation and branding. In this way they hope to

build a strong brand that will create positive consumer attitudes, which will lead to positive

purchase decisions.

In order for social responsibility to lead to positive attitudes, the Consumer perception and

attitude has to be perceived as trustworthy by the consumers.

Using Consumer perception and attitude as a core value means that Consumer perception

and attitude becomes more a way of running the business, instead of just a separate project. Apart

from The Body Shop’s social activism, it was also among the first firms in the world to publish a

report on its social responsibility initiatives. In 1991, it issued the EU Eco-Management and Audit

Regulation, and the company also developed internal audit programs to ensure environmental

protection, health and safety at work, and monitoring of the company’s “Against Animal Testing

Policy” (Purkayastha, 2006, 96). During the writing process of this thesis, The Body Shop is

running a campaign with MTV named “YesYesYes to Safe Sex”. The aim is to increase the

awareness of how fast HIV is spread in the world, and to encourage people to always have safe

sex.

The trustworthiness of The Body Shop’s Consumer perception and attitude efforts can be

questioned. Is the Consumer perception and attitude in the marketing campaigns based on honest

care and concerns for the nature and the workers – or is it a smart façade that makes the brand look

good? This is a question that has been discussed by cynics and critical thinkers.


In March 2006, The Body Shop was taken over by the cosmetic manufacturer L’Oreal. The

French company, that also owns several other cosmetic brands, paid £652m (8.8 billion SEK18)

for the acquisition (Becker, Andrew and Ron, 2006, 46-53). There was some scepticism, mostly

concerning the animal-testing, when people were afraid that what The Body Shop had been

representing would now disappear. Ruth Rosselson, a writer for Ethical Consumer Magazine,

wrote that

“It’s ironic that a company well known for its anti-animal-testing stance should sell out to

one that tests on animals and has yet to show its commitment to any ethical issues at all (Becker,

Andrew and Ron, 2006, 46-53).”

Catherine Robens has in her master thesis found that even though there were negative

attitudes towards the acquisition, the buying behaviour of the consumers did not change

dramatically (Kotler, and Keller, 2009).

Using Consumer perception and attitude in branding is based on the assumption that

Consumer perception and attitude, as a branding tool, will evoke positive consumer attitudes

towards the brand, and that these attitudes will create a positive corporate image, which will lead to

positive purchase decisions and loyal customers. But what lies behind this assumption, and is this a

safe assumption to make? How strong is the link between social responsibility and positive

consumer attitudes? And will these positive brand attitudes actually affect the consumer’s purchase

decision?

Whether or not consumer perception and attitude is an effective tool in branding, and if

there is an obvious connection between well communicated consumer attitude and purchase

decisions are topics that are of high interest in the current branding debate. As the marketplace is

becoming increasingly competitive, and the importance of having a strong brand to survive grows,

the question of social responsibility is now put in a branding context. A shift in focus of the social

responsibility debate becomes visible; it is no longer about whether or not companies should use

customer attitude, but more a question of how it should be used, and how effective it can be as a

branding tool (Meffert, 2009, 47-53).


Consumer behaviour theory, especially theory regarding attitude formation and purchase

decisions, suggest that the use of trustworthy, strategic social responsibility should have positive

effects on the consumer’s purchase decisions. A number of researchers have been trying to confirm

this link, where the most common finding seem to be that it is difficult to prove a strong

connection between social responsibility and positive purchase decisions in reality. Mohr et al state

that consumers’ beliefs about social responsibility are often inconsistent with their behaviours

(Clifton, 2000, 74).

Much of the previous research has been conducted on companies where the customer

perception may not be widely known. In these studies, the consumer’s claim that they would

switch brands to support social responsibility and that they have more positive attitudes towards

socially responsible brands. But, in practice, some of these studies show that customer perception

is not a dominant criterion in the purchase decision. Where no clear connection between customer

perception and purchase decision can be proved, the explanation provided is the consumers’ lack

of knowledge regarding the companies’ social responsibility. It is argued that if the consumers

were more aware of the customer perception of the companies, their purchase decisions would look

different. Previous research also concludes that the relationship between beliefs and behaviour will

be stronger the more important the consumers judge these issues to be. Furthermore, much of the

research that has been conducted trying to link consumer perception to purchase behaviour has

focused on knowledge of consumer perception, by measuring to what extent the social

responsibility is known to the consumers (Smith, 2003, 52-76).

Thus, a gap in the research becomes visible. Is it possible to, with regard to the gap

between attitudes and purchase behaviour that previous studies have found, draw the conclusion

that this is a general principle? Or is there a stronger link between consumer perception and buying

behaviour if the consumer perception of the company is well known? What this study aims to do is

to explore branding and consumer behaviour theories and test the suggested connection between

consumer perception and positive purchase decisions, but adding the factor of well known

consumer perception. By doing this, the researchers will approach the gap in the previous research


by investigating whether or not the conclusions come to by other researchers are true: that there

might be a connection between consumer perception and purchase decisions if the consumer

perception is well known (Papasolomou, 2005, 263-279).

The study considers this research is important because it will test the conclusions that

previous research have come to, and will thus provide new, valuable information to the branding

debate. This contribution is done by providing some answers to the question of whether consumer

perception should be used in branding by companies, which is a widely discussed topic in the

current marketing debate.


Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Literature Review

This chapter explains the literature searched and utilized through the whole dissertation

belonging to different authors and resources which leads us to build up the knowledge of the

inquiry to find out the major and minor theories for the conceptual framework.

The research builds upon the literature in electronic commerce and past research in marketing with

the objective of understanding factors that impact the Body Shop purchasing attitude in China and

UK. A review of marketing channel choice literature reveals a set of factors and channel choice

functions that are considered important in making channel decisions.

Fisher (2007) suggests using a mixture of materials, but the combinations vary from topic

to topic. The ratio of use of books, journals, the World Wide Web, dissertations depends on what

the literature is available and how we make synthesis with ideas, materials and theory it includes.

We keep searching electronic books, books, articles, full-text and bibliographic databases and the

World Wide Web.

1.2 Theoretical Framework

2.2.1 The Online Existence of the Company

What can arise first and foremost when it is subject to electronic marketing is: Web site

building and promotion which is one of the most crucial elements of company’s web existence,

and it ought to be carefully carried out (Milutinovic & Patricelli, 2002). According to what Sheth

and Sharma found (2005, p. 13) the outstanding advantages of electronic marketing are

accessibility and decrease in costs which are achieved by providing three areas customers can

benefit from: “First, the marketing firm can provide unlimited information to customers without

human intervention. This is an advantage over other forms of contact because the amount of

information that can be provided is much greater than in any other form of communication.

Additionally, and more importantly, the information can be provided in a form that customers can

easily process and understand.” In addition, in this context, the preferences are very wide and

create difficulties for providing in any format which is better that the electronic marketing or web-


based format. “Second, the electronic marketing firm can create interactions by customizing

information for individual customers that allow customers to design products and services that

meet their specific requirements.” For example, the customers can process online checking and

seat assignment through internet. “Finally, electronic marketing platforms can allow transactions

between customers and firms that would typically require human contact as in the case of

successful firms such as Dell and amazon.com. “

Bai et al. (2008) claim that there is a high correlation between consumer‟s perceptions of

the quality as well as values of their interactions with technology and consumer characteristics,

such as their demographics, lifestyles, experience with other technology-based systems, and

technology readiness. In the light of this information, we developed our conceptual framework

within the area of how cultural background affect consumer attitudes and moreover the influence

of infrastructural development on online shopping without ignoring demographic profile of

consumers. All in all, we based theories within the field of psychological and attitudinal

phenomenon.

2.3 Consumer Behaviour

This section discusses that how the positive attitudes are created and whether positive

attitudes towards a brand will lead to positive purchase behaviour. Hence, this chapter has more of

a consumer behaviour perspective.

2.3.1.Involvement

Before analyzing consumers’ attitude formation and decision process, their level of

involvement in the decision has to be decided. The level of involvement decides how motivated the

consumer is to process information. According to de Chernatony and McDonald, consumers are

often highly involved when buying products that are used to reflect the buyers’ self image, such as

The Body Shop (Martínez, 2003, 432-448). When consumers are highly involved in the purchase

and perceive significant differences between brands they will use an extended problem solving

process. In this process, consumers will seek information more actively. For this reason, companies


targeting high involvement consumers need to reinforce their brands’ unique differential position

in the market, and identify the attributes that are perceived as important by the consumers, to be

able to communicate those as strongly as possible (Nguyen, 2003, 447-454). Hence, for high

involvement products, differentiation through the use of Consumer perception and attitude can be

an effective strategy to implement. When consumers are highly involved, the attitudes they create

about certain brands are deep-seated and become part of the consumer’s value system. These

attitudes are very important to the consumer and this makes them hard to change (Reast, 2005, 4-

13).

2.3.2.Attitudes

An attitude is an individual's evaluation of people, objects or issues, generally positive or

negative. An attitude object is the object that a person has the attitude towards (Sinclair, 2005, 5-

8). Attitudes towards brands are formed in many different ways. In order to understand why

consumers perceive certain brands in certain ways, it is important to understand how attitudes are

created and what they consist of. The ABC model tries to describe this process.

2.3.2.1 The ABC Model of Attitudes

The ABC model emphasizes the interrelationship between feeling, doing and

knowing. In this model, there are three components which together form an attitude:

Affect refers to the feeling that the consumer has towards the attitude object

Behaviour involves the intention that the consumer has to do something in regard to the

attitude object

Cognition refers to the beliefs the consumer has about the attitude object

Even though all three components are important, the relative importance of each of these

will be decided by the consumer’s level of involvement in regard to an attitude object (Srinivasan,

2005, 359-371).

The ABC model uses a hierarchy of effects to explain the relative impact these three

concepts will have in the formation of an attitude. The different hierarchies described are standard

involvement hierarchy, low involvement hierarchy and experiential hierarchy (Barone, 2007, 437-


445). When consumers are highly involved in the purchase decision, they are more likely to use the

standard involvement hierarchy. As already established in the previous part, buying The Body

Shop is often characterized by high involvement, which is why The Body Shop’s consumers are

most likely to use a standard involvement hierarchy. The two other hierarchy models are therefore

considered to be of less relevance to this research, which is why they will not be further examined.

Figure 2.1: Standard Involvement Hierarchy

In the standard involvement hierarchy process, the consumer will initially collect

knowledge about certain objects with regard to several attributes, and then form their own beliefs

about those objects. When these beliefs are formed, feelings regarding the object are created, and

finally the consumer’s behaviour is based on these feelings. This means that the attitudes

consumers develop in the standard involvement hierarchy are based on cognitive information

processing. This way of creating attitudes will often lead to brand loyalty (Srinivasan, 2005, 359-

371).

The ABC model explains how attitudes are created in general. The next section will focus

on how consumer attitudes are created with the use of Consumer perception and attitude.

2.3.2.2 Using social responsibility to Create Positive Consumer Attitudes

The theory presented so far has shown how consumer perception and buying behaviour can

be used as a branding tool to create a positive corporate image, which will lead to positive

consumer attitudes. Being socially responsible will not automatically lead to positive consumer

attitudes, however. When consumers form attitudes towards a brand in regard to social

responsibility, the perceived motive behind the company’s social responsibility is a crucial factor.

These perceived underlying motives for the social responsibility will affect the consumer’s

evaluation of the brand and thus affect beliefs, attitudes, and purchase decisions (Barone, 2007,

437-445). Prior research shows that it is very unusual that consumers unconditionally accept social

responsibility efforts as honest actions. When they are exposed to a company’s social


responsibility, they will question the trustworthiness of the social responsibility and then try to

assign one of two main types of motives to the company:

Self serving, where the goal, or underlying motive, is to increase profits and sales,

Public serving, where the goal, or underlying motive, is to help citizens in need, save the

environment or raise awareness for a specific issue.

This scepticism regarding social responsibility and the true motives behind it arises because

consumers instinctively believe social responsibility to be motivated by company self-interest.

Consumer attitudes stemming from social responsibility not only depend on the socially

responsible act itself or the perceived motives behind it, but also on how well the consumers

believe that the social responsibility actions fit with the company. In other words, the consumer

must believe that the social responsibility activities that the company engages in fit the company’s

purpose in order for positive attitudes to arise. If the social responsibility activities of a company

are inconsistent with prior expectations and actions of a company, it is much more difficult for the

consumer to integrate this new information into existing memory structures. Consumers who

develop such an in congruency will most likely have negative attitudes towards the company and

its social responsibility (James, 2005, 12-24).

Another interesting aspect of social responsibility and the creation of consumer attitudes is

that some social responsibility strategies may even affect the perceived quality of a specific

brand’s products (Da Silva, 2006, 293-305). Consumer attitudes and the formation of these have

now been explored. The next chapter will focus on the consumer’s decision making process and

the role these attitudes play in the evaluation of brands.

2.3.3.Decision-Making Process

Consumer attitudes towards a brand will serve as a basis in their decision making process.

The stages in the consumer’s decision making process are also influenced by many other factors,

such as time pressure, previous experience and advices from friends. Two other important issues

are the extent of involvement in the decision and perceptions of differences between competing


brands. As already discussed, consumers buying The Body Shop can be assumed to be highly

involved. The following decision making process applies to highly involved consumers (where

step two, three and four are most relevant to this study):

1. Awareness of a need. A purchase is something a consumer does in response to a need.

When a consumer realizes that there is a significant difference between his/her current state

and desired state, a need arises (Bijlsma, 2001, 192-207).

2. Information search. To satisfy this need, the consumer starts to look for information.

When consumers are highly involved they seek information more actively, which is why it

is extra important for the company to reinforce the brands unique differentiated position. It

is also important that they are reinforcing the attributes that the customers actually believe

are important.

3. Evaluating competing brands. After the information is gathered, the consumer will

evaluate competing brands against the criteria that they find most important. Evaluation is

done by considering the attributes of the different brands and examining how each brand

attribute measures up to the desired characteristics. In this brand evaluation procedure,

negative associations can have a harmful effect, whereas positive associations can improve

brand evaluations (Calderon, 1997, 293-304). The knowledge that the consumer has about

different brands is represented by beliefs, and the way these beliefs are organized in

peoples’ minds (step one in the ABC model). Using this knowledge, the consumer then

creates an evoked set of alternatives, which consists of the brands already in memory and

those that stand out in the evaluating process. The brands in the evoked set are those that

share similar features. Brand evaluation is also done through categorization. Consumers use

what they already know about a brand and those things to which it is similar to put the

brand in a certain category. Good brand positioning is crucial in this step, since the

marketer can influence which other brands they will be compared to. Hence, if a brand is

positioned on corporate responsible, it will most likely be compared to other socially

responsible brands (if the consumer considers this to be an important attribute). The way a


product is grouped with others is very important in determining its competitors and what

criteria that are used in making a brand choice. In this step, brand beliefs are formed. These

beliefs create attitudes, and if positive attitudes evolve, the consumer is more likely to

develop a positive purchase intention in the next step.

4. Purchase decision. Once a category of appealing brands is created, a selection must be

made. Consumers use certain dimensions, called evaluative criteria, when they decide

between competing options. They also look at how products differ from one another, and

the attributes used to differentiate among choices are determinant attributes (Kumar, 2006,

285-306).

5. Post purchase evaluation. If a consumer is satisfied after the purchase, the positive

attitudes will be strengthened and this will make the consumer look favourably upon the

brand in future purchase situations. This is how brand loyalty is created. Thus, in industries

where consumers are highly involved (such as in the cosmetic industry), using consumer

perception as a differentiating tool can create brand loyalty (Lynch, 2002, 5-12).

2.4 Important Factors When Buying The Body Shop

Previous studies, such as that by Nair and Pillai, have shown that the majority of the

consumers perceive quality to be the most important criterion for selecting The Body Shop,

followed by price as second most important and brand as third most important(MacDonald, 2005,

3-10). Many consumer behaviour experts have used self-theory to explain how consumers evaluate

brand differences. Self-theory suggests that a consumer will buy a brand because he/she feels that

the particular brand enhanced his/her own self image. Consequently, a consumer may decide not to

buy a brand because he/she considers the brand or company to be engaged in activities that are not

congruent with his/her own self image(Martínez, 2003, 432-448).

2.5 Effects of Culture on Consumer Attitude


Since Levitt (1983) proposed globalization of markets, assumptions of some scholars pointed

out that globalization had brought a progressively more homogenized proposition world market,

with a proliferation of consumers from different geographic locations and cultural backgrounds

having the same preferences. The stance that people from all over the world live in a more similar

pattern has triggered the prevalence of evolution of global brands with relatively standardized

marketing strategies across cultural boundaries according to Zou and Cavusgil (1996) (as cited in

Moon et al. in 2008).

However, Usunier (1997) reported a proof of increase in divergence, particularly among

industrialized countries. For example in Europe, even with economic union and progress toward

standardization of the political and social infrastructure, national cultural values have strong roots

in history and tend to be stable over time (De Mooij, 2000). (cited in Moon et al. in 2008)

Moreover, researchers in psychology have also found out different unique characteristics of

cultures as a result of studies on the nature of cultural divergences among countries. Nisbett et al.

(2001) added that these different impacts and values could change individual’s cognition,

perception and thought. Oliver (1980) explains the influence of national cultures on determinants

of satisfaction with stores which are related to customer’s framing pattern of perceptions and

cognitions. In addition to this customers from different national cultures may have assignments to

different degrees of value to the determinants of satisfaction with shopping (as cited in Lee et al. in

2009). Figure below illustrates the summary of theory above:

[Figure 2.2 .National culture and Value assignment (Lee et al., 2009)]

2.6 Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions


Hostede’s study contained 11600 questionnaires and conducted in more than 50 countries.

Four main cultural dimensions are derived from this study, which are named

individualism/collectivism, power distance, masculinity/ femininity and uncertainty avoidance.

According to his study, for example collectivist countries are more likely to have a close knit social

structure while individualistic countries people are more likely to care for themselves.

Power distance refers to the range of tolerance of people towards unequal distribution of

power. A masculine society favours assertiveness, earning money, showing of possessions and

caring little for others while feminine societies show reverse attributes. Uncertainty avoidance is

associated with the degree to which a society feels in danger when they encounter uncertain,

ambiguous and undefined situations. (Ghauri & Cateora, 2006)

Moreover, long term/ short term orientation is added as fifth dimension which was found in

a study among students in 23 countries around the world. It is dealing with thrift, perseverance for

long term while respect for tradition fulfilling social obligations for short term (Geert-Hofstede,

n.d.).

2.7 Psychology and Online Shopping

Milutinovic and Patricelli (2002) state the successful advertiser must know that certain

effects result in certain reactions, and use that knowledge to achieve increase in results and

prohibition of mistakes. Knowledge of a human nature is the core of effective advertising. The

principles of psychology are like a deep ocean and always developing and evolving. The first

principle of advertising: your expectations are inherently selfish. The visitors will only be

interested in their own benefit from the website and what they can get out of ordering from it

which cannot be found anywhere else (Milutinovic & Patricelli, 2002).

Dean and Hopkins (1999) found out (as cited in Milutinovic & Patricelli, 2002) four

aspects of the human nature which could and should be used throughout your internet advertising.

Curiosity - Curiosity can immensely motivate people. It acts like stimulation for human

drives. You can exploit from this factor of human nature by supplying some of the results which


were achieved with the help of your product, but not entirely exposing it to customers. Thus, you

will achieve the curiosity of the readers and induce them to order.

Extravagance - People want evidently the best, but they want to feel like they got it at a

reasonable price. As a consequence, you need to offer your potential customers an influential

product at a bargain price. Mostly, although all of your rivalries endure the same steps as you, it

will still be impressive for you to be the first who will account for the story of your product. This is

called preemptive advertising and the other companies will look like a copycat. As soon as

customers perceive the value your product contains, it will drive them to purchase it at such a

bargain price.

Fear of failure and of making the wrong decision. This is the biggest drawback which

advertisers have to get over to sell their product. People can hesitate in deciding to purchase your

product or not since they feel like it will end up badly or it won’t be able to meet their expectations

due to some trust issues to advertisers. There are two ways to overcome this phenomenon.

“The first one is to present and add credibility to your ads. Credibility is made through your

proof and through testimonials which you provide (it is almost impossible to build the credibility

without testimonials). The second one is to give a risk free guarantee. Let your potential customers

know that they can return the product for any reason. An even better method of overcoming the

customers' resistance is to allow them to try out the product for free and have them pay for it at the

end of the trial period. Would you rather buy from the person who gives you the car to try for a

week and allows you to pay later, or from the person who requires up-front payment?”

Exclusivity - People like to feel special and have their names pronounced. According to

research, an offer limited to a certain class of people is way more effective than a general offer. For

example, an offer limited to executives. People who feel like any advantage or facility of a product

which is dedicated to them will do everything not to lose that advantage.

2.3 Infrastructural Development


Watsons et al. (2002) stated that “Infrastructure development is usually associated with

economic development. Telecommunication density, broadband access, data processing devices

including PCs, PDAs and mobile phones address the issues of availability and access to the tools of

electronic marketing” ( as cited in Sheth & Sharma in 2005, p. 14). Doherty et al. stated that

infrastructure and development capability is one of the important factors which have an impact of

adoption of online sales. Therefore, it can be concluded that prioritizing this factor during the

assessment of the viability of an online sales initiative should not be ignored (2003).

2.4 Consumer Attitude towards Shopping

Loudan and Della Bitta defines attitude as “an enduring organization of motivational,

emotional, perceptual and cognitive process with respect to some aspects of the individual's

world¡± (as cited in Evans et al. in 2006). A liking or disliking is developed towards stimulus or an

object learned”. “More specifically, an attitude refers to a predisposition to respond in a consistent

or predictable manner to a stimulus” (Evans et al., 2006, p. 67)

Consumers’ attitude towards internet shopping is a leading element which has a huge

impact on actual buying behaviour. Vellido et al. proposed nine factors dealing with users

perception on online shopping. The most and foremost factor discriminating between people

buying online and people not buying online was claimed that it is risk perception of users. Other

discriminants were extracted as control over and convenience of the shopping process,

affordability of merchandise, customer service and ease of use of the shopping site. According to a

model of attitudes and shopping intention towards online shopping in general proposed by

Jarvenpaa and Todd (1997), there are several indicators which can be categorized in four major

sections: the value of the product, the shopping experience, the quality of service offered by the

website and the risk perceptions of Internet retail shopping. In another study, Jarvenpaa et al.

(2000) demonstrated that perceptions of the store's reputation and size were assumed to affect

consumer trust of the retailer. “Jarvenpaa et al. (2000) concluded that the attitude and the risk

perception affected the consumer's intention to buy from the store.” (Shergill & Chen, 2005, p.81).


[Figure 2.3: Research Model of consumers’ Shopping Attitudes and Behaviour (Li&

Zhang, 2002)]


Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Methodology

In this chapter the practical method used when collecting the data will be presented. This

will help the reader understand where the data comes from and how it was generated, which will

be good background knowledge when interpreting the findings in the next chapter

3.2 Topic Selection

The arising point of interest to search about marketing and consumer buying behaviour

related to the cosmetics of the Body Shop. The Body Shop’s marketing is also use a widespread

tool of internet and also proliferation in tendency to online shopping. Today, it is much easier and

prevalent to reach people over internet and this led us to deepen our knowledge about online

shopping attitudes. According to Fisher (2007) excitement and curiosity about the topic will

enhance our motivation and commitment to complete the project. In the light of this, we tried to

keep our field of study within the area of what we are eager to learn. In addition to this,

developments and prevalence of electronic shopping seems everlasting and this averts durability

problems which are also aligned with Fisher (2007). Furthermore, the learning consumer

behavioural patterns and psychological issues in the course contents which might have influence

on purchasing decisions created concerns for us as well as cultural background in country levels

and the infrastructural developments.

Another advantage encouraging our choice of topic is the plurality of resources written in

books, articles or internet so far. Online marketing involves several subtopics but we wanted to go

deeper to website field particularly, electronic shopping since it is the most common and diverse in

terms of presenting way.

Besides we narrowed down our topic to product level and we chose The Body Shop

company since the products are standardized, among low involvement purchasing and there are

lots of websites operating in this sector such as strawberrynet.com. Meanwhile, high infrastructural

development and online shopping prevalence in UK led us to study this country in a comparative


way with China which has a developing technology and economics and is a very popular and

interesting country to carry out our research. In addition to this, Chinese and Turkish mentality of

our group enhanced our attention to contrasts and similarities between two countries. Additionally

choice of specific countries to study also avoids our research being too broad as suggested by

Fisher (2007) as well.

Moreover, the topic requirements for this master thesis also limited us to be in the

international marketing field. Our research topic highly corresponds with this requirement. Turkish

and Chinese perspective of our group looking into Chinese and British consumers profoundly

supports international concept of our study.

3.3 Research Design

Selecting the right methodology is one of the most crucial steps for the research to extract

the most relevant information from the resources. However more importantly, definition of the

research objective should be prior focus of the preresearch phase. Having a solid objective acts like

a filter avoiding research distracted by other irrelevant elements and keeps the study within certain

field (Grossnickle and Raskin, 2001). Therefore, first of all we tried to ask the right questions

before we went deeper in our research.

Secondly, Grossnickle and Raskin (2001) explained the main two categories for marketing

research as follows:

“Marketing research falls into two main categories: primary research and secondary

research. The distinction between them is fairly simple: Primary research is original work done

with your particular study objectives in mind. Secondary research is the use of previously existing

resources to meet your research goals.”

In our process we tried to have a balance between primary and secondary resources because

we believed in having one of them too little makes our research weak and partly unreliable. Using

only primary data is a very time consuming way to conduct a research on the other hand usage of

merely secondary data may not give the exact answers we try to possess.


We used questionnaires and interviews as primary data. In our questionnaires we adopted

the structured approach since most of our questions have tick box or multiple choices. But in our

interview questions we are likely prone to exploratory research to be more open and give more

space to the interviewer. When it is subject to secondary research, we used documentary research

adopted more likely pre-coded study since we used mostly electronic document files or electronic

textual databases.

In our conceptual framework we based our resources to secondary research. But in our

findings we used both questionnaire and interview we conducted moreover we utilized from a

survey conducted by Office of Fair Trading in UK with internet shoppers to compare our results

about China. In the light of theories we used and data we found we analyzed and made synthesis

over them.

[Figure 3.1: The research method (source: authors)]


3.4 Research Module

We build upon our research module on consumer attitude towards online shopping. We

narrowed down our research into product level and chose The Body Shop and designed our

questionnaire according to these parameters. While we were searching, we found a study already

conducted in UK in 2009 about online shopping attitude, awareness and behaviour. We decided to

conduct a parallel study in China and compare the results. We extracted the questions from survey

only related to main reasons about buying online and not buying online regarding consumer

attitude. On the other hand we also asked few and short questions about buying behaviour and the

frequency of shopping.

Moreover since we couldn’t find any study synthesizing other parameters such as

perception of website quality, culture, internet development which might have an impact on

consumer attitude, we decided to base the results of consumer attitude on cultural differences,

infrastructural differences in two countries: China and UK. We evaluate the results of surveys

through the lens of culture and internet development of China and England. In addition to this we

realized that we cannot ignore the demographic dimension of two societies and the reflection of the

differences in gender, life style, age on buying decisions and attitude towards shopping online. As

a result, we searched and extracted the cultural, demographic and infrastructural differences

between two countries and analyzed the results of surveys based upon this research.

In the figure below our questionnaire outline and the two main factors which represent the

background of consumer attitude towards online shopping are illustrated.


[Figure 3.2: Questionnaire outlines and research module (source: authors)]

3.5 Data Collection

Data Collection is an important aspect of any type of research study. Inaccurate data

collection can impact the results of a study and ultimately lead to invalid results.

Data collection methods for impact evaluation vary along a continuum. At the one end of

this continuum are quantitative methods and at the other end of the continuum are Qualitative

methods for data collection (“Data Collection Method” n.d.).

3.5.1 Quantitative and Qualitative Data collection methods

The quantitative data collection methods rely on random sampling and structured data

collection instruments that fit diverse experiences into predetermined response categories. They

produce results that are easy to summarize, compare, and generalize (“Data Collection Method”

n.d.).

Typical quantitative data gathering strategies include:

Experiments/clinical trials.

Observing and recording well-defined events

Obtaining relevant data from management information systems.

Administering surveys with closed-ended questions (e.g., face to face and telephone

interviews, questionnaires etc)


Considering the feature of our topic, and the restriction of the time and investment we are

facing, administering surveys with closed-ended questions is the best way to study the market and

understand the consumer’s opinion about online shopping. So we decide to interview the online

seller, send the Web based questionnaires to Chinese online users to collect our first hand data.

By using the web based questionnaires, our target respondents will receive an email on

which they would click on an address that would take them to a secure web-site

www.surveymonkey.com to fill in a questionnaire.

We sent the questionnaire link to different Chinese group on messenger and we post it on

an internet store and encourage the customers who visit it to fill it. In order to get wider range of

answers, we also sent the questionnaire to an internet social community Couchsurfing.org aiming

at Chinese female internet users. In this website, there is a feature to filter the users according to

age, country and gender.

Qualitative data collection methods play an important role in impact evaluation by

providing information useful to understand the processes behind observed results and assess

changes in people’s perceptions of their well-being (“Data Collection Method” n.d.)

The qualitative methods most commonly used in evaluation can be classified in three broad

categories:

In-depth interview

Observation methods

Document review

For our qualitative methods part, we used articles, journals and electronic books to collect

the information.

3.6 Questionnaire Design

Our target group is people who use internet. So it’s easy for us to reach them over internet.

We decided to make the online questionnaires according to some of the effective tools for

conducting online surveys (from Grossnickle, 2001) Words are often used in different ways by

different people; our goal is to write questions that each person will interpret in the same way.


According to Info technical support, a good question should be short and straightforward. A

questionnaire should not be too long or difficult to answer, should use plain language (English and

Chinese in our study) and the question shouldn't be difficult to answer. Only through careful

writing, editing, review, and rewriting can you make a good questionnaire. Our questionnaire is

aimed at people who use internet. They face various internet questionnaire a lot and after it.s very

often they just ignore it. So it’s particularly crucial to us to make it simple, relaxing, interesting and

easy to be understood.

3.6.1 Part 1: Online Cosmetic Buying Behaviour

Purchase behaviour is examined in the first section of the questionnaire. This is because we

want to have a draft idea about how much proportion of internet user purchase online. Based on

this investigation, we can analyze the following detail survey about what is the factors influence

this online purchase behaviour through the online purchase habit. In this part, the respondents will

give the answer in a wide range of information such as their past habit in purchasing

goods/services online, the experience with buying cosmetics online and the internet usage. The

question in this part will be written in form of multiple choices. Moreover, the question about

intention to buy cosmetics online also asked in this part before continuing to the attitude toward

cosmetics.

3.6.2 Part 2: Attitude Towards Online Cosmetics Buying

In this section, the questionnaire is designed to examine the attitude of the respondents for

what do they think about purchasing cosmetics online? The data captured in this part contains the

opinion, perception and factors that drive the consumer to the final stage of actual behaviour.

The question in this part will be given as multiple choices. Respondents are required to tick

as much as they agree with. In case the respondents will get bored and impatient after they finished

checking the first three choices, we set our choices as rotating order.

3.6.3 Part 3: Demographics

This is our last part of the questionnaire, according to Grossnickle (2001), ¡§easy¡¨

questions, should be near the end of the survey. By the time respondents have spent 15 minutes on


our survey, they will start to burn out and put less and less thought into each subsequent question.

Therefore the last section of our questionnaire only contains four easiest questions. And we place

the sensitive topics at the end of the survey about the income. Questions that have the potential to

alienate should be placed at the end of the survey, where they can do the least damage. ¡¨ If you

approach touchy subjects early on, you risk the possibility that respondents will terminate the

survey before they submit their data. Remember to provide respondents a way to opt out of

answering a particularly sensitive subject.¡¨(Grossnickle, P203).

3.7 Interview Questions

With our interview questions, we aimed to get the retailers’ stances about advantages and

disadvantages about online shopping. In addition to this, we asked questions pointing out customer

profiles based on customer complaints and feedback. We used online methods instead of

traditional methods such as face to face or phone interviews since it is much easier to reach people

over internet. We submit the questions into surveymonkey.com and gave the links to Ebay sellers

and other online retailer companies operating in UK or in China such as directcosmetics.com,

saveonmakeup.co.uk, cosmeticdiva.co.uk, lilylolo.co.uk.

The first two questions regarding advantages and disadvantages of online selling points out

negative and positive aspects of online sales from the eyes of a retailer which has a direct

contribution to our study because the experiences of the sellers mostly lean on customers.

Moreover, the feedbacks and complaints from customers directly give an idea about

attitude towards online shopping and customer profiles in both of the countries. This helps us in

sorting out the some outstanding differences between two societies.

3.8 Validity and Reliability

Our research question helped us a lot to prove our validity. ¡§Validity is whether these

statement and constructs actually measure the thing that are said to measure (Fisher 2007, p.295).

The questionnaire and interview questions are strictly based on research question which we aimed

to find out what is the Chinese customer’ attitude towards online purchasing of the Body Shop

comparing with British customers.


We selected the quantitative and qualitative research method. For quantitative method, we

conduct the web-based questionnaire as the system will not allow double entry by one computer

ID. At same time, the respondents were unable to skip some questions which we take into account.

The questionnaire is in the order from simplest to more complex. The respondents are asked from

their purchasing behaviour to their attitude.

We chose the respondents randomly from internet users to make sure we have covered

people from different field. In order to cover a wider range of the respondents, questionnaire is also

translated into Chinese language. What’s worth to mention is in order to ensure it is representative

we focus more on young to middle aged female as they are main cosmetic users.

3.9 Limitation

This type of research is often quicker and less detailed. Since our target are internet users.

So there is no access problem. But the validity of such surveys is in question as people might be in

a hurry to complete it and so might not give accurate responses. Especially for the demography

part, we want to analyze see if there is some relation between income and online shopping, but the

respondents may not willing to give the accurate number.


Chapter 4: DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS

In theoretical framework, we wrote about the theories which we based our study; in

findings and analysis part we will gather the data collected through primary and secondary

research and analyze the findings related with theories used.

4.1 Findings of Secondary Data

4.1.1 The Comparison of Infrastructural Development in China and in UK

The first and foremost infrastructural difference is the total population and the population

of internet users in two countries, the changes year by year is illustrated in the table and figure

below.

Table 4.1 Population and internet users in UK and China (Google public data)

Figure 4.1 Population and internet users in UK and China (Google public data)

The internet usage percentage is 28.7% in China; 79.8% in UK and the population is 384

million and 49 million, respectively (Internet World Stats, 2009) 8.3 million households in the UK

(70 per cent) had Internet access in 2009 while the percentage is 23% in China. The region with the

highest level of access was London, with 80 per cent. The region with the lowest access level was


Scotland, with 62 per cent (Office for National Statistics, 2009). Guangdong with 45.54 million

internet user has the highest netizen population (Lee, 2009).

63% of all UK households had a broadband connection in 2009, up from 56 per cent in

2008. Of those households with Internet access, 90 per cent had a broadband connection in 2009,

an increase from 69 per cent in 2006 (Office for National Statistics, 2009). On the other hand,

94.3% of internet users in China have broadband connection (Lee, 2009). The number of

broadband users reached 346 millions, a 76 million increase compared to 2008. In spite of the high

penetration rate of broadband, China’s broadband access speed is not as fast as it is in the Internet

developed countries (CNNIC, 2010)

The number of rural Internet users reached 106.81 millions, accounting for 27.8% of all

Internet users. The annual growth rate was 26.3%. (CNNIC, 2010) The rate for accessing Internet

at home and at work increased significantly. In 2009, 83.2% Internet users accessed Internet at

home and 30.2% Internet users accessed Internet at work. The value of the Internet as a utility for

life and work had been further enhanced (CNNIC, 2010).

The user population of business transaction applications showed the fastest growth; the

average annual growth rate was 68%. Among them, online payment users escalated to 80.9%

annually, ranking first in all applications. Travel reservation, online stock trading, online banking

and online shopping users increased by 77.9%, 67.0%, 62.3% and 45.9%, respectively. The rate for

using Internet at their spare time is higher. 68.1% of the working population access Internet only at

their spare time. In 2009, the top three Internet applications were online music (83.5%), Online

news (80.1%), and search engine (73.3%) (CNNIC, 2010). The online time per week of the

Internet users continued to increase, 2.1 hours increase per capita which reached 18.7 hours per

week per user while Brits spends 30 hours per week per user. (CNNIC, 2010; Patterson, 2009)

Government continued to give a pace to expenditure in infrastructure. For promotion of

economic recovery, the state had invested 4 trillion of funds, mainly focusing on infrastructure

construction, which promoted the constant growth in telecommunication network development.

According to the data from Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of November


2009, the telecommunications investment in fixed assets was $277.34 billion, an accumulated rise

of 28.5% from the same period of last year (CNNIC, 2010)

The download speed is than 4 Mbit/s in China while it is 10 Mbit/s in UK (Lee, 2009).

Table below summarizes the information above.

Table 4.2:The comparison of infrastructural parameters in China and UK

4.1.2 Online Shopping Demographics

4.1.2.1 Gender

As of June 2009, the ratio of male internet users to female is 53% versus 47% in China.

The proportion of female internet users has shown a rapid increase from 30.4% in 2000 to 47% in

June 2009 (Li&Fung Research Center, 2009). After years of male dominance, the UK Internet

population now has a slight majority of females, 50.5%. The trend will continue through 2012,

when females will account for 51.3% of UK Internet users. (Lisa, 2008)

The proportion of male online shoppers to females is 45.6% to 54.4% in China (Lee, 2009).

12.9 million Men in the UK are now shopping over internet, compared with just 10.3 women.

Since 2006, 839,000 additional men are shopping online compared with an extra 400,000 women

due to economic recession men became more aware of the savings they can make from online

purchasing.

According to research conducted by Li and Kirkup, some outstanding facts are brought into

discussion. “At the level of material structures, women and men have been assigned different

social roles in both the UK and China, which have an effect on their access to, and interest in


education.” (2007, p. 314). In this research, it is suggested that “in both China and the UK gender

differences in computer ownership might no longer exist for young adults at university.” However,

a significant gender difference within the British group was found out for access to the Internet at

the students own accommodation, with men more likely to have such access. This finding suggests

that even when women posses their own computers in their homes they may not have access to the

Internet. Moreover, despite an evident rise in equality for access and ownership, the present study

concluded consistent results about significant gender differences in Internet usage in terms of

frequency and diversity of use in both Chinese and British groups. Similar trends are demonstrated

in the patterns of gender difference in the two countries as a result of this study. Male students in

both countries spent more time on the Internet, use the Internet more widely and were more likely

to acquire positive attitudes towards internet. More confidence in using the Internet is found out for

males in both countries. In sum of these results, female students seem to account for being able to

use technology as lower than their male counterparts.

4.1.2.2 Age

In China, Hong Kong and Singapore the average internet shoppers are under 36 as well

(Pien, 2005). Among the online shoppers, youngsters aged between 18 and 30 form the major

group, accounting for above 60% of the total in China (Lee, 2009).

Average age of UK Internet users rises to 37.9 (Nielson, 2007). In 2009, 37.4 million adults

(76 per cent of the UK adult population) accessed the Internet in the three months. The number of

adults who had never accessed the Internet fell to 10.2 million (21 per cent) in 2009. Sixty four per

cent of all adults who were recent Internet users (having accessed the Internet in the three months)

had ever purchased goods or services over the Internet in 2009. Of these, 83 per cent (26 million)

had purchased within the last three months (Office for National Statistics, 2009)

Figure below summarizes the age distribution both in China and UK.


[Figure 4.2.Age distribution of online shoppers in UK and China (Webmarketing Group, n.d.

and Lee, 2009)]

4.1.3 Cultural differences between British and Chinese Online Shoppers

China now with its almost 1.4 billion populations lying on East Asian stood as a leading

civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences (CIA, 2009 a). On the other

hand, United Kingdom with almost 61 million people living in Western Europe has historically

played a leading role in advancing literature and science (CIA, 2009 b). Hansen (1983) claimed

that western countries influenced by ancient Greek culture, were likely to be prone to analytical

thought, detachment and attributes of objects whilst East Asian cultures under the influence of

ancient Chinese culture are more likely to adopt holistic thought, continuity, and interrelationships

of objects (as cited in Lee et al., 2009). The geographical distance between London and Beijing is

8150 km (Distance, n.d.). This is a data which can be easily found. In this part we will try to

answer the cultural distances between China and UK.

First of all, Hofstede.s cultural dimensions shed a light on this research. According to

Hofstede.s study the major differences between UK and China lie on power distance ratio,

individualism and long-term orientation as indicated in Table X. Particularly, the reflection of the

impact of cultural values on Internet diffusion correlates significantly with many countries' Internet

consumption data with Hofstede's country scores along his two cultural dimensions: Individualism

and Uncertainty Avoidance. Tendency of a decrease in internet usage, as well as a positive

correlation with Individualism and a negative correlation with Uncertainty Avoidance is concluded


by Hermeking (2006). Hermeking also adds that individualistic cultures' high attention to the

Internet is often featured to the egalitarian, democratic nature of the Internet. Hofstede (1991)

refers to Hall's concept of Context and concludes that high Individualism is very often connected to

"Low-context" communication, whereas low Individualism (Collectivism) very often is connected

to "High-context" communication. Higher usage in Low-context cultures and lower usage in High-

context cultures are revealed in internet usage (2006). As a low context country UK and high

context country China highly influenced by these dimensions in internet usage.


Table 4.3: Comparison of Hofstede Dimensions of UK and China

[Figure 4.3.General relation between creative strategy and communication styles

(Hermeking, 2005)]

Aside from Hofstadter’s study, the research conducted by Shiu and Dawson (2004) from

four country perspective (Germany, Britain, Taiwan, Japan) outlined the impacts of internet usage

and national culture on online usage and purchase. The results highlighted a very strong male

electronic dominated phenomenon in online usage but what is interesting; despite the evident

gender gap in the case of online purchase it was less significant in the two Asian countries of Japan

and Taiwan. “This might indicate that doing shopping, particular food and grocery shopping, is

usually regarded as women’s obligations in most Asian countries.” Therefore, it can be assumed

that Chinese women are exploiting more from the convenience use of internet while many of them

also need to work. Additionally, the conversion from being online user to online buyers is lower in

Taiwan than in Britain. “This could provide an additional support for the stronger functioning of

the national culture in online purchase than in online usage.” (p. 391)

In the research conducted with students at the age between 18 and 25 in China and UK

British, the results summarised the students were more likely to look in English sites although


Chinese students found internet not good for cross-cultural exchange due to linguistic and cultural

obstacles. Besides, Chinese students use internet for more personal interests while British students

use it for study purposes (Li & Kirkup, 2007).

British Internet users are immensely interested in online shopping. It is suggested that

almost half of United Kingdom internet users browse an electronic tailing shop and actually make

a purchase. Chinese Internet users on the other hand more keen on internet games than online

shopping, with statistic shows that 43% of Chinese Internet users doing online gaming activities

while only 16% made online purchases (Pien, 2005).

Moreover, in correlation with China’s underdeveloped logistic infrastructure compared to

other countries, the sense of customer service is relatively weak. Due to lack of direct, face-to-face

interaction between service providers and customers, many issues still need human intervention.

Therefore, company representatives must be able to response customer questions and solve

problems as soon as they emerge. The Chinese are particularly sensitive to price and are used to

comparing prices. Many avoid spending extra money in shopping. Since China’s weak network ID

authentication and online transaction credit system, credit, security and privacy turn into a

backbone of online shopping. It outweighs for online retailers to provide a safe online shopping

environment, convenient and safe payment methods, conserve customers‟ privacy and guarantee

fiscal security (Liu et al., 2008)

James Roper, Chief Executive of IMRG says that huge growth in online shopping is

derived from consumers‟ eagerness to embrace the convenience, choice and savings that they can

benefit from electronic retail offers in UK (British Love Online shopping, 2010).

4.2 Analysis of Secondary Data

According to data extracted from literature, there is a high correlation between the

country’s infrastructural development, cultural background and consumer attitude towards online

shopping. From this point of view, the British and Chinese consumer attitudes towards online

shopping vary since the roots of internet usage and culture is different however, there are also


similarities which are common for cosmetics purchasing online derived from consumer

psychology.

It is very controversial that if people have doubts about online shopping and possess high

uncertainty avoidance since they are not totally accustomed to virtual but not physical shopping

due to poor infrastructure or culture and the mentality of people are the reasons creating an

obstacle for internet development and retain people getting used to online shopping. It is very hard

to conclude that which one is the trigger for attitudinal approach towards online purchasing:

infrastructural development or culture but it is a concrete result that both one of them has influence

on each other and this makes a huge impact on burgeoning of attitude. Therefore, we went deep

down on cultural and infrastructural development differences between China and UK, as a result

we found very correspondence facts that tremendously support the literature we utilized.

Firstly, from the very basic ground which is population China and UK have a huge gap. Although,

the percentage of internet users in UK outweighs China, China still keeps being a huge potential

market for online cosmetics retailers with 384 million internet users while UK only has 49 million.

However this potential still seems very slow at becoming current customers since the online

shopping volume in UK is almost three times of China’s spending. Moreover, despite a slight

excess in broadband penetrations of China more than UK, the download speed in UK is twice as

much of the speed in China but since online shopping do not need high speed this parameter

doesn.t have a direct effect on buying behaviour. However these parameters are among the most

explicit indicators of internet development of a country, therefore the indirect relation cannot be

ignored. For example, the faster the more attractive, when it is more attractive people start to spend

more time on the internet, start to download films and the attitudes become habits for users as a

result they get used to it very easily.

In addition to all these, the online time spent weekly per user in UK and in China is highly

different (30 to 18, respectively). This fact specifies how much British and Chinese users are

accustomed to internet leading the next step which is probably using internet more interactively.

The habits towards using internet is derived both from infrastructural and cultural realms such as


ease of use, accessibility, being open to innovations, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, adoption

of internet. Online time spent per user is the indicator of merging of all these elements

consequently it is one of the most crucial parameters clarifying internet use attitudes. But due to

high difference in population and urbanization and geographical locations, the parameters based on

per user might be misleading for some regions in China, specifically for high urbanized cities.

Secondly, demographic outline of China and UK also is an important determinant of

consumer attitudes in virtual area. In China, there is still male dominance among internet users

while the ratio is at the same level in UK. But when it is subject to online shopping in both of the

countries the male dominance is observed. The cosmetics market’s main focus is women, from this

perspective online selling could be interpreted as a disadvantage compared to other types of

products such as electronics which mostly addresses to men or products like books when gender

differences would not be an issue. At the age level the most significant difference between China

and UK is the density of internet users and shoppers above 40s. The people between 25 and 34 in

China with having an income are the top of the all other age ranges. This is particularly originated

from the earlier internet adoption in UK. Therefore, when selling cosmetics over internet the focus

target group should be young people in China while the product assortment for different age

groups should be wider in UK.

Evidently, the quantitative facts is not enough to compare and analyze China’s and UK.s

potential market for online shopping but also it is required to take the possibility of the potentials

to turn into current customers into consideration which mainly means cultural aspects.

According to Hofstede China’s masculinity is very approximate to world average while UK has

more which is also fortified by the results found between British and Chinese students. This makes

the cosmetics market more balanced in terms of gender because while there is a male dominance

among online shoppers indicated by numbers, the higher femininity indicated with non-numerical

facts makes the market more available for cosmetics industry in China. In Hofstede’s high

uncertainty avoidance dimension China and UK are very close to each other, in this context it can

be predicted that when the huge gap between UK and China in terms of infrastructural


development shrinks, China will be more comparative with UK particularly with the high

population of internet users. On the other hand individualism still seems that it is going to be a

drawback for internet adoption since China is far behind UK. Individualistic countries. decline for

independence in terms of financial issues and lifestyle can reflect on online shopping because

individualistic people might be more self-confident and more generous about their own wants due

to low level of having families. Moreover individualism can be an indicator of the population of

working people since they need to earn their own money. As a result working people can pay more

for their outfit which also involves cosmetics and to save time online shopping may seem a better

choice for them.

Moreover the linguistic problem is the hardest obstacle that can be overcome. Since most of

the websites are English, Brits can have a wider choice in online stores while Chinese shoppers are

mostly limited by local websites.

The confidence in using internet seems to expand in both of the countries but security problems

and weak online transaction system in China decrease this comfort in virtual area. On the other

hand, British consumers. Eagerness to embrace the convenience will provide a better environment

for the development of online selling.

4.3 Findings and Analysis from Questionnaire and OFT survey

The survey has been done in May 2010; the authors designed and conducted the survey in

order to find out the online purchasing attitude towards cosmetics between Chinese and British. In

this survey, 204 internet users from different cities in China answered our questionnaire. They

were asked about their online purchasing experience, their attitude towards online shopping (how

they feel, what they like and what they dislike, why they choose to buy online or not buy online).

And at the end we have the demographic part. We can break up the analysis to find patterns by

splitting our results into the people’s age groups or gender that have resulted from our

questionnaire. By doing so, we can identify the age and gender groups that will bring most sales

and even the income differences and that will further bring most business.


Another purpose of the demographic information was to verify that the results could be

representative of the whole country.

Online purchasing experience

[Figure 4.4.The purpose for accessing internet (Source: Data analysis from questionnaire) ]

According to figure 4.3 the findings and analysis reveal that a majority of the people prefer

access internet for study or work.. But yet there is a significant number which is more than half

respondents to show a high demand for online shopping. It would therefore be advisable to open an

online store to increase more business opportunities.

Figure 4.5.The frequency of purchase online (Source: Data analysis from questionnaire)

According to figure 4.5 the findings and analysis reveal the following.

The frequency of online shopping among Chinese internet shoppers was “once or a couple

of times a month” with the highest percentage which is 44% while 32% of British respondents

choose this option (OFT, 2009).


In our view, there are two main factors for it. Firstly, online purchasing is not the traditional

way comparing with store shopping. So some people refuse to try it. But once they start doing it,

they will do it again as they get the real benefit from online purchasing. Such as low price and

more choices and comparisons. However, it takes time for the payment process and delivery.

Therefore people will not do it that often which you can see from the chart, the respondents who

buy once a week or more is only 15% in UK and 8% in China.

One thing to be mentioned is the figures reached the bottom in UK at the choice of never.

While compare with China the figure is 8%. What caused this difference? There might have been

one main reason relating to the cultural differences between Chinese and British online shoppers.

British Internet users are immensely interested in online shopping. It is suggested that almost half

of United Kingdom internet users browse an electronic tailing shop and actually make a purchase.

Chinese Internet users on the other hand are keener on internet games than online shopping, with

statistic shows that 43% of Chinese Internet users doing online gaming activities while only 16%

made online purchases. Such infrastructural and culture differences have had a great effect on the

behaviour of online purchasing.

[Figure 4.6.Type of products purchased online (Source: Data analysis from questionnaire)]

According to figure 4.6 the findings and analysis reveal the following

We can see that there were two main products which people buy online most. 71% of the users say

they buy clothes and books online while only 38% of them buy the Body Shop over internet.


There were many reasons for it. Mainly because clothes and books are easy to packed and

transport. The buyers don’t have to risk that it may be damaged on the way. Moreover, usually

they offer discount prices online, such as for books, usually they offer 30% off besides the free

delivery. If we analyse it respectively, for clothes, it’s easier to attract online shoppers by using the

attractive models to display clothes. And because shoppers can’t try it on, therefore it’s mainly

decided by the visual effect. For books, since if you know what book you are looking for, you

don’t have to try, so it really saves your time, money and energy.

For the other three items, the proportion is similar. Around 40% people buy the Body Shop,

service and IT products online. We can relate the reasons for this phenomenon to the reasons we

analysed above. The reasons persuade shoppers buy books are the reasons lacking here. So we can

also draw the recommendation easily for boost the sales of the Body Shop online. Such as improve

the package, give more information, and offer free delivery and so on.

[Figure 4.7: Online purchase potential (Source: Data analysis from questionnaire)]

According to figure 4.7 the findings and analysis reveal the following

The internet users’ online purchasing potential as very unlikely and unlikely was rather

lower than not sure to very likely. Which is 26% comparing 74%. We can say in four internet

users there are three people showed their potential about purchasing the Body Shop online. This is

very positive for the online the Body Shop retails. However, nearly one third of the respondents

chose not sure, in our point of view, not sure can be understood as they do not reject buying online,


it’s just because they haven’t found what is good about it. So it’s a big chance to change not sure to

likely or very likely.

Online purchasing attitude

Table 4.4 :Reasons for purchase Online (Source: Data analysis from questionnaire)

Table 4.5: Ranking difference between UK and China about reasons for buying online

(Source: Data analysis from questionnaire)


According to table 4 and 5 the findings and analysis reveal the following

About the main reasons buying online, British respondents says it is because the presence

of wider choice or they can compare prices with the highest percentage 85%, while 52% of

Chinese respondents choose that option. 75% of the Chinese people we questioned prefer online

shopping due to lower prices at the top of the reasons while 75% of Britons choose it but ranking

in 4th after quickness and easiness of shopping online and comfort and staying at home, with the

percentages 84% and 81%, respectively (OFT, 2009).

As can be seen from the graph we listed all the main reason for buying or not buying online

and we compare the result with UK. As there are total thirteen reasons it seems confused and don’t

know where to start at the beginning. So we decide to rank the list respectively after compare and

analyse the difference. When the difference is 0, 1,2 we marked it as small; when its 3, 4 we

marked it as average; when its 5 or above we marked it as big. (As you can see from table 5).

From the top reason of online buying, we can see that price is the key reason for Chinese

online shoppers to make the decision. However in UK the price is ranked as number five, so

Chinese consumers are more price sensitive. For the top four reasons, the factors are the same.

Which are lower price, wider choices, more quickly and easier and more comfortable. The


significant difference between Chinese and British shoppers is how they take into account about

24/7 access. For Chinese customers, it ranked as number ten while for British shoppers it ranked as

number four. The cause of this is easy to be deduced. Relating to the business pattern, in China, all

the stores close late at night and are still open during weekend. Nevertheless in UK, it’s quite the

reverse.

Another significant difference is Chinese online shoppers think buying cosmetics not

available in China is a main reason for them to purchase online, while for British shoppers it

ranked as the third from the lowest. The reason for this can be explained that the international

cosmetics brand in UK is more popular and more available.


Table 4.6: Reasons for not purchase Online (Source: Data analysis from questionnaire)

Please tick the one you agree with (ROTATING ORDER)

Table4.7: Ranking difference between UK and China about reasons for not buying online

(Source: Data analysis from questionnaire

According to table 6 and 7 the findings and analysis reveal the following

For analyze and compare the reasons for not buying online between China and UK we used

the same way. The reasons for the last three ranked stayed the same. In China, online shoppers

show the most concern about whether the cosmetics are fake while in UK people don‟t trust

internet shopping. It perfectly reflects the comparison of Hofstede dimensions of UK and China.

As the uncertainty avoidance in UK is higher than it is in China. It can also explain why British


rank “other” as number four while Chinese rank it as the last one. Since Chinese consumers are

worried more about whether the cosmetics online is fake so they demand more to try it on before

they buy it. Which result in ranking trying before buying importance as number two in China,

comparing with UK as number six.

Demographics

About the demographics of our respondents, 70% of them are female while 30% of them

are male. The top age range is 20-35 with the percentage of 89%. The education level with the

highest ratio is Bachelor‟s degree which is half of the surveyors as shown in the table 8 below.

Table 4.8: Demographics analysis (Source: Data analysis from questionnaire)

According to our result, the top income range consists of people without income mostly students as

shown in Figure 12 below.

Currency: RMB

For reference: 100RMB=11.98 EUR=10.21 GBP=14.64 USD


Figure 4.8: Income analysis (Source: Data analysis from questionnaire)

The relations between demographics and online shopping attitude When we narrow down

our results of our respondents who shop online, we get 66% female respondents purchase

cosmetics online, for the other 34% they only choose purchasing books or clothes; while almost

none of the male respondents buy cosmetics online. In China it’s really rare to see a guy buying

cosmetics online. But that doesn’t mean there is no internet market for male cosmetics, because

Chinese woman tend to buy stuff for their family. As they have strong responsibility of taking care

of the family.

As far as the buying potential is concerned, we found out that people with high income they

are more likely to choose buying cosmetics online. We assumed that people with high income they

are busy with work so they prefer choosing a time saving way; in addition, they are more open to

technological activities.

Similarly, the frequency of shopping online has the same pattern with demographics as

buying potential has. We can say that the buying potential is basically based on the past purchasing

behaviour.

4.4 Findings and Analysis From Interviews


We conducted the web-based interview to the online cosmetic retails asking about how they

think about selling cosmetics online. What the advantages and disadvantages are and how to make

customers trust their products.

According to the replies we got from the retailers, most of them think that the advantage of

selling cosmetics online is the running cost is lower so they can offer more competitive price while

the disadvantage is presence of too much restriction about delivery. In China, liquid products are

forbidden to deliver. For Global Shopping Service, because the way of writing the shelf life and

produce.

For the top frequently happened complaints, it shows that fake products are the most often

case which happens. Following case is the package maybe damaged during the delivery.

For how to make people believe your products is genuine, it mainly depends on the word of mouth.

Also it will help a lot if the retailer can offer an inspection counters. One of our respondent told us

a story that on one occasion, her friend bought the cosmetics from Taobao.com, and she found it.s

fake, even she got return and refund after, Even if it’s cheaper she doesn’t dare to buy from that

store anymore. Cosmetics customers would rather pay more to make sure the quality because it

matters to their beauty. We can say that to sell cosmetics, once the fake was discovered they could

not drive a business anymore.

According to an online seller from e-bay in UK, the outstanding advantage of selling

cosmetics online is the wide access to the customers. On the other hand, they cannot compete with

the prices of the products theft from stores and sold occasionally. Additionally, the impossibility of

distinguishing fake products from real ones in online stores decreases the trustworthiness towards

virtual shopping.

When it comes to complaints from buyers, the late delivery or wrong product, wrong colour

outweigh the other inconsistencies. In e-bay, being among the top sellers and the customer reviews,

mostly the percentage of positive feedbacks help him build up the trust between customers and his

store.


From the perspective of retailers, the price they can offer over internet is lower than they

can offer in physical stores as an advantage. In this context, lower price makes online shopping a

more attractive option specifically for price sensitive Chinese shoppers. Additionally the ease and

comfort of accessibility to the internet drives British customers to shop online which is also

another advantage for retailers.

On the other hand the delivery process is the most compulsive phase of the whole process.

Just in time and fast delivery, right place, right product are the factors that have role in building up

trust and positive attitude towards internet shopping. Both in China and UK, the consumer reviews

and word of mouth stimulate online shopping.


Chapter 5: CONCLUSION

5.1 Conclusion

All in all, online sales become more crucial day by day and spread out among internet users

and show a proliferation with the rise in population of netizens in all over the world. In our master

thesis we tried investigate the cultural impact and infrastructural development reflection on online

shopping attitude in two countries: China and UK in a comparative way and reach evident,

attitudinal differences and similarities between these two societies in virtual realm.

The most abstract, first and foremost difference between two countries is the huge gap in

infrastructural development, particularly the population, the prevalence of internet usage. When we

synthesized these data with the outcomes of the surveys conducted in both countries, it can be

concluded that the prevalence of internet usage and ease of accessibility affects the frequency of

online shopping but we cannot deny the population dimension in this evaluation because despite

the higher frequency of online shopping in UK, still online sellers appeal to more customers and

can make more online sales in China due to high population of netizens. Moreover, it can be said

that the difference in economic power of two countries result in more price sensitiveness in China

than in UK as resulted from the surveys. The high living standards in UK orient British online

shoppers to be picky rather than looking for lower prices.

When it is subject to culture it is harder to analyze since there are not numerical facts when

compared to infrastructural data. However the most evident difference is the European and Asian

cultural differences between two countries. Europeans are more open to technological activities

than Asians. But there is not such a big difference in uncertainty avoidance among Brits and

Chinese according to Hofstede’s study. This leads us to the conclusion involving that Chinese

internet users are as open as British internet users so are the online shoppers and in the future with

the improvements in internet infrastructure, online shopping in China will be as widespread as in

UK.

The demographic map of two countries also is a parameter that sheds light on online

shopping attitude of customers. Despite of the male dominance in online shopping, cosmetics


appeal to female customers in virtual trade, either. Moreover there is a significant difference in age

range of online shoppers between China and UK. The average age of online shoppers is higher in

UK than in China, therefore it can be concluded that the product assortment of cosmetics should be

wider in UK while the seller should appeal to youngsters in China.

In spite of the popularity of internet usage and familiarity to purchasing online, the users

are still lacking of confidence and trust which avoids them from deciding buying online. On the

other hand the advantages in price and product assortment encourage the users to buy online. Good

reviews about the sellers and websites from previous buying actions belonging to different

customers, word-of-mouth is the leading factor which builds up trust and confidence towards the

user interface.

All in all, online selling with its outstanding advantages and overcoming disadvantages by

adopting customer centric selling strategy with knowing to customer attitudes is a good way to

promote cosmetics and sell.

5.2 Recommendations

Before start writing recommendation, we went back to check our group audience since they

are the ones who will be interested in our recommendations and benefit from our thesis. Our

recommendations aim to give them some helpful advices in building up a better online store, thus

attracting more clients and keeping the old clients. In this recommendation part, we will comply

with the structure in the conceptual framework part and at the same time analyse and make use of

the findings we have found. In this master thesis, we tried to do the research about the Chinese

customer’s attitude towards purchasing cosmetics online. By analysing this, the structure of

recommendation turned out to be clear and easy. In a short word, we need to give

recommendations on three dimensions: Culture influence, infrastructure development, and

psychology and consumer attitude aspect.

5.2.1 Culture influence

Low individualism and high-context


Provide detailed product information with precised context, pictures, describe the material,

colour, size, model, instructions, noticed item, comment from other users. Using descriptive words

rather than simply technical terms can be more impressive to the consumer.

The picture shows below is not persuasive because lots of information missing.

[Figure 5.1: .Online cosmetics example (Source: ebay.com)]

Uncertainty Avoidance

Use authorized payment system, ensure the customers that no payment will be taken before

the goods arrived, and show enough credit or good comment from the previous customers. Put

your contact information in an easy to find place on every page of your website.

Provide multiple means of contact if possible. Like a contact form, email address, phone number,

and mailing address all add to the trust from customer.

Individualism

It seems irrelative. But if you make use of this Chinese culture, you may create more

business. Imagine Chinese have much less individualism trend, they like to shop together, share the

similar consuming experience. So you can promote products in terms of discount upon quantity.

Moreover, Chinese have more sense of family due to low individualism, so the family package of

cosmetics also seems a good business opportunity shouldn’t be ignored.

Long-term orientation

This is similar to the hiding contact information bit above. Chinese customers tend to

consider more before they purchase. So you need to make it easy for customers to get in touch with

you if they have a technical question, a sales question, or they want to return an item. Make sure


that you post a FAQ that covers common questions customers might have, like what your return

policy is or what to do if they need to order parts or replacement items.

Language Since the linguistic limitation, most of the Chinese tend to shop on local website.

So it’s crucial to have a Chinese website version if you plan to invest your store into

Chinese market.

5.2.2 Infrastructure development

Technically, online retailers can’t increase their business by improve the infrastructure

development. But here is a piece of advice to increase the internet speed. Don’t put too much

recommendation or three-dimensional pictures because that will slow the customers down.

Customers have a short attention span and if they get overwhelmed with too much unnecessary

information, they might just leave

5.2.3 Psychology and consumer attitude

Negative attitudes: More or less, the things need to pay attention to from consumer’s

attitude can be deduced from the questionnaire part. As you can see, security problems and

weak online transaction system is Chinese consumers. Main negative attitude towards

online shopping. So show clear contact information and always try your best to gain trust

and credit, even sometimes that means you have to make lost. But you will gain double of it

back in the future.

Positive attitudes: The positive attitudes of Chinese customers are the convenience and time

saving from buying online. So our recommendation are£ don’t require registration, don't

ask for too much information, simplify security checks, and turn off advertising. All of

these will ensure customers have an easy, comfortable online shopping experience.

5.3 Limitations

The conclusions that this study has come to has been somewhat limited by a number of

different factors, which have had an impact on the results and conclusion. The study originally

wanted to test whether or not consumer perception leads to positive attitudes and more purchases,


but with the measuring instruments used, this relationship could not be tested. For this reason, the

only relationship that the study can draw any conclusions about is the correlation between

consumer perception and positive attitudes, and positive attitudes and purchases. This is considered

by the study to be a limitation to the study.

Some of the questions in the questionnaire can be considered to be leading questions.

Especially the statement “I have a positive attitude towards The Body Shop” could have lead the

respondents to express more positive attitudes that what they actually have. The fact that consumer

perception is introduced in the questionnaire before the respondents are asked to rank what the

associate with The Body Shop could also have influenced their responses. These shortcomings

have been recognized by the study as a possible limitation to the conclusions, which build upon the

findings from the questionnaire. However, this study believes that the findings would not have

differed much if the questions in the questionnaire would have been rephrased.

Another possible limitation is the choice of using only visitors as the population. By

choosing to include only visitors in the sample, the majority of them will have positive attitudes

towards The Body Shop, since people with negative attitudes will most likely not visit the store.

This increases the chance that the conclusion will be that the body shops consumer perception

leads to positive attitudes, since people who have negative attitudes towards the body shops

consumer perception and the body shop as a brand are not included in the sample. This might be

people who do not consider the body shops consumer perception to be trustworthy, for instance.

Even though the above mentioned limitations may have affected the possibility to draw

conclusions from the findings, the study still believe the stated conclusions to be valid. The next

section will suggest how future studies within this topic can be made, which will take some of

these limitations in consideration

5.4 Implications

If well communicated consumer perception leads to more positive purchase decisions by

the consumers, as this study suggests, this will have a number of implications. First of all, if well


communicated consumer perception is closely connected to positive purchase decisions, more

companies might try to communicate their consumer perception better. For marketing managers, it

is essential to know whether or not purchase decisions will be more positive if the consumer

perception is well known, since this might influence the way they create their branding strategies.

If a connection between well communicated consumer perception and attitude and positive

purchase decisions exists, more companies might chose to base their competitive advantage on

communicating the company’s consumer perception and attitude.

But, just because this strategy seems to be working well for The Body Shop does not

necessarily mean that it will work well for other companies. The Body Shop may have an

advantage by the fact that it was the first company to hold this position on the market (Bigné-

Alcañiz, 2009, 437-447). Consumers generally tend to view followers as copies, and thus, basing

their competitive advantage on consumer perception and attitude may not work as good for other

companies.

For The Body Shop, is it of course essential to know whether there is a link between their

social responsibility and their consumers’ purchase decisions? This knowledge can help The Body

Shop’s marketing managers evaluate branding strategies and may also serve as a basis for creating

new marketing strategies. At a local level, The Body Shop in UK will also be provided with market

research.

5.5 Suggestions for Future Research

In order to make this study possible to conduct, the researchers had to make a number of

delimitations. The result is that the findings can only be generalized to a small population. To

confirm the connection between consumer perception, attitude and purchase decisions when the

consumer perception and attitude is well known, a suggestion would be to apply this study on a

larger population, where not only visitors are included. This would ensure that the possible

negative attitudes towards The Body Shop are included as well.


To obtain a deeper understanding of The Body Shop UK’s visitors’ attitudes towards

consumer perception and attitude and the brand, and how these factors are connected, a qualitative

study can be made. This would make it possible to achieve more comprehensive information

regarding the factors touched upon in this thesis, and the problem of asking leading questions can

also be avoided (Du and Sen, 2007, 224-241).

Another suggestion for future study would be to examine what happens when more and

more companies choose to use consumer perception and attitude in their branding. What happens

when the consumers start to take consumer perception and attitude for granted, and the companies

have to find new attributes to base their differentiation on?

For The Body Shop, it might be of interest to study how much perceived quality influences

purchase decisions, since the findings from this study indicate that there might be a connection

between perceived quality, positive attitudes and purchase decisions.


APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1

Interview with Agnetha Persson, The Body Shop UK, April 7th 2009 (English version)

First we have some questions about The Body Shop in general (if there are differences between

TBS centrally and in UK, please mention that too)

1. What is The Body Shop’s main target group? (what customers do you preferably attract to

the store?)

- That’s a difficult question, we welcome everybody! We have, and have always had, mostly

products for women, but we believe more and more in the male consumer group. We have

an increasing product line for them, especially skin care products.

2. Who is the typical The Body Shop customer?

- A woman, 25-34 years old. (That is in UK, but it’s likely the same in Sweden in general)

3. Tell us about the HIV campaign! (”Yes Yes Yes to Safe Sex”)

- This is the third year we’re running the campaign with MTV. It feels really ____, and it’s

so easy to talk about the campaign, especially with the young people. (More about it can be

read on the website).

And now, about UK’s store.

4. When did you open? We’re interested in all general info about TBS UK that can be of

interest.

- Siv och Gösta opened up in 1986. Bettan and I took over the store, at the time located on

Vasaplan, in 1999. In 2002, we moved into Kungspassagen after growing too big for the

small place we had. The Body Shop has ever since kept attracting conscious customers. We

are now more easy-accessed (the location), and we aim at seeing to everyone’s needs.

Bettan left her position in February this year, and Johanna Östensson became a new part-

owner. We are now heading towards new goals!

5. You own a franchise. How much influence do you have over the store in UK? Is everything

decided centrally?


- We have directions and guidelines from the head office concerning displays, events, prices

and such. But we set the personal atmosphere of our store, and we decide how we work.

6. How many employees do you have?

- We are 6-7 persons, including the extra-workers.

7. Do different types of people (age-groups, men/women etc.) visit the store at different

times? Is there a pattern? If yes, what does it look like?

- No, I wouldn’t say so. All types of customers show up at all times. Maybe there are more

guys on Saturdays, when more men follow their wives to town.


APPENDIX 2

Questionnaire

Hi! In our bachelor thesis, we examine what factors that matter when a consumer chooses

skin- & hair care products and make-up. Your answers are very valuable, and will be treated with

confidentiality. You are completely anonymous.

Thank you for your cooperation!

Sara Lundgren & Amanda Lundmark, International Business Program, UK Universitet.

(Social responsibility refers to issues concerning the environment, animal testing, working

conditions and such).

1. I am (circle): Male Female

2. Age: _________

3. Occupation: ______________________

4. Why did you enter The Body Shop? Choose one alternative.

o By chance

o To make a purchase

o To look, and maybe buy something

o As company

5. How many products have you purchased from The Body Shop during the last two years?

o None

o 1 to 5

o 6 to 10

o More than 10

6. What is most important to you when choosing skin- & hair care products and make-up?

Rank the three most important, 1 = most important, 2 = second most important, 3 = third

most important

o Product quality

o That the company is socially responsible


o Price

o That it is a popular brand

o The location of the store

o Accessibility

o That it is a well-known brand

7. What makes you choose other brands than The Body Shop? Choose a maximum of three

alternatives.

o The alternatives are easier to access

o The alternatives are cheaper

o Influence from the surroundings / Group pressure

o Out of habit

o The alternatives are of better quality

o Other: _______________________________________________

8. What, out of the following, do you associate the most with The Body Shop? Rank the

following attributes. Put a 1 next to the attribute that you associate the most with The Body

Shop, en 2 for second most etc, and a 5 next to the attribute that you associate the least with

The Body Shop.

o Products are price-worthy

o High product quality

o Social responsibility

o Knowledgeable staff

o Nice atmosphere in the store

The next three questions are statements. To what extent do you agree? Circle your answer.

9. I have a positive attitude towards The Body Shop.

1 2 3 4 5 0

Not at all totally no opinion


10. It is important to me that the company where I purchase skin- & hair care products and make-

up from is socially responsible.

1 2 3 4 5 0


11. I think of The Body Shop as socially responsible.

1 2 3 4 5 0


12. Do you perceive yourself as engaged in societal question?

Yes

No

13. What do you think is the main reason why The Body Shop communicates its Consumer

Positive Attitudes so well? Choose one alternative.

Because they really care about the environment and the world’s injustice

To make money

I don’t think The Body Shop is communicating its Consumer Positive Attitudes well

Other: _________________________________________________________


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