I)

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
In the last few decades internet has revolutionised the lives of millions of users with
its immense applications. With the growing proclivity and economic growth online
shopping has increased drastically. The world of electronic commerce, also known as
e-commerce, enables consumers to shop at online stores and pay for their purchases
being contented at home. By just clicking a mouse, shoppers can buy any product
online -- from household items to home loans. Consumers expect merchants not only
make their products available on the Web, but also to make payments a simple and
secure process. Online shopping is beneficial for both consumers as well as
merchants. With the fast growing technology online shopping is emerging in India at a
very faster rate. According to a new report, India saw a 128% growth in interest from
consumers in 2014 as compared to that of 2013.
Online shopping portals are witnessing a whopping 200% growth in the sale of
electronic items every year. This is driven by the demands like mobile phones, iPods
and MP3 players not only from metros but also from small cities. Apparels and
accessories (30%) emerged as the second biggest product category after consumer
electronics (34%) and is expected to become bigger than consumer electronics this
year. Other popular searched categories include books (15%), beauty & personal care
(10%), home & furnishings (6%), baby products (2%) and healthcare (3%).Fitness
equipment like treadmills and lifestyle items like sunglasses are a big hit among
Punjabis. Some Online Shopping portals in India are www. Homeshop18.com,
www.flipkart.com, www.yebhi.com, www.myntra.com.American online retail giant
Amazon.com has also made an entry into the Indian market in 2012 with
Junglee.com, an online shopping site powered by the $ 48 billion company.

A. ONLINE SHOPPING IN INDIA

Online buying is growing exponentially throughout the world. UK is biggest online
shopping nation in the world followed Denmark, Norway and Korea. In Nigeria and
other African countries the number of users is still far below the world average which is
around 30%. Now-a-days due to the availability of faster internet networks E-commerce
activities are expanding at a faster rate in Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya. In South
Africa, 51% of individuals with internet access shop online whereas, in Kenya, only 1824% makes online purchases. In Nigeria approximately 28% of the population has
internet access according to ITU figure. According to the study the swiftness of online
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shopping in Pakistan is slugging as compared to India and other countries. The total
value of E-Commerce activities in India has surpassed Rs.5.7 billion during 2004-05
and Rs.23 billion by the year 2006-07.According to Rajan Anandan, VP & Managing
Director of Google India, with approximately 8 million Indians shopping online in 2012,
online shopping industry in India is growing rapidly and will continue to see
exponential growth. According to a survey conducted by IMRB International and
IAMAI , there was an estimate of 137 million Internet users in the country as of June
2012. Of which, 99 million were from urban parts of the country, the remaining 38
million were from rural India. So, online shopping is flourishing not only in metros and
urban areas but also in rural areas. Of which Hyderabad sits a big hit. Online shopping
in China topped 59.4 billion Yuan in 2005, more than 90 per cent from previous years.
B. RATIONALE FOR ONLINE SHOPPING
People like to buy things from web-marts (Online stores) rather than virtual markets
because of their hectic routines. Here are some reasons how online shopping is taking
place of virtual shopping.
a) Ease - Ease and convenience in shopping as it is available 24*7 access.
b) Availability of Assortment - The key benefit people get is increased variety.
Online shopping sites contain wide variety of goods both high-quality and mildquality keeping in mind the level of people.
c) Information - The consumers can get full information about the product with its
reviews being posted by existing users.
d) Difficulties with offline shopping - Personal circumstances had made people to
rely more on the internet. These factors help to underline the benefit of the
internet, as well as how some come to rely on it. Poor choice of local shops
Non availability of the transport facility
e) Time Saving - Now-a-days lifestyle is so busy that people are unable to go to
crowded markets so E-shopping is a boon as it saves a lot of time.
f) Review of products - Now if one wants to buy a product, he/she is no longer
limited to asking his/her friends and families because there are many product
reviews on the Web which give opinions of existing users of the product.
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g) Lower price - Online stores provide consumers with lots of new schemes and
discounts on different range of purchases.
C. FLIPKART:

REASON

BEHIND

POPULARITY

OF

E-COMMERCE

7 years back a computer engineer from a leading Indian institute co-founded what is the
largest e-commerce company in India today. We are talking about the very well know
company Flipkart founded by Mr. Sachin Bansal and Mr. Binny Basnsal in 2007. With
an investment of just Rs. 4 lakh in total they started the company that today generates
crores everyday. When it was just four years old, the company used to sell 15 products
per minute. It took a lot of hard work and time in reaching there. "We didn't draw our
salaries (from the business) for almost a year and a half," says Binny. The idea behind
the site was a price comparison website but they finally decided upon an e-commerce
portal.
Flipkart started as an online book retailer. Later they expanded themselves in areas like
fashion & technology. Other areas are also in pipeline like furniture and white goods.
"In March 2011, we announced that by 2015, we wanted to hit USD 1 billion in GMV.
At that point in time, our run rate was USD 10 million. Today, we are really proud and
excited to announce that we have hit a run rate of USD 1 billion GMV one year before
our target," Flipkart co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in a statement.

D. STRENGTHS OF FLIPKART
a) Regular penetration in all possible areas. They started with books, entered later in
fashion, electronics, apparel etc.
b) Inflow of investment: They have taken seven round of investment from investors like
Naspers, Tiger Global, Accel Partners, Dragoneer, Morgan Stanley, Sofina and Vulcan
Capital.
c) Excellent service: They deliver the product within a span of 24 hours.

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d) Earning Customer`s trust: Easy returns policy which helped consumers to trust them
more.
e) Internet reach: Indian youngsters have become so active on internet in the past decade
and so has their tendency to shop online.
f) Convenience: Its extremely convenient to shop online, comparing the product price &
features sitting in the comfort of your home.

II)

CHAPTER II RESEARCH METHODOLGY

A. WHAT IS RESEARCH METHODOLOGY?

The process used

to

collect information and data for

of making business decisions.

the

purpose

The methodology may

include publication research, interviews, surveys and other research techniques, and could
include both present and historical information.
Research Methodology is a way to find out the result of a given problem on a specific
matter or problem that is also referred as research problem. In Methodology, researcher
uses different criteria for solving/searching the given research problem. Different sources
use different type of methods for solving the problem. If we think about the word
Methodology, it is the way of searching or solving the research problem.
B. TYPE OF RESEARCH
It is a Qualitative type of research which is based a SURVEY conducted. Survey Method
of data collection is used in order to accomplish the research objectives

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A well-structured and closed ended questionnaire was used for data collection from the
respondents.
C. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
To achieve the goal of the study, the following research questionnaire addressed as
primary research objectives :
1. The primary objective of this project is to know about online consumers buying
behaviours towards online shopping (specially in case of flipkart users).
2. To identify the respondents perception about online shopping.
3. To find out various attitudes of flipkart users towards the online shopping.
D. HYPOTHESIS

Young generation is more active for purchasing item from flipkart.com

Flipkart.com is more popular e-commerce website than other sites.
E. TYPES OF DATA

Both primary data and secondary data were used for this study
F. SOURCES OF DATA

Primary data have been collected with the help of structured questionnaire by respondent
field survey method. Information was collected from students above 18 years of age and

working professionals from Mumbai by medium of questionnaires.

Secondary Data was collected from the internet, articles and journals.
G. SAMPLE SIZE
Sample size consists of 50 people between the age group of 18 to 50 selected at random
from Mumbai
H. TECHNIQUE OF DATA COLLECTION

Technique

of Data collection for this survey was a basic technique. The primary data

collected from respondents was by way of survey method and secondary data was
through the internet, journals and articles

I. TECHNIQUE OF DATA ANALYSIS

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 The data collected was analyzed by using quantitative and qualitative techniques. Basic
excel functions i.e. filtering, sorting and excel calculations, along with, mathematical and
statistical calculations were used. Graphs, Pie Charts and Tabular representation of
statistics were used in order simplify analysis of data.

J. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The frequency of B2C transactions has certainly increased over time in the Indian
subcontinent. There are many shopping websites, which are now witnessing a decisive
surge in traffic (this statement is being made while keeping in view the performance of
shopping websites in the last five years). With an increase in the number of persons
visiting these websites, they have also become ideal platforms for advertisements and
banners of different brands. Online shopping in India, is certainly witnessing a period,
which entails things such as rising number of online sales and fantastic revenue and profit
figures. They always strove to provide great customer service. Flipkart customers are
happier than with some of their competitors like Tradus.in, Indiaplaza.com; i have myself
experienced this a couple of times. Their website is great, easy to use, easy to browse
through the products, add products to wish list or to a cart, get product reviews and
opinions, pre-order products, make payments using different methods, in short hasslefree and convenient. A very important point is that they introduced the option of cash on
delivery and card on delivery, this way people demonstrated more confidence in buying
products. Based on literature review it is safe to say that there is no evidence of any
comprehensive research on this phenomenon. There is not much literature available
regarding this in the Indian subject. The field remains largely unexplored and hardly any
study has been conducted on this phenomenon by using primary data. Hence, the present
study could help in giving an idea about the consumer buying behaviour and patterns for
Flipkart.

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III)

CHAPTER III- ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Data Analysis is a process of inspecting, cleaning, transforming, and modeling data with
the goal of discovering useful information, suggesting conclusions, and supporting
decision-making. Data analysis has multiple facets and approaches, encompassing diverse
techniques under a variety of names, in different business, science, and social science
domains.
Data analysis is a process for obtaining raw data and converting it into information useful
for decision-making by users. Data is collected and analyzed to answer questions, test
hypotheses

or

disprove

and logical reasoning

theories.

The process of

to examine each component of

evaluating data using analytical

the

data

provided.

This form of analysis is just one of the many steps that must be completed when
conducting a research experiment. Data from various sources is gathered, reviewed, and
then analyzed to form some sort of finding or conclusion. There are a variety of specific
data analysis method, some of which include data mining, text analytics, business
intelligence,

and

data

visualizations.

There are several phases that can be distinguished. The phases are iterative, in that
feedback from later phases may result in additional work in earlier phases.
The process by which sense and meaning are made of the data gathered in qualitative
research, and by which the emergent knowledge is applied to clients' problems. This data
often takes the form of records of group discussions and interviews, but is not limited to
this. Through processes of revisiting and immersion in the data, and through complex
activities of structuring, re-framing or otherwise exploring it, the researcher looks for
patterns and insights relevant to the key research issues and uses these to address the
client's brief.
Data interpretation is part of daily life for most people. Interpretation is the process of
making sense of numerical data that has been collected, analyzed, and presented. People
interpret data when they turn on the television and hear the news anchor reporting on a
poll, when they read advertisements claiming that one product is better than another, or
when they choose grocery store items that claim they are more effective than other
leading brands.

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Data analysis and interpretation is the process of assigning meaning to the collected
information and determining the conclusions, significance, and implications of the
findings. The steps involved in data analysis are a function of the type of information
collected, however, returning to the purpose of the assessment and the assessment
questions will provide a structure for the organization of the data and a focus for the
analysis.
Main aim of this research is to understand online shopping process and the efficiency and
effectiveness buying goods with respect to filpkart.com in comparison to other online
shopping websites with respect to various factors such as quality, product availability,
discount of goods and security etc. Data for this research has been collected by using a
questionnaire and study purpose various aspects are considered like type of respondent
(Student, Business, Employee & Others), age, gender, flipkart references etc.

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QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY
The following questionnaire includes 7 questions and the sixth question includes a set of
10 rating sub-questions on the topic Flipkart.
1. The primary objective of this project is to know about online consumers buying
behaviours towards online shopping (specially in case of flipkart users).
2. To identify the respondents perception about online shopping.
3. To find out various attitudes of flipkart users towards the online shopping.
QUESTION 1 GENDER OF CUSTOMER
Category
Male
Female

Number
15
35

Percentage
30
70

Gender Of Customer
80
70
60
50

Gender Of Customer

40
30
20
10
0
Male

Female

Interpretation More number of females prefer online shopping than males. As shown in
the figure, 70% of females have chosen to answer the questionnaire.
QUESTION 2 AGE OF CUSTOMER
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Category

Number

Percentage

18 25

23

46

26 - 35

12

24

35 - 50

16

Above 50

14

Age Of Customer
50
45
40
35
30

Age Of Customer

25
20
15
10
5
0
18 -25

26 - 35

35 - 50

above 50

Interpretation Flipkarts main customers range from 18 - 25 since they are 46% of all.
Approximately 24% customers range from 26 - 35. Fewer number indicates age of 50 above.
This shows that the youth prefers online shopping particularly at Flipkart

QUESTION 3 EDUCATION OF CUSTOMER

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Category
M.Com
MBA
Others

Number
32
12
6

Percentage
64
24
12

Education of Customer
70
60
50
Education of Customer

40
30
20
10
0
M.Com

MBA

Others

Interpretation Most of the people who answered the questionnaire were from the M.com
background. About 24% were MBAs and very few were in the others category.

QUESTION 4 PROFESSION OF CUSTOMER

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Category

Number

Percentage

Student

17

34

Service

13

26

Self Employed

10

Business

12

24

Retired

Profession Of Customer
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

Profession Of Cutomer

Interpretation Flipkarts main customers are student i.e. the younger lot of people. They
engage more in online buying. The next category is the service category with almost 26% and
the business category with 24%. Very few are from the retired category.

QUESTION 5 INCOME OF CUSTOMER

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Category

Number

Percentage

Less Than 25,000

16

25,000 50,000

10

20

Above 50,000

32

64

Income Of Customer
70
60
50
Income Of Customer

40
30
20
10
0
Less Than 25,000

25,000 - 50,000

Above 50,000

Interpretation This shows that there is direct relationship between online shopping and
income levels. Those with higher income levels indulge the most in online shopping at
Flipkart amounting to almost 64% which is a huge percentage. The lowest one is 16% of
people who have incomes less than 25,000.

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QUESTION 6
i.

Do You Prefer online shopping?

Category

Number

Percentage

Yes

43

86

No

14

Do You Prefer online shopping

100
90
80
70
Do You Prefer online
shopping

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Yes

No

Interpretation This shows that it can be concluded that 85 %of the population prefer online
shopping while remaining 15 % does not prefer online shopping

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ii.

Reason of Offline Shopping

Category

Number

Percentage

Dont have trust

32

64

Dont have knowledge

10

20

Dont like to wait for delivery

16

Reason for Offline Shopping

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

Reason for Offline

Shopping

Interpretation Study reveals that approx. 64 percent respondents dont have trust for online
shopping and maximum 20 percent respondents stated that they dont know how to shop
online. And in other reason respondent stated that they dont want to wait for delivering item
after purchasing and some respondents stated they have to give more time for online
shopping compare to flipkart.com.

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iii.

Do You Consider Online Shopping Safe?

Category

Number

Percentage

Yes

45

90

No

10

Online Shopping Safe?

100
90
80
70
60

Online Shopping Safe?

50
40
30
20
10
0
Yes

No

Interpretation It clearly shows that 90% of respondents feel that shopping online is a safe
affair ,While 10% among them are still conservative an avoid shopping online due to fear of
quality of products and payment options.

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iv.

First Experience With Flipkart?

Category

Number

Percentage

Excellent

40

80

Good

14

Average

Bad

First Experience
90
80
70
60
First Experience

50
40
30
20
10
0
Excellent

Good

Average

Bad

Interpretation shows that 80% of the respondents shows that they have excellent first time
experience with flipkart while 14 % said they have overall good experience and reamaining
said that they have average or bad experience while shopping first time with flipkart.

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v.

How frequently do you buy products/items from flipkart.com ?

Category

Number

Percentage

Once in a week

13

26

Once in a month

23

46

Once in 6 months

14

28

Frequency of purchase
50
45
40
35
30

Income Of Customer

25
20
15
10
5
0
Once in a week

Once in a month Once in 6 months

Interpretation We can analyze that majority of the respondents i.e. 46% of respondents have
bought products online once a month. 28% of respondents bought online items once in a six
months. 26% of the respondents bought online product once in a week.

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vi.

Why did you choose flipkart.com for online shopping?

Category

Number

Percentage

Attractive Prices

23

46

Reliable

12

Variety & Products

14

Popularity

14

28

Why Choose Flipkart?

50
45
40
35
30

Why Choose Flipkart?

25
20
15
10
5
0
Attractive Prices

Reliable

Variety

Popular

Interpretation It is clear that maximum 46% respondents said that they choose online
shopping with flipkart.com for attractive prices, 28% choose flipkart.com for its popularity,
14 % (Approx.) respondents choose flipkart.com for mass variety of products and rest
minimum 12% (Approx.) respondents said that they choose flipkart.com for its reliability.

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vii.

Do you visit retail stores first before online purchasing with flipkart.com?

Category

Number

Percentage

Yes

20

40

No

27

54

Cant say

Visit retail stores first before online purchasing with flipkart.com?

50
45
40
35
30

Income Of Customer

25
20
15
10
5
0
Yes

No

Cant say

Interpretation 40% of the respondents said that they visit retail stores before online
purchasing with flipkart.com to see and check actual product face, Prices etc, maximum 54%
of the respondents do not visit retail stores before online purchasing with flipkart.com as they
believe in flipkart.com prices, quality etc. Least 6% (Approx.) Respondents cant say for this
regard.

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viii.

When did you like online shopping with flipkart.com?

Category

Number

Percentage

Festive season

14

28

Heavy Discount period

28

56

When needed

16

When did you like online shopping with flipkart.com?

60
50
40
Income Of Customer
30
20
10
0
Festive season

Havey discounts

When needed

Interpretation It clearly shows that most of the 56% of the respondents do like online
shopping with flipkart.com in a heavy discount time period. However 28% (Approx.) of the
respondent do shopping with flipkart.com in festive seasons and 16% of the respondents like
shopping with flipkart.com when they have need.

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ix.

What would you like buy on online shopping with flipkart.com?

Category

Number

Percentage

Apparel

20

40

Electronics

18

Home Appliances

12

Accessories

15

30

What would you like buy on flipkart.com?

45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

Income Of Customer

Interpretation This shows that 40% Respondents bought Apparel from flipkart.com and
30% respondent purchased Accessories (Like : perfumes, make-up kit, watches etc.) from
online shopping via flipkart.com, 18% Respondents like to purchase Electronic goods and
Least 12% Respondents like to buy home & kitchen appliances from flipkart.com

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x.

Would you like to continue online shopping with flipkart.com?

Category

Number

Percentage

Yes

40

80

No

18

Cant Say

Would you like to continue online shopping with flipkart.com?

90
80
70
60
Income Of Customer

50
40
30
20
10
0
Yes

No

Cant say

Interpretation This shows that there is direct relationship between online shopping and
income levels. Those with higher income levels indulge the most in online shopping at
Flipkart amounting to almost 64% which is a huge percentage. The lowest one is 16% of
people who have incomes less than 25,000.

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QUESTION 7 ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR FLIPKART

This question is the last one in the questionnaire which asks the respondents whether they
have any comments or suggestions for the online shopping facility Flipkart offers.
Following is a summary of the responses that were received:
Product variety is too vast and must be categorized systematically to help shopping.
Many a times, there are defective products that are shipped to customers.
Return/Exchange is a very complicated and time consuming procedure
A lot of false reviews are given under good products which creates a negative image in the
minds of buyers.
Accounts on Flipkart get hacked and used by frauds.
In watches latest products are not updated quickly.
Flipkart.com has to increase number of cities for delivering a product.
Schemes should be introduced for housewives and middle class to motivate them o use
these facilities.
Flipkart.com has to increase languages option.
Sometime discount rate in some products is low compared to other online shopping
websites.
Flipkart.com has introduced EMI but not advertised properly

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FINDINGS OF THE SURVEY

The first and foremost finding of this study is that most No. of users are happy on
online shopping with flipkart.com because most of the users responces are in

favour of flipkart.com
Most respondents (users) are satisfied for online shopping with flipkart.com. So
most respondents want to continue online shopping with flikart.com, they believed
in flipkart.com reliability, its policies and they said that flipkart.com is reliable

etailer in the field of online shopping.

On the basis of user responces we can easily analyze that users of flipkart.com
mainly interested in buy online apparel- Like mens, womens and kids clothes,
watches, home & kitchen appliances etc. and they dislike buy online perfumes &
footwear etc. they bought products online once in a week and like to do online

shopping mostly on discounted time period and festive seasons.

Users of flipkart.com believes that flipkart.com products prices is lesser than the

prices in the market.

Mostly youngesters and youth generation (18-25 Age group) are very much
interested in online shopping with flipkart.com because they know about
technology,

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IV)

CHAPTER IV - SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATION &

BIBLIOGRAPHY
SUMMARY

The research showed that the popularity of e-commerce facilities has gradually increased
over the years and popularity of flipkart.com is popular in young generation. In todays fast
moving life people want to purchase all the products as per their convenience, at cheap rate
and high quality which is provided by flipkart.com and this is one of the reasons for growing
popularity of flipkart.com. Still a large proportions of people today refrain themselves from
using these e-commerce websites due to security reasons or their familiarity with retail shops,
wholesalers, etc. The research shows that a few of them have encountered mishaps while
using e-commerce websites. Compare to other online shopping websites, flipkart.com is way
ahead in competition for its products availability, quality, discount rate, user interface, etc.
From the research the researchers can also conclude that the Cash on delivery facility
provided by the flipkart.com is the most popular among all the payment method for the
products. This shows that the future scenario of the cash on delivery is bright and will slowly
and steadily replace a large proportion of people using prior payment facilities.

RECOMMENDATIONS
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1) As still in India large segment of population is untapped regarding the online shopping the
available online shopping stores can widen their market by getting into expansion strategies
2) There is also need to remove the fear in the minds the customers regarding the product
quality, durability and payments etc. in online shopping
3) Wide expansion of internet facilities in rural areas can bring the more
customers for the online shopping sites
4) Through prompt service, wide variety and easy accessibility even consumers
from the remote areas can be tapped
5) As Indian consumers are much more cautious about shopping online as
compared to the West. They are reluctant to divulge credit card details. The cash
on delivery service has will help a lot of traditional consumers turn to online
shopping
6) Indias e-commerce companies have far too often concentrated on the bells and
whistles instead of focusing on deploying and customizing technology to serve
customer needs, so their need more customer centric approach.
7) Calling facility to make an order and change an order as well as, Urgent
delivery with no extra cost service can add a cherry on the cake and would help
flipkart to perform even better than its competitors

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://ijcsmc.com/docs/papers/June2013/V2I6201328.pdf
http://www.academia.edu/6324047/Case_Study_of_an_Emerging_Giant_in_the_Onlin

e_World_-_FLIPKART
http://www.jagranjosh.com/articles/case-study-indian-ecommerce-giant-flipkart-

acquiring-myntra-1404300029-1
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/research-methodology.html

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http://www.howtodo.dissertationhelpservice.com/what-is-research-methodology-and-

its-importance
http://www.euroasiapub.org/IJRIM/Mar14/7.pdf
http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/INF4260/h10/undervisningsmateriale/Data

Analysis.pdf
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/data-analysis.html

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