CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION
The Internet, as a mean for both firms and individuals to conduct business, is nowadays one of
the most widely used non-store formats.With popular trends and demands the concept of the
Internet as the way forward to increase profit margins, companies new and old arecreating
websites here and there. The significance for retailers to having a web site is that aweb site is
informational and transactional in nature, as the web site can be used foradvertising and direct
marketing; sales; customer support and public relations. It has beenmore than a decade since
business-to-consumer E-commerce first evolved. Scholars and practitioners of electronic
commerceconstantly strive to gain an improved insight intoconsumer behaviour in
cyberspace.Internet is changing the way consumers shop and buy goods and services, and has
rapidlyevolved into a global phenomenon. Many companies have started using the Internet with
theaim of cutting marketing costs, thereby reducing the price of their products and services
inorder to stay ahead in highly competitive markets. Companies also use the Internet to
convey,communicate and disseminate information, to sell the product, to take feedback and also
toconduct satisfaction surveys with customers. Customers use the Internet not only to buy the
product online, but also to compare prices, product features and after sale service facilitiesthey
will receive if they purchase the product from a particular store. Many experts areoptimistic
about the prospect of online business

Brand is the idea or image of a specific product or service that consumers connect with,
byidentifying the name, logo, slogan, or design of the company who owns the idea or
image.Branding is when that idea or image is marketed so that it is recognizable by more and
more people, and identified with a certain service or product when there are many other
companiesoffering the same service or product. Advertising professionals work on branding not
only to build brand recognition, but also to buildgood reputations and a set of standards to which
the company as branding allows companies to build their reputation as well as expand beyond
the original product and service and to the revenue generated buy the original brand initially
branding was adopted to differentiate one person cattle from another by means of a distinctive
symbol burned into the animals skin with hot iron stamp and was subsequently use free business
marketing and advertising

Customer perception is a marketing concept that encompasses a customer’s

impression,awareness and/or consciousness about a company or its offerings. Customer
perception istypically affected by advertising, reviews, public relations, social media, personal
experiencesand other channels
The Internet, as a mean for both firms and individuals to conduct business, is nowadays one
of the most widely used non-store formats.With popular trends and demands the concept of
the Internet as the way forward to increase profit margins, companies new and old are
creating websites here and there. The significance for retailers to having a web site is that a
web site is informational and transactional in nature, as the web site can be used for
advertising and direct marketing; sales; customer support and public relations. It has been
more than a decade since business-to-consumer E-commerce first evolved. Scholars and
practitioners of electronic commerce constantly strive to gain an improved insight into
consumer behaviour in cyberspace.
Internet is changing the way consumers shop and buy goods and services, and has rapidly
evolved into a global phenomenon. Many companies have started using the Internet with the
aim of cutting marketing costs, thereby reducing the price of their products and services in
order to stay ahead in highly competitive markets. Companies also use the Internet to convey,
communicate and disseminate information, to sell the product, to take feedback and also to
conduct satisfaction surveys with customers. Customers use the Internet not only to buy the
product online, but also to compare prices, product features and after sale service facilities
they will receive if they purchase the product from a particular store. Many experts are
optimistic about the prospect of online business.
A brand is the idea or image of a specific product or service that consumers connect with, by
identifying the name, logo, slogan, or design of the company who owns the idea or image.
Branding is when that idea or image is marketed so that it is recognizable by more and more
people, and identified with a certain service or product when there are many other companies
offering the same service or product. Advertising professionals work on branding not only to
build brand recognition, but also to build good reputations and a set of standards to which the
company should strive to maintain or surpass. Branding is an important part of Internet
commerce, as branding allows companies to build their reputations as well as expand beyond
the original product and service, and add to the revenue generated by the original brand.
Initially, Branding was adopted to differentiate one person's cattle from another's by means of
a distinctive symbol burned into the animal's skin with a hot iron stamp, and was
subsequently used in business, marketing and advertising.
"Customer perception is a marketing concept that encompasses a customer's impression,
awareness and/or consciousness about a company or its offerings. Customer perception is
typically affected by advertising, reviews, public relations, social media, personal experiences
and other channels.
Consumer behaviour is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes
they use to select, secure, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy
needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society. It blends
elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology and economics. It attempts to
understand the decision-making processes of buyers, both individually and in groups. It
studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics and behavioural
variables in an attempt to understand people's wants. It also tries to assess influences on the
consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general.
Customer behaviour study is based on consumer buying behaviour, with the customer playing
the three distinct roles of user, payer and buyer. Research has shown that consumer behaviour
is difficult to predict, even for experts in the field. Relationship marketing is an influential
asset for customer behaviour analysis as it has a keen interest in the re-discovery of the true
meaning of marketing through the re-affirmation of the importance of the customer or buyer.
A greater importance is also placed on consumer retention, customer relationship
management, personalisation, customisation and one-to-one marketing. Social functions can
be categorized into social choice and welfare functions.
The ultimate goal of most businesses is to increase sales and income. Ideally, you want to
attract new customers to your products and encourage repeat purchases. Brand awareness
refers to how aware customers and potential customers are of your business and its products.
Brand Awareness is the extent to which a brand is recognized by potential customers, and is
correctly associated with a particular product. Expressed usually as a percentage of target
market, brand awareness is the primary goal of advertising in the early months or years of a
product's introduction.
Brand awareness is the extent to which the consumer associates the brand with the product he
desires to buy. It is the brand recall and the brand recognition of the company to the
consumers. Brand recall is the ability of the consumer to recollect the brand with reference to
the product whereas brand recognition is the potential of the consumer to retrieve the past
knowledge of the brand when enquired about the brand or shown an image of the brand logo. "
"Brand awareness is an essential part of brand development which helps the brand to stand out
from the others in this monopolistically competitive market.
Digital marketing involves the promotion of products and services using digital distribution
channels that reach consumers in a timely, relevant, personal, and cost effective manner. At a
high level, digital channels can have many categories, such as the internet, mobile, digital
outdoors, and any form of interactive digital media. Each category has multiple digital tools/
sub-channels that can support digital marketing. These include:
 Internet- Email banner ads, dedicated websites, pop-up ads, sponsored content, paid
keyword search, podcasts, etc… Newer channels comprise social networks, blogs,
wikis, widgets, virtual words, online gaming etc…
 Mobile- SMS,MMS, mobile Web, mobile application and mobile video
 Digital outdoors – Stills,/ video digital display, interactive kiosks
 Interactive digital medium – interactive television channels
Any combination of the above channels can be used to gain maximum visibility with utmost
impact among targeted customers, thereby enabling more business at a reasonable cost. While
digital channels empower marketers with a tremendous advantage in terms of their extensive
reach, leveraging their potential requires effective management of multiple channels with
complex variables to realize optimal value.
1.1 INTERNET USAGE IN INDIA
Internet in India report says that India‘s internet user base has gone well above 100 million –
that‘s just fewer than 10% of the population. India‘s internet user base was growth was very
sluggish until 2007-08, but has picked up rapidly thereafter."
 NUMBER OF INTERNET USERS IN MILLIONS
800

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

In 2020, India had nearly 700 million internet users across the country. This figure was projected
to grow to over 974 million users by 2025, indicating a big market potential in internet services
for the south Asian country. In fact, India was ranked as the second largest online market
worldwide in 2019, coming second only to China. The number of internet users was estimated to
increase in both urban as well as rural regions, indicating a dynamic growth in access to internet
"RETAILING
Retailing is selling of merchandise and certain services to the consumer. Retailing began
several thousand years ago. The activities involved in the selling of goods to ultimate
consumers for personal or household consumption. It is extremely competitive, and the
failure rate of retail establishments is relatively high. Price is the most important arena of
competition, but other factors include convenience of location, selection and display of
merchandise, attractiveness of the establishment, and reputation. The diversity of retailing is
evident in the many forms it now takes, including vending machines, door-to-door and
telephone sales, direct-mail marketing, the Internet, discount houses, specialty stores,
department stores, supermarkets, and consumer cooperatives.
Whatever form it takes, however, the essence of good retailing remains the same: attractive,
appropriate merchandise offered for sale in an attractive, eye-catching manner at a reasonable
price at a convenient location.
It ordinarily involves the selling of individual units or small lots to large numbers of
customers by a business set up for that specific purpose. In the broadest sense, retailing can
be said to have begun the first time one item of value was bartered for another. In the more
restricted sense of a specialized, full-time commercial activity, retailing began several
thousand years ago when peddlers first began hawking their wares and when the first
marketplaces were formed."
"As with most other business activities, retailing is extremely competitive, and the mortality
rate of retail establishments is relatively high. The basic competition is price competition, but
this is moderated somewhat by such non-price forms of competition as convenience of
location, selection and display of merchandise, attractiveness of the retail establishment itself,
and intangible factors such as reputation in the community. Competition for sales has led to a
blurring of traditional product lines in retailing, and many establishments offer a much wider
variety of merchandise than their basic classification would indicate (e.g., drugstores may
carry food, clothing, office supplies, hardware, etc.).
Terms Defined:
Vending Machine - a coin-operated machine for selling small articles, beverages, etc.
Direct-mail marketing - reaching the desired clients using print ads in a form of leaflets,
e-mails.
Discount houses- retail store that offers merchandise for sale at lower prices than
conventional stores that sell merchandise at list prices or suggested retail prices;
Specialty stores- are small stores which specialise in a specific range of merchandise and
related items.
1.3 INTRODUCTION TO ONLINE SHOPPING
Online shopping is the process whereby consumers directly buy goods, services etc. from a
seller interactively in real-time without an intermediary service over the internet. Online
shopping is the process of buying goods and services from merchants who sell on the
Internet. Since the emergence of the World Wide Web, merchants have sought to sell their
products to people who surf the Internet. Shoppers can visit web stores from the comfort of
their homes and shop as they sit in front of the computer. Consumers buy a variety of items
from online stores. In fact, people can purchase just about anything from companies that
provide their products online. Books, clothing, household appliances, toys, hardware,
software, and health insurance are just some of the hundreds of products consumers can buy
from an online store. "
"Many people choose to conduct shopping online because of the convenience. For example,
when a person shops at a brick-and-mortar store, he has to drive to the store, find a parking
place, and walk throughout the store until she locates the products she needs. After finding
the items she wants to purchase, she may often need to stand in long lines at the cash register.
Despite the convenience of online shopping, not everyone chooses to purchase items and
services online. Some people like the idea of physically going to a store and experiencing the
shopping process. They like to touch the merchandise, try on clothing, and be around other
people. Online shopping doesn't permit shoppers to touch products or have any social
interaction. It also doesn't allow them to take the merchandise home the same day they buy it.
Online shopping allows browsing through endless possibilities, and even offers merchandise
that's unavailable in stores. If someone is searching for a niche product that may not be
distributed locally, they're sure to find what they're looking for on the internet. What's even
more useful is the ability to compare items, similar or not, online. He can search through
multiple stores at the same time, comparing material quality, sizes and pricing
simultaneously.
Shopping via the internet eliminates the need to sift through a store's products with potential
buys like pants, shirts, belts and shoes all slung over one arm. Online shopping also
eliminates the catchy, yet irritating music, as well as the hundreds, if not thousands, of other
like-minded individuals who seem to have decided to shop on the same day.
Online shopping transactions occur instantly-saving the time to get your other errands done!
Additionally, unlike a store, online shopping has friendly customer service representatives
available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to assist you with locating, purchasing and shipping
your merchandise.
1.3.1 Factors influencing consumer to shop online
Though there are several factors that influence consumers to shop online, but there are mainly
four factors which influence consumer to shop online after reading literature in the field on
consumer attitudes towards online shopping and these factors are discussed below in brief."

"Convenience
Convenience factor refers that it is easy to browse or search the information through online is
easier than the traditional retail shopping. Through online, consumers can easily search
product catalogue but if the consumer look generally for the same product or item in a
traditional store manually it is difficult to visit physically and time consuming also.
Convenience has always been a prime factor for consumers to shop online. According to the
Robinson, Riley, Rettie and Wilsonz (2007) the major motivation for online purchasing is
convince in terms of shop at any time and having bundles of items delivered at door step.
Rohm and Swaminathan‘s (2004) claims in ―typology of online shoppers into‖: Convenience
shoppers, balanced buyers, variety seekers and store-oriented shoppers, based upon their
present shopping motivation. Through online purchase consumers can easily compare the
price than the traditional purchase. So price comparison is also another convenience factor of
online shopping.
1.3.1.2 Time saving
Time savings is one of most influencing factors of online shopping. Browse or search an
online catalogue can save time and patience. People can save time and can reduce effort by
shopping online. One possible explanation that online shopping saves time during the
purchasing of goods and it can eliminate the traveling time required to go to the traditional
store. On the other side, some respondent think that it is also time taken for delivery of goods
or services over online shopping.
Unexpectedly time saving is not the motivating factor for the consumers to shop online
(Corbett, 2001) because it takes time receiving goods or delivery. But time saving factor can
be seen through different dimensions i.e. ―person living in Florida can shop at Harod‘s in
London (through the web) in less time than it takes to visit the local Burdines department
store‖. So the importance of the time saving factor cannot be neglected as motivation behind
online purchasing. Additionally Goldsmith and Bridges (2000) emphasize that there is a
discrimination between online shopper and non-online shoppers, online shoppers are more
worried about convenience, time saving and selection whereas non online shoppers are
worried about security, privacy and on time delivery
"Website design/features
Website design and online shopping activity is one of the vital influencing factors of online
shopping. Website design, website reliability/fulfilment, website customer service and
website security/privacy are the most attractive features which influence the perception of the
consumer of online buying Shergill & Chen (2005). Kamariah and Salwani (2005) claims the
higher website quality, the higher consumer intends to shop from internet. Web design
quality has important impacts on consumer choice of electronic stores, stated by Liang and
Lai (2000). Website design one of the important factor motivating consumers for online
shopping.
Website design features can be considered as a motivational factor that can create positive or
negative feelings with a website. If website is designed with quality features it can guide the
customers for successful transactions and attract the customers to revisit the website again.
However, worse quality website features can also hamper online shopping. According to
Liang and Lai (2000), web design quality or website features has direct impact on user to
shop online.
1.3.1.4 Security
Security is another dominant factor which affects consumers to shop online. However many
internet users avoid online shopping because of credit card fraud, privacy factors, non-
delivery risk, post purchase service and so on. But transaction security on the online shopping
has received attention. Safe and secured transaction of money and credit card information
increases trust and decreases transaction risk. In 1995, UK has introduced Fraud free
electronic shopping and later on Europe and Singapore introduced secured electronic
transaction (SET). According to Bhatnagar and Ghose (2004) Security is one of the attribute
which limits buying on the web as they claim that there is a large segment of internet
shoppers who don‘t like to buy online because of their thinking about the security of their
sensitive information.
1.4 INTRODUCTION TO ECOMMERCE
Electronic commerce, commonly known as ecommerce, is a type of industry where buying
and selling of product or service is conducted over electronic systems such as the Internet and "
"other computer networks. Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile
commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online
transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems,
and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the
World Wide Web at least at one point in the transaction's life-cycle, although it may
encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail, mobile devices social media, and
telephones as well.
Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also
consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of business
transactions.
E-commerce can be divided into:
 E-tailing or "virtual storefronts" on websites with online catalogues, sometimes
gathered into a "virtual mall"
 The gathering and use of demographic data through Web contacts and social media
 Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the business-to-business exchange of data
 E-mail and fax and their use as media for reaching prospective and established
customers (for example, with newsletters)
 Business-to-business/ Business-to-Customer buying and selling
 The security of business transactions etc…
1.4.1 Growth and progression of E-commerce in India
The e-commerce market in India has grown by 34% in the last seven years, was about USD
600 million in 2011-12 and is expected to touch USD 9 billion by 2016 and USD 70 billion
by 2020. According to Forrester, the Indian e-commerce market is expected to grow at a
CAGR of over 57% between 2012 and 2016, which is the fastest within Asia-Pacific region.
The key factors that are driving this growth are the rise of Internet usage (growing at 20%) &
3G penetration, and increasing smartphone users with availability of Internet on mobile
phones. It is estimated that currently there are 27 million mobile Internet users in India out of
which 4% are buying products on mobile. This figure is expected to increase to 20% mobile
shoppers in the next four years. These factors accompanied by busy lifestyles, traffic
"congestion, lack of offline shopping time, great deals and discounts offered online, and use of
innovative e-commerce models such as group buying and second-hand sales have led to more
and more consumers switch to online shopping. With the rising middle class incomes, global
exposure and changing demographics (close to 50% of the population is less than 25 years of
age), this trend also holds true for the Tier II & III cities.
Online travel (76 per cent) and financial services (10 per cent) form the biggest component of
online shopping followed by e-tailing (8 per cent). While services such as travel tickets,
movie tickets, restaurant discount vouchers, hotel bookings, utility payments, insurance
policies, and premium payments lead the wallet share of the amount spent online, product
categories such as computers & accessories, cameras & mobiles, electronic durables, and
books are picking up. But, product categories such as apparel, jewellery and footwear
(require high touch and feel), which offer maximum potential in terms of market size, faces
challenges such as high return rate and negative cash cycles due to COD (cash on delivery).
However, the e-commerce industry today faces certain challenges. Firstly, there is a very low
penetration of credit/debit cards in India, which restricts the online purchasing power. Even
though strategies such as cash on delivery have been introduced, they have their own nuances
and pose high working capital issues to the companies. Secondly, high volume items such as
refrigerators require high freight & shipping costs and because the e-commerce model in
India is based on free shipping concept, sale of such items online could suffer a setback.
Finally, the distribution & logistics in India is not very well organized and prone to fraud.
Hence, buying of high value items such as jewellery, electronic goods (LCDs), which require
travel insurance adding up to the total costs may not be one of the bestsellers in the digital
space.
The key to success in this segment is delivering high quality user experience which includes
differentiated and detailed product catalogue, order fulfilment, website performance, different
modes of transaction(credit cards, payment gateways, cash on delivery etc.), and simple and
sensible checkout. Furthermore, with the increase in competition in this segment, the e-
commerce players need to invest in research and development of differentiated product
catalogues, innovative service and customer engagement concepts, and cost effective supply
chain and logistics models."
 CHAPTER-2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE

"INTRODUCTION
The first section of this chapter discusses the literature review done for this study followed by
the research design of this study in detail in the second section. A literature review is a body
of text that aims to review the critical points of current knowledge including substantive
findings as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a particular topic.
Literature reviews are secondary sources, and as such, do not report any new or original
experimental work. Also, a literature review can be interpreted as a review of an abstract
accomplishment. Methodology is the answer to the why and how the research was carried out
in the first place. This increases the possibility of receiving appropriate answers to the
 research questions and derives valuable insights into the topic at hand. The main focus of the
methodology here is driven by primary research, thus undertaking research that is novel in
nature. Alongside this it highlights the methods that would be put to use to explore this study.
The choice of research approach is the first topic discussed in this chapter, followed by data
collection, sample selection and data analysis."
Growth of e-commerce in India: An analytical review of literature
Madhurima Khosla, Harish Kumar
E-commerce is one of the fastest growing segments in the Indian Economy. Though marked by
high growth rate, the Indian e-commerce industry has been behind its counterparts in many
developed and emerging economies, primarily due to a relatively low internet user base. In a
study conducted by global management consultancy firm AT Kearney in 2015, there were only
39 million online buyers in India; a tiny fraction of the 1.2 billion who live in the country.
However, increased technological proliferation combined with internet and mobile penetration,
presents a favorable ecosystem for the development of e-commerce in India. The country is
currently at the cusp of a digital revolution. Launch of 4G services and decline in the tariffs of
data plans and prices of data cards/USB dongles have reduced the cost of ownership of an
effective internet connection. Availability of low cost smart phones and the extension of internet
and broadband to the remotest corners will boost the augmentation of the internet user base,
effectively bridging the gap between potential online buyers and actual buyers. The demographic
dividend of the country also seems to encourage and favor the growth of E-commerce. The
survival of the e-commerce firms in a highly dynamic environment becomes a challenging task
when coupled with the cutthroat competition prevailing in the sector. The onus then lies on the
firms to constantly adapt and innovate while providing an information rich and seamless
experience to ensure customer loyalty. This study attempts to explore the evolution of e-
commerce in India and identifies various challenges to as well the factors responsible for the
future growth and development of e commerce.
A study on customer satifaction towards Flipkart, Chennai
S Bhuvaneswaran, Andm Prabhu, AK Subramani
The importance of this study is to examine the customer satisfaction towards Flipkart. com users
in Chennai city. Also tried to find out various attributes of Flipkartusers of Chennai city towards
the online shopping. For this study survey was conducted. The data will be collected from
respondents through a scheduled containing questions. The study result concluded that future of
e-tailers in India especially in cities looking very bright. Flipkart. com offering best prices, good
products and completely easy shopping experience for our customers. The success of any e-tailer
company in India is depending upon its popularity, its branding image, its unique & fair policies,
and its customer relations etc.
STAY HOME AND SHOP ONLINE-THE FLIPKART STORY
 S Gayathry
Flipkart has had a long road over the years, full of ups and downs. What started as an online
bookstore from a two-bedroom apartment in Koramangala, Bengaluru in 2007 has today grown
into one of the biggest companies in India, and an incredible example of the success potential for
Indian startups. Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal launched an internet business called Flipkart on
15th September 2007 to sell books online. They managed to close the year with 20 successful
shipments. From the humble beginning, the promoters have become celebrities in their own
right, setting examples for other aspiring entrepreneurs to aim for. The Indian e-commerce’s
biggest success story celebrates the crowning moment of its journey so far, a $16 billion
acquisition by Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, in the biggest M&A deal ever in the Indian
startup ecosystem. This paper makes an attempt to explore the key milestones of the Flipkart
journey.
Online word of mouth using text mining: A review of literature and future directions
U Mahesh Balan, SK Mathew
Online word-of-mouth (Online WOM) is extensively growing today, generating a huge corpus of
verbal data and numerical product ratings. In this paper we do a detailed review of research on
text-mining and online WOM. Since research in this area is still evolving, we add value to this
literature by analyzing most of the literature available in this area and identified four different
categories of research focus. We also identified various research gaps that exist in each category
and hence give directions for future research in text-mining and online WOM.
A study on customer satifaction towards Flipkart, Chennai
The importance of this study is to examine the customer satisfaction towards Flipkart. com users
in Chennai city. Also tried to find out various attributes of Flipkartusers of Chennai city towards
the online shopping. For this study survey was conducted. The data will be collected from
respondents through a scheduled containing questions. The study result concluded that future of
e-tailers in India especially in cities looking very bright. Flipkart. com offering best prices, good
products and completely easy shopping experience for our customers. The success of any e-tailer
company in India is depending upon its popularity, its branding image, its unique & fair policies,
and its customer relations etc.
Challenges assessment for the e-commerce industry in india: a review (with special reference to
flipkart v/s snapdeal)
Anand Vyas, Sachin Gupta
The core aim of this research paper is to analyze the challenges faced by an E-commerce
industry in India. The Indian Economy is proliferating day by day and E-commerce industry is
playing an imperative and laudable role in its progress. Still there are enormous sectors that have
been untouched by an E-commerce industry in India, particularly in its rural areas. Many
consumers in India still follow the traditional purchasing method. Unfortunately, altering
customer perception of online shopping has been quite a tough task for the E-commerce industry.
According to a survey, India is ranked fourth in the world for its number of Internet users. So, it
is expected that India would come into the top 10 E-commerce hub by 2020. Indian buyers are
afraid to use new technology in its Initial stage. But, if an E-commerce company could provide
proper feedback and knowledge to its customers for online purchasing, it would directly help to
increase the sales of the E-commerce websites. This research paper gives a theoretical
contribution for analyzing the hurdles in front of the E-commerce industry.
The War Between Flipkart and Amazon India: a Study on Customer Perception
Samrat Bharadwaj
IMPACT: International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Literature (IMPACT:
IJRHAL) 7 (5), 391-402, 2007
Today’s business world is highly competitive. Every firm is in the race to win more and more
customers. It seems like every business organisation is in like a virtual war with one another
where one organisation attacks another with their strategies and the other defends itself. This war
though exists in every business sector; it can be distinctly seen in the ecommerce industry. The e-
tailing websites try to outrun their competitors by adopting newer strategies every time and
thereby gain better goodwill in the market which will ultimately increase their web traffic. This
study is an insight into the competitive scenario of the e-commerce industry of India. It aims to
check the rivalry between the two giants that operate in India viz. Amazon India and Flipkart and
ponder upon the customer perception towards these strategies that both the firms adopt from time
to time.
Factors influencing online shopping during diwali festival 2014: case study of Flipkart and
Amazon. in
Preeti Khanna, Brinda Sampat
Sentiment Analysis of Customer Reviews on Laptop Products for Flipkart
NL Janhavi, Jharna Majumdar, Santhosh Kumar
E-commerce is rising rapidly now a days, purchasing items on online has grown to be more and
more fashionable outstanding of more options like lower in price, better supply system, therefore
buyers plan to do Online shopping. User’s comments are useful information to estimate product
quality. This paper has a tendency to analyze the fundamentals of opinion mining. It consist
different approaches including Extraction, Clustering and Classification. Extracting reviews from
the website using flipkart product API, using product API we can easily fetch the brand name,
reviews, rating and other related things for product, clustering using ROCK and using CART
algorithm to classify reviews as positive and negative words from the comments and finally they
come to know which product having more percentage of positive reviews.The Indian retail sector
is witnessing a dramatic change because of changing mindset of the urban consumers. These
consumers are spoilt for choices and are presented not only with different products and brands
but also with diverse retailer formats such as departmental stores, specialty stores, and online
shopping platforms. The prospect of online shopping is increasing in India because of many
factors such as increased Internet literacy, perceived usefulness, ease of use, increased number of
working women, entry from the global and local …
 A Study on Compatibility of E-Tailors on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) With
Special Reference to Chennai City, India
G Joicy Lidwina, T Joseph
With the advent of planned economy in 1951 and the subsequent industrial policy followed by
the Government of India, both the planners and the government earmarked a special role for
small-scale enterprises and medium scale enterprises in the Indian economy. Deep-pocket e-
tailers such as Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal are turning to the country’s 47 million small and
medium enterprises (SMEs) to host a unique assortment of products on their online stores. They
are providing various specialised training, logistics, infrastructure and technology support to
these SMEs to enrich their product selection in categories like apparel, jewellery, handicrafts,
fashion accessories and leather goods. The e-tailers plans to on-board 50,000 SMEs in the next
two years while Flipkart and Snapdeal is inching close to the 100,000-seller mark, a majority of
them SMEs. Amazon already has 10,000 sellers on its platform, many of whom are small units.
The e-tailers such as Flipkart, on its part, have tied up with the Federation of Micro, Small and
Medium Enterprises and the National Centre for Design and Product Development to help small
manufacturers and artisans. The online marketplace is also working with the Centre to train
people in semi-urban and rural areas to prepare them for employment at Flipkart or its business
partners. The New form of e-tailers such as Flipkart, SnapDeal, Amazon etc. seems to be a
panacea for all the above said problems. Many government and many small scale industries
started setting up joint ventures, partnerships, and collaboration with these e-tailers in different
aspects. This new form of business model between e-tailers and SMEs can sustain in the long
run? If it is sustaining whether it will create the necessary ambience for the SMEs to grow?
Whether this new model will help in development of SMEs? Whether it can bring the necessary
growth in employment opportunities? This study will analyze the viability of this model and the
impact of this on SMEs.
FACTORS INFLUENCING PURCHASE DECISION OF WOMEN CONSUMERS IN
ONLINE SHOPPING–A STUDY WITH REFERENCE TO CHENNAI CITY.
S Mahalakshmi, C Vatchala
Bo Xu, Zhangxi Lin and Bingjia Shao (2010), when considering online shopping, perceived risk
plays an important factor for risk free online service. From the point of view online perceived
risk for a Buy it Now transaction, product factor, seller factor, buyer factor are a significant
factors. For examined the above risk factor, the online customers are dived into two types.
Online customer who are from the collectivist culture have a lower risk perception on the
meanwhile those who are from individualist have a higher risk perception during shopping
online.
Md. Mahbubur Rahaman (2014), in the past century online shopping was dominated by literate
male peoples. According to this point of view most of professional males were using online
shopping. But nowadays more number of male and female students using online as a enthusiastic
and easiest way to purchase any type of products. Nowadays peoples are using online as a new
and familiar shopping mode. Compared to male, female online users are keeners on checking
 information over the internet before they purchase. People became an optimistic mindset about
new business concept online facilities and socio economic conditions.
Customer Satisfaction Towards Flipkart and Amazon: A Comparative Study
Kiran Chaudhary, Suneel Kumar
International Journal of Academic Research & Development JAR&D, 35, 2016
The present study is descriptive in nature where an effort is made to find out that with which
elements of Flipkart and Amazon the respondents are satisfied. The study uses the primary data
which was collected with the help of a structured questionnaire. A five-point Likert scale was
used to collect the data. The sample size was 100 respondents of the age group betwee18-35.
Only those respondents were questioned about their purchases from Amazon and Flipkart who
make at-least two transactions in the last six months. The respondents were approached on the
basis of convenience sampling.
E-Commerce in India; a case study of Amazon & Flipkart (India)
Dipin Karal
Wien, 2016
In the last two decade, world has witness an incredible growth of Internet and has changed the
way organization conduct business. It has provided a new option for conducting business named
e-commerce. It is basically selling and buying through internet using computers. The purpose of
this study is to first understand the e-commerce and its impacts. Further understanding of
logistics and its role in e-commerce. A case study of Amazon and Flipkart India is then done to
explore its business strategies, operation, logistics functioning etc. Cross analysis of Amazon and
Flipkart in term of market share, revenue etc. is done next. A SWOT and PORTER analysis is
then performed based on it. It helped in coming to the conclusion about future strategies needed
by both companies to remain competitive. To reach this purpose, a qualitative research approach
was used where case study on Amazon India is conducted. The data is collected through books,
Internet and interviews. The finding of our analysis shows that despite increased revenue and
sales both Amazon and Flipkart still faces many challenges such as IT security - vulnerability to
hacking, low margins due heavy discounting, loopholes in distribution system etc. During
festival time when sales are usually at peak many complain occurs such as late delivery, website
non-functioning which seriously impact the company image and operational capabilities. In the
conclusions, some of the major threats that are affecting both the companies is discussed such as
heavy losses due to discount, logistics inefficiency, expansion to smaller cities etc. To counter it,
the steps taken by both the companies such as new payment gateways etc is also discussed.

Logistic regression-based classification for reviews analysis on E-commerce based applications

LN Swamy, JV Gorabal
In recent years, many web applications play an important role that too online-commerce-based
applications are ruling the web-based application by attracting the customer based on their
products and providing more discount on the product. Customers buy the products online
because of low-cost and the quick delivery of the products, and therefore for measuring the
quality of the product, the user’s comments on the different products play an important role
which can be used for getting useful information on the product. In this paper, we do extract the
data set from various E-commerce applications then by applying various methods like data pre-
processing, classification and clustering on the products API we can able to analyse the reviews
of the customers on different products. In this paper, we have created the product API for 100
instances of products by considering different attributes like product id, product name, total
number of comments, rating and the text analysis. In this paper, first we apply the data pre-
processing to clean the data set and then apply the logistic regression-based classification on the
attributes taken, then form a cluster based on positive and negative reviews provided by the users
and determining the accuracy using logistic regression technique and then comparing with
decision tree technique accuracy with proposed logistic regression technique we achieve an
improved accuracy.
Ranking analysis for online customer reviews of products using opinion mining with clustering
SK Lakshmanaprabu, K Shankar, Deepak Gupta, Ashish Khanna, Joel JPC Rodrigues, Plácido R
Pinheiro, Victor Hugo C de Albuquerque
Complexity 2018, 2018
Sites for web-based shopping are winding up increasingly famous these days. Organizations are
anxious to think about their client purchasing conduct to build their item deal. Internet shopping
is a method for powerful exchange among cash and merchandise which is finished by end clients
without investing a huge energy spam. The goal of this paper is to dissect the high-
recommendation web-based business sites with the help of a collection strategy and a swarm-
based improvement system. At first, the client surveys of the items from web-based business
locales with a few features were gathered and, afterward, a fuzzy c-means (FCM) grouping
strategy to group the features for a less demanding procedure was utilized. Also, the novelty of
this work—the Dragonfly Algorithm (DA)—recognizes ideal features of the items in sites, and
an advanced ideal feature-based positioning procedure will be directed to discover, at long last,
which web-based business webpage is best and easy to understand. From the execution, the
outcomes demonstrate the greatest exactness rate, that is, 94.56% compared with existing
methods.
Consumers' perception on online shopping
 R Shanthi, Kannaiah Desti
Journal of Marketing and Consumer Research 13, 14-21, 2015
E-commerce is emerging as a great level given that organized retail is still not ubiquitous across
the length and breadth of the country with large retail chains making up less than 10% of the
market. E-commerce is helping people in smaller towns in India access quality products and
services similar to what people in the larger cities have access to. It being forecast that close to
60% of online shoppers would come from beyond the top eight large cities by end of this
year.Increasing internet penetration has helped to expand the potential customer pool. Internet
penetration is only about 10% (or about 121 million users) as against about 81% in the US and
36% in China. However this number continues to rise at a consistent pace because of falling
prices for broadband connections. The first World Wide Web server and browser, created by Tim
Berners-Lee in 1990, opened for commercial use in 1991. Thereafter, subsequent technological
innovations emerged in 1994: online banking, the opening of an online pizza shop by Pizza Hut,
Netscape's SSL v2 encryption standard for secure data transfer, and inter-shop's first online
shopping system. Immediately after, Amazon.com launched its online shopping site in 1995 and
eBay was introduced in 1996. In the past decade, there has been a dramatic change in the way
consumers have altered their way of shopping. Although consumers continue to purchase from a
physical store, consumers feel very convenient to shop online since it frees the customer from
personally visiting the store. Internet shopping has its own advantages and it reduces the effort of
travelling to a physical store. Decisions can be made from home at ease looking at various
choices and prices can be easily compared with the competitor's products to arrive at a decision.
Internet marketing is conceptually different from other marketing channels and internet promotes
a one to one communication between the seller and the end user with round the clock customer
service. Today, business internet marketing is the fastest growing segment of online commerce.
The major difference between traditional and online selling is the extent of interaction between
the consumer and the seller. There is much more electronic interactivity with the consumer in the
form of emails and FAQs. Through FAQs, the consumer's questions on shipment, payment,
product, policies and other customer concerns can be addressed effectively.
E-COMMERCE BUSINESS MODELS IN INDIA–AN OVERVIEW
Pardhasaradhi Madasu
MANAGEMENT GAME, 27
India bas roughly 205 million internet users which makes it the third largest interest user-base
after China and USA. This huge interne user-base and explosive growth e-retailers in India has
made India the third largest e-commerce market by value. According to brokerage frim CLSA
online retail is worth USD 3.1 billion or 10% of the organized market, and is estimated to grow
to USD 22 billion, or over 15% of the organized retail market in next five years. The further
growth of online retailing in India depends on the capital infusion by the industry leaders. The
investors both local and global are looking into the business models suitable for operating online
retail in India. E-commerce players like Amazon have created complex structures to comply with
local laws. However, these structures have recently come under scrutiny of the regulators for
potential violation of foreign direct investment (FDI) norms. Most E-commerce firms, including
Flipkart, have now moved to the marketplace model from the inventory-led model. This is partly
because of the current bar on FDI in direct online retail. The importance of the study comes from
the mere fact that the understanding of the business models hold the key to understand the
performance of the related companies. In this backdrop the present paper makes an attempt to
highlight the changing scenario with respect to the business models adopted by the E-commerce
players to suit Indian market. Even though the term e-commerce companies is much wider than
online retailers, the article uses variants of these terms while referring to different companies.
The paper is exploratory and descriptive in nature and focuses on the ecommerce business
models adopted in the Indian context.
Customer Satisfaction towards Online Shopping from Flipkart: With Special Reference to Raipur
City
Srishti Dixena, Suman Sahu
Online shopping or e-shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to
directly buy goods and services from a seller over the internet using web browsers. The evolution
of online shopping has opened door of chance to provide a competitive advantage over firms.
Online shopping has grown in popularity over the years mainly because people find it convenient
for the comfort of their home or workplace. Thus, the study aims to examine the customer
satisfaction towards online shopping from flipkart. The study focuses on online shopper's
preferences, satisfaction and problems on Flipkart online shopping marketers. The study is based
on both primary and secondary data. Likert’s four point scale and Convenient Sampling method
were used in this study for selecting the samples and the sample size for the study was 70. With a
view of analyzing the data through percentage analysis. Research findings from the paper will be
useful to understand the customers’ level of satisfaction on basis of the products as well as
websites experienced by customers.
A Study on Digital Marketing-A Case Study with Special Reference to Flipkart
Priti Jeevan
In this world of digitisation, digital marketing is a vogue that is sweeping across the whole
world. The trend of digital marketing is growing day by day with the concepts of Internet
marketing that is turning into an important platform of digital marketing along with the
electronic gadgets like the digital billboards, mobile, tablets and smart phones, gaming consoles,
and many such gadgets that help in digital marketing. Flipkart with its innovative digital
marketing have created a niche market in online stores competing with the conventional stores
showing the power of online marketing. The case study analyses how Flipkart. com has brought
in an array digital and online marketing strategies to succeed and make it big in the digital
marketing sector. The case also discusses how Flipkart has had a huge success in the online
marketing sector as they brought in new insights into the digital marketing field. And a few years
from now it will be eventually seen that the conventional marketing being replaced by digital
marketing. Digital marketing is going to be top on the agenda of many marketers, and they might
be looking for innovative ways to market online, reduce cost per lead, increase click-through-
rates and conversion rates, and discover what’s hot in digital marketing.
 "ANALYSIS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR ONLINE
Author: Dejan Petrovic
Published: 2007
The report outlines about the most relevant behavioral characteristics of online consumers
and examine the ways they find, compare and evaluate product information. Comparison of
the newly collected survey data with the existing consumer behavior theory resulted in
detection of a number of issues related to a specific consumer group. The purpose of this
report is to translate these findings into a set of implementation activities on strategic and
technological level. Execution of these recommendations will result in better conversion of
visitors into customers and encourage customer loyalty and referrals.
The focus group of this study will be young adults aged between eighteen and thirty-four
interested in buying a mobile phone or a related product.
Research by Shun & Yunjie (2006) showed that there are product types, which are more
likely to be sold online such as software, books, electronics and music. Reason for this is that
when purchasing these types of products, one does not require personal inspection and most,
if not all features, can be outlined in the product description and images. Most products in the
mobile phone family belong to this category.
According to the recent research on consumer behaviour on the Internet users (Cotte,
Chowdhury, Ratenshwar & Ricci, 2006), there are four distinct consumer groups with
different intentions and motivations:
• Exploration
• Entertainment
• Shopping
• Information
Majority of young adults interviewed for purpose of this research tend to be active
information seekers. A high level of technological confidence within this group tends to be an
encouraging factor when it comes to product information research online."
"The following analysis presents both, focus group results and behavioural theory in a parallel
fashion divided into two main research topics:
 • Information Retrieval and Search Patterns
• Perception of Product Information Online
These two areas are mutually dependent and particularly important in a market where
consumers have the power to choose the right product from a number of competing suppliers.
Well-structured product information that cannot be found easily online is as much of a
problem as is having easily accessible information that does not meet the consumer‘s
expectations."
"Straight cash discount instead of value-added promotion
The trouble with most value-added offers is that they come with caveats. It could be for a
limited period, or you may land discount vouchers/coupons that don't appeal to you. What's
not to like about saving hard cash? The only drawback is that you are unlikely to find such
bargains at shopping malls. Hit standalone, smaller shops instead"