An investigation into the consumer behaviour of students when shopping online for clothes.

Abstract

This dissertation presents a critical analysis of online consuming behaviour, specifically looking at students when shopping for clothes online. This will be achieved by concentrating and exploring student's motivations to shop online compared to a more traditional method of in-store. In addition to looking at motivations, this study will also consider the influence of online promotional events and will consider whether these have any effect on consumers' buying behaviours. Through the analysis of relevant literature, it is clear that there is a gap within the research in regards to student's shopping motives and therefore this research proposes to add some clarity for this target market. This study took the form of a qualitative approach which involved five semi-structured interviews being conducted through students from Queen Margaret University. The research approach was appropriate to this study as it allowed the researcher to gain in depth and rich data from each participant. The research found that the fundamental motivation for students when shopping online is convenience. Results also revealed that promotional events do have a positive effect on the choice of shops that students select online but is not seen to be as strong as the benefit of convenience. In addition to highlighting positive aspects of online shopping, the results also exposed various inconveniences which online consumers face when shopping.