An examination of factors affecting Inditex's online sales market in Dissertation

An examination of factors affecting Inditex's online sales market in Russia - Dissertation Example Much of the transactions over the Internet are performed without person-to-person interaction between the store representatives and consumers, and without the consumers viewing and inspecting the actual item to be purchased. Online purchase transactions are intrinsically based on intangible promises, which fact explains the natural reluctance of most consumers to immediately transact over websites. The study makes use of both primary and secondary data in the resolution of the research problem. Secondary data is relied upon to assess the direction and prospects of the Russian online apparels market, to determine the opportunities it offers and how Inditex could best position itself given the forecasted indicators. Primary data is gathered through the online dissemination of survey questionnaires that elicited perceptual data from consumers who were stratified according to whether they transacted seldom, moderately or frequently in online retail stores. The hypotheses were tested with the use of Student’s t-test and OLS regression analysis. The study found that trust factors (transaction security, customer data misuse, uncertainty reducing elements, and guarantees/ return policies) are the most significant and positively influential drivers of both decisions to purchase and the amount of purchases made. Marketing mix is also significant though less influential, with pricing strategies playing a positive role in the decision to purchase and the amount purchased. Finally, usability has some impact on both the purchase decision and volume transacted, but the direction of the relationship of these factors to the outputs is uncertain. Key words: online retailer, marketing mix, multichannel marketing, multi-concept approach, market segmentation, transaction security, site speed Table of Contents Abstract 2 List of Tables 6 List of Figures 6 Chapter 1: Introduction 8 1.1 Background of the problem 8 1.2 Industry Background 12 1.3 Research aim / objective 13 1.4 R esearch hypotheses 13 1.5 Research questions 13 1.6 Research objectives 13 1.7 Significance of the study 13 1.8 Chapter Summary 14 Chapter 2: Literature Review 15 2.1 Chapter overview 15 2.2 Online shopping 15 2.3 Traditional versus online consumer behaviour 17 2.4 Factors affecting online shopping behaviour 18 2.5 Strategic practices in online retailing 20 2.6 Online fashion retailing 21 2.7 Theoretical Framework 23 Chapter 3: Methodology 27 3.1Chapter overview 27 3.2 Research philosophy and strategy 27 3.3 Research approach 28 3.4 Data and information 29 3.5 Survey dissemination 29 3.6 Data analysis 30 The data gathered through the survey questionnaire consists of the perceptions of online shoppers classified as either seldom, moderate, and frequent purchasers. These responses are used to resolve hypothesis 1 with the use of Student’s t-test statistical method, and also to resolve hypothesis 2 with the use of ordinary least squares (OLS) multivariate regression analysis. Th e procedure shall be executed with the use of the SPSS version 17 statistical software. 30 3.6 Reliability and validity 31 3.7 Limitations 31 3.8 Chapter summary 31 The third chapter described the data that was used and the method by which such data had been gathered and analysed. These methods had been implemented during the research phase, in the course of which the data as described had been gathered and analysed according to the procedures described in this chapter. The findings that resulted