Case: Insights on purchasing behavior in St. Petersburg
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Journal Title
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Volume Title
School of Business |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2019
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Information and Service Management (ISM)
Language
en
Pages
89
Series
Abstract
Advanced and significant opportunities of digital technologies and its applications, increased penetration of the Internet, but also the availability of information has enabled for emerging a new form of business, e-commerce. User-friendly online stores have made it possible to make transactions between different actors such as businesses and consumers at any time and without geographic boundaries. The purpose of the master’s thesis is to outline insights of purchasing behavior, preferences, and motives of consumers in St. Petersburg. In other words, what drives people there to buy products and services online instead of from brick and mortar stores. This thesis tries also to examine how a company could offer a positive overall purchasing experience for consumers. The data was collected via a structured questionnaire which was published on social network channels such as Facebook and Russian Vkontakte (VK). The information was also gathered by asking people on the streets. All in all, 382 respondents took part in the questionnaire. The theoretical part of the master’s thesis comprises e-commerce as a concept including its types, role, and advantages and disadvantages for consumers. The literature review also discusses consumer behavior, purchasing motives, and formulation of satisfaction through the 6Cs’ model and the conceptual model of service quality. The theoretical part shows an overview of the Russian e-commerce market. The theory is mainly presented from the consumer’s perspective, but the study also touches a little upon a business perspective. The results of the study show that most of the consumers in St. Petersburg buy more fashion, leisure, beauty products, and car parts online. Food and beverages seem to be a growing category in the future. Price, a wide range of products, and product and service reviews of others are the most important reasons for buying decisions. Consumers in St. Petersburg prefer to buy more on foreign online stores than on domestic online stores due to quality and reliability factors. Since trust is one of the key factors for Russians in e-commerce, consumers prefer couriers as a delivery option, and cash on delivery as the payment method. They also expect that retailers offer localized and up-to-date content, but also a smooth purchasing process. Despite different political and economic issues, consumers will continue to shop online and recommend them to others. This thesis provides a good basis and an interesting opportunity for further research due to the rapid growth of e-commerce, global trends, and changes in consumer needs and technologies. Russia as a market provides numerous opportunities for different industries in e-commerce market, therefore it is an interesting topic for further studies.Description
Thesis advisor
Kuula, MarkkuKeywords
e-commerce, e-commerce market, online store, purchasing behavior, consumer behavior