The Behavior of Taiwanese College Students Shoe Shopping Online
UE4A 1101200021 Sophie Liu
Literature Review
1. The definition of online shopping
When it comes to online shopping, the first thing to do is to define the electronic
commerce (EC). It divided into three parts, business to business (B2B), business to
customer (B2C), and customer to customer (C2C; Manager today, 2006). And online
shopping is a part of the business to customer electronic commerce; it is a business of
using Internet, online auction, or other medium to sell commodities.
In the previous study, “The Research of Customer Characteristics and The
Relationship of Internet Shopping Intention,” the author mentioned that Kalakota and
Whinston (1997) thought that electronic commerce is a kind of modernized business
model. It combines purchase and marketing, product and service, or some business
activities through the Internet; it could not only satisfy the needs from customers, but
also lower the cost requirements, and increase the purchase intentions from customers.
Haynes (1995) also mentioned that electronic commerce is a processing way to
communicate and trade between companies through the Internet.
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The Behavior of Taiwanese College Students Shoe Shopping Online
2. The features of online shopping
According to the survey of the company, Nielsen, in 2001, the report pointed out
that there were some main factors to consider when Taiwanese customers shopping
online: save time (23%), save money (21%), convenient (13%). Furthermore, in 2004,
they also survey the online shopping behavior in Taiwan. The study showed that in the
next six months, the top 5 products of Net purchases would be clothing/ accessories/
shoes (45%), travel/ hotel reservation (42%), plane tickets/ bookings (38%), activity
tickets ( such as movie tickets, concert tickets, exhibition tickets and so on 36%), and
foods (32%). According to this data, it have been shown that clothing, accessories and
shoes are the highest, it also shows that nearly half of the domestic customers will buy
their clothes and shoes online.
And the reasons which attracted Taiwanese customers shopping online are
convenient and product information, more than three quarters (77%) of respondents
considered that “online shopping is very convenient,” and almost 70 percent (69%) of
people indicated that “they like to search the internet comments online before they
buy the products,” and there are two third of people (67%) will spend their time to
research the products on the Internet before they buy.
In the previous study, Shao Hsun (2002) researched that there are some features
which Taiwanese customers will present when they are shopping online (Table1).
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The Behavior of Taiwanese College Students Shoe Shopping Online
Domestic
Features of Online Shopping
Customers
Providing personalized approach of communication services consulting,
especially the explanation of product content and related information.
Convenient and save the shopping time.
Customer
The product can try it first, and may return the purchase when it’s undesirable.
The product which is uneasy to buy it in the market, especially can order it
directly from foreign websites.
Brand, image, reputation of the product.
Provide the installment payment.
Full range of the product.
(Table1: Features of online shopping)
3. The overall environment of online shopping in Taiwan
As reported by the Institute for Information Industry and the Ministry of
Economic Affairs (2005), the population of using the Internet regularly in Taiwan,
from 1998 to present has grown from 301 million to 990 million people or more.
Through the data above, it displays the habit of people in Taiwan using the Internet
has become more and more common. For the popularity of using the Internet among
college students, recent data from the survey conducted by the Taiwan Network
Information Center (2004), the ratio of people using the Internet, the age of 16 to 20 is
94.74%, 21 to 25 year-old is 92.10%. From these surveys, capturing the age of college
students covered part, the rate of Internet usage is more than 90 percent; it reflects the
prevalence of college student using the Internet.
According to the survey of personal Internet service usage in 2012, the usage of
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The Behavior of Taiwanese College Students Shoe Shopping Online
the Internet community in Taiwan is up to 67.62%, the usage of playing online game
is 47.04%, and the usage of shopping online is 59.62% (TWNIC, 2012). In other
words, this data shows that there are nearly 60 people in 100 people will use the
Internet for online shopping, it represents that the more people using the Internet, the
more they use online shopping. In term of the online shopping, according to the
survey of Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC, 2014), they found out that
the respondents of the Internet usage in last year, there are 29.67% of people had the
experience of shopping online. And there are almost 50% of respondents agree that
they will reduce the number of consumption of going to the physical store in order to
shop online.
4. The definition of consumer behavior
Different perspective must have different statement or opinion; but they all point
out that the behavior of the customer is not only an action, but a process which from
the internal psychological factors to the external behavior.
In the study research, The Behavior which Affected Consumer Shopping Online,
the author mentioned that Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard (1993) purposed that
“consumer behavior means that when consumers are obtaining, consuming, and
disposing the products and services, and all the activities which are involved in and
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The Behavior of Taiwanese College Students Shoe Shopping Online
also included the decision process after all of those activities. Furthermore, they also
indicated that the definition of consumer behavior could divide into two parts, narrow
and generalized. A narrow consumer behavior is to obtain and use the economic
commodities and services, individual behavior, and also included the decision-making
process of guidance and decision. On the other hand, a generalized consumer behavior
also contains the analysis of decision-making surface and surface of behavior (Engel,
Blackwell, and Miniard, 1995).
5. The mode of consumer behavior
Engle, Blackwell, and Miniard (1986) purposed a mode, which is EBM model
(Engel-Blackwell-Miniard model). The main is to adopt the center of decision process,
consider the information input and processing at the same time, individual differences,
environmental influences, and some consumer behavior of inside and outside factors
under the interaction. This model mainly divided into four parts, which are input,
information processing, decision process, and variables influencing decision process.
It clearly presents the decision process of consumers, and explains the different
opinions which consumers are considered about.
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The Behavior of Taiwanese College Students Shoe Shopping Online
References
BusinessNext Media Group. (2014). The journal of Manager Today: electronic
commerce. Retrieved on 3 December, 2015 from
http://www.managertoday.com.tw/articles/view/118
Engel, J. F., Blackwell, R. D., & Miniard, P. W. (1986.) Consumer Behavior (5th ed.).
New York, United State: The Dryden Press, 16-17.
Nielsen (n.d). News center: 87% of Taiwanese customers have the willingness of
shopping online. Retrieved on 1 December, 2015 from
http://www.nielsen.com/tw/zh/press-room/2014/news-2014-Taiwan-online-shopp
ing.html
Shao-Hsun, C. (2002). The successful mode of Internet marketing. Web Journal of
Chinese Management Review, 3(2), 17-38.
Taiwan Network Information Center. (1999.) The report of Taiwan Broadband
Internet usage in 2012. Retrieved on 5 December, 2015 from
http://www.twnic.net.tw/NEWS4/119.pdf
Tech News Inc. (2014). Taiwan Network Information Center: the behavior of using
the Internet is substantial increase. Retrieved on 5 December, 2015 from
http://technews.tw/2014/08/20/twnic-online-behavior-survay-more-mobile-sulfin
g/
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