ABSTRACT

The study examined the impact of e-payment on online shopping behaviour in Nigeria. The undergraduate students of Distance Learning Institute Business Administration, University of Lagos served as the sample population. The study adopted the survey research design using primary source of data with questionnaire as instrument of data collection. A total of 100 copies of questionnaire were administered to 500 level Business Administration undergraduate students of Distance Learning Institute, out of which 82 questionnaires were duly filled and returned. Chi Square test method of data analysis was used to examine the impact of e-payment on online shopping behaviour. The result of the findings revealed that price, trust and convenience have significant influence on online shopping attitudes of consumers. Besides, the result of the analysis showed that online shoppers are usually skeptical in making online payment either because of inability to access internet or fear of being compromised. Based on the empirical findings, the study recommends that e-commerce platform should be easy to access and navigate to avoid doubt in the minds of the customers and e-commerce companies should ensure their platforms have the best of security features and finally regular discounts and update of products and services should be done to attract customers..

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      Background to the Study

The 21st century has witnessed a great exodus from the traditional business model (Brick) to Electronic business (Click).This paradigm shift can be associated with the corresponding increase in the knowledge of information technology and its advantages. In the emergence of e-commerce, credit cards have long been represented by electronic means of payment, credit cards in shopping malls. Many hotels and other places and items could swipe off the card, POS terminals, ATM cash forms of payment, and online electronic payments. Online payments also known as electronic currency, broadly speaking, refer to a transaction in the online exchange of funds. It is a network-based electronic financial and business card transactions for all types of electronic tools and media. The electronic computer and communications technologies serves as a means Electronic data (binary data) stored in the bank's computer system and through the computer network system in the form of the flow of electronic information transfer and payment.

Electronic Payment System is the basis for online payments, and online payments system development is a higher form of electronic payment. It makes electronic payment easier at any time, through the Internet directly to the consumer, settlement and form e-business environment.

With e-commerce being at an early stage in most third world countries of the world, online shopping trend in Nigeria is not as advanced as it is in developed countries (Olusoji James George, Olufemi A., Lasisi Jubril O. and Lucas O., 2015).

Although, people engage in online banking (ebanking), most people are still not open to the idea of shopping online and prefer to carry out their transactions traditionally, i.e. face-to-face. Folorunso, (2006); Adeyeye, (2008); Ajayi, (2008); Ayo, (2008); Egwali, (2009); Ayo, (2010) identified various contributing factors to hindering the adoption of e-commerce and online shopping in Nigeria. One of such factors is accessibility to the Internet.

The ease of access to the Internet has been identified as one of the factors encouraging the adoption and growth of e-commerce and online shopping in the UK (Soopramanien and Robertson, 2007).

In contrast, majority of the Nigerian populace do not have access to the Internet.

 In the year 2006 – the number has grown to 5,000,000 (again just 3.1% of the national population). This figure doubled in 2008 with 10million people having access to the Internet. In 2009, the figure went above double as 23,982,000million people used Internet in Nigeria. By June 2010, the number of internet users in Nigeria has grown to 43,982,200 that is 29.5% of the country’s population. The increasing users of internet in Nigeria from 0.1% in 2000 to 29.5% of its population in June 2010, revealed that the use of internet in the country is growing at a sporadic rate and still has the potential to grow higher (Ayo et al,2011).

       Nevertheless, a study recently conducted on internet usage in Nigeria shows that about 46.1% (86,219,965) of the total population (186,987,563 people) are internet users and about 53.9% of the total populace (i.e. 100,767,598 people) are non-internet users (Internet World Stats, 2016). From these percentages, it is obvious that only a fraction of the general populace uses the Internet and even those who access it do so through numerous cybercafés scattered all over urban parts of the country (Ayo, 2006). Cybercafés according to Adomi et al., (2003:489) “are places where Internet public access services are provided by entrepreneurs for a fee on amount of data used” and are quite popular among Nigerians because of the high cost of connectivity by individuals.

However, due to the public nature of these cybercafés, people are not comfortable carrying out e-commerce activities there for privacy, security and network reliability issues, and this negatively affects online shopping trends in the country (Ayo, 2006).

Increasing numbers of people are gravitating towards more intensive use of the Internet as the accessibility of technology, the availability of information, and the ability to interact through the Internet increase and evolve (Changchit, 2006). Obvious capabilities of the Internet include avenues for gathering information, purchasing a product, or rendering a service. These advances in Internet technology allow for the expansion of shopping options beyond traditional methods that may be more time consuming. Issues with having to physically gather information with offline shopping methods are alleviated, and customers are better able to efficiently use their time. For instance, instead of having to physically visit different stores to compare prices or rely on circular pamphlets in newspapers, a consumer is able to search and retrieve needed information through the Internet, this trend has greatly encouraged the tendency for consumers to shop online.

As Internet usage is increasing, so is online shopping, especially in those countries whose marketing infrastructure are well developed (Kau, Tang, and Ghose,   2003). Consumers can shop any time and have access to products not available in their geographic region. Furthermore, they are now able to access the Internet, not only from their personal computers, but from advanced electronic devices such as Palm-Pilots and mobile phones (Kau, Tang, and Ghose, 2003).Also, due to an increase in high speed Internet access connections, lower connection costs, and increasing consumer competence, e-commerce activity will continue to grow as the availability and ease with which the Internet provides consumers the ability to handle needed tasks increasingly develops.

In conjunction with the increases in Internet capabilities, it is estimated that about 53% of Internet users in the United States have made an online purchase. However, not all consumers are turning to the Internet for shopping. While the number of Internet users who have made a purchase at one time is more than half in the United States, this does not explain the disparity between the number of visits websites recorded and the number of actual purchases made online. One report shows that although a web site may receive millions of visitors, only about 3% of those visits result in a purchase online (Betts, 2001), and according to another study, about 65% of online shopping carts are abandoned before a purchase is completed (O’Neill,2001).

An explanation of these occurrences is that the majority of consumers are going online to window-shop with plans to make their purchases in a more traditional, offline setting (Forsythe and Shi, 2003). Hence, this study will be examining the impact of e-payment on shopping behaviour of consumers.

1.2    Statement of the Problem

At any given time there are millions of people online and each of them is a potential customer for a company providing online sales. Due to the rapid development of the technologies surrounding the Internet, a company that is interested in selling products from its web site will constantly have to search for an edge in the fierce competition. Since there are so many potential consumers, it is of the utmost importance to be able to understand what the consumer wants and needs. The importance of analyzing and identifying factors that influence the consumer when he or she decides to purchase on the Internet is vital and since the internet is a new medium, for there have been new demands set by the consumer. That is why it is crucial for the online stores/retailers to know what influences the online consumer. Since online retailing is a new retailing medium and online consumers’ behaviour is diverse from traditional consumer behaviour, one must identify what influences the online consumer. Analyzing the process that the online consumer goes through when deciding and making a purchase over the internet, shows some factors that consumers consider. They include issues like trust, convenience, pricing, security with e-payment. These factors need to be identified and taken into account by online retailers in order to satisfy consumer demands and compete in the online market. To further understand how these factors influence different types of consumers, it is important to identify the impact that e-payment have had on shopping behaviour since.

1.3       Aim and Objective of the Study

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of e-payment on consumers shopping behaviour online. While the specific objectives are to:

1)     examine the relevance of making online payments.

2)     examine the behaviour of online shoppers with respect to price, trust, convenience and security.

3)     determine ways e-payment has influenced online shopping.

1.4.    Relevant Research Questions

The principal question of this research is: what is the impact of e-payment on online shopping. This research will also try to provide answers to the following sub-questions in the course of this study:

1)     What is the relevance of online payment?

2)     How does price, trust, convenience and security influence online shopping

3)     What is the influence of e-payment on online shopping behavior

1.5.     Relevant Research Hypotheses

H0:      Price, trust and convenience have no significant influence on online shopping attitudes of consumers

H1:      Price, trust and convenience have significant influence on online shopping attitudes of consumers

H0:      online shoppers do not like to make payment online

H1:      online shoppers like making payment online

1.6.     Significance of the Study

This study will be significant in the following areas:

v It will increase the understanding of what e-commerce (online store) really is and factors that shape consumer’s behavior when shopping online.

v Also it will create a better understanding of strategies to use in attracting customers to online stores and increase customer loyalty and constant patronage

v It will also improve the relationship between the online stores and consumers of products and services on them

1.7.     Scope of the Study

It will amount to a herculean task to start studying all the online stores in Nigeria or all the consumers who shop online, hence, the researcher will focus only on Jumia shoppers with respect to e-payment.

1.8       Definition of Terms

E-commerce: E-commerce (electronic commerce or EC) is the buying and selling of goods and services, or the transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic network, primarily the Internet. 

Consumers: An individual who buys products or services for personal use and not for manufacture or resale. A consumer is someone who can make the decision whether or not to purchase an item at the store, and someone who can be influenced by marketing and advertisements.

REFERENCES

Adeyeye, M. (2008). “E-Commerce, Business Methods and Evaluation of Payment Methods in Nigeria”. Electronic Journal Information Systems Evaluation [Online], 11 (1), 1-6. http://www.ejise.com/volume-11/volume11-issue1/Adeyeye.pdf

Changchit C. (2006) Consumer Perceptions of Online Shopping. Issues in Information Systems .Volume VII, No. 2.

George, J. F. (2004). The theory of plannedbehavior and Internet purchasing. InternetResearch, 14(3), 198-212.

Olusoji James George, Olufemi A., Lasisi Jubril O. and Lucas O. (2015) Risk and Trust in Online Shopping: Experience from Nigeria.,International Journal of African and Asian Studies. ISSN 2409-6938 An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.11

O’Neill, B. (2001). Online shopping: ConsumerProtection and Regulation. Consumer InterestsAnnual, (47), 1-3.

Kau, A. K., Tang, Y. E., & Ghose, S. (2003).Typology of online consumers. Journal Of Consumer Marketing, 20(2), 139-156.

Betts, M. (2001). Turning browsers into buyers.MIT Sloan Management Review, 42(2), 8-9.

Forsythe, S. M., & Shi, B. (2003). Consumerpatronage and risk perceptions in Internetshopping.Journal of Business Research, 56(11),867-875.

Soopramanien, D.G.R. & Robertson, A. (2007). “Adoption and usage of online shopping: An empirical analysis of the characteristics of “buyers” “browsers” and “non-internet shoppers”. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 14 (1), 73–82.

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