Online Shopping Across Different Age Groups

In today's time, when the phenomenon of the World Wide Web is already something completely ordinary and known to almost everyone, including all active and inactive internet users, there is probably no individual who has not at least heard of online shopping by now. The main objective of the research thesis was primarily to determine how members of different age groups (generations) understand the concept of online shopping, or rather, what the purchasing behaviour of different individuals is like when they shop online. By analysing the survey questionnaire, she obtained a clearer picture from the data acquired from different individuals of how different people behave when they shop online and what their opinion is about online shopping. The majority of male respondents (34.7%) as well as the majority of female respondents (37.3%) share this opinion.

Problem

In today's time, when the phenomenon of the World Wide Web is already something completely ordinary and known to almost everyone, including all active and inactive internet users, there is probably no individual who has not at least heard of online shopping by now. The main objective of the research thesis was primarily to determine how members of different age groups (generations) understand the concept of online shopping, or rather, what the purchasing behaviour of different individuals is like when they shop online. Among other things, she also wanted to investigate how the online purchase process takes place among different members of age groups, that is, what products different individuals mostly purchase, which online vendors they choose based on trust (domestic or foreign online vendors), and what type of payment they select for the completed purchase.

She achieved the set objectives primarily with the help of a published survey questionnaire (EnKlik ANKETA) and its analysis.

Solution and Method

By analysing the survey questionnaire, she obtained a clearer picture from the data acquired from different individuals of how different people behave when they shop online and what their opinion is about online shopping. Likewise, with the analysed responses, she confirmed/refuted the hypotheses that she set out in the introduction of the research thesis. H 1: 'An increasing number of members of older age groups, generations, are opting for online shopping.' She fully confirmed the hypothesis, as it is more than evident from the data obtained and analysed from SURS that the number of e-shoppers among members of older age groups, particularly the age group from 65 to 74 years, has noticeably increased.

If in 2010 only 6,315 members of this age group shopped online, the number of e-shoppers increased by at least twice as much by 2016. In 2016, 13,751 e-shoppers from this age group were recorded at SURS.

Results

This means that an increasing number of members of older age groups, generations, are opting for online shopping (SURS, Informacijska služba, n.d.). H 2: 'Online shopping is becoming increasingly popular.' She fully confirmed the hypothesis, as 72% of all respondents believe that online shopping, in addition to its popularity in general, is also becoming increasingly competitive with the traditional way of shopping. The majority of male respondents (34.7%) as well as the majority of female respondents (37.3%) share this opinion.

Of all the analysed data, the proportion of respondents who believe that online shopping is not gaining popularity and competitiveness is only 28%. H 3: 'People who shop online trust domestic online vendors more.' She refuted the hypothesis with the analysed data. More than half of the respondents (53%) state that the location of the online vendor plays no role when shopping online. Here too, the difference in the proportion of male respondents (29.7%) and female respondents (23.3%) is relatively low.

Nevertheless, a larger proportion of respondents (33%) trust domestic online vendors more than foreign online vendors (14%). H 4: 'People most frequently opt to purchase clothing when shopping online.' She partially confirmed the hypothesis with the analysed data. Despite the fact that the majority of respondents (48%) do indeed mostly purchase clothing online, the proportion of difference between genders is too large to be able to speak of the validity of the statement for different individuals in general. By far the largest proportion of respondents who mostly purchase clothing online are female respondents (33.7%), whilst the proportion of the remainder of male respondents is only 14.3%.

With all the findings, data obtained and analysed from different individuals, I can conclude that online shopping is becoming increasingly frequent and popular among all different generations (generation Z = 27%, generation Y = 32%, generation X = 23%, Baby Boom generation = 13%).