to locate online purchasing pattern of rural adolescent girl

Introduction

A purchasing pattern can be defined as the steps people take when they wish to buy and use the things or services they have purchased. Consumers' aim or attitude when purchasing online or offline is referred to as their shopping pattern. The term "Shopping pattern" refers to a variety of behaviors, such as how people buy products, what they prefer to buy, when or at what time they feel comfortable purchasing, why they acquire products, and how they choose which products to buy. Online buyers look at a variety of websites to find the products or services they want. Consumers consider all of the available choices for the product they desire and choose the one that best meets their needs. Finally, customers purchase the thing that they require. Guru Nathan and Kumar investigated "Indian consumers' clothes purchase patterns across five dimensions, including consumer characteristics, reference groups, store qualities, promotions, and product features." The findings reveal that store features, promotions, and reference groups are critical elements of the apparel purchase behavior. There are various factors which influence online shopping behavior like ease and availability, Convenience, cheap pricing, trust, variety, discrete shopping, offers and discounts, variety of designs, payment choices, send gifts, and price comparison etc. They all persuade consumers for online shopping. Online shopping is far more convenient than offline one. Instead of traveling to a physical store and hunt for the essential products, online shopping offers everything at a single platform. Availability of range of product of different brands can be compared easily before making a final purchase decision. Mode of Payment is also very convenient due to range of options such as cash on delivery, net banking, and online wallets and so many different apps. During the holiday season, stores are extremely packed, making it tough to make the best decision. Instead of visiting a store, consumer can opt for online. Previous online shopping experiences also affect online shopping behavior. Both good and bad experiences of shopping affect online consumerism. Consumers are inclined towards online buying behavior because online retailers provide lower pricing than brick-and-mortar stores. Appreciable experiences also increase Consumers' faith in a website. Online shopping maintains our privacy. The wellpacked packaging avoids any unpleasant situations as in case of lingerie and sanitary napkins where female consumers can find it uncomfortable to purchase from offline retailers. As a result, online shopping allows people to buy their things without feeling embarrassed or uneasy. To create awareness among adolescent girls a research study has been conducted in Khanpur Kalan Sonipat to promote consumer welfare. An interview schedule and questionnaire were inserted to collect data from the respondents. The sample of study is 70. The data was collected through Google forms and it was analysed to know the use-pattern of adolescent girls regarding labels. Convenience sampling technique was used to gather the information from the respondents. Pertaining to their knowledge about labels, it has been observed that about 38.6% respondents sometimes read the labels and 61.4% always. What the striking fact was that only11.5% of the total respondents care about care and maintenance symbols whereas 88.5% respondent did not, which is directly an indication of poor consumerism. The study has been entitled as "Promotion of consumer welfare regarding use patterns of label on apparels". (Dhankhar, 2025) [5] . Websites occasionally provide various discount coupons, special deals, coupon codes, free shipping, and gift cards, all www.extensionjournal.com of which also lure the customers. These offers and deals entice customers to get a better deal. The degree through which a customer's perceptions of the online buying experience match their expectations is referred to as consumer satisfaction. While consumers' expectations are met, they experience a high level of satisfaction. It has a favorable impact on consumer behavior. The level of satisfaction has an impact on a customer's decision to buy something online. Such studies can improve customer to customer and customer to manufacturer relations and related factors. A study has been carried out among college going girls of DAV Girls College Kosli, Rewari to study online and offline shopping behavior regarding apparels.

Research Methodology

A descriptive type of study was conducted to study online shopping behaviour of rural adolescent girl. The primary data was gathered through well-structured interview schedule and self-structured questionnaire through virtual mode. A sample of 402 respondents was selected using random sampling method. The data was collected using online mode and analysed using appropriate statistical tools including percentage, frequency distribution and intensity indices.

Target group and Locale of the Study

The study was conducted among college going girls of DAV Girls College Kosli. The sample size was 402.The data was collected, analysed and interpreted.

Limitations of the study

The study was limited to rural area of Rewari district only. The sample size was of 402 only. Only adolescent group has been targeted. It was confined college going girls.

Result and Discussion

The study shows following resultsTable1; reveals that the majority of the college going girls used to shop online sometimes (60.95%) whereas, one fourth of them agreed to shop always from internet (online) (25.12%). It was also found that few of them rarely used to shop online (13.93%). Table II; shows the preferred payment methods for online shopping among the college going girls. It was found that high majority of the girls preferred paying cash on delivery (COD) while online shopping (84.08%). However, very few of them preferred other payment mediums such as Net banking (7.71%), UPI or E wallet (3.48%) and Debit or Credit card (2.99%). Vaidya (2017) [3] also found that majority of the female online shopper prefers to pay through Cash on Delivery mode. ). These factors indicate the ease of shopping through internet. Thus, it can be assumed that the college going girls preferred using internet for shopping as it provides them ease of shopping. Furthermore, it was observed that affordability and availability of promotional offers were also the motivating factors for online shopping.

The least intensity indices were found for online shopping were:

• repeated advertisements on social media (2.17);

• shopping by sitting at home (2.13)

• celebrity influence (2.10).

These also indicates moderate motivation factor for online shopping among the college girls. It reflects that the college girls were not negatively influenced by their peer, social media, celebrities for their shopping habits. This finding highlights the controlled shopping behavior of college going girls that may help them in future to avoid over expenditure on unnecessary shopping. Compulsion to provide personal details for ordering online viz. name, email, contact no., address.

3

Unable to touch and check the item while purchasing.

4

Unable to try the clothes before purchasing them.

5

The vast variety of apparel is confusing.

6

Threat of being cheated with duplicate brand product.

7

Additional Shipping Charges 2.11 8 Online shopping is not satisfactory overall.

9

The delayed or late delivery of the item.

10

Threat of hacking personal e-payment details viz passwords of UPI/Net banking/Debit card/Credit card 2.04

Table IV presents the intensity indices for the factors that restricts the online shopping among the college going girls. It shows that these factors were restricting them moderately. The intensity indices ranged between 2.27 -2.04 for the same. The highest index was found for the item 'Higher prices in comparison to local market' (2.27). This indicates that the college going girls do not consider the online shopping as pocket friendly and affordable. However, the other factors that were restricting their online shopping were: Table IV presents the intensity indices for the factors that restricts the online shopping among the college going girls. It shows that these factors were restricting them moderately. The intensity indices ranged between 2.27 -2.04 for the same. The highest index was found for the item 'Higher prices in comparison to local market' (2.27). This indicates that the college going girls do not consider the online shopping as pocket friendly and affordable. However, the other factors that were restricting their online shopping were:

• Compulsion to provide personal details for ordering online (2.22) • Unable to touch and check the item while purchasing.

(2.17) • Unable to try the clothes before purchasing them. (2.16) These factors indicate their insecurity issues for cyber safety of the shopping website. It also indicates their discomfort for being unable to feel the fabric before purchasing. These findings highlight more insecurity and trust issues with their online shopping websites among the college going girls. However, these can be overcome if the websites ensure the security against the duping, privacy breaching and cheating. www.extensionjournal.com Table V; indicates that higher percentage of them were dissatisfied with their shopping experiences for both online (40.05%) and offline (40.55%). The one third of the respondents were very much dissatisfied with their offline shopping experiences (32.84%) and a little less than one fifth of them (18.16%) had similar level of satisfaction with their online shopping experiences. Furthermore, it revealed that nearly thirty percent of them had neutral level of satisfaction for their online shopping (29.60%) whereas, a little more than one fifth of them had neutral level of satisfaction for their offline shopping (22.14%). The data further showed that very few of them were very much satisfied (3.73%) and satisfied (8.46%) from their online shopping experiences. However, the numbers were less in case of their offline shopping i.e., very much satisfied (1.73%) and satisfied (2.74%) from their offline shopping experiences. This data indicates that college going girls were not much satisfied with their online and offline shopping experiences. The reason could be their immaturity to select the good quality and affordable apparel for them. Another reason could be their inability to decide the correct price for the product they were purchasing.

Conclusion

The online purchasing pattern was measured by calculating the selected shopping related aspects viz. expenditure, frequency of shopping, level of satisfaction, motivation for online shopping, restricting factors and so on. It has been observed that majority of the college going girls used to shop online sometimes (60.95%) whereas, one fourth of them agreed to shop always from internet (online) (25.12%). It was also found that few of them rarely used to shop online (13.93%). The most preferred mode of payment was cash on delivery adopted by about 84.08%. It was observed that a very high majority of them were using mobile data to access the internet The popular shopping website among the college going girls were Amazon and Flipkart. Moderate motivation has been observed for online shopping among the college going girls. The motivation observed for online shopping was availability of wide variety of clothing, time saving, products description and product replacement feature. Although, the restricting factor observed for online shopping was the higher cost of the product online in comparison to the offline shopping. The findings also showed that the college going girls had dissatisfactory experience.

References

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2. Rao I, Tarakeswara. Social media networking sites usage among girl students: A survey analysis. Int J Manag Soc Sci Res (IJMSSR). 2018;7:23-34.
3. Vaidya A. Online shopping trends among college students. Int J Engl Lang Lit Humanit. 2017;5(8):92106. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320056505_O nline_shopping_trends_among_college_students
4. Chilka A, Chouhan S. Study on recent trends in online shopping in India. Int J Sci Eng Res. 2018;9(2):30-3. https://www.ijser.org/researchpaper/Study-on-RecentTrends-in-Online-Shopping-in-India.pdf
5. Dhankhar P. Promotion of consumer welfare regarding apparel labels. Int J All Res Educ Sci Methods (IJARESM). 2025 Apr;13(4):3441. Available from: http://www.ijaresm.com