Attracting Shoppers to Shop Online—Challenges and Opportunities for the Indian Retail Sector

The purpose of the current research is to understand the influence of normative beliefs, age, and gender on online shopping attributes and consequently on consumers' online shopping behavior. Data was collected through mall intercept technique in three cities of India (Delhi, Noida, and Gurgaon). Indian consumers' attitude toward online shopping being “convenient” is determined by their “perceived usefulness” and “ease of use” of the Web site. Online shopping behavior is moderated by normative beliefs and gender. Consumers' attitude toward online shopping differs across age categories and a Web site's “ease of use” attribute. The findings can enable online retailers to improve consumers' perceptions toward a Web site's “convenience” attribute. Online retailers targeting Indian consumers should make the Web sites user friendly and easy to understand.