COLLEGE STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARD ONLINE SHOPPING OF APPAREL PRODUCTS IN HO CHI MINH CITY

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS COLLEGE STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARD ONLINE SHOPPING OF APPAREL PRODUCTS IN HO CHI MINH CITY In

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY

INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

COLLEGE STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARD

ONLINE SHOPPING OF APPAREL

PRODUCTS IN HO CHI MINH CITY

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of

BACHELOR OF ARTS in BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Student’s name: HUYNH THAI DUONG (BAIU09115)

Advisor: VO TUONG HUAN, LLM

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

2013

COLLEGE STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARD ONLINE SHOPPING OF APPAREL PRODUCTS IN HO CHI MINH CITY

APPROVED BY: Advisor

Vo Tuong Huan, LLM

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thesis is completed with many contributions and support from many people around They are the biggest support for me to overcome many struggle and finish this thesis

First of all, I want to give my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Mr Vo Tuong Huan for his enthusiasm and kindly support me during the thesis process His advices are not only useful for me when doing the research but also for my life after graduation Thank you

Secondly, I want to thank staffs in International University for helping getting the useful material and literature related to my research

I also want to thank my friends who also doing thesis in this time for give sharing

me the knowledge and advice Thank you for all the lecturer and students that help me complete my survey collection, their help for stranger person is a huge contribution for the complete of this thesis

Finally, it is my family, my brother, sister who give me metal support during the hard times Thank you so much

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

Table of Contents iv

LIST OF TABLE vii

LIST OF FIGURE viii

ABSTRACT ix

CHAPTER I 1

INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Research purpose 2

1.3 Research objective 2

1.4 Research questions: 3

1.5 Rationale of the research 3

1.6 Significant of the research 4

1.7 Limitation 4

Chapter II 5

LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Term and definition: 5

2.2 Online shopping 6

2.3 Attitude toward online shopping of apparel products 7

2.4 College students ‘attitude 8

2.5 Related research in student’s attitude 9

2.6.1 Hypothesis development 11

2.6.2 Research model 16

CHAPTER III 18

METHODOLOGY 18

3.1 Research design 18

3.2 Literature review 18

3.3 Sampling: 19

3.4 Pilot study 19

3.5 Data collection 20

3.6 Questionnaire design 20

3.7 Data analysis 21

3.7.1 Descriptive Statistics 21

3.7.2 Reliability Statistic 22

3.7.3 Exploratory Factor Analysis 22

3.7.4 Correlation Testing 23

3.7.5 Regression Analysis 23

3.8 Measurement scale 23

CHAPTER IV 26

DATA ANALYSIS & RESEARCH RESULT 26

4.1 Final sample 26

4.2 Characteristics of sample 26

4.2.1 Consumer factors: 32

4.2.2 Marketing factors 34

4.2.3 Technology factors 35

4.2.4 Students’ attitude 36

4.3 Reliability test 38

4.4 Exploratory Factor Analysis 42

4.4.1 Exploratory factor analysis for independent variables 42

4.4.2 Exploratory Factor Analysis of Dependent Variable 46

4.4.3 Revision of hypotheses and research model 47

4.5 Correlation testing 48

4.6 Regression analysis 49

4.7 Hypothesis testing result 51

CHAPTER V 52

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS 52

5.1 Conclusion 52

5.2 Recommendation 54

5.3 Further research: 57

Reference 59

APPENDIX A – RESEARCH QUESTIONAIRE 62

Questionaire ( Vietnamese version) 62

Questionnaire (English version) 67

APPENDIX B – COMPONENT MATRIX 71

LIST OF TABLE

Table 1: List of Hypothesis 17

Table 2: Measurement statement & scale 23

Table 3: the Characteristics of the Samples 26

Table 4: Descriptive statistics of Consumer factors 32

Table 5: Descriptive statistics of marketing factor 34

Table 6: Descriptive statistics of Technology factors 35

Table 7: Descriptive statistics of Students’ Attitude 36

Table 8: Reliability statistics of Consumer factors 38

Table 9: Reliability statistics of marketing factor 39

Table 10: Reliability statistics of Technology factors 40

Table 11: Reliability statistics of Students’ Attitude 41

Table 12: KMO and Bartlett’s Test for Independent Variables 42

Table 13: Total Variance Explained 42

Table 14: Component matrix of independent variables 43

Table 15: Rotated Component Matrix of Independent variables 44

Table 16: KMO and Bartlett's Test of Dependent variable 46

Table 17: Component matrix of Dependent variable 46

Table 18: Correlation Testing 48

Table 19: Model Summary 49

Table 20: ANOVA 49

Table 21: Coefficients 50

Table 22: Hypothesis testing result 51

Table 23: Component 53

LIST OF FIGURE

Figure 1: Factors affect attitude, intention and four groups of consumers 10

Figure 2: Research model 16

Figure 3: Allocation of students’ gender 29

Figure 4: Allocation of students’ rank 29

Figure 5: Allocation of students’ living location 29

Figure 6: Allocation of frequency of using internet by students 30

Figure 7: Allocation of private vehicle using by students 30

Figure 8: Allocation of monthly income of students 31

Figure 9: Allocation of employment status among students 31

Figure 10: Allocation of respondents for using online shopping of apparel products before 32

Figure 11: Revised research model 47

ABSTRACT

E-commerce is deal with purchasing products through internet Internet shopping make it more convenient to people to give them the ability to buy the product without actually going to the store or market, not to mention the benefit of available of information which make it more easier to compare the product and carry out decision

E-commerce industry in Vietnam began in 1993 but suffer from long time of no significant development; however there seem to be an upward trend in recent year in this market Despite the high number of Internet users, internet shopping still not fully reach its potential from many drawbacks in payment method and maintain trust between supplier and buyers

With the economic development in Vietnam which raises the standard of living, the demand on clothing has risen significantly in quality and famous brand name With the help of technology, customer can easily to purchase their desired product without the limitation of distance This encourages the fashion retailer and brands to promote their online shopping channel to get in touch with their customer more easily

College students have been long time considered as very potential target segment for online shopping due to high rate of internet using However, their different in characteristics compare to other segment that make the marketing strategies of internet retailer still not full reach this segment

To ensure the success of online business, it is important for the retailers to understand their targets customers The aim of this study examines factors belong to online shopping of apparel products and their impact on student’ attitude A five-level Likert scales was used to determine students’ attitudes towards online shopping of apparel products A self-administered questionnaire based on prior literature was developed and total 266 post graduate students were selected The regression analysis demonstrated the determinant of impact of different factors on student’s attitude, and from that conclusion and recommendation is given for online retailer of apparel products

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The first chapter provides a general introduction for study: the current situation

of online shopping in Vietnam, the college student segment and online shopping of apparel products This chapter presents background of this research, the research purpose and objectives of this research After that, the limitation will be mentioned

College students bring $200 billion a year in buying power to the US market, with the average college student’s available discretionary spending totaling $287 each month (Gardyn, 2002) Because of their power in the market place, it is important for retailers and consumer behavior educators to better understand this population’s attitudes toward shopping through traditional formats, such as local stores, and new, emerging formats, such as the internet Furthermore, 90 percent of college students access the internet daily

(Gardyn, 2002) This is huge number of potential customer for e-commerce industry that

no supplier can ignore

Consumer‘s cognition of product quality was classified into three groups: search goods, experienced goods, and trust goods Search goods and trust goods were suitable for Internet shopping, while experienced goods were suitable for retail stores (Klein, 1998) Search good including CD, books, software while Experience goods including clothing, shoes and accessories (Klein, 1998) ACNielsen reported that, across the globe, the most popular items purchased on the internet are books 34 %, followed by videos/ DVD/ games 22 %, airline tickets/ reservation 21% and clothing/ accessories/shoes 20% ( ACNielsen, 2005) In Vietnam, buying an apparel products over Internet still new kind of products and consumer still hesitate when purchase decision on this these kind of products This still undeveloped product segment compare to other kind of popular product that already popular in Vietnam

Based on information above, I will choose the topic “College students’ attitude toward online shopping product in Ho Chi Minh city”

1.2 Research purpose

College student has been strongly considered as potential market segment for commerce industry However, these consumers don’t get much attention as much as other kind of customers, mainly because the belief the purchase power of these customer segment is limited by their tight budget that major of them still live by family support Apparel products also considered as the potential product segment for online purchase that still not reach its full potential This research aim to analyze factors belong to online shopping of apparel products, give recommendation for online retailer of apparel products to improve quality of their service to increase the attitude of students to raise the purchase intention among this market segment

e-1.3 Research objective

 Evaluate overall college students ‘s attitude toward online shopping of apparel products

 Investigate factors influence college students’ attitude and their relationship

 Propose the solution to increase the attitude of college students in the way of become more positive about online shopping of apparel products

1.5 Rationale of the research

Bruin and Lawrence (2000) suggested that college students were often users of technology in general and likely to buy products online Today’s web-savvy college students represent current and future targets for e-commerce companies Students represent over sixty billion dollars in buying power today (Bruin and Lawrence, 2000) in U.S Study on online shopping often investigate consumer in overall especially consumer who have significant amount of income e.g blue collar and office staffs… Students in Vietnam, on the other hand, suffer from the much lower income compare to other consumer segment, their difficult in purchase method, or difficult in delivery to remote area such as campus in Thu Duc… which mean suppliers lost enormous profit from this potential market segment Also, it is suggested that their higher than average levels of education can be expected to generate high levels disposable income, making future online purchases even more likely Online merchants, by focusing on this market, can create brand loyalty and lifetime consumers among a population who will eventually spend billions more of their dispensable dollars shopping online (Jover and Allen, 1996)

Apparel products that displayed at retail store cost the supplier the huge amount

of place rent fee, cost for salaries of staff and other costs that it won’t applied to online

display, the available of product and different size on store that can make the consumer have to go from different stores just to grab of their favorite product All of this limitation can be reduced if apparel products can be purchased over internet (Ann and Paulins, 2004)

This research based on existing study and previous research but apply into different environment in Vietnam There are some studies on college students’ attitude toward online shopping of apparel products but there is no similar in Vietnam, which leads the need to understand this study on Vietnam field

1.6 Significant of the research

The finding of this research can be applied by different online suppliers of apparel products: online vendor, online retailer and fashion brand to create marketing strategies, advertisement and other strategies on products, price….to reach market segment of college student in Ho Chi Minh City, and wider is the youth generation of Vietnam

Furthermore, other related research on online on ecommerce of different type of products or target different kind of consumer can refer to this study as reference

1.7 Limitation

The self-reporting distortion may affect the accurate of answer in this survey The distortions include: differences between subjects’ interpretation and the real situation, emotional status, and their social expectation

Moreover, because of the time and budget constraints, this research carried out mainly on 3 university in Ho Chi Minh which are International University, Social Science and Humanity University, Natural Science University can easily gather information, which represent small sample of population, therefore, this results may be limited and biased

This research based on available study , it focus on 3 main factors which important key issue also influence college attitude may be missing from this research

Chapter II

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter focuses on introducing the related definition, concepts and theories that are used in this research It means this chapter will introduce the literature review of online shopping, college student as a market segment, attitude and previous research and models that used to construct the research model in this study

2.1 Term and definition:

Attitude: A lasting, general evaluation of people (including oneself), objects, advertisements, or issues (Solomon, 2003)

Electronic commerce (E-commerce): conducting business transactions over the Internet or private networks (Donthu & Garcia, 1999) Electronic commerce is any transaction connected over computer-mediated network channels that transfers ownership

of, or rights to use goods or services, including business (B2B), consumer (B2C), and consumer-to-consumer (C2C)

business-to-E-trailer: Retailer who develops a shop in cyberspace and does business to consumer business on the Internet (Frings, 2001)

E-tailing: Electronic retailing or business-to-consumer Nontraditional retailing through the Internet, where the customer and the retailer communicated through an interactive electronic computer system (Frings, 2001)

Internet: a worldwide network of computers that all use the TCP/IP communications protocol and share a common address space It is capable of providing virtually instant access to a vast storehouse of information (Donthu et Garcia, 1999)

Internet Purchase: obtaining a product or service by paying money or using credit card using the Internet (Lee and Johnson, 2002)

Internet Purchaser: consumer who have had experience buying products on the Internet (Donthu and Garcia, 1999)

Internet purchasing: A behavior of an instance of buying (Donthu and Garcia, 1999)

2.2 Online shopping

Online shopping refers to the process of purchasing products or service over internet In the typical online shopping process, when potential consumers recognize a need for some merchandise or service, they go to Internet and search for need-related information (Donthu and Garcia, 1999) However, rather than searching actively, at times potential consumers are attracted by information about products or service associated with the felt need They then evaluate alternatives and choose the one that best fits their criteria for meeting the felt needs Finally, a transaction is conducted and post-sales service is provided (Xu and Paulins, 2004)

Shopping online has very different characteristics from shopping in a store Some

of these characteristics may contribute to consumers’ intention to shop online, while others may discourage them In addition to consumers’ psychographics and shopping online, the fact that the internet is accessible and therefore merchandise is widely available is important (Donthu and Garcia, 1999)

The acceptance of the Internet as a retail outlet for the consumer has been the focus of much research (Hoffman and Novak, 1996) Some studies have focused on the consumers’ attitude towards Internet shopping (Cowles, Little and Kiecker, 2002; Poel and Leunis, 1999) Poel and Leunis (1999) suggested that the consumers’ adoption of the Internet for retail purchases focused on three attributes, money back guarantees, price reductions, and well-known brands Regan (2002) examined that the factors that would most strongly increase online shopping would be: an increase in major catalog retailers taking steps to convert customers into web buyers and overcome the tactile need of online shoppers to become more comfortable with buying clothing without first touching or trying on the garment

Online shopping in Vietnam still consider as the young industry Up to moment mostly the online retailer was an online form of real transaction market or forum like

eBay.com Online retailer store of almost any company or fashion brands are still not popular in this world-most potential retail market (Le Tran, 2010) Online shopping show their advantages from lower cost, increase the like of chance to small and medium enterprise to get in touch with customer, give customer the ability to access to wide range

of products, price, and easy to compare the product ( Le Tran, 2010) However, despite many benefit above, customers in Vietnam still “hesitate” when trying this kind of modern purchase

The problems mostly come from the lack of information about e-shopping that huge number of Internet users still don’t understand the how to conduct the purchase over internet Also it is habit of Vietnamese customer to touch or “try” products because buying it To deal with these problems, eBay Viet Nam require the seller to have clear picture and detail description about the products It’s also noted that the trust of consumer toward online shopping is not strong

Vietnamese law still lack of necessary on these field, thus increase the feeling of risk from customer Up to the moment, most e-shopping website tries to make their own policy and rule to avoid any fraud or cheating by online transaction They also try to applied the model from foreign company by applied many promotion and advertising to customer, conduct campaign to explain the process of online shopping, how to avoid cheating and fraud to gain trust more from customers All of these solutions has shown some consequence on customer, thus according to Le Tran there still need of proper strategies to fit the context of Vietnam market

2.3 Attitude toward online shopping of apparel products

Attitude towards a behavior refer to “the degree to which a person has favorable

or unfavorable evaluation of the behavior of question” (Grandom and Mykytyn, 2004) Attitudes toward online shopping are defined as consumer’s positive or negative feelings related to accomplishing the purchasing behavior on the internet (Chiu et al., 2005)

According to the study by Armstrong and Kotler, (2000), a person’s shopping

learning and beliefs and attitudes That means that, through motivation and perceptions, attitudes are form and consumers make decision Attitudes save as the bridge between consumers’ background characteristics and the consumption that satisfies their needs Attitudes describe a person’s relatively constant evaluations, feelings and tendencies toward an object or idea Attitudes put people into a frame of mind for liking or disliking things, for moving toward or away from them (Armstrong and Kotler, 2000)

2.4 College students ‘attitude

College students represented the consumer sample in a study conducted by Then and Delong (1999) They cited the initial hesitation of shoppers to sue the internet for clothing and reasoned that this could be due to a lack of visual, tactile, and kinesthetic experiences online Thirty-three percent of the college students in their initial survey had experience looking at an apparel web site A survey was distributed to those students, with result indicated that college students who were online shoppers want images of the apparel products displaced realistically with respect to the ordering online, the college students in this study indicated security, convenience, and return policy were important components in their purchasing decisions Furthermore, respondents indicated that apparel products sell better online when fit is not a critical factor and they recommended that online retailers make precuts available that are not easily accessible in other venues When comparing males and females, Then and DeLong (1999) noted little difference in responses

The familiarity of current college students with the internet coupled with their emerging market power and the likelihood of developing loyal customers by establishing initial retailer- customer ties provided requirement to explore this consumer group and their behavioral intentions for online shopping

According to result from table 3 “characteristic of sample” in this study, some characteristics of college students in Ho Chi Minh are partly revealed It’s likely that female use this kind of shopping more than male (60.3 % versus 39.7 %) Most of student used the internet very usually, up to 52.8 % answer “very frequently” and 17.2 % answer

“frequently” Most students have their own vehicle, thus making them less depend on the delivery service and increase the rate to receive product directly Almost student have tight budget, which is 49.2 % answer their income “below 2 million” ad 42.5 % answer

“2 -3 million” No surprisingly, student in Ho Chi Minh mostly are unemployed ( 61.8

%), compared to other foreign countries while high rate of students have part-time job, making them more depend more on family support and reduce their income Finally, the percent of using online shopping for apparel products before is quite high (72.2 %), meaning that the major of them already have understanding and experience is this kind of purchase

2.5 Related research in student’s attitude

There are findings of the previous studies concern with the studies concern with the students’ attitude as follows:

Topic: understanding consumer’s online shopping and purchasing intention

Author: Jongeun Kim

Year of study: July, 2004

Figure 1: Factors affect attitude, intention and four groups of consumers

Finding: consumer factors pose as the strong influence dimensions among three factors Different attitude and profiles of the four groups of online consumers were developed Recommend to focus on consumer factors such as convenience and security, enjoyment… results of the study suggests that successful retailers will respond to the individual needs of each group if they desire to move them through the stages of no-shoppers to buyers

2.6 Hypothesis and research model

2.6.1 Hypothesis development

In order to investigate college students’ attitude, we need to understand consumers’ characteristics of the segment that influence their attitude towards online shopping of apparel products This research based much on the previous research done by Kim Jongeun (2004) “Understanding consumer’s online shopping and purchasing behaviors” Kim Jongeun was the candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy when conduct this master thesis to graduate as Doctor Degree from Oklahoma University Before that, she already got Master of Science Degree from Kon-Kuk University, Seoul, Korea Her major field is Human Environmental sciences and her area of specialization is: design, housing and Merchandising In this research, the author used the previous exploratory E-retailing model conduct by Cowles, Kiekies and Little (2004) that group online shopping issues into 3 main factors and Theory of Reasoned Action by Ajzen and Fishbein (1975 & 1980) to explain the link from attitude to actual intention Her research aimed to analyze the attitude that are influence from issues underlying online shopping that group into 3 main factors as show below, and attitude will direct affect the buying intention of consumer that divided into 4 kind of consumer who has different intention

By comparing the different in term of attitude, intention and demographic profiles, retailers can give strategies to target non-shoppers to transform into potential buyers However this research purpose was to analyze the attitude among the students towards online shopping of apparel products from the influence of these three factors and give recommendation to improve service based on this information, intention and 4 groups of consumers was removed to fit the purpose of this research The author grouped the online shopping issues into three areas: consumer, marketing and technology issues that most often are noted as influencing online shopping attitudes The factors belong to 3 factors were modified slightly to investigate further down to apparel products and college student Factors from research “college students’ attitude towards online shopping of

apparel products: exploring the rural versus urban area” conducted by Xu and Paulins was also used as reference to the modify factors of this research to fit the specific data

2.6.1.1 Consumer factors

The consumer factor was suggest as important to online shopping, and items include were privacy, security, time saving, , convenience, enjoyment, (Udo, 2001) Fashion brand was added as another factor belongs to apparel products and have related

to consumer (Xu and Paulins, 2004) It also noted that most college student don’t pay much attention on their own privacy information and more willing to give this information away ( Then and Delong, 1999), making privacy unassay in this research

Security: security is defined as that which secures or makes safe, protection,

guard, defense (Komiak, & Benbasat 2004) Online retailing has greater perceived security risks by consumers than does traditional brick and mortar retailing (Houston, 1998).Research suggested that most consumers fear the risk of misused credit card information

To increase online shopping, merchants need to take the proactive steps to minimize the consumers’ feeling of risk One method of doing that includes building of consumer trust in the online store (Komiak and Benbasat, 2004) In the area of financial security, this meant proving the merchant’s ability to safeguard personal data Gabarino and Johnson (1999) have proposed a satisfaction-trust-commitment-repurchase intention model and found that consumers; satisfaction would built trust which led him or her to repeat the purchases

The security of payment is evaluate high by student, but it can’t denied the fact that rate of using online payment method like ATM and credit card still under hesitate from students in Vietnam due to its unfamiliar and risk of losing financial account ( Le Tran, 2010) Company often deal with them by offer COD ( cash- on –delivery) as a payment for customer to avoid using the online payment and bank account transfer (Le Tran, 2010), but both method still have disadvantages compare to online payment for its convenience and time saving and avoid problem by distance Delivery often don’t reach

the place where gather high number of students like Thu Duc district or district 9 and district 12, due to their long distance from the store

Time: Becker (1965) noted the efficient use of time was critical use for the

modern time-scarce consumer Internet shopping can be viewed as a time saver for the shopper and the buyer (Then and Delong, 1999) As such, time positively influence Internet shopping as it can eliminate trips to the store and the long lines and delays when

at the store (Donthu and Garcia, 1999)

Time is also crucial problems that student choosing to use online shopping Their time often is occupied from the schedule of class and activities that don’t have time to go

to store on official time Also note that many students in Ho Chi Minh City lived in suburban area, thus making its high time taking form long trip just to visit the store

Convenience: One such attitude that influenced the non-store shoppers has been

that convenience (Shim and Mhoney, 1991) The non-consumer’s primary motivation was to save time, money, and hassles associated with in-store shopping Non-store shoppers sought to solve these issues by utilizing catalogs, cable television shopping, Internet, and other shopping formats The same attitude of convenience cared over to the consumer’s Internet shopping’s behavior Convenience has been noted as positively influencing online purchasing behavior as it eliminated the necessity of having to travel

to one or more stores

Enjoyment: Enjoyment in shopping can be two-fold: Enjoyment from the product

purchased as well as the process of shopping itself Online shopping likes in-store shopping, provided both types of enjoyment can positively or negatively influence online shopping (Taylor & Cosenza, 2009) Enjoyment is also necessary factor that attract young generation to using the product or service ((Then and Delong, 1999)

Fashion brand: by having well-known fashion brands another element that attract

customer to pay visit and make actual transaction on particular online shopping channel

Famous fashion brand also are more likely to attract customer to their distribution (Xu and Paulins, 2004)

2.6.1.2 Marketing factors:

Price; price of online shopping are reduced by avoid cost of normal retailer Also

the price come along with products make consumer easier to make consider when purchase (Taylor and Cosenza, 1999)

College students who often have tight budget, depend much more on online shopping to search for products with attractive price (Then and Delong, 2009) If the price of online shopping is really competitive, then the like hood of chance to using this service will increase among students

Products variety: when shopping, consumers want a broad range of quality, price,

and variety in products The online market allows for such diversity thus potential increasing online sales (Taylor and Cosenza, 1999)

Product promotion: product promotions attempt to influence the consumers’

purchasing behavior Like other retail methods, online channels have various promotional tools such as corporate logos, banners, pop-up messages, e-mail messages, and text-based hyperlinks to web sites These types of promotions have positively affected Internet buying (Ducoffe, 1996)

Delivery methods: online purchasing typical involves the use of a delivery service

because of the physical separation between the buyer and the seller For the consumer, this separation brings a concern about the time lag between when a product is ordered and when it is received as well as the potential added cost of delivery These concerns had a negative effect on online shopping (Eastlick & Feinberg, 1994)

For college students, delivery takes very important function because most of them don’t have spare to go take product from the store Cash-on-delivery payment makes delivery become more important in Vietnam situation

Return policy: the separation of buyer and seller noted above also plays a role in

the consumer’s level of comfort in regard to product returns Today, businesses often

respond to a customer’s request to return a product by repair, substitute, or refund the customer’s money In the case of online shopping, where the majority of products have been delivered through some third-part means, the customer is now faced with utilizing a similar service in the return process, an additional inconvenience and potential expense These issues negatively affected online shopping behavior It is important to note that since online shopping does not allow a consumer to examine the product before purchasing, online shopping has experienced higher return rates when compared to traditional retailing ,especially for type of experienced good such as apparel products…

By the year 2005, it is estimated that 90 million items bought online will be returned (Forrester Research, 2002)

Customer service: Walsh and Godfrey (2000) suggested that e-tailors might have

an advantage over brick and mortar counterpart in the area of customer service with their use of personalized web sites, product customization, and ad value-added work Similarly, Scott (2000) assert that individuals who sought customer service were likely to purchase at the online store

On the other hand, the product delivery and product return issues may negate the perception of personal service (Schneider and Bowen, 1999) Modern consumers put a premium on personal service (Scott, 2000) The lack of face to face service is certainly a limitation for Internet shopping and may negatively affect it (Schneider & Bowen, 1999)

2.6.1.3 Technology factors

To a degree, online buying will depend on the efficiency and availability of the technology (Bell and Gemmell, 1996) Two main technology factors were suggested as important to online shopping: information and representatives of pictures and colors (Seckler, 1998) “The availability of personal computers and Internet access” , along with

“ Download time” was also mentioned in Kim Jougeun‘s study model, but with the advance of internet in Vietnam and the available of Internet access for college students in

Ho Chi Minh City, this was rejected

Information: Information about the product is the first criteria that consumer

looks for when go searching the internet Sufficient information mean that consumer

understands clearly about the product and increase the chance of making actual purchase

decision, especially for experienced good like apparel products Not enough information

will create confuse in customer, thus likely to make customer pay less trust about product

and effect their online shopping behavior (Seckler, 1998)

Representativeness of Pictures and Colors: consumer behavior is also impacted

by the accuracy of the products displayed Varying technology may make it difficult to

represent the true colors or dimensions of a product This distortion made consumers

uneasy about making an online purchase therefore, negatively affecting online shopping

behavior.(Eroglu, Machleit & Davis, 2003)

Table 1: List of Hypothesis

H1 Consumer factors have positive impact on attitude toward online shopping

of apparel products H2 marketing factor have positive impact on attitude toward online shopping

of apparel products H3 technology factor have positive impact on attitude toward online shopping

of apparel products

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

This part describes method which the author uses to find data for research,

sample size, questionnaire design and in-depth interview person This is a critical part of

research which decides accuracy of research

3.1 Research design

Figure 3: Research design 3.2 Literature review

Initially, qualitative research will be conducted Qualitative research was done by

collecting secondary data Secondary data provide problems and hypothesis, supportive

researches and information, additional problems that can be explored in the primary

Literature review

Pilot test (n=12)

Data analysis

writing report

research Then the questionnaire was developed based on a review of the literature Most

of the items on the instrument were based on questions used in previous research

3.3 Sampling:

Target population: college students in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam that can access internet

Sampling frame: there is no sampling frame for this research

Sampling procedure: direct survey was used as main method to gather sufficient data for research And convenience data for online survey was used in this survey This method use open invitations on portals such as Web sites, or (in some cases) dedicated

“survey” sites Paper survey was used as main source to gather data

Sample size: Time and budget constraint is a critical point in deciding sample size A sample of 200-500 persons is recommended to be sufficient for data analysis (Hair et al.1998) a sample of approximately 300 respondents will be surveyed under the limited condition

3.4 Pilot study

Carvana et al (2001) suggested that a questionnaire should be piloted with a reasonable sample of respondents coming from the target population Pilot testing can help detect the weakness in questionnaire design Therefore, it was considered that the pilot survey would be useful in order to test the content and the meaning of words in order to avoid misunderstands and make sure respondent clearly understand the meaning

In my study, the pilot survey was conducted via the internet using the qualitative method through online questionnaire with 12 students It has been suggested that for most student questionnaires the number of respondents for a pilot study should be at least 10 (Fink, 1995) The purpose of the pilot study is able to check the content, meaning of words and get suggestions from the students for possible questionnaire revision of the instrument for validity assessment

3.5 Data collection

The target respondents of this research are college student, especially who know

or often interact with any kind of online transaction That means they are quite familiar with internet resources like mail and web sites Hence, the chosen data collection method

in this research is web-based survey and mail survey Moreover, this method is inexpensive, fast, simple and effective Online survey sites like Google Form, Survey Monkey or Gizmo also support the required questions that reduce the probability of missing answers

The survey was conducted in April 2013 by online survey and direct survey Three universities belong to Ho Chi Minh national university: International University, Economic and Law University and Natural Science University were chosen as main source for direct survey Paper surveys were also distributed to Ho Chi Minh national university‘s campus and International University‘s campus to gather more data about college students lived in suburban area Online survey was provided by various forum and website social network: schools and universities’ Forums, Facebook, Zing Me, youth‘s forum… the data were then gather and input into SPSS for data analysis

Despite of online survey, data was mainly collected by direct survey using paper survey At each class, instructor was informed and gets permission before and collector distributed the survey during the break time This method proves efficient due to its large number of respond and also students have time to read, understand and answer the survey correctly

3.6 Questionnaire design

A research instrument was developed based on a review of the literature Most of the items on the instrument were based on questions used in previous research Some questions were used in their original form while others were modified slightly into address the specific nature of this study Finally some of the questions were developed solely of this survey to address important concepts not previously address by previous studies These questions were part of the pretest to examine their readability and that they

captured the construct in question Table indicates the overall theoretical concepts and specific issues that each question was designed to measure All question was translate and written in Vietnamese to make sure respondents understand the meaning

The survey was divided into two sections Section one examined the college’s student demographic information related to online shopping behaviors The variable included gender, rank in school, living area divide by urban and suburban area, internet usage frequency, private vehicle using, disposal income and employment status of the respondent

Section two contained questions related to respondents’ attitude about online shopping The scale of the measurement was measured using a five-point Likert scale Several items on each subscale were asked from a negative perspective in order to encourage the respondent to carefully read each question Those questions were later reverse-coded to reflect that a higher score meant more positive attitude toward the online shopping of apparel products

3.7 Data analysis

In this research, SPSS software version 18.0 is used in order to analyze the collected data My data analysis procedure has 4 phases: first phase is Descriptive Statistics; second is Reliability Test; third phase is Exploratory Factor Analysis, and the final phase is Regression Analysis

3.7.1 Descriptive Statistics

“Descriptive statistics are used by researchers to summarize and “describe” collected data Typically researchers have to analyze lots of data and descriptive statistics give a solution to summarize the main properties of a large group of data into just a few numbers This lets the researcher show the data without confusion of huge number of numbers Descriptive statistics often deal with frequency distributions, measures of center (i.e., mean, median, and mode), range, and standard of deviation

In this research, Descriptive Statistics present the minimum value, maximum

3.7.3 Exploratory Factor Analysis

The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) as well as the reliability tests was applied

in order to conduct a primary test of the validity and reliability of the instrument The purpose of this test is to assess the scales used to measure the constructs

KMO coefficient (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin) is a criterion for evaluation for the accordance of the data for EFA The EFA is appropriate when KMO larger or equal 0.5

“A value of 0 indicates that the sum of partial of correlations is large relative to the sum

of correlations, indicating diffusion in the pattern of correlations (Hence, factor analysis

is likely to be inappropriate) A value close to 1 indicates that patterns of correlations are relatively compact and so factor analysis should yield distinct and reliable factors” (Andy Field, 2009)

The criteria to determine the number of factors are extracted: all extraction factors must have Eigenvalue >1 This standard is widely accepted as the basic for adding or removing any factor (Kaiser, 1960 – extract from Hoang Trong, 2008)

We consider the hypothesis of Bartlett’s test of Bartlett’s test of Sphericity (H0) is variables that do not have correlation with overall (overall matrix is homogeneous).when sig equal or lower than 0.05, the hypothesis of correlation between observed variables is zero in overall (Hoang Trong, 2008) This data is appropriate when the hypothesis H0 is rejected

The cumulative coefficient of variance explained criteria larger or equal 0.5

After EFA, some factors and variables are unvalued will be rejected or combine with other factors to establish a new factor

Table 2: Measurement statement & scale

Consumer factors Convenience It's easy to conduct online shopping of apparel

products

CF1 5 point

Likert scale Time Online shopping can be conducted at anytime CF2 5 point

Likert scale Fashion brand online shopping website bring enough different

brands I desire

CF3 5 point

Likert scale Security online shopping is safe for credit card user CF4 5 point

Likert scale Enjoyment online shopping cannot create social activities like

shopping at retail store

CF5 5 point

Likert scale Marketing factors

Price Price of online shopping is lower than retail store MF1 5 point

Likert scale Product variety Online shopping help me look for products which

aren't easy to find by normal shopping

MF2 5 point

Likert scale Online shopping bring me more merchandise option MF4 5 point

Likert scale Promotion Online promotion like banner advertising, sale or

Likert scale Customer service online shopping provide customer service as I expect MF5 5 point

Likert scale Technology factors

Information Information about products are often sufficient for me

to consider

TF1 5 point

Likert scale

Representativeness Products' quality is as good as I read on the website TF2 5 point

Likert scale Image of product is the same as I see on the website TF3 5 point

Likert scale Student’s attitude

I have good evaluation toward factor related to customer ( security, time saving, convenience,

enjoyment, fashion brand)

Technology factors( information, representativeness)

is useful for me when consider making actual online

purchase of apparel products

SA3 5 point

Likert scale

On overall, I have positive opinion about online

shopping of apparel products

SA4 5 point

Likert scale

CHAPTER IV

DATA ANALYSIS & RESEARCH RESULT

Following the previous chapter, this chapter will describe the characteristics of the sample, present the data analysis and discusses the findings of the research

4.2 Characteristics of sample

Table 3: the Characteristics of the Samples

Use online shopping for

apparel products before

Gender: the sample comprises of 252 students, including 152 females, making up

to 60.3 percent of total and 100 males, accounting for 39.7 percent of total

Student rank: among 252 students, there were 54 freshmen who make up for

31.4 percent, 58 sophomore stands for 23 percent, 66 students account for 26.2 percent and the percent of seniors is 29.4 percent, which are 74 students

Internet usage frequency: highest rate is “very frequently”, which make up to

52.8 percent, then for “frequently” of 17.2 percent Surprisingly, taking third place is seldom, which is 15.1 percent The lowest rate belongs “sometimes" "often" which are 10.7 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively

Private vehicle usage: according to the statistics, there was the major of students

have their own vehicle, make up to 86.1 percent Only 13.9 percent of students answer

“no” to this question, which make them depend delivery service of company

Income: research show that most student have tight budget, from the shown that

the high percentage belongs below 2 million and 2 -3 million group of income level – which are 49.2 percent and 42.5 percent respectively

Employment: no surprisingly, most of student still doesn’t have job yet, which up

to 61.1 percent Remain is 38.9 percent already got their own income

Using online shopping before: Research indicates good result that most students

have purchase fashion product over internet, stand for 72.2 percent of total answers Only

70 students which are 27.8 percent don’t experience this yet This maybe because they may have tried other kind of online shopping, not apparel products

39.70%

60.30%

Gender

Male Female

Figure 3: Allocation of students’ gender

Figure 4: Allocation of students’ rank

Figure 6: Allocation of frequency of using internet by students

Figure 7: Allocation of private vehicle using by students

86.10%

13.90%

Private vehicle using

Yes No

Figure 8: Allocation of monthly income of students

Figure 9: Allocation of employment status among students

38.90%

61.10%

Employment status

Yes No