A STUDY ON CONSUMERS' PREFERENCE AND SATISFACTION TOWARDS ONLINE SHOPPING IN UDUMALPET TALUK WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO FLIPKART

A STUDY ON CONSUMERS' PREFERENCE AND SATISFACTION TOWARDS ONLINE SHOPPING IN UDUMALPET TALUK WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO FLIPKART


INTRODUCTION
Marketing concept is a philosophy of business that help to analyze the needs of their consumers' and then make decision to satisfy their needs better than competition. Today's marketing is a modern marketing primarily concerned with creation of consumers, in other words identification of the needs of the consumers and then organizing the business activities to satisfy the consumer needs. The continuous and rapid development of the marketing in modern era leads to evolution of e-Commerce business technology. It consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the internet and other computer networks. The reason why most of the people have fancy to use internet is of its reliability, speed and performance. Along with message delivering through e-mail, seeking information through searching and browsing, a lot of people are using internet for online shopping or e-commerce, which has evolved the field of internet marketing and internet marketing experts have found a proficient way to find their potential customers. Online shopping is a major part of the overall electronic commerce. With the spread of the internet, the amount or trade that is conducted electronically has seen extraordinary growth; and has led to innovations and development in areas such as Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Internet Marketing.

STATEMNT OF THE PROBLEM
The world is tremendously moving towards electronic commerce (e-commerce) activities. E-commerce growth is increasing at a rapid rate and is replacing traditional commerce. The benefits of shopping online cannot be under estimated. In today's fast paced world, the popularity of online shopping has grown by leaps and bounds. Online purchasing of goods, both expensive and cheap, is prevalent to a much larger extent in recent years due to convenience, speedy transactions, saving time, attractive sales promotional offers etc., Despite these motivational factors, there are various transactional and non-transactional issues involved such as internet users being uncomfortable while giving their credit card number, personal information etc., which act as deterrents. Online shopping is new and it is at infancy stage and there are no hard and fast rules to live by. Consumers have slowly started showing interest in online shopping. However, the future for internet shopping looks bright and promising. Because, people always find themselves under busy in their works and they do not find enough time for spending in shopping. Online shopping can save a lot of time for them. They can do this from their office or home by browsing on the net. All these have resulted in increase in positive attitude towards online shopping. To retain and improve the trend online companies have to understand the customers properly and must take effective measures to remove the hurdles that occur in the part of customer's satisfaction. To find out solution to the problems the present study entitled "A Study on Consumers' Preference and Satisfaction towards online shopping in Udumalpet Taluk with special Reference to Flipkart" has been taken up.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The objectives of the study are as follows: Ÿ To identify the factors influencing Flipkart shopping. Ÿ To study the consumers preference towards Flipkart. com. Ÿ To know the level of satisfaction towards Flipkart. com.

HYPOTHESES
For the purpose of the study, the necessary null hypotheses (H ) have been formulated and tested with appropriate 0 statistical tools.

H :
01 There is no significant relationship between age of the respondents and level of satisfaction towards Flipkart.

H :
02 There is no significant relationship between educational qualification of the respondents and level of satisfaction towards Flipkart.

H :
03 There is no significant relationship between occupation of the respondents and level of satisfaction towards Flipkart.

H :
04 There is no significant relationship between monthly income of the respondents and level of satisfaction towards Flipkart.

H :
05 There is no significant relationship between experience in Flipkart shopping and level of satisfaction towards Flipkart.

H :
06 There is no significant relationship between area of residence and level of satisfaction towards Flipkart. www.worldwidejournals.com Collection of data: For the purpose of the study a structured questionnaire was prepared and the data was collected from the respondents who purchased the products through Flipkart. Flipkart.com offering best prices, good products and completely easy shopping experience for our customers. The success of any e-tailer company in India is depending upon its popularity, its branding image, its unique and fair policies, and its customer relations.

W.Saranya and P.Palanivelu (2015) have conducted "A Study on Customer Preference and Satisfaction towards
Online Shopping on Flipkart in Coimbatore District". The main objectives of the study is to analyses consumer preference on flipkart, to access the consumers satisfaction level towards flipkart, to find out most preferred product by consumers in the flipkart and to know the preferred payment method by consumers on flipkart. Researcher concluded that the study on consumer perception towards online shopping is to satisfy themselves. Consumer perceive many things before buying products and they will be satisfied if the company meet their expectations. The overall brand value of flipkart is good. Today's our domestic market leads to most e-business portal which is aggressively expanding and also shifting the mind-set of the people from physical shopping to online shopping in magnificent way so company must focus on consumer and build amazing experiences for the customers.

Source: Primary Data
It is observed from the above table that time saving was major factor that influence shopping in Flipkart, easy accessibility / convenience was ranked as second, availability of wide range of products was ranked as third, followed by low price of the products. Fifth rank was given to the factor quality assurance.
It is inferred that time saving was the major factor that influence shopping in Flipkart. Electronic products in Flipkart were preferred by maximum number (44.50 percent) of the respondents. Majority (50 percent) of the respondents preferred bike accessories and helmets in Automobiles category.
Books and more categories: Majority (77.02 percent) of the respondents preferred books.

Source: Primary Data
The above table reveals the overall level of satisfaction of the respondents towards Flipkart. Respondents were highly satisfied with availability of more brands as they were ranked as first. Respondents were satisfied with quality, display of products and its information as they were ranked as second and third respectively. Security and privacy in payment , reasonable price and discount offers were ranked as fourth, fifth and sixth respectively. Return of goods in case of defects, proper customer service, delivery charges and proper after sale services were ranked as seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.
Majority of the respondents were highly satisfied with availability of more brands of product.

Source: Primary Data
Out of 80 respondents, 25 percent (20) of the respondents stated that poor customer service was the major problem they faced in Flipkart shopping and 23.75 percent (19) of the respondents stated that their problem was regarding quality of products. 20 Percent (16) of the respondents stated as lack of security and privacy of information, 12.5 percent (10) of the respondents stated as purchase procedure and 11.25 percent (9) of the respondents stated their delay in delivery of products as their problems regarding Flipkart.
Maximum percentage of the respondents stated that poor customer services (25 percent) and delay delivery of products (23.75 percent) are the major problems in Flipkart shopping.

HYPOTHESES TESTING
For the purpose of the study, the necessary null hypotheses (H0) have been formulated and tested with appropriate

Source: Primary Data
There is no significant relationship between age, educational qualification, occupation, monthly income, experience Flipkart shopping and area of residence and level of satisfaction towards online shopping in Flipkart.
There is no significant relationship between educational qualification and preference for electronic items, life style products, home furnishing products, automobiles and books and more items.
There is no significant relationship between monthly income and preference for electronic items, life style products, home furnishing products and automobiles.
There is significant relationship between monthly income and preference for books and more items. products, life style and home furnishing products in Flipkart. Ÿ Majority of the respondents were highly satisfied with availability of more brands of product. Ÿ Maximum percentage of the respondents stated that poor customer service, delay delivery of products and lack of security and privacy of information are the major problems faced by them in Flipkart shopping.

Result of Hypothesis:
Ÿ Level of satisfaction: Ÿ There is no significant relationship between age and level of satisfaction of the respondents towards Flipkart. Ÿ There is no significant relationship between educational qualification and level of satisfaction towards of the respondents Flipkart. Ÿ There is no significant relationship between occupation and level of satisfaction of the respondents towards Flipkart. Ÿ There is no significant relationship between monthly income and level of satisfaction of the respondents towards Flipkart. Ÿ There is no significant relationship between experience in Flipkart shopping and level of satisfaction of the respondents towards Flipkart. Ÿ There is no significant relationship between area of residence and level of satisfaction of the respondents towards Flipkart.

Preference for Products:
Ÿ There is no significant relationship between educational qualification and preference for electronic items, life style products, home furnishing products, automobiles and books and more items. Ÿ There is no significant relationship between monthly income and preference for electronic items, life style products, home furnishing products and automobiles. Ÿ There is significant relationship between monthly income and preference for books and more items.

SUGGESTIONS
Ÿ Most of the respondents stated that shopping in Flipkart is influenced by friends and relatives. So the marketer has to focus on advertisement and promotional measure towards friends and relatives to increase sales. Ÿ Majority of the respondents are satisfied towards electronic product, life style product, and books and more and most of the respondents prefer to purchase these products occasionally. Though the level of satisfaction of home furnishing products and automobile products are highly satisfied only few respondents are purchasing these products. So, efforts can be taken by Flipkart to popularize these products simultaneously to capture more number of consumers.  Ÿ With the entry of other e-commerce portals such as Amazon, Snapdeal etc. It will be a huge competition in a market for Flipkart. Therefore there is a need to get aggressive at providing better services which can be fulfilled by providing a) Proper customer services, b) Reducing the delivery time and delivery charges c) Improve security and privacy in transaction.
which will increase consumers' afford ability much more and enhance penetration into the market.

CONCLUSION
A study on consumers' preference and satisfaction towards Flipkart in Udumalpet Taluk concluded that the consumers have became time conscious as they stated that time saving is a major factor that influence their purchase decision. The electronic products were highly preferred products in Flipkart and the consumers' were also satisfied with electronic products. Majority of the respondents' level of satisfaction towards Flipkart is medium. Flipkart must take enough measure to improve consumers' services, to reduce delivery time and charges and to improve security and privacy in transaction to improve consumers' loyalty and thereby to increase their sales.