An investigation of online shopping attitudes of Generation Y in relation to the role of trust, risk and purchase intention

The main objective of this dissertation thesis was to investigate the online shopping attitude of Generation Y consumers and to examine the relationship between trust, perception of risk and purchase intention. The researcher examined and analyses the impact of gender on the above factors. This study focused on the Generation Y cohort as due to their spending abilities and online shopping behaviour they are believed to be a growing market segment. Generation Y, also known as Millennials, is believed to be an attractive market segment for marketers as they are considered trend settlers, have a compulsive shopping attitude as well as the fact that they grew up with technological advancements and do not have many financial responsibilities at that age. According to the existing research trust and perception of risk are believed to be crucial when it comes to purchasing goods online. In order to analyse and examine attitudes towards online purchases the researcher conducted quantitative research via the convenience method. For the purpose of this research an online survey was set up on surveymonkey.com and paper copies were distributed. This study was limited to respondents living in Ireland and who have previously used online shopping. To ensure that there were no issues with answering the survey and that the questions were easily understood, the researcher conducted a pilot test with a beta group of 10 participants. A total of 230 respondents participated in this survey from a variety of education backgrounds and different age groups. After all the data from the survey was gathered the researcher used statistical package for the social sciences software to examine and analyse the responses. The researcher used Cronbach’s Alpha test to ensure validity and reliability of the survey. The researcher intended to add to the existing research on gender and age differences in respect of purchasing goods and services online. The results of this research revealed that there is a positive correlation between trust and purchase intention, in other words the more trust consumers have the more likely they are to buy products online. However, the findings revealed that there is a negative relationship between trust and perception of risk. There was also a negative correlation between perception of risk and customer purchase intention. The findings of this research indicate that retailers need to acknowledge the importance of creating a trustworthy website, safe transaction process and accurate security payment methods in order to increase their sales as well as gain new customers and hold onto the existing ones. The researcher intended to contribute to the existing knowledge about consumer’s attitude towards online shopping and to provide more details about gender and age differences. Further research should focus on other demographic factors such as income, education status and marital status as well as considering factors that affect online shopping in each variable