Role of the Internet in the Purchase Decision Process of University Students

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Executive Summary

The Internet has changed the purchase decision process. In the past, a typical purchase decision process would resemble the following scenario:

A consumer is picking a new body wash. She scans the aisle, examining packaging and brand names. Carefully she picks up bottles and smells the scents, while comparing the prices.

However, the internet now offers consumers the opportunity to gather production information beyond the manufacturer’s control. A consumer can simply type body wash review and find a myriad of sites offering peer reviews including: www.drugstore.com, www.epinions.com, and www.amazon.com.

Fastabend will study this phenomenon in University Students to understand the role of the Internet in influencing purchase decisions. The research will be conducted via focus groups and survey research to gather qualitative and quantitative information.

Research Purpose

The purpose of this study is to analyze the role of the Internet in the purchase decision process of University students. Specifically the research objectives are to:

• Segment University Students according to purchase habits via the internet.
• Identify and measure the influence of the Internet in purchase decision process.
• Identify the important attributes of sites that are popularly used by students.

Research Design

The study will be conducted via focus groups and survey research. The survey research will be conducted by emailing link to questionnaire to a systematic random sample of University Students in the Philadelphia area. The survey will draw on issues revealed in the focus groups including:

• Identifying key attributes in sites popularly used for gathering information
• Determining the ability of the Internet to change consumer’s purchase intentions
• Identifying the dependency of certain segments on the Internet in making purchase decisions

Sampling Procedure

The sampling procedure employed for this study will be systematic random sampling from each of the Universities within a 15 mile radius of Philadelphia.

Data Collection

Email surveys will be used to gather information.

Statistical Analysis

Based on the type of scaled response, appropriate statistical methods will be used and inferences made.