• IMPREET KAUR
• Dr. Rajni Saluja
• Dr. Jasdeep Dhami

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, refers to the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the internet and other computer networks. Internet is the rapidest growing media during the past decade. Especially, online shopping is a rapidly growing e-commerce area. So, online shopping has become a trend where consumers are playing a crucial role. The increasing use of internet by the consumers in India provides an emerging prospect for online merchants. Although consumers continue to purchase from a physical store, consumers feel very convenient to shop online since it frees the consumer from personally visiting the store. Internet shopping has its own advantages and it reduces the effort of travelling to a physical store. Decisions can be made from home at ease looking at various choices and prices can be easily compared with the competitor’s products to arrive at a decision. Though there are many benefits of online shopping like time saving, access from everywhere, convenience, availability 24 hours a day, variety of products, various options available to compare products and brands. Beside the benefits of online shopping, there are various factors which if online retailers know, then they can further develop their marketing strategies to convert potential consumers into active ones. The study highlights the perception of consumers of three cities of Punjab viz. Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jalandhar towards online buying. Various demographic features like age, gender, marital status, annual income, education and occupation have been taken to study their impact on consumer perception towards online shopping. For this, data is collected from 600 respondents using snowball sampling Various statistical tools were applied like percentages, Chi-Square test, T-Test to analyze the data. The present paper will enable the e-retailers to support their online consumer better by developing suitable marketing strategy to attract and convert potential consumer as an active consumer by encouraging them in an efficient way to make a purchase decision.

online buying, consumer behaviour, perception

"Consumer Perception regarding Online Buying: A Case Study of Punjab", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 11, page no.457-463, November-2018, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1811059.pdf

"Consumer Perception regarding Online Buying: A Case Study of Punjab", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 11, page no. pp457-463, November-2018, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1811059.pdf