Understanding Consumer Characteristics in an Online Tourism Community in India

Analysing customer perceptions is an important requirement not only for offline stores, but for online stores as well. Study of customer perceptions helps the company in understanding the requirements and expectations of the customers in a better way. This study is an extension of the researcher‟s previous study of identifying antecedents of consumer trust for e-tourism companies in India. This study tries to explore the relationship between factors that build trust of the consumers on the online companies and their satisfaction level. Apart from studying the preferences and expectations of the consumers from e-tourism companies in India, the researcher has also tried to study the customer perceptions in context of online shopping in general. Data was collected by the researcher from 367 tourists (customers) who plan their tours online in Delhi NCR. Hypothesis testing has been done by using ANOVA and t-test. Findings of the study revealed that that amongst seven Consumer Trust dimensions, only “Promotional deals” and “Price Competitiveness” have a significant positive impact on “Customer Satisfaction”, whereas the impact of other five variables are not significant.


INTRODUCTION
In recent years, an increasing number of firms have entered the virtual world. The advent of e-commerce has laid a new foundation in the consumer market. Exposure of the company widens to a larger audience thereby increasing the challenge of attracting the right audience with good marketing strategies. Understanding consumer behaviour remains the foremost priority of the company being it an online or an offline store. Analysis of customer perceptions helps in segmenting the market and at the same time targeting the right audience.
Increased world-wide exposure has raised the competitiveness of the firms with the enhanced pressure of attracting more and more customers. The use of internet for the purpose of communicating and transacting with customers has been growing rapidly in the worldwide tourism industry (Sahadev & Islam, 2005). As consumers continue to use the web for travel and hospitality resources, there is a need to examine the business-to-consumer online environment and the issues facing the continued acceptance and use of web by the consumers. Even the inclination of tourism industry is towards the understanding of the customer needs, preferences and behaviour, like all industries.
The internet usage also varies across countries, even within a country there are large variations among different enterprises. Despite the increasing number of internet users and forecasting the future prospects of online travel industry, practitioners have encountered problems and challenges, including how to attract and retain more & more customers. There are no statistics showing the exact number of travellers who have purchased travel-related products online. It is apparent that not all online users make their purchases online. There is a quick need for finding as to who are the actual internet users and also they prefer to purchase or shop online.
This research work has been undertaken with an objective of studying the relationship between consumer trust and customer satisfaction, the impact of demographic variables on shopping orientations of the consumer and customer"s perception about online shopping in the Indian market. I S S N 2 2 7 8 -5 6 1 2 V o l u m e 1 1 N u m b e r 2 I n t e r n a t i o n a l J o u r n a l o f M a n a g e m e n t a n d I Understanding consumer behaviour for an online environment is a critical element for the success of any and every type of organization, which is perfectly achieved via understanding its customers in the exact sense what they want. In this study, consumer characteristics have been studied in terms of behaviour of the customers in response to online shopping in general. Customers with similar tastes and preferences can be clustered together for deriving good results. Hence, it is highly important for a company to understand customer"s perception as unless the company is clear as to how their customers perceive them, it becomes really tough for the company to excel in their business. Relevance of the same can be studied in the following reviews of previous researches: Customer Perception Bajs (2011) propounded that perception of value is governed not only by perceived quality and costs but also by the product and service attributes. And, from among a whole set of different attributes, customer evaluates only a few of them. Kim, Park and Schwarz (2010) undertook a research on how the consumer evaluates the product via considering their emotions. It is so because mostly the decisions are based on hedonic predictionswill it be good for me to do this? They detailed that products making emotional claims may focus on hedonic predictions on the experiences brought to mind by the product claimswill the product make me feel the way it promises? Therefore, marketers can facilitate the impression that the product will deliver on its promises i.e. matching the product"s claims with those of consumers" pre-existing feelings. Hallem and Barth (2011) investigated that better understanding of the needs of the medical tourists can help the marketers in better guiding of tourists and also taking good marketing decisions. Nysveen, Methlie and Pedersen (2003) presented a report on the value added services offered by tourism websites and which of those are important for the customers. The results indicated that study of customer preferences are of vital significance for deriving satisfaction and long term association with website. Shim et al. (2001) identified the importance of customer"s intention to search the internet for product information. It is a key element for marketing researchers in predicting consumers" internet purchasing intentions. Results revealed that an intention to search internet for product information leads to an intention to purchase through the same medium; hence it should be considered important. It also exposed that intention to use internet for product information search acts as a central mechanism through which consumer characteristics affect higher-order decision making goals.

Shopping Orientation
Shopping orientations are related to general predisposition toward acts of shopping. They are conceptualised as a specific dimension of lifestyle and are operationalized on the basis of activities, interests and opinion statements pertaining to acts of shopping (Li et al., 2006). Classification of the consumers on the basis of acts of shopping is useful for the companies to target the consumers. Many research works have been undertaken by various researchers to identify the shopping orientations of consumers. Following are the briefings of such research works. As identified by Stone (1954), there are four types of shopping orientations namely: economic, personalizing, ethical and apathetic whereas Korgaonkar (1981) examined six groups of shoppers: recreational shopper, brand-loyal shopper, store-loyal shopper, price-oriented shopper, psych-socializing shopper and time-oriented shopper. Lumpkin (1985) in his research work studied elderly customers and identified three different segmentsuninvolved shopper, inflationconscious shopper and actively, highly involved shopper. Some specific researches were also conducted for specified products like that undertaken by Furse et al. (1982) for automobiles. They developed four types of shopper typologies namely constructive shoppers (who work hard for gathering information), surrogate shoppers (depend heavily on others for information search), preparatory shoppers (depend more on others reviews) and routinized shoppers (spend relatively less time on information search but exhibit brand loyalty). Apart from these offline stores, surveys were also conducted to analyze shoppers" orientations for online stores. Findings are mixed regarding consumer characteristics. An examination revealed that the shoppers are younger, venturesome and recreational; while others consider them to be thrifty innovators and focusing on time management. But, the fact is online stores also attract a set of customers with certain common attributes. Likewise, a study conducted by Greenfield Online (1999) identified that convenience and time saving feature of internet has motivated a certain set of customers to prefer online shopping than in-store shopping. Also the customers responded that malls allow them to see, feel, touch and try on the products before they buy them. This means that those consumers who prefer experiencing products are less likely to buy online. Also, Alba et al. (1997) stated that new entrants in the electronic commerce have adopted a policy to attract customers and build a brand name to earn long-term profits rather than focusing on short-term gains. That is, some customers may also go for online shopping due to reasonable prices offered by them. Online shopping has its own features and also attracts a certain set of customers. To understand the customer psychology is important for analyzing the target audience for these online companies. Positive attitude towards a particular thing can attract attention towards the same while negative attitude on the other hand can lead to avoidance of that thing.

Attitude Towards Online Shopping
Consumers who are more net savvy and have a good amount of exposure to internet can be more prone to online shopping. As stated by Fishbein & Ajzen (1975), study of attitude towards online shopping is significant to understand the characteristics of an online consumer. This argument was further supported by Chen (2006). Risk is one important parameter which arouses or leads to avoidance of an action. When a person perceives risk in certain phenomenon, they not only avoid themselves, but they also motivate others to do the same. As considered by Shim et al. (2001), perceived risk of shopping online must be evaluated in context of past purchase experience with non-traditional means. This concept is an important criterion to analyze the customers" acceptability to online shopping in general. It will help the companies to identify the loopholes of why the consumers prefer online shopping less than the other mode of shopping. This study will be undertaken in two parts whereby the Part I deal with analyzing the characteristics of the consumers. This will make it easier for the online companies to segment the market and target right audience for increased sales.

Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction reflects the degree to which a consumer believes that the possession or use of a service evokes positive feelings as suggested by Rust & Oliver (1994). It is evaluated as the psychological reaction of the customer with respect to his or her prior experience with the comparison between expected and perceived performance (Chang et al., 2009

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY
Resultant of the literature of the previous studies helps in defining customer satisfaction as positive feelings of the customer towards the company because of fulfilled expectations. That means, if the expectations of the consumers are not met, it will end up in customer dissatisfaction. Studies further reveal that there is a positive correlation between consumer trust and customer satisfaction. To conclude, consumer"s trust in a website increases their satisfaction level and promotes loyalty towards the company. This study also proposes the similar hypothesis in context of Indian environment. It will also help to identify the most crucial reasons for not only building trust, but also increasing the satisfaction level of the customers.
H1: Consumer Trust has no significant impact on Customer Satisfaction.
To test the above hypothesis, the impact of seven constructs of Consumer Trust (resultant of factor analysis) on Customer Satisfaction has been studied.
H1A: Website Characteristics has no significant impact on Customer Satisfaction.
H1B: Personalization has no significant impact on Customer Satisfaction.
H1C: Website Information has no significant impact on Customer Satisfaction.
H1D: Promotional deals have no significant impact on Customer Satisfaction.
H1E: Availability has no significant impact on Customer Satisfaction.
H1F: Price Competitiveness has no significant impact on Customer Satisfaction.
H1G: Refund Policy has no significant impact on Customer Satisfaction.
For the purpose of this study, Consumer characteristics has been further broken down into variables like: consumer's shopping orientation-Recreational Orientation (Consumers who enjoy shopping whether they buy or not), Experiential Orientation (Consumers who purchase the products only if they see and touch them once before its final purchase), Convenience Orientation (These consumers are busy in their routines and wish to spend least time in shopping), Economic Orientation (Consumers of this category look out for best deals whether online or offline, where they can avail maximum price benefits); Consumer's attitude towards online shopping (Determining the customer"s general attitude towards shopping online) and what is their perceived risk of shopping online (What risks have they associated with online shopping). Analyzing these factors will give an estimate as to how the customer perceives the idea of shopping if given an option to purchase online or offline. This will let us understand as to which type of consumers opt for online shopping.
To analyse the customers" perception of (A) Shopping Orientations (Recreational Orientation, Experiential Orientation, Convenience Orientation and Economic Orientation) (B) Attitude towards online shopping (C) Perceived risk of shopping online on the bases of various demographic characteristics (gender, age, marital status and educational qualification), following hypotheses are formulated: H2Aa: There is a significant difference in the perception of shopping orientations between males and females.
 H2Aa1: There is a significant difference in the perception of Recreational Orientation between males and females.

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H2Aa2: There is a significant difference in the perception of Experiential Orientation between males and females.

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H2Aa3: There is a significant difference in the perception of Convenience Orientation between males and females.
 H2Aa4: There is a significant difference in the perception of Economic Orientation between males and females.
H2Ab: There is a significant difference in the perception of shopping orientations between married and unmarried population.  H2Ab3: There is a significant difference in the perception of Convenience Orientation between married and unmarried population.

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H2Ab4: There is a significant difference in the perception of Economic Orientation between married and unmarried population.
H2Ac: There is a significant difference in the perception of shopping orientations across the age groups.
H2Ad: There is a significant difference in the perception of shopping orientations across the educational levels.
H2Ba: There is a significant difference in the perception of attitude towards online shopping between males and females.
H2Bb: There is a significant difference in the perception of attitude towards online shopping between married and unmarried population.
H2Bc: There is a significant difference in the perception of attitude towards online shopping across the age groups.
H2Bd: There is a significant difference in the perception of attitude towards online shopping across the educational levels.
H2Ca: There is a significant difference in the perception of perceived risk of shopping online between males and females.
H2Cb: There is a significant difference in the perception of perceived risk of shopping online between married and unmarried population.
H2Cc: There is a significant difference in the perception of perceived risk of shopping online across the age groups.
H2Cd: There is a significant difference in the perception of perceived risk of shopping online across the educational levels.

ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATIONS
Sample Profile: This section shows the profile of 367 respondents (online travel portal users) surveyed in Delhi NCR on the basis of four variables (gender, age group, educational qualification, and marital status).  fig. 1 reveal that males are more inclined towards online tour planning, which is 65.9 percentage of total respondents) than females (34.1 percentage of total respondents. I S S N 2 2 7 8 -5 6 1 2 V o l u m e 1 1 N u m b e r 2 I n t e r n a t i o n a l J o u r n a l o f M a n a g e m e n t a n d I Age Group: As per the results, young generation prefers to plan tours online, as age group between 21 & 30 years are using these services more (40.9%) followed by those aged between 31 -40 years with a percentage of 30.8 (Fig. 2). People of age 51 years and above have showed little interest (4.4%) in planning tours online.
Educational Qualification: As high as 40.6% of the respondents possess professional qualification, whereas 36.2% of respondents are post-graduates indicating that most of the population are highly educated who are using online services to plan tours than those with lower education levels (Fig.3).
Marital Status: Not much of a difference can be seen amongst the respondents in terms of their marital status, signifying that online tour planning is famous amongst the ones who are married as well as unmarried (Fig. 4).

Impact of Consumer Trust on Customer Satisfaction
This study is an extension of the researcher"s previous study of identifying antecedents of consumer trust for e-tourism companies in India. The study concluded with the identification of seven factors, namely: website characteristics, personalization, website information, promotional deals, availability, price competitiveness and refund policy; that build trust in online tourism companies in India. This study tries to explore the relationship between factors that build trust of the consumers on the online companies and their satisfaction level. Multiple Regression technique has been used to test the hypothesis H1A-H1G. Table 2 shows the result obtained by regressing website characteristics, Personalization, website information, promotional deals, availability, price competitiveness and refund policy on Customer satisfaction.

Impact of Consumer Trust on Customer Satisfaction
The impact of all seven factors of consumer trust on customer satisfaction has been studied. Out of all the seven factors, only Promotional Deals and Price Competitiveness significantly influence Customer Satisfaction (see fig. 5). The analytical result is consistent with previous findings of researchers. Goswami et al, 2013 concluded with similar results stating that price factor should be given importance in order to create satisfied customers as well as the marketers should also offer new schemes to attract the new customers. Also, the theory is further supported by Bhandari & Kaushal (2013) who identified Bargain Shopping as one of the six factors crucial for online shopping.

Impact of Demographics on Consumer Characteristics.
Mean Scores-Demography Wise: Tables 3 shows the mean scores by demographic variables (gender, marital status, age group and educational qualification) for various shopping orientations (Recreational Orientation, Experiential Orientation, Convenience Orientation and economic Orientation). Table 3 indicates the mean scores of shopping orientations of the respondents. It can be revealed from the table that males have more of economic orientation, whereby they want more value for money and at the same time, while not compromising on convenience in shopping. The comparative mean score indicates that females have a higher tendency towards Experiential shopping than males. Respondents who were single also enjoy shopping more than the married respondents. Table 4 shows the mean scores for all the items of "Shopping Orientations". It can be noticed that "Economic Orientation" followed by "Convenience Orientation" have received the highest mean ratings of 4.13 and 3.79 respectively whereas, "Experiential Orientation" and "Recreational orientation" have received lower scores of 2.81 and 2.53. This indicates that respondents do not prefer to shop around by looking at displays but they seek convenience in shopping while not compromising the economical aspect of the same. Hence, they resort to online shopping.    Table 5 shows the mean scores for the Customer"s perception about Online Shopping. The table indicates that the customers enjoy online shopping as attitude towards online shopping has a mean score of 3.60 and find it to be less risky which is justified with a low mean score of 2.51.  Table 5 reveals that the websites of the online tourism companies are attractive with an impressive layout and design, providing easy navigation, etc. (mean score for website characteristics = 3.536). But, at the same time the websites are not providing up-to-date information, personalized services and effective refund policies (mean scores < 3). Further, the customers are attracted towards online tourism because of promotional offers and schemes, easy availability and price competitiveness.
The results obtained through independent samples t-test on customer perceptions about online shopping in general between categories related to gender i.e., males and females are presented in table 6. Results of Levene"s Test for Equality of Variances reveal that variances among perceptions of married and unmarried people are equal only for Experiential orientation (F = 2.086, p>.01). Therefore, for this dimension, t-values in the "equal variance assumed" row will be used for analysing the results of independent samples t-test, whereas t-value in the "equal variance not assumed" row will be used for analysing the remaining shopping orientations (recreational, economical and convenience), attitude towards online shopping and perceived risk of shopping online (p<.01). Further, it is found that except for economic orientation (t=301.065, p >.01), significant differences in the perceptions of all other consumer characteristics are observed between males and females. Therefore, H2Aa4 is rejected whereas H2Aa1, H2Aa2, H2Aa3, H2Ba and H2Ca are accepted. Further, it can be noticed from Table 3 that females consider shopping as more of recreational and experiential experience (Mean Scores = 2.81 & 3.11 respectively) than males. Whereas, males are more convenience oriented (mean Score = 3.95).     Further, Table 9 indicates that on the basis of age group, there are significant differences in the perceptions of Recreational Orientation & Experiential Orientation (p<.05). Whereas, on the basis of educational qualification, it can be inference that, there are significant differences in the perceptions of Recreational Orientation & Convenience Orientation (p<.10).

Impact of Consumer Trust on Customer Satisfaction
The impact of all seven factors of consumer trust on customer satisfaction has been studied. Out of all the seven factors, only Promotional Deals and Price Competitiveness significantly influence Customer Satisfaction (see fig. 5).
Indian Customers are more attracted by promotional deals and discount offers which are available more on the tourism websites (than with the travel agents) because of which they feel more satisfied with online tour planning.
Similarly, provision of competitive prices of travel mode; accommodation, etc. also lead to more satisfaction of customers.
Although the customers find the tourism websites efficient and easy to navigate and are also impressed by the layout, graphics and all time availability of the website, but this doesn"t lead to their satisfaction. This may be due to the fact that these are evaluated as "Expected Quality" parameters, which should be present in a website.
Despite the fact that online tourism companies lack to cater the specific needs of the customers, lack in providing efficient refund policies and updated information, still the customers are attracted towards tourism websites because of their promotional offers and price competitiveness. They don"t expect personalized attention and feel satisfied only if they get attractive discount offers and schemes.

Impact of Demographic Characteristics on Consumer Characteristics
In the present study, three consumer characteristics i.e. Shopping orientations (which is further subdivided into four parts; Recreation, Experiential, Convenience and Economic Orientation), Attitude towards online shopping and Perceived risk of shopping online have been identified on the basis of literature review. The impact of four demographic variables i.e. gender, marital status, educational qualification and age have been studied on all the three consumer characteristics. Significant differences are found in the perceptions of consumer characteristics on the basis of all demographic variables except for educational qualifications. The detailed findings are as given below: It has been found that except for Economic Orientation, perceptions of all other consumer characteristics differ significantly for males and females. Females are found to have more recreational orientation, experiential orientation and perceived risk of shopping online whereas males are found to have more inclination towards convenience orientation and attitude towards online shopping.
Higher recreational orientation of females can be explained by considering the fact that they never get bored while shopping by looking at displays, whereas males don"t consider it as a very pleasant experience.
Higher experiential orientation of females is justifiable because they prefer to see and touch the products before buying them and also try the same before finally buying it, whereas their male counterparts lack these attributes.
Since females are risk-avoiders, their perceived risk of shopping online is higher than that of males. Females consider online shopping to be more uncertain and risky in nature as compared to other modes of shopping. I S S N 2 2 7 8 -5 6 1 2 V o l u m e 1 1 N u m b e r 2 I n t e r n a t i o n a l J o u r n a l o f M a n a g e m e n t a n d I Anytime and anywhere shopping grab the attention of males towards online shopping because of which their convenience orientation is higher than those of females. Also, they hate to wait in long lines and want to save time while shopping.
Males" attitude towards online shopping is more positive than females as they enjoy online shopping as they find it easy and convenient.
Except for Economic Orientation, the perceptions of married and unmarried respondents are found to be significantly different for all the other consumer characteristics. Unmarried respondents are found to have more recreational orientation, experiential orientation and perceived risk of shopping online whereas married respondents are found to have more inclination towards convenience orientation and attitude towards online shopping.
Higher recreational orientation of unmarried respondents can be explained by considering the fact that they like to shop around and also go for window shopping, whereas married respondents don"t consider shopping to be a very pleasant experience.
Higher experiential orientation of unmarried respondents is justifiable because they hate buying things without seeing what they are buying and like trying them before final purchase, whereas the married respondents have lesser interest in the same.
Perceived risk of shopping online is higher in case of unmarried respondents than married respondents. This is so because they perceive it riskier as compared to other modes of shopping.
Convenience orientation is higher in case of married respondents than those of unmarried respondents as they want to shop at any time of the day in order to save their time, which is not given much preference by unmarried respondents.
Attitude towards online shopping is more positive in case of married respondents than the unmarried ones as they find online shopping to be easier, convenient and hassle free.
Results reveal that perceptions of respondents lying in different age brackets are different for Recreational Orientation, Experiential Orientation, Attitude towards online shopping and Perceived risk of shopping online, but they don"t exhibit differences in in perceptions of Convenience orientation and economic orientation. Recreational orientation and experiential orientation show an increasing trend with the age of the customers.
Since, the elderly customers have been always exposed to shopping via looking at displays; they enjoy this form of shopping more than any other mode. Rather, they consider it to be a pleasant experience which is not given much of weightage by younger generation as they are exposed to new forms of shopping.
Elderly people prefer to see and touch the things before buying them and they actually hate to buy things without seeing them. This justifies their experiential orientation, which is not in the case of younger generation.

Conclusion
From the above findings, it can be concluded that, Indian Customers are more attracted by promotional deals and discount offers which are available more on the tourism websites (than with the travel agents) because of which they feel more satisfied with online tour planning. Similarly, provision of competitive prices of travel mode, accommodation, etc. also lead to more satisfaction of customers. This may be due to the fact that these are evaluated as "Expected Quality" parameters, which should be present in a website. Like any other research; demographics play a major role in the usage of internet as a mode of shopping. Companies can use this information and actually target its consumers effectively and efficiently. Their perceptions regarding online shopping and associated risks can be helpful for the companies in designing better marketing strategies. This study can be further explored to frame customer attraction and retention strategies.
I S S N 2 2 7 8 -5 6 1 2 V o l u m e 1 1 N u m b e r 2 I n t e r n a t i o n a l J o u r n a l o f M a n a g e m e n t a n d I