Online Purchasing Behaviour of Consumers at Zalora in Malaysia

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ In the 1960s, the emergence of technology introduced by humans spurred the establishment of the Internet that can engage all people globally. Since 1994, the Internet has contributed tremendously towards the evolution of online shopping through the development Electronic Commerce (EC). There are many online shopping websites that have been established by various companies as other alternatives for consumers to purchase their goods or services rather than shopping at the stores. In Malaysia, the reputation and brand image of ZALORA has become the centre and the focus of society. It automatically raises a question among the marketers regarding the motives of the consumers in choosing ZALORA rather than other online shopping websites. This is due to the attractiveness of ZALORA that has led the consumers’ intention in purchasing or ordering the goods or services online. Therefore, it is vital to investigate and identify the factors that influence the consumers' purchasing behaviour as well as their intentions in shopping online at ZALORA. In order to fill the gap of this study, the data of 377 respondents were collected and analysed by using the Statistical Package Social Science (SPSS) software version no.25. The findings show that the website designs of ZALORA have been portrayed as the main factor that has contributed to the purchasing behaviour of consumers for online shopping at ZALORA in comparison to other factors which were convenience, time saving and security.


www.msocialsciences.com
There are many marketing strategies that have been implemented by marketers to enhance and promote their brand awareness as well as the services provided by them through websites to help the public. This form of marketing coincides with the online shopping at ZALORA. It is as a kind of marketing that benefits its customers. At the same Zalora maintains as the centre of consumers' attention to purchase goods because of its reputation as the No.1 Online Fashion shopping platform in Malaysia.
Therefore, consumers' purchasing behaviour towards online shopping at ZALORA is the main objective of this study that intends to find the reasons that persuade consumers to purchase or not to purchase from ZALORA. According to Muhammad and Nasir Uddin (2011), their study concluded that there were several factors like of convenience, time-saving, website design and security that influenced consumers to shop online.
However, these factors will only help the marketers as well as the other companies if they are aware of the success as well as the prohibitions of the company in gaining consumers' satisfaction and happiness. This is because marketers adopt many methods to establish a strong relationship with customers, but in the end, these methods not only damage their relationship instead of strengthening it (Berry, 2001). "An increasing number and variety of firms and organizations are exploiting and creating business opportunities on the Internet", Liao and Cheung (2000, p.299). The marketers need to analyse and identify the consumer behaviour to stay competitive as there is fierce competition in online shopping. In addition, Zalora as an e-commerce organization that needs to adapt to the challenges, because customers change their nature with the changes in technology. Online demography in terms of age, gender, average spending and education of shoppers are equally important that define their strategies effectively.
Based on the problem statement, the research objectives are outlined below; i. to examine the consumer's behaviours towards their intention to purchase goods from ZALORA and ii.
to identify which of the four factors which are convenience, time saving, website design and security adopted by ZALORA is most important.

Definitions
Muhammad Umar Sultan & MD Nasir Uddin (2011) conducts a study on consumers' attitude towards online shopping factors that influenced Gotland consumers to shop online. The objective of their study was to determine the consumers' attitudes towards online shopping and specifically to study the factors that influenced consumers to shop online. The research used convenience sampling technique and distributed 100 questionnaires to the respondents who were Gotland University students. The places where the questionnaires were distributed were the university cafeteria and Gotland Public Library. The findings that were obtained from this study were the four factors selected for this research. The most attractive factor that influenced online shoppers in Gotland was the Website Design/ Features, followed by convenience as the second most influencing factor and third was timesaving. Results also showed that security was of great importance among online shoppers in Gotland. Furthermore, the other factors which influenced online shoppers were low price, discount, feedback from previous customers and quality of a product.

Past Studies
There were also other studies conducted by Momtaz (2011) on customers' satisfaction on online shopping in Malaysia. Their study was to understand those factors that affected customers' intention and satisfaction to shop online. The convenience sampling technique was used and a total of 130 questionnaires were distributed but only 100 were successfully collected. This research was participated by the general public including students at the university.

www.msocialsciences.com
Another case study on Zadora was conducted by Nurshafiqa Zamri & Izian Idris (2013) on the effects of attitude, social influences and perceived behavioural control on the I intention to purchase apparels online in Malaysia. This case study attempted to determine the factors that influenced consumers' intention to purchase apparels using the ZALORA website in Malaysia. The research used the convenience sampling method and a total of 300 questionnaires were distributed. From this study, perceived usefulness was found as the most significant factor that influenced consumers' purchasing intention towards ZALORA apparels.
Chong (2014) did another research on the factors affecting online Shopping of apparels among young Adults. Furthermore, the research was to investigate the relationships between the independent (privacy/security, website design, customer service and atmospheric/experiential), mediator (eshopping satisfaction) and dependent variables (e-shopping intention). A total of 384 questionnaires were collected and the participants were the general public throughout Malaysia. From the study, it was found that the atmosphere experience was the most important factor to influence e-shopping.
Hashim Shahzad (2015 also conducted a research on Online Shopping Behaviour. The objective of this study was to analyse the factors that influenced consumers' online shopping behaviour in Swedish context. The research was answered by 100 participants who consisted of the general public. The study found out that, that it was to provide a clear picture to e-retailers that will help them to formulate their online marketing strategies according to the specific online risk factors involved in online shopping. Zhao, K. (2015) conducted a research in China on the consumer online Purchasing Decision and its influencing factors. It was to investigate the decision-making process of online consumption and to evaluate how cultural, social, personal, and environmental factors had an impact on the customers' online shopping decision, specifically on the e-commerce market. The research used the convenience sampling method and 152 questionnaires were distributed was 152. This study showed that the impact of the factors on customer online shopping behaviour. There were two obstacles that negatively influenced both the customers and retailers in their online shopping decision.
Riana Bashir (2015) had also done an empirical study in Pakistan on the effects of online shopping trends on consumer-buying Behaviour. This study was to examine the relationship between various factors that affected consumer behaviour towards online shopping. The focus of this research was to explain the influence of five major variables that were derived from literature. A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed to the participants who were the students in the University of Punjab . The most relevant factor that seemed to affected consumer buying-behaviour towards online shopping that was related to the younger generation seemed to be the trust factor.
Kumar & Sobha (2016) also did a study on consumers' attitude towards in online shopping. The study was to determine the relationship between various demographic variables and consumers' attitude towards online shopping. A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed and 230 were collected. This study had confirmed that there was a mix in perceived marketing and perceived reputation that could impact the consumers' attitude in adopting online shopping, It also showed that the largest driving factor for online shopping was convenience.
The study by Kanupriya (2016) was conducted on the behaviour of consumers towards Online Shopping. It was to investigate the online consumer behaviour, which in turn provided E-marketers with a constructional framework for fine-tuning their E-business strategies. This research distributed a total of 100 questionnaires and only 70 were collected from the general public participants. It was found most online shoppers used the Internet to search for information on products. The study revealed the most important motivating factor that influenced online shopping was convenience followed by time-saving and price. Regular online shoppers considered buying through Internet and were fewer prices sensitive.

Conceptual Framework
The framework shows the relationship between the independent variables that influence the consumers to shop online. Convenience, time saving, website design and security act as the independent variables while the dependent variable is the consumer's attitudes towards online shopping. The conceptual framework for this study is adopted from previous study by Muhammad and Nasir Uddin (2011). The framework developed will serve as a basis for this research and it will help in analyzing and interpreting the empirical results.

Research Approach
The study was conducted in Kuala Lumpur because the location is easily accessed and the community in the city has more tendencies to buy on online shopping. A study by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (2017) found out that, about three-fifth of Internet users live in urban area across Malaysia (67.2%) while there is only 32.8% in rural area. Thus, the study is most reliable when it is conducted in urban area by using non-probability sampling approach which is purposive sampling specifically based on judgement sampling. There were 377 questionnaires that were distributed. The sampling here was confined to specific types of people who can provide the desired information This is mainly because they are the only ones who conform to some criteria set by the  (Sekaran, 2003). Most of the respondents are millennials who resides, study or work in Kuala Lumpur and have experiences in using online shopping medium, particularly, ZALORA. The questionnaire was originally in English and translated into Malay and also Chinese version for the convenience of the respondents. The questionnaire was taken from a previous study on conducted by U. S. Muhammad and Nasir Uddin,) 2011). The questionnaire consisted of two main parts and one sub part. The first part covered the demographic profile of the respondents. The second part focused on questions pertaining to factors that influenced consumers to shop online which were convenience, time saving, website design and security. The questionnaire uses a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree).

Reliability and Validity
Cronbach Alpha's test of reliability was conducted in order to determine the reliability of the multiitem scales. Cronbach's Alpha reliability ranges between 0 and 1. The closer the Cronbach's Alpha is to 1.0, the more reliable is the variable. Reliability means that the variable is dependable in achievement, accuracy, honesty. The size of alpha is determined by both the number of items in the scale and the mean inter-item correlations. A reliability coefficient of 0.7 and above is considered adequate. Since all the variables achieved Cronbach's Alpha of 0.70 and above, thus all the items were reliable and can be used in this study. Henceforth, based on the reliability test that had been conducted on the 15 items that were adapted from a previous study, the Cronbach's Alpha result was 0.878 indicated that the questionnaire was reliable and valid.

Respondents Profile
The findings showed that out of the 377 respondents, 40% (150.8) were male and another 60 % (226.2) were female respondents as women prefer to shop online than men.  The analysis also showed that most of the respondents were aged between 15 and 20 years old which was 52% and those above 40 years old was only 5%. The people aged above 40 years old tend to store-shopping and prefer assets.  The study was conducted with 377 respondents among them 45% of the respondents were bachelor degree students and 2% were PhD students. In KL, there are many institutions located nearby that offering bachelor's degree in many fields. The PhD students were spending their time mainly in their research.

Analysis of the four factors
The study will show the empirical results of the research that has conducted using the questionnaire that have been distributed in Kuala Lumpur. The table below shows the results of frequency for respondent's agreement with statements.

Discussion
In this section, the study will discuss the four factors that have played quite an influential role in determining customer satisfaction towards Zalora. Each question represents a module.

Figure 6: Convenience Module
Convenience: Convenience factor carries four modules.\ Get on time delivery by shopping online: 62% of the respondents agreed with the statement that they get on time delivery by shopping online and only 9% of the respondents disagreed with the statement. The average score is 3.61 which shows on average Zalora's customer get on time delivery.

Detail information is available while shopping online:
The analysis shows that most of the respondents agree with the statement that "detail information is available while shopping online." The average score for this module that is 3.76 that shows a positive agreement of respondents towards the module.
I can buy the products anytime 24 hours a day while shopping online: From the 377 respondents, 74% agreed with the statement that "they can buy the products anytime 24 hours a day while shopping online". The average score for this module was 3.89 and it showed strong positive agreement with the statement that they could buy the products anytime, 24 hours a day while shopping online.
It is easy to choose and make comparison with other products while shopping online: The analysis showed that 65% of the respondents agreed with the statement. Majority of the respondents strongly agreed and agreed. The average score was 3.77 that showed a positive agreement that ZALORA's customer believed that the products on the website were comparable.
Website design/features: Website design/Features are divided into five modules, each module carries one question.

Figure 7: Website Design Module
The website design helps me in searching the products easily: The study showed that 70% of the respondents agreed with the statement. The average score was 3.81 which showed a strong positive agreement that the website features were helpful.
While shopping online, I prefer to purchase from a website that provides safety and ease of navigation and order: Out of 377 respondents, only 67% of them agreed with this statement. The average score was 3.80 which showed a very good positive agreement as the website design had provided privacy and confidentiality.
The website layout helps me in searching and selecting the right product while shopping online: Website layout is the graphic user interface of a web page. It includes the options, search bars, tools and buttons which helps user to browse and shop easily. Results indicated that 77% of the respondents agreed as the average score of the module was 4.03 and it showed strong agreement with the statement and need to be emphasized.
I believe that familiarity with the website before making actual purchase reduce the risk of shopping online: It showed that 74% respondents react positively with the statement as the average score for this module was 4.01. This again showed positive result as a majorly agreed that past experiences with the had persuaded them to reorder. I prefer to buy from website that provides me with quality of information: 78% of the respondents showed agreement with this module with an average score of 4.09 as it helped them to make better decision to order online purchase.
Time saving: Time saving is divided into three modules and each module is analysed and discussed. Online shopping takes less time to purchase: It showed that 42 respondents strongly agreed, 170 respondents agreed, 129 respondents were uncertain, 31 respondents disagreed and only 5 respondents strongly disagreed with the statement. The average score of 3.56 showed that online shopping took less time to purchase as compared to traditional shopping.

Online shopping doesn't waste time:
It showed that 63% of the respondents out of 377 agreed with the statement. The average score calculated was 3.71 that showed positive agreement as it was oneclick buying.
I feel that it takes less time in evaluating and selecting a product while shopping online: Only 65% of the respondents agreed with the statement and the average score as calculated was 3.71 but the number of respondents who were uncertain was quite high as product evaluation took some time in selecting the best option. Security: Security is divided into three modules.
www.msocialsciences.com I feel safe and secure while shopping online: 40% of the respondents were uncertain, 38% agreed and 22% of the respondents disagreed with the statement. The average score of 2.98 showed a nearly negative reaction towards this module. This might be arising from online threats such as hacking.

I like to shop online from a trustworthy website:
The study indicated that 29% respondents strongly agreed, 38% agreed, 28% were uncertain, 4% disagreed and 1% respondents strongly disagreed with the statement .The average score was 3.89 as average respondents were attracted to purchase on a good rating website The study shows that the website design has the highest central tendency among other factors namely convenience, time saving and security. The website design has a mean of 3.95 while is followed by convenience (3.76), time saving (3.66) and security (3.31). Thus, it can be concluded based on this study that website design is the most important factor that could lead to customers purchasing and their satisfaction.

www.msocialsciences.com
Thus, the result of the study shows that most of the respondents agree with the four factors that affect their buying behaviour on online shopping website especially at Zadora. Furthermore, convenience, website design, time saving and security shows the intentions of the customers and can be used to improve Zadora's website in terms of these factors.

Discussion and Implication
The discussions of this empirical study involves the four factors that affect customers' purchasing behaviour on online shopping at Zalora which are convenience, website design, time saving and security. The analysis was conducted by using central tendency calculation to find out the tendency of reaction of the respondents to the four factors mentioned. The comparative analysis shows that the website design plays the most important role in developing the online shopping medium to boost the customers' purchasing behaviour. A good website design plays its role by creating positive feelings for the customers as a pleasant setting on the website is eye-catching. Thus, it helps in choosing the products and helps in making good decisions without feeling burdened and messed by the website design. The implications that have been drawing are based on the factors in this research which are to provide the best possible quality in term of the easy and quick procedures, privacy and confidentiality of every customer, and the unique features of the website design. These can give full information that are interrelated and can be useful for the customers in ZALORA's policies and practices.
The findings of this study may add to benefit ZALORA. This is from the online apparel retailer perspective, and e-shopping quality dimension that provides positive contribution as customers are able to use successful online marketing strategy to improve the competitiveness and profitability from their perspective. Consumers will feel comfortable when shopping at ZALORA and feel secured too when doing their transaction via internet.
The sample size is the limitation of this study. Another limitation is due to the customer who does online shopping at malls that offer many products and services including international brands. Besides that, the limitation of the study is the majority of the respondents were Malays compared to other ethnic groups.

Conclusion
Development of Electronic-Commerce (EC) has established Zalora as an online shopping platform for its customers globally. It is crucial for Zalora to understand customers' need and expectations for online shopping especially when setting with their purchasing behaviours. Thus, by knowing the important factors that influence the customers purchasing behaviour, it helps Zalora to gain competitive edge over others. Zalora can adapt to challenges and make effective moves especially to customers changing nature and technology.
The research questions proposed were as follows: 1. what are the factors that influence consumers to shop online? 2. Is there a positive relationship between convenience, time saving, website design and security?
In first question, there are four factors that will affect the customers purchasing behaviour which are convenience, time saving, website design and security. It provides Zalora a clear map to develop successful strategies relating to these factors to attract their customers. In second question, the most important factor that plays a positive relationship to customers' purchasing behaviour is the website design as it has shown the highest average score of 3.95. Most of the respondents agreed that they prefer to buy from website that provides quality information on product description as the customers are expecting honest and fair view. The second most important factor that plays a positive relationship with the customers' purchasing behaviour is convenience. It had an average score of 3.76. It indicated that easy access of 24hours a day makes the customers' intention to shop in Zalora. For time saving, it portrayed an average score of 3.66 and it also has a positive relationship with customers' purchasing behaviour. The respondents mostly agreed that they get the delivery on time. From this it can be concluded that Zalora has an effective delivery system to send the goods to the customers. The least important factor that brings positive relationship with the customers' purchasing behaviour is security. It indicated an average score of 3.31 as the respondents agreed that they like to shop on a trustworthy website. It can be concluded that the security that is programmed within Zalora serves high quality internal control again malicious threat.
If we were to design this study again, there are a number of independent variables that we would consider such as promotion, return policy and economic conditions in the conceptual framework. These factors play important roles and allow us to see the customers' purchasing behaviour in a wider scope/ these factors also allow us to see the comparison between each factor that might affect the intention to shop online. Most importantly we would go for a longer time period and be able to collect data by observation and interviews alongside with using questionnaire as they might be advantageous for us to gain a better descriptive of the phenomenon. For example, in this research, we found out that the people who were around 40 years old and above were less exposed to online shopping at Zalora. In addition, the study would address the same research problem in a different settings, context, location and culture such as society in rural areas to see the different pattern of customers.