A Framework for Online Shopping Among Postgraduate Students During Covid-19

Abstract

More than 7.2 Billion people globally have done shopping online in recent years because of internet development and its ease of access. Consumers are adopting new online shopping behavior, and many organizations, enterprises, and governments are moving to online platforms to offer products and services and maintain operations. The pandemic prompted a major decrease in economic activity for which economies were completely unprepared; nonetheless, the requirement for much activities to go online resulted in an increase in ecommerce. According to a MasterCard study on consumer expenditure, approximately four out of five (79 percent) surveyed Kenyans have increased their internet buying since the COVID 19 outbreak began. The aim of this study was to find out the online shopping opportunities and challenges among postgraduate students during COVID 19. The study applied the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), a descriptive survey research design, and purposive and stratified random sampling methods for the qualitative and quantitative sampling respectively. The responses from of the online structured questionnaires were analyzed using by use of the Python Pandas tool. The results showed that the opportunities and challenges of online shopping in Kenya are access to Internet, alternative online payments solutions, logistical solutions, regulations and governance, lack of trust among consumers, lack of trust among consumers, literacy levels and e-commerce infrastructure. Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude and behavioral intention are confirmed to be reliable. The research was restricted to postgraduate students and did not cover undergraduates who are the majority and therefore giving a skewed picture of the entire consumer population. The findings will provide online platform users, marketers, and policymakers with a framework and a basis to identify opportunities and challenges that affect online shopping among postgraduate students.