Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Online Shopping Among Undergraduates in Universities in Ibadan

Abstract

The evolution of the internet has brought a new dimension to businesses globally. These evolving trends in technology saw the emergence of the New Media which made it possible for businesses to “rent” a space in the web leading to what we now know as “Online Shopping”. This explains why this study sought to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of online shopping among undergraduates of University of Ibadan and Dominican University Ibadan. The study was guided by the Diffusion of Innovation theory and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The study adopted the survey research design with the questionnaire as the instrument for data collection among 381 samples drawn from the population of both universities (University of Ibadan 39,734 and Dominican University 262, totalling 39,996). Findings revealed that 228 (94%) of the respondents are aware of online shopping; the extent of knowledge of online shopping sites was found to a very large extent on three of the top ten online shopping sites: Jumia.com = (153), Amazon.com = (113) and AliExpress (112) respectively. Majority of the respondents have negative attitude towards online shopping which is traced to experiences like “delay on product delivery; cheap quality of products; product damage; Non-delivery of products and difference between what was ordered and what is delivered. However, the study found that there is increased practice of online shopping (212 representing 87%) but low frequency of practice of online shopping with Clothes (27%), Gadgets (22%) and Accessories (16%) found to be top among the major things respondents purchase online. Based on these findings, the study concludes that there is a correlation between awareness and knowledge of online shopping sites as well as attitude and practice of online shopping. Based on the foregoing, the researchers recommend among others that users of the internet should stick to online shopping sites with pedigree and not be quick to give their credit cards whenever promising offers are made via unverified online shopping sites.