Shoppers’ Perception of Retail Convenience in Online Shopping in Benin City, Nigeria

In view of the fact that shopping is part of everyday life and that it has significant implications for everybody’s livelihood and welfare, this study has investigated shoppers’ perception of retail convenience in online shopping as well as examine the influence of demographic attributes on shoppers’ perception of retail convenience in online shopping. A 20- item questionnaire was developed so as to measure the four different dimensions of retail convenience. It was administered on a sample of 500 respondents consisting of online shoppers in Benin City. On the whole, 423 copies of the questionnaire were returned and found usable, thus giving an 84.6% response rate. The data obtained was coded and analyzed using means, standard deviation, frequency distributions, and T-test. The results revealed that online shoppers have a favorable perception of all the dimensions measuring retail convenience. However, shoppers have a more favorable perception of search convenience. The study has also found that demographic attributes such as gender, age, education, occupation and income do not significantly influence shoppers’ perception of online retail convenience. It is therefore recommended that online retailers should emphasize retail convenience, including access convenience, search convenience, transaction convenience and possession convenience as these constructs are crucial for developing retail convenience and serve as a source for competitive advantages.

JEL classification: M31, M37.