I would like to thank them for their spiritual support during the writing of this research and for the valuable knowledge in the field of gold trading and my life in general. This study aims to understand Thai customers (over 20 years old)'s purchase intention towards gold ornaments through online channels and explores the key influencing factors including reliability, convenience, recreation, reasonable price, satisfaction, brand image and loyalty. To explore the key factors that could influence Thai customers' purchase intention towards gold jewelry through the online channel, the quantitative approach was adopted and 120 valid respondents conducted the questionnaire through the online survey.
The research revealed two important factors that can positively influence Thai customers in purchasing gold ornaments through online channel, which are 'reliability and convenience' and leisure. Gold traders in Thailand enjoyed the period of the rise and also suffered from the drop in gold price. The key factors that will influence the purchase intention of customers when buying gold ornaments online found in the research can potentially bring about effective marketing strategy for the gold online business retailers and related practitioners.
What are the key factors that influence Thai customers when purchasing gold jewelry through online channels.
Research Scope
LITERATURE REVIEW
Factors Influencing Buying Decision of Online Shoppers
- Reliability
- Convenience
- Recreation
- Reasonable Price
- Satisfaction
- Brand Image
- Loyalty
In addition, Bagdoniene and Zemblyte (2009) also stated that the ability of online shopping that enables buyers to shop anywhere and anytime is the biggest benefit that has the strongest effect on customers' decision to buy online. H4: Reasonable price will positively affect Thai customers' purchase intention of gold ornament through online channel. Consequently, actual products and photos must be consistent, this is an important criterion regarding the customers' satisfaction.
However, there is evidence that consumers who use the Internet daily consider the brand dimension more important than consumers who have fewer online shopping experiences. H6: Brand image will positively influence Thai customers' purchase intention for gold jewelry through the online channel. Loyalty in online shopping can also be measured by recommendations from previous customers or repurchase intentions.
Therefore, membership can be considered as another important factor in retaining online shopping customers.
Gaps in Literature
Proposed Conceptual Framework
METHODOLOGY
- Research Design
- Population and Sampling
- Data Collection
- Data Analysis
The current study used a questionnaire survey to collect information from target group respondents via googledoc.com. The questionnaire was divided into three sections: general questions, specific questions regarding the intention to purchase gold jewelry online, and demographic questions. General questions were used to screen target respondents, while specific questions tapped into factors of the constructs in the research model, which were likely to influence online purchase intention.
The specific questions contained independent and dependent variables to measure the key factors influencing the purchase intention of gold ornament online. In addition, the researcher placed demographic questions at the end of the survey in order to make the respondent feel at ease and not to disturb them with the personal information from the beginning of the survey. In order to analyze the data collected through the questionnaire survey, the researcher used the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program and used various statistical techniques including descriptive statistics, factor analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis.
The factor analysis was adopted with the aim of reducing data to minimize a large set of variables to a small group of significant variables. The reliability analysis was used to test the reliability of the factors before running the hypothesis test. Finally, the multiple linear regression was used to conduct the hypothesis testing to find the factors that influence Thai customers to purchase gold jewelry through the online channel.
FINDINGS
- Demographic and general information of the respondents
- Demographic information
- General information
- Data Analysis
- Factor Analysis
- Total Variance Explained
- Scree Plot
- Rotated Component Matrix
- Reliability Analysis
- Correlation Coefficient Analysis
- Multiple Regression Analysis
- Result of hypotheses testing
Table 4.2 shows respondents' general information about the purchase of gold jewelry, including the purpose of recent purchase, frequency of purchase, location of purchase, and type of gold jewelry purchased. In terms of purchase frequency, 50 respondents (41.7%) purchased gold ornaments less than 1 time per year and the group of respondents was considered to be the largest group in terms of purchase frequency. What's more, the traditional store is the most popular location to buy gold jewelry, as the table illustrates 95 out of 120 respondents or 79.2%, while the online channel only gained 4 respondents or 3.3%.
Moreover, necklace was the most answered type of gold ornament purchased among the respondents, accounting for 56.7% or 68 out of 120 respondents. The result indicated that these 3 factors can explain the study at about 66.7% of those factors underlying the purchase intention of gold ornament through online channel. From the figure 4.1, the screen graph illustrated a clear separation into 3 components of 17 remaining variables that contributed to the factors influencing Thai customers purchasing intention of a gold ornament through an online channel.
Initially, 34 variables were set for factor analysis to find the key components and investigate the factor influencing Thai customers' purchase intention of gold ornaments through online channel. The remaining 17 variables were grouped into 3 significant components which could be the factors influencing Thai customers' purchase intention to purchase gold jewelry through online channel. H3: Brand image will positively influence Thai customers' purchase intention for gold jewelry through the online channel.
I prefer to buy gold ornaments online when I want to spend time with a friend or family. For this study, after conducting factor analysis, some factors were crossed out and some of them were regrouped, which remained three factors; reliability and convenience, recreation and brand image, to test on Thai customers when purchasing gold ornaments through online channel. The researcher used multiple linear regression to test the factors this study considered reliability and convenience, recreation and brand image that influence Thai customers to purchase gold jewelry through the online channel.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the two independent variables can positively influence Thai customers' purchase intention for gold jewelry through the online channel. The brand image in the third half of the year will positively influence Thai customers' purchase intention for gold ornaments through the online channel.
DISCUSSION AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
Discussion and Practical Implications
The results of multiple regression analysis indicated that reliability and convenience, as well as leisure, have a positive influence on Thai customers' purchase intention for gold decoration through online channel, while brand image is not related to purchase intention. Reliability and convenience' referred to the perceived less risk and ease of shopping experience. The finding of reliability and convenient that positively influenced Thai customers in purchasing gold ornaments through online channel is in line with the previous studies (Alessandro, Girardi and Tiangsoonnern, 2012; Lu, Yang, Chau and Cao, 2011; Yang , Chen, and Wei, 2015) who found that reliability is considered a priority when it comes to online shopping.
It is consistent with the finding that the ability of online shopping that allows shoppers to shop anywhere and anytime is the main benefit that has the strongest effect on customers' decision to shop online (Bagdoniene and Zemblyte, 2009). Consequently, for gold retailers, having a physical store and communicating its existence would definitely benefit online sales of gold jewellery. Besides, since customers care about purchase certificate, reviews and reliable website, it would be a plus if gold sellers implement these elements in the business.
Furthermore, to satisfy customers in terms of convenience, the gold dealers can implement an automated answering system during the night shift that can answer basic inquiries and provide customers with multiple payment methods (eg multi-bank transfer, credit card, cash on delivery). The website should have a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate and should provide details and clear product information as well as provide multiple ordering and contact channels (eg Line, Facebook chat or email). Accordingly, gold retailers can fulfill the recreational purpose of shoppers by creating attractive product visual, website or product page and providing shopper-friendly navigation, the relaxing atmosphere allows customers to enjoy shopping in the gold online store as one of the therapies.
Also, since customers consider online shopping as recreation, retailers should promote and advertise during periods when customers seem to have free time such as after work, before bed, or breakfast before work. Additionally, offering a promotion like a group buy can attract a group of friends or family to spend time together browsing the online store and purchase the products with the promotion offered. Brand image' was found to be insignificant and had no relationship with the intention to purchase gold jewelery through the online channel.
Efforts to improve the brand image will not lead to the purchase intention of gold jewelery through online channel. In conclusion, gold retailers or related companies that go as online retailers are recommended to focus on “reliability and convenience” and “recreation” to motivate and influence customers' purchase intention towards gold jewelry through online channels.
Limitations of the Study and Suggestions for Future Research First of all, this research did not find the pilot testing to ensure the understanding
This finding contrasted with those in Bagdoniene and Zemblyte's (2009) study, which revealed that brand dimension is a motivation to buy and customers prefer to buy products or services of a well-known brand on the Internet. For future research, the qualitative approach can be used to gain insight from the target customers for the better business strategies.
Retrieved September 27, 2015, from https://www.kasikorn research.com/en/K-EconAnalysis/Pages/ViewSummary.aspx?docid=33645 Liebermann, Y. Retrieved September 24, 2015, from http://www. gold.org/jewellery/global-gold-jewellery-market Zeithaml, V., Berry, L., & Parasuraman, A.
APPENDICES
Appendix A: Questionnaire
General Questions
Specific Questions
I prefer to buy gold ornament online if online store provides multiple order/contact channels (eg Line, Facebook message, Email). 2 I prefer to buy gold ornament online when I want to spend time with friends or family. 3 I prefer to buy gold ornament online if the product received can be seen as in the photo.
5 I am willing to introduce the gold online store to my friend if the store provides a satisfactory service.
Demographic Questions 1) What is your gender ?
