Discussion of important findings

So far, the study discribed e-commerce platforms in Vietnam and explore factors that influence online consumer behaviour via e-commerce sites, especially Shopee. Futhermore, the impact of five main elements on consumers‘ online shopping decision via e-commerce platforms are well explained. At the same time, the in-depth interviews which being conducted with Vietnamese consumers who have online shopping experiences via e-commerce sites, significantly support the purpose of the current study. The findings were successfully expressed the popularity of

e-commerce sites in Vietnam, and consumers‘ positive and negative responses in online purchasing towards common shopping websites. The frequency of online shopping and

consumers‘ website visits clearly demonstrate the fast adoption of Vietnamese online consumers in relation to buying via e-commerce sites. In addition, it is evidently pointed out that there are five factors affect online shoppers‘ behaviour, as well as drive the way how they perform during

42 online shopping process. Those five factors are website, product, price and promotion, delivery services, truth and privacy.

Before proceeding to examine factors impact online consumer behaviour via e-commerce sites, it is crucial to describe e-commerce’s current situation in Vietnam and probe consumers‘

perceptions of online purchasing via shopping sites. It is true that the frequency of visits to e-commerce sites in Vietnam remains high. This leads to the popularity and expansion of online shopping via e-commerce platforms in Vietnam. Especially, the number of visits to online shopping sites even rapidly increasing due to the situation of social distancing. There are two points in time when e-commerce sites have the highest visits during the day which are in early afternoon (from 12:00 to 14:00) and late evening (from 20:00 to 24:00). Moreover, under consumers‘ perspective, most respondents supposed that there is a bunch of advantage once purchasing online via e-commerce platforms. This also stated by Solomon et al. (2006) and Niranjanamurthy M et al. (2013) which emphasized the convenience of online shopping such as 24 hours shopping from home and time-saver. However, lack of touching and received products which is not as expected, are considered as disadvantages of purchasing via online platforms.

In addition, according to current results from the in-depth interviews, consumers are influenced by variety elements during their online buying process. Firstly, in terms of website, everyone has their own preferable shopping sites when buying online. Websign design is also a vital components to online consumers once shopping online. A website with a user-friendly interface and provides fullfill information relating to products, as well as various supportive features, is always appriciated by consumers.

Another factor is product diversity and product quality. One of the most highlight points of e-commerce sites if they offer a huge range of products which allows them buy various product from a single websites. In spite of being able to check product by viewing product feedbacks from previous customers, onsumers still need a commitment to product quality from suppliers and shopping platforms. As a results, suppliers who are reliable and official brand are preferred selection of many consumers.

The third factor that motives online consumer purchasing decision is price and promotion.

According to the findings, the majority of consumers pay attention to the price levels. By coparing different price levels on websites, it is not difficult for consumers to find the lowest price level of a product. Consumers that are price sensitive are unable to resist sales and discount schemes. Hence, the price reduction is such an effetive way to promote consumer purchasing decisions. Nevertheless, this strategy may not works for consumers who consider price is a secondary motivation.

Futhermore, consumers figure out that one of the top reasons they choose to shop online is because of the free delivery service provied by e-commerce sites. Instead of bringing the product to home by themselves or paying for expensive professional shipping services, consumers now

43 appreciate websites that support maximum shipping costs. Consumers ablso concern about the time to delivery or delivery speed which create a highlight for a shopping wecsite.

Finally, consumers consider truth and privacy as an important elements which builds trust and contributes to improving customer loyalty to e-commerce sites. The results from previous section pointed out that consumers often trust websites that provide products that meet their

expectations. In this case, there is a high probability that customers will re-purchase on these websites. In terms of privacy, customers have high requirements for the security of personal information, especially in financial transactions. Under the circumstances, card transactions are increasingly popular, then information security is considered a top factor in customers'

purchasing decisions. Thus, truth and privacy factors will help the website retain potential customers.

An additional comparision between two genders which are female and male. According to the outcomes from the current study, the types of goods purchased by women are more diverse than men's. Because women are spontaneous shoppers. They not only pick up the items they need, but also other complementary goods, which causes over puchasing. Men are not like that. They only buy products that are available in the plan and rarely buy other unnecessary products (Mai Linh, 2018). Women tend to spend more time online shopping. Not only that, the percentage of customers interested in discount programs is also mostly female. That means men are less price sensitive than women. This survey has shown that gender differences have a significant influence on individuals' purchasing decisions and consumption behavior.

In the previous section, to show how price sensitivity depends on consumer income, three groups with different income levels were interviewed. The results obtained after the interview confirm a strong relationship between consumer income level and price sensitivity. People with lower incomes are more price sensitive. In other words, the price and promotion factor will affect this group of consumers the most. Pople with high income levels will not be affected much by this factor. Instead, product quality is the top factor that this consumer group cares about.

Futhermore, to gain a practical perspective and apply it to the Vietnamese e-commerce sector, Shopee is used as a case study to learn about consumer buying behaviour through the most popular e-commerce site in Vietnam up to now. Therefore, Shopee was also included in the interview questions so that participants could have a more specific and realistic view of a particular website during the interviews. The majority of respondents considered Shopee to be the most convenient and popular shopping platform in Vietnam today thanks to its outstanding advantages compared to other websites. As a popular online shopping site, Shopee provides customers with a great shopping experience on a simple and eye-catching interface (Shopee, 2021). Shopee has a very diverse product portfolio with reasonable prices and a clear commitment to product quality. Especially, pricing strategy with unlimited discounts is the highlight of this website. During the purchase process, customers also experience online support features that enhance the customer experience. After purchasing, customers will be fully

44 supported by Shopee in the payment and delivery process, to ensure that the purchase process is complete. Shopee's customer support service is also available to answer questions before, during and after receiving the item. For example, if a customer is not satisfied with the product purchased, the return policy is available (Shopee Help Centre, 2021).

However, Shopee also has some disadvantages. Shopee was originally a C2C business and acted as a place for transactions between individuals. There are many cases where Shopee does not censor the quality of goods provided by sellers who are individuals. To overcome this, Shopee has added Shopee Mall based on the B2C model, where goods are strictly censored from reputable brands, to ensure a commitment to product quality with customers (Shopee Vietnam, 2021). Although Shopee has many special promotions and time frames and attracts many customers. But due to the large number of shoppers, many orders are likely to be automatically canceled. Another drawback of Shopee is that the return policy is not really useful. The process from the moment a customer complains about the product, getting a response from the seller and Shopee, and waiting for a refund is a very complicated and time consuming process (Muasamquocte, 2019). As a result, returns and refunds are often not possible.

Besides, there are two other popular e-commerce platforms in Vietnam including Lazada and Tiki. Lazada is a name that is always in the e-commerce rankings in Southeast Asian countries.

Lazada has many similarities with Shopee in providing a variety of items and Lazada Mall where 100% genuine items are concentrated. Lazada also has many discount offers but the quantity is not as many as Shopee. Not only that, Lazada's interface is commented by many customers as more difficult to use (Muasamquocte, 2019). From a website selling books, Tiki has taken miraculous steps to expand its scale, becoming one of the favorite multi-industry e-commerce websites in Vietnam. Unlike Shopee and Lazada, Tiki only operates in the Vietnamese market.

The highlight of Tiki is the guaranteed quality of goods thanks to strict censorship even though the quantity of goods is less diverse. So the return rate on Tiki is not significant. Not only that, Tiki also leads in speed and delivery time (Muasamquocte, 2019).

In shorts, each e-commerce platform has its own advantages and disadvantages, so the choice lies with the consumer. This largely depends on which of the five main factors influence consumers' buying behavior online, including website, product, price and promotion, delivery services, truth and privacy.