E-commerce has established itself as an integral component of the Indian economy, and college students
represent one of its most enthusiastic purchasing groups. This study aimed to determine the online shopping
behaviour of college students and evaluate the potential influence of price and discounts, convenience and ease of
use, reviews, trust and payment security, delivery and return policies, and attitude towards online shopping on it. A
convenience sample of 120 college students (61 females and 59 males) participated in this study, with a mean age of
20.4 years. A structured questionnaire with 25 Likert-scaled statements was used to measure shopping behaviour. Descriptive, correlation, chi-square tests of independence, one-way ANOVA, and multiple linear regression
analyses were performed. The agreement with the statements was moderately high (mean across constructs 3.58 to
3.69 on a 5-point Likert scale). According to the chi-square test results, no statistical association was found between
frequency of shopping and gender, course and year of study, or level of agreement with any of the statements. Online shopping behaviour did not vary as a function of course and year of study or shopping frequency, with the
exception of price orientation, which was lower among final-year students. Convenience and ease of use and
delivery and return policies made a significant unique contribution to the variance in students’ online shopping
behaviour, whereas the other factors did not. Due to the low internal consistency of the measures employed, these
results should be considered exploratory. Overall, the study’s results suggest that attention should be drawn to the
provision of convenience and reliable delivery and return policies by e-commerce providers.
Keywords : College Students, Convenience, Delivery and Return Policies, E-commerce, India, Online Shopping Behaviour
Author : Dr Kanaka Durga Hanumanthu , Naidu Sidhu
Title : E-commerce Growth in India: A Study of Online Shopping Behaviour among College Students
Volume/Issue : 2026;03(09)
Page No : 01-11
