E-shopping and Saudi Consumer Decision Research Proposal

E-shopping and Saudi Consumer Decision - Research Proposal Example There has been an interesting impact on the Saudi consumer decision in purchasing behavior of the e-shopping facilities. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the changes in the purchasing behavior of Saudi consumer due to the e-shopping facilities. The goal of the paper is to discover the different types of changes in the Saudi consumer purchase decisions. In the Saudi countries, in the last 10 years, there has been a large increase in the use of ATM cards and plastic money. More than 90 % of the total consumer payments in the USA are done with the use of debit cards, credit cards, cash cards and ATM cards. Saudi countries are now not so much different from the USA as they are following similar trends. Electronic payment systems and the advent of e-shopping have enabled the consumers to make payments through the internet and make purchases online rather than physically visiting a store. Saudi Arabia is the center of Islamic world and generates major revenues from the export of crude oil and oil related products. Per capita income of the country in 2009 has been 18, 855 US$. A significant portion of the total population is comprised of foreign expatriates and workers. ... Saudi Arabia is the center of the Islamic world since many years and is the largest Arab economy. The taxation rates in the country are very low which encourages many multinationals to locate their offices in the Saudi land. The population mainly comprises of youth with high per capita income. Saudi is also the largest IT center in the region. Research Problems and Questions The problems that will be faced in the research are that the Saudi culture does not allow the women to participate in these types of activities. In Saudi society, the males are the dominant individuals of the family who make most of the purchasing decisions for the family. The women are also involved in the purchasing decision but are limited to household items such as appliances, clothes of children and furniture. Daily usage items and household consumables are also purchased by the women. The culture is also a hindrance for the researchers to reach the women in the households. These are the women who make most of the orders for products online using e-shopping facilities. The questions will not ask about the family details of the individuals as this is not entertained in the Saudi world. 75% of the population is not using the internet, therefore only the 25% using the internet is the choice for the researchers. In the internet using population, only the males would be available for research questions as the society does not line if women answer their personal questions to the researchers. One of the other major problems in the research process is unavailability of historic data. There is no historic data for the consumers' shopping as it has never been recorded. Hence there will be no base to make the comparisons. Most of the research questions are