Digital Shopping and the Purchasing Journey of Post Graduate Students in Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the effect of digital shopping on the purchasing journey of postgraduate students in Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The study sampled 395 respondents from five (5) faculties in the Rivers State University and 96.45% response rate was used for data analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse data in this study. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient (r) was used to test the two hypotheses formulated in this study. The study revealed that to a large extent functionality of the internet infrastructure impact on postgraduate students’ experience in Rivers State University. The study also revealed that to a large extent internet security affects the recommendations by postgraduate students in Rivers State University. The study found that to a large extent that effective digital or online shopping habit/experience helps to strengthen the academic performance of the postgraduate students. The study identified major factors influencing digital or online shopping experience of postgraduate students to include: Insufficient knowledge of how online shopping works, providing for unexpected delays, personal internet access, convenience, poor quality of the products offered online, privacy protection, customer service, time-saving, inadequate technological infrastructure and shipping problems. Conclusively, it is obvious from the study that digital shopping has come to stay because the technological infrastructures have engendered its prevalence in the society. From the test of hypotheses, it is evident that: There is a significant relationship between the functionality of the infrastructure of the internet and repeat online patronage by postgraduate students and there is a significant relationship between the internet security and recommendations by postgraduate students. The study, therefore, recommends that online shop owners/operators should take important measures to eliminate the psychological factors like trust and security and build trust in the online retail firms and ensure the privacy of online consumers.

Keywords: Digital Shopping, Online Shopping, Purchasing Journey, Graduate Students, Internet Security