Informal Workforce And Online Shopping: A Segment Perspective Using Content Analysis

Abstract

Ecommerce in India is growing at a very fast pace and has transformed the way business is done in India. Availability of internet and penetration of smart phone to the last mile customer are the triggers behind this growth. During and post pandemic a huge share of customers started shopping online, but still the share is below 20% of overall retail sales in India. According to ILO India informal economy accounts for more than 80% of non-agricultural employment. This includes varieties of jobs ranging from domestic workers, vegetable vendors, to sub-contracted outworkers etc. who form a large share of retail consumer base in the country and marketers need to understand their adoption behavior for better market capturing. As they are a less studied segment in terms of buying behavior analysis, interviews were taken from 22 respondents and Conceptual Content Analysis method was adopted to analyze the data. The study found that like previous studies, constructs like trust/distrust, convenience, subjective norms, uncertainty, perceived risk or perceived usefulness etc. are factors which behaves like enablers or barriers to online shopping. But less education, peer influence and non-access to infrastructure are the major elements behind online shopping adoption behavior.