E-lifestyles of Indian online shoppers: A scale validation

Online shopping in India is growing at a dramatic rate and marketers are still working on understanding the lifestyles of online shoppers for purpose of segmentation, targeting and promotions. The scales for such requirements developed in other countries may not be apt for use in India. Hence there is a need to develop appropriate scales applicable in the Indian context. By way of review of the previous literature as well as exploratory study through interviews and focus group with online shoppers and experts in the field, the authors develop a pool of items relating to electronic lifestyles, henceforth called e-lifestyles of Indian online shoppers. Further using exploratory as well as confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and validity of the scale is confirmed and a six factor scale consisting of e-enjoyment, e-distrust, e-self-inefficacy, e-logistic concerns, e-negative beliefs and e-offers is developed. The study is a first step towards identifying a more holistic picture of factors that influence Indian online shopper lifestyles or e-lifestyles. The findings of this study can be integrated into marketing and promotional strategies of the web retailers.