CONSUMERS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS BUYING ON THE INTERNET IN NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
1.1    INTRODUCTION
Internet shopping is one of the widely and commonly used mediums for convenient shopping. It is in fact, a popular means of is shopping in the Internet community (Bourlakis, Papagiannidis, and Fox, 2008). Buying on the Internet according to Muhammad, Muhammad and Chaudhary (2015) is increasing day by day, whether it’s for clothes, electronics, or, even, pets. Many websites are opening every day just to cater to this rising demand for comfort and convenience. Buying on the Internet is fast becoming the way to make all your purchases, whether you’re at home or in the office, or in a different country. This is especially true for developed countries, where every store has its own website that you can buy online from. Tricks of the trade like cash on delivery and special discounts on online purchases have been able to convey people very easily.
Narges, Laily, Sharifah, Samsinar and Ali (2009) opined that today Internet is not only a networking media, but also as a means of transaction for consumers at global market. Internet usage has grown rapidly over the past years and it has become common means for delivering and trading information, services and goods.
Every aspect of internet is digital, meaning that it is electronic information that is transmitted on a computer or similar device, though naturally it can tie in with traditional offline advertising and sales too. Although the relative importance of the internet marketing for an organization still largely depends on the nature of its products and services and the buying behavior of its target audience, there has been a global dramatic change in media consumption over the last 10 years towards digital media which means that the internet is becoming important for all categories. Hence, the internet as a communication medium has broadened the scope of marketing communications considering the number of people who can be easily reached including the locations where they are reached, for example, from desktops to mobile smart phones. It has also increased the richness of marketing communications by combining text, video, and audio content into rich messages. Thus, the web is arguably richer as a medium than some traditional mediums such as the television because of the complexity of messages available, the enormous content accessible on a wide range of subjects and the ability of users to interactively control the experience (Jenyo and Soyoye, 2015).
Furthermore, the Internet has succeeded in expanding the information intensity of the market place immensely by providing marketers and customers with well detailed real-time information about consumers as they transact in the market. Consumers are much more available to receive marketing messages due to the “always-on” environment created by mobile devices which results to an extraordinary increase in marketing opportunities for firms (Jenyo and Soyoye, 2015).
Today in Nigeria, many consumers have imbibed the internet culture. As a result both Nigerian and foreign organisations are now using the internet to service these consumers. Thus, it is now possible to undertake banking transactions without leaving one’s home or office.
This project attempts to examine consumers’ attitude towards buying on the internet in Nigeria.
1.2    STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
Information technology has advanced beyond the human imagination. It thus creates a market for online buyers around the globe.  It is on this note that the study intend to bridge the knowledge gap between online buyers and the traditional store front buyers who may experience problems in buying online due to inaccessibility to computer services.
    Furthermore, most buyers feel unsafe buying online and this has perhaps affected their buying attitude and the frequency with which they buy. Many do not trust the privacy of the internet and are concerned about credit card fraud, unwanted solicitation and use of their information for other purposes.
    Demography affects online buyers’ attitude, hence online buying seems to be limited to people of reasonable amount of income and certain social class. This however, indicates how buyers perceive the products quality, durability, products safety and price e.t.c. Hence, a study on how Nigerian online buyers act in an ever changing electronic market therefore becomes necessary and inevitable.
This study is done because internet buying has become widely acceptable around the world and we do not know the factors that affect consumers’ attitude towards internet buying and what factors prompt them to use or not to use the internet for their buying activities.
    It is expected that perceived usefulness will influence intention to use and the actual use of online buying activities. Perceived ease of use will influence actual use of online buying activities. As Davis (1989) showed, beliefs about perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use influence the actual outcomes.
Against this background, this study raises the following research questions:
1.    What is the relationship between perceived ease of use and consumers’ attitude towards internet buying?
2.    What is the relationship between perceived usefulness and consumers’ attitude towards internet?
3.    To what extent does satisfaction influence consumers’ attitude towards internet buying.
4.    To what extent does trust influence consumers’ attitude towards internet buying.
1.3    OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The broad objective of the study is to examine consumers’ attitude towards buying on the internet in Nigeria.
Specifically, this study seeks to determine:
1.    the relationship between perceived ease of use and consumers’ attitude towards internet buying?
2.    the relationship between perceived usefulness and consumers’ attitude towards internet?
3.    the extent to which satisfaction influence consumers’ attitude towards internet buying.
4.    the extent to which trust influence consumers’ attitude towards internet buying.
1.4    STATEMENT OF RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
    The hypotheses of this study are stated in null form as follows:
H01:     There is no positive relationship between perceived ease of use and consumers’ attitude towards internet buying.
H02:     There is no positive relationship between perceived usefulness and consumers’ attitude towards internet.
Ho3:     There is no positive relationship between satisfaction and consumers’ attitude towards internet buying.
Ho4:     Trust is no positively related to consumers’ attitude towards internet buying.
1.6      SCOPE OF THE STUDY
    This study shall find out factors which affect online consumers’ attitude towards online buying in Nigeria. Geographically, this study shall be limited to Benin metropolis of Edo State.
1.7       SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
             First and foremost, this study will contribute to knowledge and its results will be of use to different categories of buyers, suppliers as well as researchers and students of marketing and allied courses.
•    Buyers: The research will help to create better opportunity to enable them do better buying on the internet, which is devoid of all the constraints associated with traditional store front.  Also, it will help consumers to be favorably disposed towards internet buying which is devoid of all the constraint associated with conventional storefront buying
•    Suppliers: Suppliers will have access to information on demands for their product and how they can access buyers on the internet. Results of the study will also encourage suppliers to source for their raw materials on the internet. More so, it will enable companies that trade on the internet to properly strategize, target their customers and satisfy them profitably It will enable companies take advantage of the opportunities provided by the internet to meet the ever dynamic needs of consumers in the competitive market.
•    Researchers: results of this study will also constitute data that will be useful to researchers. There may be need to replicate the study with or without modification of the problem, others may wish to validate the results of this study.