Online Shopping Behaviour among International Students from Belt & Road Countries in China

Abstract

The rapid transformation of e-platforms and the growth of e-commerce in China provide consumers with the most advanced channels and creative options for buying and selling through online podium. Online shopping is categorically going to be the world's future shopping mode. Besides, The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China aims to place the world on a new trajectory of higher growth and human development through the connectivity of infrastructure, increased trade, and investment. Cross-border online shopping has become one of the forthcoming prime business models through the implication of the Belt & Road Initiative. By analyzing the representative group of consumers from Belt & Road countries, this study is to explore possible guiding constraints about online shopping decisions that may assist to understand behavioral traits to cross-border online shopping. In the expansion of online shopping, consumers, particularly young people, and students play the most important role. It is, therefore, imperative for companies to investigate and consider the factors that affect the decision of students and young people to get online shopping. This paper has attempted to explore various factors that will affect the online shopping decision of consumers particularly from Belt & Road countries. During this analysis, a qualitative study approach was adopted and a sample of 105 higher education students from the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) countries studying at Capital Normal University was drawn up. The study will ascertain the ‘Online Shopping Behaviors’ of typical consumers from BRI (Belt & Road) countries to explore a wider direction for cross-border online shopping decisions. It is discovered that online shopping makes life easier, and it is not so far that online shopping can infinitely overtake conventional physical shopping in the whole world.