Determinants of Online Consumer Buying Behaviour in the Digital Commerce Era: Evidence from Pune City, India

Digital commerce is blossoming and radically transforming consumer shopping behaviour in the emerging markets, with India being one of the fastest growing e-commerce market in world. The consumer decision journey has been extensively altered by rising internet penetration, ubiquitous adoption of smartphone as well as usage of digital payment ecosystems, growing use cases of artificial intelligence and the invention of quick commerce. Pune has emerged among the top Indian cities known for education, information technology and start-up ecosystem; thus serves as an urban laboratory to study change in online consumer behaviour. While there has been no dearth of papers exploring the impact (positive and negative) of online shopping behaviour in metropolitan cities, there are only a few studies that have comprehensively looked into various parameters affecting consumer buying behaviour in Pune in the present digital commerce environment.
The current research explores the impact of external factors, internal factors, technological factor, site-related factors and pre-purchase factors on online consumer buying behaviour of residents in Pune City. Using perceived trust, perceived risk, website quality, digital payment adoption, and online purchase intention as new constructs from modern forms of commerce in a modern context with traditional consumer behaviour theories allows this study to propose an integrated conceptual framework. The analysis relied on a structured questionnaire with a sample group comprising of consumers living in Pune which was chosen using stratified sampling. Statistical analyses, such as descriptive statistics and reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analyses and multiple regression are proposed to explore the relationships among study variables.
The results are anticipated to reveal the key antecedents shaping their online shopping choices, offering valuable theoretical and managerial insights for them in e-commerce firms, retailers, policymakers and researchers alike. The research expands consumer behaviour theories by contextualizing the existing frameworks in a rapidly digitizing Indian economy and suggests actionable insights for improving customer experience, trust, engagement and sustainability of loyalty on online retailing.

Pune, Online shopping, Consumer behaviour

1. Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

2. Bain & Company, Flipkart, & e-Conomy India. (2024). How India shops online 2024. Bain & Company. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

3. Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13(3), 319–340. https://doi.org/10.2307/249008 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

4. Engel, J. F., Blackwell, R. D., & Miniard, P. W. (1995). Consumer behavior (8th ed.). Dryden Press. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

5. Gupta, A., & Arora, N. (2023). Consumer behaviour towards online grocery shopping in metropolitan India. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 51(7), 1023–1041. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-01-2023-0001 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

6. Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2022). Multivariate data analysis (9th ed.). Cengage Learning. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

7. India Brand Equity Foundation. (2024). E-commerce industry in India. https://www.ibef.org [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

8. International Data Corporation. (2024). India smartphone market report 2024. IDC. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

9. Internet and Mobile Association of India. (2024). Digital in India report 2024. IAMAI. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

10. Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2022). Marketing management (16th ed.). Pearson. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

11. Kumar, V., & Gupta, S. (2022). Factors influencing online grocery shopping behaviour in India. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 66, 102895. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.102895 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

12. Laudon, K. C., & Traver, C. G. (2024). E-commerce 2024: Business, technology, society (18th ed.). Pearson. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

13. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. (2024). Annual report 2023–24. Government of India. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

14. National Payments Corporation of India. (2024). UPI product statistics. https://www.npci.org.in [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

15. Oliver, R. L. (2015). Satisfaction: A behavioral perspective on the consumer (2nd ed.). Routledge. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

16. Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Malhotra, A. (2005). E-S-QUAL: A multiple-item scale for assessing electronic service quality. Journal of Service Research, 7(3), 213–233. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670504271156 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

17. PwC India. (2024). Voice of the consumer survey 2024. PwC. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

18. Reserve Bank of India. (2024). Annual report 2023–24. RBI. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

19. Schiffman, L. G., & Wisenblit, J. (2022). Consumer behavior (13th ed.). Pearson. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

20. Statista. (2025). Retail e-commerce sales worldwide from 2014 to 2028. https://www.statista.com [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

21. Statista. (2025). India: E-commerce market revenue 2020–2030. https://www.statista.com [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

22. Venkatesh, V., Morris, M. G., Davis, G. B., & Davis, F. D. (2003). User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view. MIS Quarterly, 27(3), 425–478. https://doi.org/10.2307/30036540 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

23. Zeithaml, V. A., Bitner, M. J., & Gremler, D. D. (2021). Services marketing: Integrating customer focus across the firm (8th ed.). McGraw-Hill. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

24. Zepto. (2024). Annual business insights. https://www.zeptonow.com [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

• Wisdom Dental: A Digital Booking and E-Commerce Platform to Enhance Operational Efficiency, Predictive Analytics & Time Series Forecasting at Wisdom Dental Clinic in Pinagbuhatan, Pasig City
• Analysis of the Impact of Delivery Efficiency on E-Commerce Adoption by Courier Companies in Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria
• A Comparative Study of Online Shopping Trend and Its Impact on Retail Sector Consumer Durable Goods in Wardha, Nagpur and Chandrapur Districts (2010–2020)
• The Impact of Delivery Performance on Customer Satisfaction in Malaysian E-Commerce: A Comparative Analysis and Strategic Framework
• The Dual-Dimensional Perception Mechanism of E-commerce Politeness in Cross-Border E-commerce Toys: A Comparative Deconstruction Based on Positive and Negative Critical Incidents