Serving Rural Market Via E-Commerce: A Study for Consumer Durables

Abstract Rural distribution and promotion have always been challenging for consumer durable marketers. There are emerging and innovative distribution options available, but none of them has been found sustainable when scaled up to serve the masses. Off late, e-commerce is growing at an unprecedented pace, and rural India, with a 20% more user base than urban, opened great opportunities and set higher expectations among marketers. This study attempts to understand the impact of factors influencing online purchase decisions for consumer durables via E-commerce. A total of 604 respondents from 12 rural districts of Jharkhand (India) using quota sampling are selected. Stepwise multiple regression and ANOVA are used in the study. Results reveal that the most important factor is product quality, and it is followed by product variety, service quality, and price assessment.