Mega Online?

Benjamin, the owner of the Supermarket Mega Sdn. Bhd. wonders why the numbers of walk in customer is decreasing. He is worried that if this situation is keep on continuing, the business of his supermarket will be affected. He would like to discuss this issue with his managers and hope to find the answer.

Ahmad, the head of marketing department pointed out that recently, a large number of their customers purchase online. Among the main factors that triggered their intention to purchase online is due to shopping convenience as they can avoid wasting time queuing at the counter payment. Furthermore, the customer will enjoy cost savings for petrol and parking by doing the shopping online.

The R&D manager, Muthu also added that the variety of product offerings can also attract consumer's intention to purchase online as they can buy many types of products in a short amount of time. People nowadays are busy with their hectic schedules and have limited time to spend on shopping. Thus, online shopping provides the avenue to help them to purchase all kind of necessities in one short at a time.

The managers from the sales department pointed out that though the numbers of walk in consumers is low, the sales of the supermarket are still maintaining due to the sales contribution from the online market segment.

Benjamin was thrilled with the fruitful discussions with his managers and wants to proceed with a research to find out on how to increase the sales from its online consumers as he now understand that nowadays people prefer shopping at their convenience.

However, mangers from IT department highlighted the need of reliable and secure online system so as to enhance the online purchase process. This is because, from his reading of past research, intention to purchase online can be hindered if the consumers do not have trust in the online security although the supermarket offers variety of interesting products and provide the shopping convenience to the consumers which then consequently prevent them to make the purchase online.

Based on the given scenario, answer the following questions:

1.Identify the broad problem area.

2.Develop theoretical framework.

3.Suggest TWO (2) theories that related to the framework.

4.Develop THREE (3) research objectives and research questions.

5.Develop THREE (3) directional alternative hypotheses.

6.State the population for the study.

7.Identify the proper sampling design (probability or non-probability). Justify you answer.