A Study Towards Shopping Behavior Among University Students and Factors Impacting On It

Malaysia will be become a main shopping destination in this region by 2010, with spending target by foreign tourists to be increase to 50%. The target can be achieved
in two years from now and it can help to stimulate high income to Malaysia more than RM 10 billion per year. Understanding consumer shopping behavior is very important
and become an interesting topic among scholars and marketer. By knowing the needs and wants of consumers retail industry could be more successful. This research is conducted with the objective to determine the shopping habits among students and spending pattern among students based on their financial sources and income. Based on previous work done by Ahmed, Ghingold, and Dahari (2007),
aesthetic dimensions, escape dimension, flow dimension, exploration dimension, role enactment dimension, social dimension, and convenience dimension were selected
as independent variables for this research. Convenience sampling technique was used and 377 respondents were selected to answer the questionnaire distributed by
the researcher. The questionnaire consists of respondent's background and questions related to the 7 dimensions of shopping motives. Data analysis methods consist of frequency distribution, Chi-Square tests, reliability analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis were used to derive the findings
for the study. It is found that only escape is the most influential motive explaining university students' shopping behavior. Chi-Square tests conclude that all
dimensions of shopping habit are significantly influenced by gender. As expected on average female students spent more time for each visit to shopping malls, visit more
stores and spent more higher percentage of their income on shopping relative to male students. Finally, a few recommendations for future research and retail industry
were suggested.