Is hedonism present in the purchase of academic books? An empirical analysis in online and traditional purchase methods

This paper examines hedonism in Indian consumer behaviour and its exploration in the consumer’s perceptions towards purchasing behaviour in the world of academic and non-academic books. This study also explores the factors that might influence the consumers’ perceptions in hedonic pleasure in shopping for books. Book and publishing industry in India is under a transition period due to the onslaught of internet and its capabilities. M/s. Flipkart changed the consumer perceptions of purchase behaviour in online shopping especially books. Today consumers have plenty of options and choice of virtual companies who are luring them with low pricing and free shipping strategies. There is a war for consumers today in the web. The winner is the consumers who are benefited widely because of this. In such a platform, consumer’s behaviour specially the hedonic behaviour in shopping is examined in this paper. Quantitative survey method is used to achieve the objectives of the paper. The participants of this study are Indian citizens who made purchases of both academic and non-academic books in the past one year or plan to do so in the coming one year. The study is restricted to the geographic area of Bangalore, as Bangalore has the highest internet penetration rate amongst other Indian cities along with a heterogeneous consumer market. The factors which lead to hedonic pleasure in academic shopping are examined. Consumer perceptions of shopping experience, shopping experience in the context of affordability (prices) are also identified. The study reveals that the academic consumers are more economically oriented, enjoy shopping, very author specific and base their purchase either online or traditional, based on the type of book they want- which may be academically oriented or leisure oriented. This may be of special interest to marketers interested in entering the academic market online or traditional.