| Online shopping has gradually developed into a more and more popular way of shopping due to the rapid development and popularity of Internet technology. As online shopping allows customers to ignore the time and space limitations of traditional brick-and-mortar shops, it provides wider choices for consumers. Information provided by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) indicates that about242million people bought something online, representing42.9%of Chinese internet users, an increase of48.07million people or24.8%increase in over2011. Chinese online shoppers spent CNY1,259,400million in2012, an increase of66.5%over2011. Online shopping now accounts for6.1%of total Chinese retail sales and its novelty has been accepted by more and more consumers, and has even increased overall retail profits. The enormous popularity of online shopping is not only an economic phenomenon but also a social phenomenon worth of more attention.The majority of previous online shopping studies are quite general and give only simple descriptions of online shopping’s characteristics and advantages, which is too broad and not systematic enough for serious study. Online shopping has developed gradually from a sort of novelty into a more common social phenomenon enthusiastically adopted by Chinese internet users due to a variety of individual and social factors. Its popularity is the result of consumers’rational choices under the social environmental conditions of modern China. Therefore, from micro and macro perspectives of sociology, I conducted interviews of Taobao users, to analyze their reasons for choosing or preferring online shopping, the related elements of the social and economic environment, and the specific causes of this social phenomenon on Coleman’s s rational choice theory to fully and systematically explain the reasons for online shopping’s rapid development in China.In this article I present a case analysis of online shopping based on Taobao users with high credit scores, from micro and macro perspectives of sociology concluding that the rapid development of online shopping development is the result of individual consumers’rational choices and favorable environmental conditions. The majority of consumers choose online shopping due to its economic and social benefits. The rapid development of online shopping is closely related to the status and characteristics of the overall retail environment. Specifically, restrictions on its development have faded due to continuous improvements in related regulations, policy, law, technology, industry, and trade including changes in trading concepts. At the same time, China’s current social environment, with its large proportion of online shoppers and large number of families with medium or low income, provides favorable conditions for the continued future expansion of online shopping. In addition, this article also discusses the impact of online shopping and specifically analyzes online shopping’s influence on China’s current social development, life, and culture, and points out some problems related to the very rapid rise of online shopping. Finally, the author also notes that consumers’online shopping behavior follows a regular pattern of first experience, loss of rationality, and recovery of rationality. |
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