O2O VICIOUS CIRCLE: A SHIFT IN CUSTOMER'S BUYING BEHAVIOUR IN THANE DISTRICT

O2O ecommerce was the key to growth in 2020. The coronavirus pandemic pushed more consumers online but
for those still longing for in-store experiences. Today’s customers are starting their shopping experience online.
Whether it’s seeing an online advertisement or a recommendation from a friend on social media. People are
spending more time online now more than ever. In fact, they are spending their time on mobile more than TV.
This is what makes the Offline to Online journey so critical for businesses. People are no longer spending their
time watching TV advertisement. O2O is Online to Offline, referring to the online business opportunities by
using the Internet, the offline business trading in the Physical Store. Since Online E-commerce decided to open
offline stores and the offline stores began to build online platform. Brick and Mortar is a type of business model
that has both online and offline operations, which typically include a website and a physical store. A Brickand-
mortar company can offer customers the benefits of fast online transactions and traditional face-to-face
service and is thus potentially more competitive than a traditional "bricks and mortar" type of business, which
is offline only. This type of business model is also referred to as Bricks and bricks. Brick-and-mortar shopping
gives customers a chance to chat with sales representative, touch and feel, and get the in-store experiences.
Combine that In-store customer experience with an online strategy so shoppers can read detailed product
descriptions without talking to a sales representative. In order to study Shifts from Online to Offline to Online
and Shift from Offline to Online to Offline; this study was conducted on customers who residing in the Thane
District. The study consists of primary and secondary data. A structured questionnaire was used for data
collection with 7-points Likert scale. Null hypotheses were tested using Mann-Whitney U Test & Kruskal Wallis
test. The study in hand would be beneficial to the Marketers, Customers and Society at large.