The generational device divide: smartphone dominance and laptop persistence in online shopping among working women across age cohorts in Patna
Manisha Singh, Naveen SharmaPurpose
This paper aims to examine whether the age of a working woman in a tier-2 Indian city is significantly associated with her primary device for online shopping and her preferred shopping time-window. It challenges the prevailing assumption that smartphone dominance in Indian e-commerce is uniform across all demographic segments.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional survey of 516 working women in Patna was conducted using purposive sampling with a geographical filter. The instrument demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.917, 11 items). Chi-square tests of independence with Cramer’s V were performed in Jamovi 2.7 to test associations between age cohort and device preference, preferred shopping time and convenience satisfaction.
Findings
A highly significant association was found between age cohort and device preference (χ² = 53.18, df = 3, p < 0.001; V = 0.321). Smartphone dominance exceeds 93% in the 20–40 age band but drops sharply to approximately 70% and 68% in the 41–50 and above-50 cohorts respectively, revealing a marked discontinuity rather than a linear gradient. Shopping time-of-day (χ² = 24.09, p = 0.020) and convenience satisfaction (χ² = 23.21, p = 0.006) also vary significantly by age, with the above-50 cohort concentrating activity in late-night hours and reporting the lowest satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
This study is limited to one tier-2 city and relies on self-reported device preference. Future research should extend to multi-city panels, incorporate objective device-usage logs and include rural working women.
Practical implications
E-commerce platforms operating in tier-2 Indian markets should adopt a dual-persona design strategy: a mobile-native experience for the under-40 cohort and a fully-functional desktop interface for the above-40 cohort. Marketing channel selection should be similarly segmented by age.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is among the first studies to provide a within-female, within-city, cohort-disaggregated analysis of device preference in tier-2 India, demonstrating that aggregate smartphone figures conceal a generational discontinuity with direct design and marketing implications.