Abstract
In recent years, online shopping has become a popular choice for purchasing goods and services. The British Population Survey (2010) reported that the proportion of the UK population with access to the Internet has reached 76% as of March 2010. With the growth of Internet purchasing, recent studies have found various influences that could affect the online purchasing behaviour of consumers. Consequently, this represents a desirable marketing opportunity for businesses. The understanding of the factors that influence the online shoppers can help marketers to target their marketing activities and to develop appropriate strategies to convert potential customers into actual buyers. The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of the various influences that affect online shoppers’ decision to purchase in the United Kingdom. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data in order to gain a detailed understanding of the various factors. The study suggests that price, convenience, security and privacy, and delivery time are some of the major concerns for online shoppers. Majority of the consumers also communicated that the ability to view and inspect the item before purchase is the most important aspect that they miss when comparing online shopping to traditional shopping.
The growth of online shopping represents a significant marketing opportunity for businesses and companies that have used other marketing channels in the past. As the Internet population grow exponentially, it is imperative to revise, update, and develop a better understanding of the online shoppers.
1. Introduction
In recent years, online shopping has become a popular choice for purchasing goods and services. British Population Survey (2010) reported that the proportion of the UK population with access to the Internet has reached 76% as of March 2010 and 51% of the adults with access to the Internet have experience shopping online. This represents a significant marketing opportunity for businesses and companies that have used other marketing channels in the past and must now also focus on online business models.
The growth of the Internet users provides a promising future for E-marketers and to benefit from such opportunities, marketers need to further their understanding of online consumer behaviour and develop marketing strategies that would assist them to convert potential customers into actual buyers, while retaining the existing consumers at the same time (Doolin et al. 2005; Vijayasarathy & Jones 2000).
This paper is structured to highlight the findings from the review of literature, and is followed by the discussion of methodology used for the study, findings and discussion of the results, and conclusion.
2. Literature Review
Based on an extensive review of literature, various factors and current issues that affect online shoppers’ decision to purchase were identified. These were categorised under domain areas of; consumer characteristics, consumer perception, product/service characteristics, merchant characteristics, and provide the basis for and assist in establishing a foundation to progress to the next phase of the study and data collection. Various authors have discussed their understanding of consumer behaviour and recommended models and frameworks based on their studies including; Doolin et al. (2005), Huang & Oppewal (2006), and Zhou et el. (2007). Whilst the above make a contribution to knowledge in the area of online consumer behaviour, it is difficult to adapt any of the purposed models as being a truly representative of online consumer behaviour. The current literature that focuses on different aspects of online consumer behaviour has been summarised into four domain areas of; consumer characteristics, consumer perception, product/service characteristics, and merchant characteristics as illustrated in Figure 1. For each domain area, their key elements and key findings are identified accompanied by their relevant sources.
Domain Area Key Elements Findings References 1 Consumer Characteristics Demographics Mixed Results Bhatnagar et al. (2000) Dholakia and Uusitalo (2002) Dillion and Reif (2004) Donthu and Garcia (1999) Doolin et al. (2005)
Kuhlmeier and Knight (2005) Lee and Tan (2003)
Li et al. (1999)
Liao and Cheung (2001) Mourali et al. ( 2005) Park and Stoel (2005) Internet Experience Positive Influence
2 Consumer
Perception
Perceived Risks Negative Influence Culnan (1999)
Doolin et al. (2005) Li et al. (1999) Limayem et al. (2000) Liu and Wei (2003) Shergill and Chen (2005) Swaminathan et al. (1999) Tan (1999)
Convenience Positive Influence
Social Influences Positive Influence
3 Product/Service Characteristics
Product Price Positive Influence Bakos (1997)
Brown et al. (2003) Donthu and Garcia (2002) Jayawardhena et al. (2007) Park & Kim (2003) Product Information Positive Influence
4 Merchant
Characteristics
Website Design Positive Influence Hoque and Lohse (1999)
Jarvenpaa and Todd (1997) Lohse and Spiller (1998) Park and Kim (2003) Wilson-Jeanselme (2001)
Customer Service Positive Influence
Figure 1. Summary of factors that influence the buyer’s behaviour on the Internet
3. Consumer Characteristics
Various studies on demographics have focused on factors that affect the online customer behaviour. Dholakia and Uusitalo (2002) found that younger consumers found more benefits in shopping online than older consumers, while Donthu and Garcia (1999) suggested that older Internet consumers are more likely to buy online than their younger counterparts. On the other hand, Li et al. (1999) argued that there is
no relationship between the age and the consumer’s intention to purchase on the Internet. Bhatnagar el al. (2000) who studied age and gender of online consumers reported different results in relation to these characteristics. Meanwhile, Li et al. (1999) indicated that men make more purchases and spend more money online than women. Some studies also found a positive relationship between education and the amount of money spent by consumers (Li et al., 1999; Liao and Cheung 2001). As the growth of Internet population continues and become more diverse, demographics may have a diminishing effect on consumers’ behaviour and may be regarded as an element with limited impact on online consumer behaviour.
Another important aspect of consumer characteristics is the Internet experience itself. It is argued that the more experience the user has with the Internet, the more experienced they gain and more trusting they become, which would then lead to a more positive attitude to make a purchase on the Internet (Kuhlmeier and Knight, 2005; Dillion and Reif, 2004; and Doolin et al., 2005). Numerous studies have found that increased shopping experience would reduce the perceived risk (Lee and Tan, 2003; Mourali et al., 2005; Park and Stoel, 2005) and enhance perceived benefits, and thus, induce satisfaction (Doolin et al., 2005). With the exponential growth of Internet population, studies have indicated that Internet shopping would have a positive influence on the consumers as they have more interaction with the Internet.
4. Consumer Perception
Consumers’ risk perception is a primary deterrent for growth in the online shopping (Culnan, 1999; Liu and Wei, 2003; Tan, 1999). Product risk, security risk and privacy risk are regarded as the main areas related to consumers’ perceived risks (Shergill and Chen, 2005). Much of the literature in this area is indicative of the fact that risks have a negative impact on the consumers’ intention to purchase.
The convenience of online shopping allows the customers to save time from having to physically visit stores which in turn would save time and travelling costs. Studies by Swaminathan et al. (1999), Li et al. (1999), and Doolin et al. (2005) confirms that consumers who valued convenience tended to purchase online more often.
Social influences including influences of relatives, friends and colleagues, articles, reviews, and promotions on the website and recommendations from media and family are reported to be important antecedence of shopping intention on the Internet