Consumer Reactions to Electronic Shopping on the World Wide Web
Sirrka L. Jarvenpaa and Peter A. Todd
International Journal of Electronic Commerce
Volume 1, Number 2, Winter 1996-97, pp. 59-88.
Abstract: Much fascination and speculation surrounds the impact
of the World Wide Web on consumer shopping behavior. At the same time,
there is little empirical evidence underlying all this speculation. This
article provides one such data set. It reports on factors that consumers
found salient as they browsed through selected electronic malls on the
World Wide Web. We gathered consumers' reactions via an open-ended survey
using a sample of 220 shoppers. We related the reactions to the factors of
product perceptions, shopping experience, customer service, and perceived
consumer risk, which we had identified from the existing literature on
retail patronage behavior. This study translated these factors to the World
Wide Web context and explored their relative salience.
With respect to product perceptions, consumers were impressed by
the breadth of stores on the World Wide Web but disappointed with the depth
of a merchant's offerings. The shopping experience was reported to be
generally enjoyable, but at the same time frustrating. Consumers also
reported that they could perceive the potential for time savings and
reduced effort compared with traditional forms of shopping, but that, at
present, goal-directed shopping was difficult. Nearly everyone in the
sample had something negative to say about customer service on the World
Wide Web, judging that the sites were not designed to be responsive to
their needs and that the presentation of goods and services seemed
intangible. Risk was cited as a barrier to shopping on the World Wide Web,
but was not as salient to our sample as product perceptions, shopping
experience, and customer service. Overall, the results suggest that World
Wide Web merchants need to think more about how they perform on the factors
known to affect consumer behavior; namely, product perceptions, shopping
experience, and customer service. We offer advice for enhancing the design
of World Wide Web retail sites.
Key Words and Phrases: attitudes and intentions to shop on the
Internet, consumer perceptions, electronic retailing, Internet consumer
behavior, marketing on the World Wide Web, retail patronage in on-line stores.