Online versus traditional consumer

Technology adoption

◦     Online consumer is best predicted by Internet self-efficacy, followed by perceived financial benefits.

  Convenience and Decision Support

◦     Online consumer only desire is convenience and timesaving.

◦     Depth and breadth of information available on the Internet meets the consumer’s need of information to make purchase decision.

Market dynamics

◦     More alternatives can be considered online because of lower search costs and greater availability of information.

◦     Online consumers becoming less price conscious over time.

 

Loyalty and trust

◦     The ability to customize products/services and transactional environment online is far beyond the capability of traditional store.

◦     Consumer loyalty to access competitor’s site is only a click away.

◦     Trust for online consumer is an expectation based on past performance, a strategy to reduce uncertainty, a willingness to rely  on an exchanging partner, and a perception of reliability.

 

Products versus services

◦     Products are tangible and services are intangible in traditional commerce but both products and services are intangible online.

◦     Online shopping consumers concern about risk for products than services, more concern about perceived ease of use for services rather than products.

 

Site design

◦     The impact of the shop window are correlated to the impact of a site’s home page but the impact of store layout versus site layout has some differences.

◦     Thus, more study is needed to examine what design elements affect online consumer behavior.

Empowerment, persuasion and entertainment

◦     The ability to shop worldwide at anytime from virtually any location with the availability of real-time product and competitor information increase consumer’s sense of freedom and power.

◦     Personalized welcome pages and tailored recommendations list provide customers with a powerful feeling of discovery.

◦     Online consumers can react to persuasive media more often than a human at selling.

◦     Online shopping is also a form of entertainment and/or social interaction.