Online versus traditional consumer

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.