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Introduction
Online shopping is a viable preference to consumers as the internet has become an essential tool for communication and business worldwide. The Internet World Stats (2018) reported that there are more than four billion internet users in 2017, and it is a 577 per cent growth as compared to the total population of internet users in year 2000. The Asian region conquers 49.2 per cent of the total number of internet users. In 2017, an estimated 1.66 billion people worldwide purchased goods online; the total number of internet users had triggered $2.3tn of the sales from the internet, and projections show a growth of up to $4.48tn by 2021 (Statista, 2018), representing a drastic increase in online shopping (Paynter and Lim, 2001). It showed that the internet had revolutionized the business to online shopping (Bourlakis et al., 2008).
With the availability of access to internet-connected computers, as well as mobile phones and tablet computers, be it at home, office or through facilities such as public libraries, restaurants and cybercafés, nowadays, this trend of shopping has become a common mode of transaction. It has become a part of daily life ranging from purchase of flight tickets, booking hotel rooms, movie tickets, fashionable apparel and beauty products and is now also embracing toward online grocery. Among the items bought by e-consumers, travel-related products top the list at 82.2 per cent, followed by books (69 per cent) and general consumer goods (59 per cent) (Ling et al., 2012).
In spite of the momentous growth of online shopping and electronic commerce (e-commerce), this astonishing development has led to some new problems and challenges that the foremost internet users’ concern comprises security of payment, data protection, the validity and enforceability of e-contract, insufficient information disclosure, product quality and enforcement of rights (Paynter and Lim, 2001). Compared to the traditional retail form, Lee and Tan (2003) pointed out that when consumers shop online, they tend to perceive higher risks. The method of online shopping conducted is different compared to traditional transactions, whereby it has developed to be more sophisticated, thus exposing and increasing the vulnerability of consumer perception to imbalance online shopping. A consumer may face numerous problems, for example, in placing an order where the wrong product...