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Keywords Internet, Consumer behaviour, Retail marketing, Shopping, Customer orientation
Abstract Consumer selection of retail patronage mode has been widely researched by marketing scholars. Several researchers have segmented consumers by shopping orientation. However, few have applied such methods to the Internet shopper. Despite the widespread belief that Internet shoppers are primarily motivated by convenience, the authors show empirically that consumers' fundamental shopping orientations have no significant impact on their proclivity to purchase products online. Factors that are more likely to influence purchase intention include product type, prior purchase, and, to a lesser extent, gender.
Literature examining electronic commerce tends either to discuss the size and potential of the phenomenon or to indicate problems associated with it. For example, Forrester Research recently reported that worldwide Internet commerce - both business to business (B2B) and both business to customer (B2C) - would reach $6.8 trillion in 2004. At the same time, reports of business failures are increasing, as it is evident that the corporate sector is not satisfied with Internet performance (Wolff, 1998).
Despite these two apparently contradictory positions, many observers note an absence of research into consumer motivation to purchase via the Internet and other aspects of consumer behaviour with regard to the medium (Donthu and Garcia, 1999; Hagel and Armstrong, 1997; Korgaonkar and Wolin, 1999). Literature falls into two categories: usage - by which we mean rate, purpose or quantity bought - and advertising response (McDonald, 1993). Common to these two streams is the "flow" research of Hoffman and Novak (1996) which suggests that the Internet is a very different medium requiring new means of segmentation.
Use of the Internet for retail shopping has expanded immensely in recent years and has had a profound influence on the shopping process for many consumers. The medium functions as a novel retail patronage mode, wherein products can be sought, inspected, and in many cases sampled and purchased completely online. This unique ability has transformed the social and spatial aspects of shopping for many consumers. For example, it is possible to perform such a routine chore as grocery shopping from the convenience of one's desk. This is an important benefit to the many shoppers who possess a dislike of supermarkets or a penchant for trolley rage (Brown and...