This article aims to identify the main influencing factors that may influence the adoption of online shopping in the UK by integrating Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology2 (UTAUT2) and DeLone-McLean model of IS Success with trust (TR), product variety (PRDV) and product guarantee. Data was collected from 388 British online shopping consumers using a structured self-administrated questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that behavioural intention (BI) was influenced by performance expectancy (PE), convenience (CON), service quality (SerQ), trust (TR), product guarantee (PG), product guarantee (PRDV) and compatibility (COMP), in their order of influencing strength and all together accounted for 70.4% of the variance in BI. Contrary to the authors' expectations, effort expectancy (EE) and social influence (SI) did not have an influence on BI. The implications of this article to both theory and practice is discussed at the end.
TopIntroduction
The rapid growth of the Internet retailers during the past two decades has undoubtedly quelled the overly optimistic expectations for on-line business to consumer (B2C) commerce (Zolait & Sulaiman, 2008; Celik, 2016). Most of the customers have recognized the importance of online shopping in their everyday lives, such as overcoming time and spatial barriers, convenience, competitive pricing, expert advice, customized service and greater access to information (Lim, 2015). However, many customers are still reluctant to shop online due to poor online customer experience (Lin, 2008). A related and arguably a more pressing problem for Internet retailers is identifying, attracting, and keeping customers (Chang et al., 2015; Tarhini et al., 2016).
The United Kingdom had the largest electronic commerce market in Europe in 2014 and accounted for 32% (roughly 118 billion Euro) of European e-commerce sales (Statista, 2015). However, many of the UK internet users still reluctant to use online shopping services (Turner & Callaghan, 2006; Ramanathan, 2011; Celik, 2016). Furthermore, the UK losses 19 billion Euro yearly of the annual online revenue due to poor online customer experience (Statista, 2015). Hence, it becomes vital for marketers and policy makers to have a deeper understanding of their customers to formulate strategies to enhance their experience (Zhou et al., 2007; Jeong et al., 2009; Lim, 2015). In order to have a better understanding of customers, both academics and online marketers must understand the factors that may hinder or enable the acceptance of online shopping.
Although there are many studies that examine the antecedents of online shopping (e.g. Çelik & Yilmaz, 2011; Clemes, Gan & Zhang, 2014; Chang et al., 2015; Amaro & Duarte, 2015; Celik, 2016), many researchers acknowledge that there still a gap in the understanding of online shopping (Dennis et al., 2009; Hand et al., 2009; Hansen & Jensen, 2009; Lim & Ting, 2012; Lim, 2015) and called for future studies that examine the influencing factors of online shopping.