Why Do Iranians Avoid Shopping on the Internet?

Literature Review

Researchers mention two main factors for shopping: shopping for hedonic and goal-directed shopping (utilitarian) (Babin et al., 1994). These two factors are also true for internet shopping (Wolfinbarger & Gilly, 2001). Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2001) found that two kinds of behaviour can be identified in customers; experience-based behaviour, when people shop for hedonic and entertainment and mostly decide on emotions, and goal-oriented behaviour when the people act rationally and decide on the basis of knowledge. This group prefers online shopping for three motives: convenience (Ratchford et al., 2001), selection and the ability to control the shopping (Evans & Wurster, 1999), and informativeness. Ha and Stoel (2008) proposed that the requirements of online shopping like privacy, security, website design, customer service, and shopping experience are the main factor forming perceptions of ease of use and benefits of e-commerce. In addition, some dissonance factors exist in online shopping that are not found in traditional commerce; for example, security and privacy concerns, lack of salesperson advice, or the inability to touch, smell, taste (Hanafizadeh & Behboudi, 2012), and see the product are factors that increase shopping risk.