Identifying Purchase Perceptions that Affect Consumers' Internet Buying

Abstract

This chapter examines how purchase perceptions influence consumers’ Internet buying practices. Using traditional, pre-Internet era buying motivators as a starting point, a survey is developed specifically for Internet consumers. With the goal of developing a better understanding of Internet buyers, 16 influencers falling within four general categories—product perception, shopping experience, customer service, and consumer risk—are examined. Results are reported for each category and related to demographic variables. The survey instrument described in this chapter, along with the results of the survey, are important tools for furthering the understanding of the growth in electronic retailing. Successful electronic retailers, merchants, and e-commerce systems developers must understand and acknowledge the effects that consumers’ perceptions about the marketplace in general and about each vendor’s website in particular play in consumer’s decisions to buy or not to buy.