Past Purchasing Behavior in E-Commerce: The Impact on Intentions to Shop Online

Abstract

As e-commerce becomes more competitive, it is increasingly important for Web vendors to understand why people choose to—or choose not to—buy online. Ajzen (1985, 1991) developed the Theory of Planned Behavior to predict and explain human behavior. The current study tests a modified form of the theory in an online shopping context. It is hypothesized that past online purchasing behavior will contribute toward explaining intentions to purchase online in the future, independent of the theory’s original antecedents—attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. Two-hundred-forty students from two universities completed a Web survey developed from an open-ended elicitation questionnaire. Results indicate that in addition to attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, past purchasing behavior is directly related to intentions to shop online in the future. Adding past purchasing behavior also significantly improves the explanatory effect of the model. Unexpectedly, past behavior was independent of attitude and subjective norm, but interacted with perceived behavioral control. These results suggest that the challenge to Web vendors is to entice potential customers to try online shopping, as experienced shoppers quickly gain control and confidence in the online shopping process.