An empirical investigation of online consumer purchasing behavior

Abstract

This article is focused on examining the factors and relationships that influence the browsing and buying behavior of individuals when they shop online. Specifically, we are interested in individual buyers using business-to-consumer sites. We are also inter-ested in examining shopping preferences based on various demographic categories that might exhibit distinct purchasing attitudes and behaviors for certain categories of products and services. We examine these behaviors in the context of both products and services. After a period of decline in recent months, online shopping is on the rise again. By some estimates, total U.S. spending on online sales increased to $5.7 billion in December 2001 from $3.2 billion in June of 2001 [3, 5]. By these same estimates, the number of households shopping online increased to 18.7 million in December 2001 from 13.1 million in June 2001. Consumers spent an average of $304 per per-son in December 2001, compared with $247 in June 2001. According to an analyst at Forrester: “The fact that online retail remained stable during... such social and eco-nomic instability speaks volumes about how well eCommerce is positioned to stand