Foresight for online shopping behavior: a study of attribution for “what next syndrome”

The online shopping behavior is the outcome of the variety of attribution from product/ service offering to internet experience. The present study attempts to develop a complete product/service offering by exploring and examining the different combinations of online shopping attributes to provide the customized experience. Therefore, this study aims to fill the gap of customer desired experience and present scenario in online shopping behavior.

The exploration of attributes pertaining to online shopping behavior was done by seeking theoretical support from different technology adoption theories/models and the Delphi technique, exercised with active participants of online and offline shopping. The theoretical and experience shared attributes were devised and social desirability scale (SDS) was used for eliminating the social desirability bias. Further, the questionnaire was administered online and offline during mall intercept. The Conjoint analysis was used to investigate the relative importance and utilities of the attributes and its levels individually and compositely at different levels.

In the context, brand loyalty, online reputation management and Web interactivity were found most relavant followed by e-WOM, perceived risk and price. The specific levels of attributes such as taking consumer advice, search engine optimization (SEO), perception-based interactivity, consumer message boards, product risk and discount pricing were the crucial in motivating the customers for online shopping. This research affords the avenue for the marketers to motivate and delight consumers to retribalize by the way of “e-tribalizing.”

The current study was conducted in confined geographical locations and limited in sample size; thus, the issue of generalization may prevail, but forthcoming researchers may exercise the techniques with better probabilistic sampling technique. The mass customization of the website features by comparing attribute orientation of customers around websites was recommended with the third-party certification to reduce the consumers’ perceived risk during online shopping. Finally, the different levels, such as Facebook fan page in ORM and Everyday Low Price (EDLP) in pricing may be considered for the future research work.

The research studies on online shopping behavior with Web interactivity, e-WOM, perceived risk, brand loyalty, ORM and price using a decompositional technique are scant. This study persuades the customers to go for online shopping by putting them in the almost real-time purchasing scenario. The study confirmed the need of people to retribalize through e-tribalization by the way of customization for the masses in the context of online shopping.