Our findings regarding motivators and barriers to online shopping clearly indicate
that convenience and customer service can act as strong motivators when present;
they can also be strong barriers when absent. Security and privacy concerns were the
single biggest barriers to online shopping. Contrary to popular notion, these factors
were found to be more important than price.
This study does have some limitations that need to be acknowledged and addressed
in future studies. First, though these samples provide us with a good understanding of
the online purchasing behavior of a highly educated and computer and Internet savvy
consumer group, they may not provide insights into the behavior of a consumer who
is not a regular computer user, but is nevertheless buying online. As Internet use is
exploding across all demographics, it would be interesting to compare the buying
behavior of these two types of populations. Secondly, this survey only asked for income
and it did not specify whether it was personal or household income. We may have
obtained responses from both of these income categories. However, we believe that this
does not compromise the integrity of the survey since the focus is on how people spend
their disposable income.
Finally, an important element of online purchasing behavior is the use of the
Internet for research as well as for purchase. The Internet as a source of consumer
information for offline buying has implications for how Web sites are designed, their
content, and how well a site meets consumer needs. Further research should address
these issues.
While other studies of online consumer expectations in the e-commerce area have
been conducted, most of them are carried out by commercial organizations. To our
knowledge, this is the first systematic study of this issue conducted by academic and
non-biased researchers. We believe this to be a contributing factor.