An assessment of the factors driving consumer's propensity to purchase online

Abstract

Despite the tremendous global development within the electronic-commerce (e-commerce) industry, marketers in emerging economies are still lagging in understanding the dynamic consumers’ online purchasing behaviour. Furthermore, the literature reporting on consumers’ online purchasing practices in an African set up remains largely inconsistent and fragmented as most previous studies are based on consumers in first world countries. To address this problem, by specifically targeting the South African market, the main aim of the study was to establish key factors driving consumers’ propensity to purchase online in order to device a model that guides online marketing strategy and future research. Guided by the quantitative research approach and a descriptive single cross-sectional design, data was collected from a sample of 350 participants drawn from Sandon City, located in the Gauteng Province using a self-administered questionnaire. With the aid of SPSS Version 26, the collected data were analysed through descriptive and multivariate statistical tests. Consumer innovativeness, perceived benefits, online shopping experience and perceived risk were found to be the major factors driving consumers’ propensity to purchase online. These factors were however found to vary according to demographic characteristics, particularly pertaining to consumers’ education and income level. Ultimately, the study findings led to the formulation of a model that can be recommended to marketers in guiding online shopping within the South African retail sector and regionally.