Online apparel shopping behavior: Effects of consumer information search on purchase decision making in the digital age

Abstract

With e-Commerce activities burgeoning over the last decades, consumers have seemingly been switching their purchases from the physical marketplace to the Internet marketspace. However, it remains skeptical as to why the consumers are able to make purchase decisions in lack of personally experiencing the products. This study, on the basis of the Engel-Kollat-Blackwell Consumer Purchase Behavior Model (the EKB Model), attempted to explore the effects of the information search behavior in the context of the digital age on consumer decision making when buying apparel via the Internet. The sample consists of 344 with experience of buying apparel products via the Internet, and they were recruited from one of the most popular local online forums, in answer to the questionnaire by recall method. The study found that the information search behavior is related to the decision making, particularly in terms of fame information, visual information, comparison information, e-word-of-mouth information, and promotional information. Moreover, the results proved that personality traits, to some extent, affected the information search and decision making, except for the effects of the performance risk and the personal risk on the decision making.