Internationalisation of e-commerce: a comparison of online shopping preferences among Korean, Turkish and US populations

Abstract

International e-commerce has been developed as an efficient means of global transaction, and it may be further improved, especially in B2C, if adapted to the conditions of local markets, such as economy, infrastructure and culture. To obtain the insight in the internationalisation of e-commerce, we investigated online shopping preferences in three nations – the US (well developed in e-commerce), Korea (fast growing with good infrastructure) and Turkey (developing with good potentials). A survey of 205 Korean university students was conducted, and its results were compared with the results of Turkish and US surveys in Lightner et al. ( 2002 Lightner, NJ , Yenisey, MM Ozok, AA . 2002. Shopping behaviour and preferences in e-commerce of Turkish and American university students: implications from cross-cultural design. Behaviour and Information Technology, 21: pp. 373 – 85 ). We found significant cross-national differences in online shopping preferences, especially in information accuracy, security and product-price comparison, and discussed those differences in terms of economic, infrastructural and cultural factors. Several practical guidelines were provided for website design in the Korean online market.