Adoption of online shopping by German grocery shoppers

Abstract

This study investigates how perceived attributes of online shopping and the psychological characteristics of consumers such as market mavenism, time-stressed behaviour and familiarity with the Internet impact the acceptance and frequency of shopping for physical goods on the Internet. In the study, the traditional adoption paradigm is refined by specifying in a more differentiated manner the outcome of the adoption behaviour and by postulating a mediator and moderator structure which underlies the relation between psychological characteristics, innovation attributes and adoption outcome. Empirical results identify missing touch and feel experiences as the most influential negative obstacle, and the chance to make better deals, the convenience of a delivery service and the independence of opening hours as the most influential positive factors for the adoption of online shopping. Familiarity also favours adoption behaviour, leading to a uniformly better assessment of many online shopping attributes. The influence of time-stressed behaviour and market mavenism on adoption behaviour is ambiguous and their effects appear to be more complex.