Factors influencing consumers' online shopping in China
| Date | 02 August 2013 |
| Pages | 214-230 |
| Published date | 02 August 2013 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JABS-02-2013-0006 |
| Author | Wen Gong,Rodney L. Stump,Lynda M. Maddox |
| Subject Matter | Strategy |
Factors influencing consumers’ online
shopping in China
Wen Gong, Rodney L. Stump and Lynda M. Maddox
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the factors influencing Chinese
consumers to shop online by exploring the effects of user demographic characteristics and media
characteristics on shopping intention.
Design/methodology/approach – A nationwide online survey of 503 Chinese consumers was carried
out to test the proposed conceptual model of online shopping intention using hierarchical regression.
The results support most of the proposed hypotheses.
Findings – Chinese consumers’ age, income, education and marital status, and their perceived
usefulness are significant predictors of online shopping intention.
Research limitations/implications – Future research should use actual online purchases as the
dependent variable and explore the effects of product characteristics, merchants and intermediate
characteristics, as well as environmental influences in online shopping behavior.
Practical implications – Consideration of individual differences in explaining Chinese consumers’
online buying intention could provide a better understanding of users’ adoption of the internet as a
shopping and transaction channel, as well as enhance an e-tailer’s market targeting and segmentation
effectiveness. E-marketers should incorporate features that can enhance online shopping efficiency.
Originality/value – Given the tremendous growth of B2C e-commerce in China, there is a critical need
for understanding what drives Chinese consumers to shop online. As one of the few large-scale
empirical studies on Chinese consumers’ online shopping behavior, these results will enable
e-marketers to better design their e-marketing strategies that cater to Chinese consumers’ changing
needs and lifestyles and improve their online shopping experiences and satisfaction.
Keywords Consumer behaviour, Internet, Shopping, Chinese consumers, Online shopping intentions,
B2C e-commerce
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
China now has 420 million internet users (CNNIC, 2010), representing the highest per
country usage in the world. With growing disposable income, the hundreds of millions of
netizens[1] are spending more and more on information and communication products and
services compared to their daily necessities, thus creating huge prospects for the
development of e-commerce and a digital economy in China. While many countries
worldwide were severely hit by the global recession, China’s online retail market appeared to
be unaffected and has actually been growing steadily. Recent data reveal that China had
87.88 million users shopping on the Internet compared to 74 million the previous year
(CNNIC, 2009). This rapid growth represents opportunities as well as challenges for both
domestic and international marketers operating in the e-commerce space. Thus it is crucial
for e-marketers to understand what drives Chinese consumers to shop on the Internet in
order to design e-marketing strategies that caters to their changing needs and lifestyles and
improve their online shopping experiences and satisfaction.
PAGE 214
j
JOURNAL OF ASIA BUSINESS STUDIES
j
VOL. 7 NO. 3 2013, pp. 214-230, QEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1558-7894 DOI 10.1108/JABS-02-2013-0006
Wen Gong is based in the
Department of Marketing,
Howard University School
of Business, Washington,
DC, USA. Rodney L. Stump
is based in the Department
of Marketing, Towson
University, Towson,
Maryland, USA.
Lynda M. Maddox is based
at The George Washington
University,Washington, DC,
USA
Received 13 February 2013
Accepted 17 March 2013
Despite the surge in internet usage in China, analysts and researchers have questioned
whether Chinese consumers will become avid online shoppers. They point to China’s cultural
preference for face-to-face business interactions as well as regulatory issues as factors that
may inhibit the development of online shopping (Raven et al., 2007; Rein, 2008).
While there is a growing body of research exploring consumers’ online shopping behavior in
Western context, far less is known in other parts of the world (Stafford et al., 2004). Thus,
whether these studies and associated theories are generalizable to other cultural contexts
such as China remains largely unknown. Todate, relatively few empirical studies have been
carried out in the Chinese context. Given the tremendous growth this market is experiencing,
an in-depth understanding of the underlying motivations, attitudes and behaviors of Chinese
online shoppers is needed if marketers and advertisers are to influence consumers’ online
buying decisions. This paper intends to fill some of this knowledge gap by empirically
investigating the determinants of Chinese consumers’ online shopping intentions.
In the following section, we review both the Chinese online retail market and factors identified
in the existing literature that influence consumers’ online buying intentions. Next, we present
our conceptual model and a series of hypotheses derived from it. Following that, we
describe our methodology, present the results of our survey, discuss the implications of
these findings and tender recommendations for future research.
Literature review
Overview of China’s online retail market
One manifestation of China’s continuous rapid economic growth during the past two
decades is its consumers’ swelling consumption power (Zhao et al., 2008). As a result of the
growing affordability and availability of Internet access, more and more Chinese consumers
are using the internet for information, entertainment and communication purposes. At the
same time, Chinese consumers’ increasing understanding of online applications, a more
transparent and convenient online shopping environment and expanding investments by
companies have turned more and more Chinese netizens into online shoppers. Evidence of
this is reflected in China’s online retail market value reaching USD 18.8 billion in 2008 with a
vigorous growth rate of 128.5 percent in 2008 (Lee, 2009). Rising against the global
economic crisis, China’s online shopping penetration rate has reached24.8 percent and the
online B2C (business-to-consumer) annual growth rate is expected to exceed 100 percent
over the next two years (CNNIC, 2009; Lee, 2009).
One decade after the establishment of the first B2C web site 8848.com in 1999, China’s B2C
e-commerce has entered a stage of rapid development (Weng and Lee, 2009; Shanghai
Business Review, 2010). In contrast to most Western markets, C2C (consumer to consumer)
e-commerce (akin to eBay’smodel) currently dominates China’s online shopping market with
93.2 percent of total online sales in 2008 (CNNIC, 2009). Exemplifying this is Taobao, the
largest e-tailer in China whose web site allows buyers to shop in C2C bazaars as well as B2C
branded stores. However, the online B2C market is expected to rapidly grow and become
the main driver behind the market expansion in the future as the B2C platform matures and
more local and foreign firms use this model to enter the market (Lee, 2009; Shanghai
Business Review, 2010).
Chinese netizens have greatly increased their online spending over the years. The average
spending online reached RMB1,600 (USD 234.3) in 2008 (IResearch, 2009; Lee, 2009) (see
Figure 1 for trends from 2003 to 2008). Like their Western counterparts, the online shopping
lists of Chinese consumers have also expanded a great deal from the initial simple selection
of books, music and video products to include a more extensive array of product categories
including apparel, housewares, digital products and many others.
Critics posit that e-commerce will not work in China, arguing that Chinese consumers are
traditionally conservative savers who refuse to buy on credit, distrust online vendors due to
privacy and quality concerns, and need to feel and touch a product before purchasing it
(Rein, 2008). Such perceptions may be in a state of flux as things have changed dramatically
VOL.7NO.32013
j
JOURNAL OF ASIA BUSINESS STUDIES
j
PAGE 215
To continue reading
Request your trial