Internet Shopping Studied

Nervous about making an online purchase? You're not alone. But it's up to retailers to assuage your fears about fraud and credit card security, and a Rutgers-Camden researcher offers advice for Web retailers seeking to turn browsers into buyers.

Simplify the online purchasing process to net more buyers, says Carol Kaufman-Scarborough, an associate professor of marketing at the Rutgers University School of Business at Camden, who adds that retailers who guide users through their sites in a straightforward manner build trust in their companies.

Her research, recently presented at the American Collegiate Retailing Association Conference, focuses on consumers who report browsing the Web, but fear completing an online purchase. Kaufman-Scarborough's study tests whether certain Web features help the fearful browser feel more at ease with online purchasing.

The Rutgers-Camden scholar surveyed individuals who use the Internet for at least one hour a week about their browsing and purchasing habits at retail stores, using catalogues, and through Web sites for the past year. The users also evaluated the helpfulness of 32 Web site characteristics, such as music, customer comments, links to online help, pictures of products, explanation of security information, and the use of a shopping cart for gathering products.

Fearful shoppers are comforted by guides to links within the retail site, links to similar Web sites, and links to online help, says Kaufman-Scarborough, who adds that such features help the shoppers better navigate the site and may lower frustration and confusion about making an online purchase.

"Retail services can greatly help to build consumer confidence by providing company history on their Web sites and by strategically placing this information for the fearful shopper to access quickly," says Kaufman-Scarborough. As well, there seems to be a confidence booster for the fearful shopper when the Web site promotes that the identical products sold over the Internet can also be purchased in their stores.

Unfamiliar online shopping methods, such as the shopping cart, the ability to use credit cards, and the ability to compute shipping information, only serve to scare away buyers. "Sixty percent of my respondents indicated that they feel that shopping carts are not helpful," reports Kaufman-Scarborough. She indicates that further research needs to be conducted to determine how to design shopping carts to encourage, and not hinder, e-commerce.

Explanations of security information and reassurances of secure connections were equally likely to be perceived as helpful by both the fearful and confident shoppers.

Based on her research, Kaufman-Scarborough suggests that retailers wishing to increase their online sales might focus their Web sites on greater user-friendliness and downplay any unnecessary frills that might interfere with a satisfying online shopping experience.

Unlike most previous research on Internet users, Kaufman-Scarborough's findings show no correlation between being a fearful online shopper and marital status, education, total household income, and gender. She did find a slight difference among fearful and confident shoppers in terms of full-time employment and age, where fearful shoppers tended to work less than full-time and tended to be a bit older.

A recipient of the 2004 Outstanding Teacher in Marketing Award by the Academy of Marketing Science, Kaufman-Scarborough teaches undergraduate and MBA classes at the Rutgers University School of Business at Camden.

Article continues below

---

advertisement

---

Author: Press Release