Predictors of online buying behavior

Bellman, S., Lohse, G.L. and Johnson, E.J. (1999) Predictors of online buying behavior. Communications of the ACM, 42 (12). pp. 32-38.

Abstract

What personal characteristics predict whether or not people buy on the Net? Look for a "wired" lifestyle and time starvation, not demographics.

Consumers worldwide can shop online 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Some market sectors, including insurance, financial services, computer hardware and software, travel, books, music, video, flowers, and automobiles, are experiencing rapid growth in online sales [7]. For example, in Jan. 1999, Dell Computer Corp. was selling an average of $14 million of equipment online per day [3], and Amazon.com has become the third largest bookseller in the U.S., despite being in business only since 1995 [6]. With projections that the Internet will generate consumer and business-to-business sales in excess of $294 billion by 2002 [2], online retailing raises many questions about how to market on the Net.