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Finally, adoption of the Internet as a shopping medium is a function of the Internet as a sales medium, Internet retailers’ characteristics, and consumers themselves. Furthermore, the adoption process interacts with the consumer’s product/service purchasing process. Product categories shape the consumer decision-making process and hence their adoption of a new shopping medium. These four variables all potentially impact consumers’ adoption behavior for online shopping. However, very little research provides a comprehensive picture of how all these interrelated factors––medium factors, Internet retailer factors, consumer factors, and product factors––impact consumers’ adoption of the Internet as a shopping medium. A comprehensive framework is needed that shows how these factors work together to influence consumers’ online shopping behavior.
A Research Model
Building on innovation adoption theory and consumer decision making, this research proposed a framework of consumers’ dynamic adoption of the Internet as a shopping medium with respect to the decision-making steps completed online and the intention to continue shopping online.
Consumers’ adoption of the Internet as a shopping medium occurs within the process of decision making. At some point in the decision-making process, a consumer chooses whether or not to use the Internet to complete part or all of the shopping process.