Research On Online Purchasing Decision-making Of Consumers Orientedto The Whole B2C Transaction Processes

With the growing of influence role of online shopping, B2 C, as an important application in the field of e-commerce, has brought a positive role in promoting the development of e-commerce. In recent years, it has been focused on the field about the decision-making behaviors of consumers’ shopping online for some related researches and it has accumulated a certain theoretical basis, some analytical methods and empirical user studies. The development of e-commerce in China, which has the world’s largest number of internet users, has made great contribution to Chinese economy, but meanwhile brought a lot of new management problems for it. The most prominent phenomenon is that the proportion of Chinese netizens that have ever shopped online is not enough(in 2012 accounted for about 40%).Most of existing researches on decision-making behaviors of consumers’ shopping online focused on the experienced consumers, a few on the potential consumers but which are not exactly those who have never shopped online before. Therefore, it is difficult to use previous research results to analyze and explain the behaviors of those Chinese netizens why they have never shopped online before although they have used network for many years. It is necessary for us to confront and find the solutions for it through our research.In order to have a more comprehensive study on decision-making process of consumers’ online shopping behavior and find the evolution of action and its influence mechanism in the B2 C development of China, particularly to explore the characteristics and differences of online shopping decision-making behaviors between potential and experienced consumers in Chinese netizens, the purpose of this study is to work on the research about the decision-making behaviors of consumers in the whole process of B2 C transactions. In this paper, it is proposed that there are two different stages for consumer behaviors during they are shopping online, in the first stage their attitudes to accept online shopping system will be built up, in the second stage their implementation of online shopping decisions will be made, there are independent factors and mechanism of action in each stage. Therefore, the main research content in this paper is divided into three parts: First of all, it is an empirical study engaged in exploring what uncertain factors in the entire B2 C transactions process are have significantly impacts on consumer behaviors. Secondly, it is about the attitude formation model of consumers to shopping online. Thirdly, it is about the model of online shopping decision-making behaviors of consumers. In attitude and behavior models, results from comparative analyses about potential consumers and experienced consumers are provided. The results from the comparisons could provide us the bases of in-depth research about potential consumers, a revelation of decision theory and the evidence of decision-making practice.This study was conducted on the basis of domestic and abroad literature review about the impact factors on consumer online shopping behavior, influences among factors and consumer decision-making behavior patterns, using the theory of planned behavior, technology acceptance theory(TAM model), consumers perceived value theory, prospect theory and mental accounting theory, and based on empirical research about the uncertainty factors on the whole B2 C e-commerce transactions process, to verify that there were definitely several important factors which have important impacts on consumer online shopping decision-making behavior; Then, theoretical models about the attitudes of consumers for online shopping and the behaviors of consumers in online shopping decision-making were constructed, and a large scale survey was provided in accordance with the scientific method. Questionnaire was divided into two parts, one was about the consumers with online shopping experiences, and the other was about the potential consumers of Chinese netizens who had never been shopping online before. A total of 783 valid questionnaires from experienced consumers, and 308 valid questionnaires from potential consumers were received. By using SPSS17.0 and AMOS as analytical tools, multivariate statistical analysis and structural equation methods were used to analyze and test the hypotheses in online shopping attitude models and purchasing decisions behavioral models about experienced consumers and potential consumers. The results showed that:In the formation process of consumers’ attitude for online shopping and in the decision-making process of consumers, there were significant differences between the behaviors of potential consumers and experienced consumers. Firstly, the consumer’s ability perception was an important antecedent factor that influenced their attitude towards online shopping and online shopping decision-making behavior, and there was a significant difference about ability perception between potential and experienced consumers. Secondly, in the formation process of consumers’ attitude to online shopping, there were significant differences about the attitude formation mechanism between different consumers: For the potential consumers, they perceived the ease of use of online shopping system at the first, then they got their trust perception for merchants and their security perception for online shopping system, these helped them understanding the usefulness of online shopping system, and at last affect their attitude towards online shopping; But for the experienced consumers, their strong ability to network applications, had a direct positive influence on their attitudes towards online shopping. Finally, in the decision-making process of consumers’ shopping online, there were significant differences about some effective measurement items reflecting the behaviors of different consumers, there was also a significant difference in the influence mechanism of the factors between different consumers’ decision-making behaviors. For potential consumers, they would implement their online shopping behavior just only if they thought they had have the network resource and control capability for e-commerce shopping system, they would be more willing to make their purchasing decisions based on the risk and cost considerations; But for experienced consumers, as more rational decision-makers, their buying decisions were depended on their perceived benefits and perceived value from the shopping online.