Customer behavior in electronic commerce: The moderating effect of e-purchasing experience

a r t i c l e i n f o This study analyzes the perceptions which induce customers to purchase over the Internet, testing the moderating effect of e-purchasing experience. We distinguish between two groups: (1) potential e-customers, who are considering making their first e-purchase, and (2) experienced e-customers, who have made at least one e-purchase and are thinking about continuing to do so. The perceptions that induce individuals to purchase online for the first time may not be the same as those that produce repurchasing behavior. Our findings demonstrate that customer behavior does not remain stable because the experience acquired from past e-purchases means that perceptions evolve. The relationships between perceptions of e-commerce change with purchasing experience, whilst the influence of Internet experience is stable for all users. The implications are especially interesting for e-commerce providers whose business models depend on e-customer behavior. The analysis of consumer behavior is a key aspect for the success of an e-business. However, the behavior of consumers in the Internet market changes as they acquire e-purchasing experience (Gefen et al., 2003; Yu et al., 2005). The perceptions which induce them to make an initial e-purchase may have different effects on their subsequent decisions or repurchasing behavior because the use of the information technology (IT) may modify certain perceptions and attitudes (Thompson et al. Despite these differences, very little research carried out in the e-commerce field has conducted a separate analysis of the perceptions related to the adoption and to the " post-adoption " decisions (Karahanna et al., 1999; Vijayasarathy, 2004). Moreover, hardly any researchers have analyzed the behavior of e-customers as they gain experience (as Taylor and Todd, 1995; Vijayasarathy, 2004 state). Most studies have considered that the low level of development of this new channel meant that the differences between the two decisions were not yet significant, and their principal objective was, therefore, to determine the perceptions which led consumers to adopt the Internet as an alternative shopping channel to the offline market (Chen et al., 2002; Verhagen et al., 2006). Nevertheless, the growth of e-commerce has made it clear that customer behavior has evolved. As in other types of purchase situations (Sheth, 1968; Heilman et al., 2000), customer behavior does not necessarily remain stable over time since the experience acquired from past purchases means that perceptions change (Taylor and Todd, 1995; Yu et al., 2005). When customers repeat their behavior …