Perception of Internet Shopping: A Study on the Experienced and Inexperienced Internet Shoppers for College Students

Over the past decade, Internet shopping has grown substantially. Although the fast advancing information infrastructure makes the connectivity possible to reach almost anywhere in the world, it does not necessarily ensure a successful development of Internet shopping platform for every Internet shoppers. The important factor that could influence the diffusion of Internet commerce can be the difference of the perception on the Internet shopping. A factor that could influence the perception is the difference in internet shopping experience of internet buyers. To examine the effect of internet shopping experience on the perception for Internet shopping, Internet shoppers from two markedly different groups experience and inexperienced group were chosen, and the perception for Internet shopping of experienced Internet shoppers is contrasted with those of inexperienced internet shoppers. Using the variables identified by the literature, this study identified differences in perception on Internet shopping between U.S. and Korean shoppers and also identified the particular variables that facilitate or hinder the Internet shoppers in each country. In order to reach a proper subset of Internet shoppers, more than 100 experienced and inexperienced Internet shoppers in the U.S. colleges were chosen. For the analysis of data, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), analysis of variance (ANOVA), and factor analysis were utilized. The results indicate that the perceptions of Internet shoppers in the two groups are different in some of the variables identified in this study.