Second-Order Digital Inequality: the Case of E-Commerce

“Second-order digital inequality" describes that certain individuals profit less from digital opportunities not only due to limited access but also due to limited abilities to use information and communication technologies (ICT). This study extends research on second-order digital inequality to the realm of e-commerce. We introduce a novel conceptualization of effective, potentially beneficial, e-commerce use that encompasses two dimensions: (1) the diversity of e-commerce platforms used by an individual; (2) the degree to which an individual uses supporting e-commerce features. Building on technology acceptance theory and social psychology, we argue that socio-economically disadvantaged individuals are less likely to use e-commerce effectively than socioeconomically advantaged individuals. We empirically test our hypotheses on clickstream data that tracks the online behavior of 2819 US e-commerce users for six month. Our findings reveal that, despite equal access, the socio-economically advantaged use e-commerce more effectively regarding both dimensions. Implications for research and practice are discussed.