The influence of web personalisation on the consumer’s decision-making process

Abstract

The intention of this study is to establish whether consumers are influenced through online web personalisation. Several factors such as privacy concerns can influence the perception of web personalisation or the online buying behaviour of the consumer. This study intends to identify and understand the influence of web personalisation on the online consumers’ decision-making process and to collect data about their preferences, such as whether they prefer to have product recommendations based on their previous purchases’ transactions and personal information. Primary and secondary research was conducted by gathering information from literature and by distributing a self-administered online questionnaire. The total number of responses was 304. Non-probability sampling was used to select participants from the population living in Malta aged between 18 and 52 years. The results showed that the participants that rely on personalised recommendations are more likely to have an effective online shopping journey and reduce the probability of changing to an alternative product brand. However, the participants claimed that if the recommendations are based on their personal information, they are less likely to make an online purchase because they are concerned about privacy. Web personalisation is developing as technology advances, and from this study it can be concluded that companies that present personalised content effectively should clearly state the use of personal information as this can influence the purchase intention of the consumer and change their perception about personalised content.