Product type and Maltese online shopping intent

Abstract

This dissertation investigated online shopping intention by Maltese Internet users for products categorised by tangibility. Data was collected from a quota sample of 303 Internet users (151 online buyers and 152 non-online buyers) who were selected according to the age categories of the NSO ICT survey (2002). The measuring instrument was based on Peterson et al.'s (1997) value proposition dimension and Vijayasarathy's (2002) instrument and books and software were the analysed products. An analysis of the findings revealed that Maltese respondents intend to shop online more for books than for software. Other findings show that perceived offerings and customer service perceptions regarding books and software affect Internet users' online shopping intent. The conclusions from this study indicate that Maltese users buy online according to their perceptions of the offers themselves and according to their customer service perceptions. This may be an opportunity for locale-marketers to improve their online customer service and to improve their offerings in order to increase their sales.