DRIVERS AND INHIBITORS OF ONLINE SHOPPING IN KOGI STATE

Abstract

This research is an attempt to explore the drivers and inhibitors of online shopping in Kogi State, Nigeria. Over the past few decades, the Internet has developed into a vast global market place for the exchange of goods and services. This is such that the Internet has been adopted as an important medium, offering a wide assortment of products with 24-hour availability and wide area coverage. E-commerce has become an irreplaceable marketing channel in business transactions. This however depends on availability of Internet infrastructure and Internet penetration. However, there is very limited knowledge about online consumer behaviour because it is a complicated socio-technical phenomenon and involves too many factors. Hence the main objective of this study is to explore those factors that inhibit and facilitate online shopping in Kogi State. This goal has been followed by using a model examining the impact of perceived risks, infrastructural variables and return policy on attitude toward online shopping behaviour as inhibitor variables; and subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, domain specific innovativeness and attitude on online shopping behaviour as the hypotheses of study. To investigate these hypotheses 250 copies of questionnaire were distributed among online shoppers in Kogi State, Nigeria. Respondents to the questionnaire were consumers of online stores which include hotels, shopping centres, online shops etc. which randomly selected. Finally, regression analysis was used on data in order to test hypotheses of the study. The study identified that financial risks and non-delivery risk affected attitude toward online shopping. Results also indicated that domain specific innovativeness and subjective norms positively affect online shopping behaviour. Furthermore, attitude toward online shopping positively affected online shopping behaviour of consumers. Based on the results and findings, retail companies should start taking measures to eliminate risk factor and build trust in this form of retail.