Since the onset of e-commerce, e-businesses have always been interested in knowing what propels their customers. An extensive literature review has been cast around the said reason to identify factors affecting online buying behavior. Twenty-six factors have been identified initially, out of which price; convenience; security; information; enjoyment; access and tangibility/ sensation have been found to be most cited. These factors have been further explored to examine their implications in managerial decision making. Managerial implications have been discussed at the end. This review will help businesses and academicians to build basic foundation while proposing a strategy or systematic study focusing on online buying behavior.
Keywords Online Buying Behavior, E-Commerce, Online Shopping
IntroductionEver since commerce started, businesses have always tried to identify and understand factors influencing consumer buying behavior. Therefore, consumer behavior is not a new phenomenon. Marketers have used consumer behavior theories to attract and retain their customers. Later, advent of internet and e-commerce led to the phenomenon called "online consumer behavior". It is expected that more than 2 billion individuals worldwide will purchase goods and services from the web, up from 1.46 billion digital buyers in 2015 (Statista.com, 2016). Over last few years' different online consumer behavior models have been developed to understand and predict the wide range of decisions that consumers make based on the background of customer profile, online shop profile, and other intervening factors. However, researchers have suggested that as compared to traditional consumer behavior, online behaviors of consumers are subtlety different in nature because of unique characteristics and interplay of technology, culture and differences in diffusion of e-commerce (Chau et al., 2002). Therefore, this study undertakes extensive literature review to identify factors affecting online buying behavior and offers foundational work to businesses and academicians. Literature Review Seventy-four studies related to online consumer behavior under this literature review have been sourced from well-known publishers and reputed conference proceedings. Research published in past two decades (from 1997 to 2016) is sorted in four phases i