Perceived Barriers to E-commerce: Empirical Evidence from EU Countries

Abstract

Internet usage is growing rapidly among the world. Furthermore, Internet usage is widely accepted among EU countries' citizens. In this paper intend is to research to what extent Internet sales by individuals is influenced by the barriers people perceive to buying/ordering over the Internet, using of Internet, and level of computer/Internet skills them posses. A data source for that research Eurostat database will be used. For investigating the research question the multiple linear regression models will be applied. As dependent variable percentage of individuals who used Internet for buying goods and/or services within last 3 months will be used. As independent variables following will be used: (1) perceived barriers are used for analysis, (2) level of computer skills, (3) level of Internet skills, and (4) level of Internet usage. The percentage of the individuals who bought goods/services over the Internet within last 3 months and factors: giving personal details over the Internet, level of necessary computer usage skills, and lack of necessary computer usage skills have been found to be statistically significant. In this research both hypotheses can be accepted, thus confirming that buying over the Internet in EU countries is influenced both by the level of individuals' skills and the level of perceived barriers.

How Uncertainty Avoidance, Power Distance and Indulgence Affect Social Commerce Expenditure? An Investigation Based on Facebook

“…The evolution of social commerce reintroduces the social aspect in online interaction which enables consumers to find correct information and a better price about the related products as they share their shopping experiences (Kim and Park, 2013). However, despite these advantages consumers take a negative attitude to online shopping because of reasons such as impossibility of trying the products out, prejudice against software and computer technologies, problems during payment, spending long time to find information and the risk of being scammed or theft of personal information (Lian and Yen, 2013;Rudolph et al, 2004;Simicevic et al, 2012). Despite the developments in e-commerce and the inclusion of s-commerce, these facts pose a major obstacle in terms of the total volume of online shopping (Pradas et al, 2013).…”