The impact of website design on consumer decision making – evidence from North Macedonia

Abstract

Today, almost one third of the world population are digital buyers. The hypothesis that more life moves online, the less damage to our environment is still unclear. E-commerce sites and the underlying supply chain can have both positive and negative impacts on the environment. Sustainable web design is an approach to designing websites that puts people and the planet first. It is a growing movement as organizations look for opportunities to reduce their influence on the environment. This research elaborates on determinants of consumer behavior that shape online purchase processes and affect the final consumer decision to buy. It discusses the importance of website design on consumer decision-making in e-commerce. Consumer decision-making and behavior during online shopping in the literature are measured by numerous models. One of the primary motivators for any online store to attract customers is the quality of website design. Website quality refers to the overall excellence, effectiveness, and usability of a website. It influences consumers’ perceptions of product quality and affects online purchase intentions (Sun, Chen, and Huang, 2014) and even continuation intentions (Chawla et al., 2015). Website quality as well positively affects online impulse buying behaviour (Akram et.al. 2018). The design of a website interface plays an important role in online purchasing, and customers are more likely to visit and buy from better-designed websites (Chiu and Yang, 2016). This paper proposes that website design quality is a multi-dimensional construct. To support the importance of the construct, a review of different studies is conducted elaborating on the impact of website design on consumer attitude and behavioral intention in North Macedonia. This study has theoretical and practical implications on the existing knowledge and provides managerial insights for e-vendors implying that to promote online shopping, they need to improve the quality features of the website and enhance users’ trust.