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Volume 4 Issue 1 November 2006
Motivators for Australian Consumers to Search and Shop Online
Ian Michael
College of Business Sciences, Zayed University, Dubai, UAE
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This paper investigates the factors that motivate Australian consumers to use the Internet to search and shop for products and services. A qualitative research method was used, utilizing a semi-structured, in-depth interview technique. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted, using a snowball sampling method. The study found that they were six motivating factors that drew consumers to search and shop online for products and services.
These factors include: convenience, saving time, cheaper prices along with the ability to compare prices, good place to shop for specialty and hard to access products, higher level of consumer control, and the ease of comparing products and services. Of all the six motivating factors, ‘convenience’ was found to be the leading one, and the key motivating factor for consumers in Australia to search and shop for products and services over the Internet.
This study has also revealed that not only does searching and shopping for products over the Internet save consumers time, it also frees them from the task of mundane shopping. Cheaper prices and a greater variety of products and services which were available from around the world, was another key motivating factor. The other key factor was the ability for consumers to search and shop for hard to find products, most of these being unavailable in Australia.
Keywords:
Motivating factors; Internet; Consumer behaviour; Search; Shop; Online
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