Connected homes and online retail: the case of IoT enabled online shopping

Abstract We consider the connected home application domain of the Internet of Things (IoT) from an online retail perspective and explore factors that may affect consumers’ intentions to adopt IoT enabled online shopping (IoTOS) artifacts such as Amazon’s Echo (Dot) and Google’s Nest Audio (or Mini). IoTOS artifacts provide consumers with a new way of shopping online from their homes that doesn’t require the use of a (mobile) website or a smartphone application. Due to the novelty of our conceptualization, we followed a developmental mixed methods design whereby a qualitative study, comprised of interviews with existing IoTOS artifacts users, preceded and informed a quantitative study. Based on the findings from the qualitative study, we modified the UTAUT2 framework to arrive at our conceptual model for intention to adopt IoTOS artifacts. Next, the quantitative study sought to test our conceptual model via an online survey of potential Amazon Echo Dot adopters. Data from this survey allowed us to test the majority of our conceptual model, which explained 61.5% of the variance in behavioral intention to adopt IoTOS artifacts. Overall, data confidentiality, performance expectancy, and social influence emerged as the most significant determinants of consumers’ intentions to adopt IoTOS artifacts.