Investigating Consumer Behavior in Internet Shopping

Objectives: as the Internet shopping has become a standard way of doing business, the aim of this paper is to describe and analyze the Internet usage behavior in purchasing stages of customers in selected countries. Theoretical Framework: Trenz (2015) differentiated 3 stages of the purchasing process – pre-purchase stage, purchase stage and post-purchase stage. Hence, in this study, we focus primarily on behavior in pre-purchase stage of Internet shopping. Method: secondary data from the Consumer Barometer and from World Bank was used. The data was analysed using software IBM SPSS and Microsoft Excel. Descriptive statistics was used in order to test the two main hypotheses using Pearson correlation coefficient, the third hypothesis was tested with the use of F-test and t-test. Results and Discussion: there is a significant negative correlation between development indicators of nations and the use of Internet in pre-purchase stage. Research Implications: the less developed markets are more suitable for developing online business, thus are more suitable for this kind of business. Originality/Value: there is a significant difference between countries in the use of Internet during pre-purchase stage in the following activities: discovery of relevant brands online, watching relevant videos online, looking for redeemed offers, coupons or promotions online and getting locations/directions online for the sake of smart and sustainable consumption.