Title: Young shoppers' experiences with e-shopping

Authors: Ji Hee Song, George M. Zinkhan, Yue Pan

Addresses: Department of Marketing, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, Athens GA 30602-6258, USA. ' Department of Marketing, Coca-Cola Company Chair of Marketing, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, Athens GA 30602-6258, USA. ' Management and Marketing Department, School of Business Administration, University of Dayton, Dayton OH 45460-2271, USA

Abstract: As e-shopping becomes more popular, there is an increasing interest in trying to understand the key factors that affect e-shopping experiences. Here, we explore key factors that shape young consumers| e-shopping experiences, and we attempt to identify differences between factors shaping positive and negative experiences. Applying a critical incident technique, we study 432 e-mail messages from consumers who visited four specific e-shopping sites and purchased gifts. We identify five key groups of variables (i.e., price, product-related, site interface, fulfilment, privacy/security), which shape shopping experiences. We also compare our set of features with others that have emerged in the traditional retailing and e-tailing literatures. Here, we find that fulfilment and privacy/security serve to shape negative experiences, whereas site interface is more associated with positive experiences. Managerial and research implications are discussed.

Keywords: e-tailing; e-shopping; shopping experience; web design; critical incident technique; online shopping; internet marketing; young shoppers; young consumers; fulfilment; privacy; security; website interface.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMA.2005.007748

International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, 2005 Vol.2 No.3, pp.219 - 236

Published online: 10 Sep 2005 *

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