To buy or not to buy? Investigating the influence of e-commerce determinants on customer purchase intention in cosmetics industry: a comparative study between Norway and China.

Abstract

The study aimed to analyze several aspects of e-commerce determinants of websites and products factors as well as its influence on purchase intentions. Purchase intention itself is a substantial and comprehensive concept, and a number of factors may influence whether a customer decides to shop online or not. We decided to narrow our research to two main factors of website and product, and will investigate the following aspects: website’s reputation, usefulness, ease of use, transaction security and privacy as well as products price, quality, and product-related services. In addition, we take the cultural aspect into our investigation, and compare how consumers from China and Norway are influenced by these e-commerce factors, and what the differences in their shopping behavior may be. We found there is a literature gap and lack of research studies in regard to the beauty and makeup industry, as well as lack of comparative studies on customers purchase intention between China and Norway. Findings from the multiple regression indicate that for Chinese consumers product price and product-related services would significantly influence their intention to purchase makeup online. Whereas for Norwegian consumers, the website’s security and product quality had a significant influence. Overall, when comparing findings from both Chinese and Norwegian samples, we observe that aspects related to websites' usefulness, ease of use or security are of greater importance for Norwegian consumers. Taken together, these findings shed a light on the online makeup industry as well as cultural differences between the two cultures. Marketers should be more aware of the value in personalized marketing strategies when targeting different markets. Keywords: e-commerce, beauty products, purchase intention, usefulness, ease of use, transaction security, product quality, product price