Consumer Choice Behavior on the Web: The Effects of Product Attributes on Willingness to Purchase

Abstract

This study investigates how consumers’ choice behavior in the electronic marketplace depends on their ability to judge product attributes and how willingness to purchase products is affected by the different attributes of the products. This study applied von Neumann-Morgenstern utility theory to explain how consumers combine perceptions of product attributes into preferences under uncertain situations in the electronic marketplace and employed The Dot-Com Retail Continuum, proposed by Figueiredo (2000), to classify the products online. Major findings suggest that a consumer’s purchase decision in the electronic marketplace is affected by that consumers’ ability to assess the product attributes and also propose competitive strategies on various product categories to the dot-com retailers.