Intercultural consumer classifications in e-commerce

Abstract

Global consumer typologies are an effective instrument for identifying regional consumer clusters and addressing different client needs in a focused fashion. The objective of this study is to examine whether the international online users are a homogeneous target group, or if it is possible to identify segments by means of selected criteria for constructing typologies. To answer the research question through an online survey in which interviewees participated from the cultural areas France, Germany and the US, theoretically secured constructs of the purchasing behaviour in the internet were obtained as well as different cluster analyses carried out. The results show that the internet users can be divided into three clusters-the risk aversive doubters, the open minded online shoppers and the reserved information seekers. © Springer-Verlag Berlin, Heidelberg 2005.