Online International Outshopping Experience: Proposition of a Research Model

Abstract

With the development of the Internet, consumers can now shop for products sold thousands of miles from home without making a move. This feature of the Internet has a role in redefining the commercial universe, by reducing distance electronically. However, if buying on the Internet has been widely studied in the marketing literature (e.g., Gefen et al. 2003), and if offline cross-border purchasing has received increased attention in recent years (Baruca and Zolfagharian 2012), the cross-border Internet experience remains largely ignored. Yet this is a critical issue of both theoretical and practical implications: better understanding of international Internet shopping helps to increase our knowledge of the customer experience when buying online, and offers important lessons for local retailers, who are losing sales that used to be assured, in how to attract foreign customers or retain their local clientele. To identify the factors influencing the Internet cross-border purchasing experience, this research, presents a review of the marketing literature on international purchasing was made covering the period starting with the article by Herrmann and Beik (1968) until 2013. Thirteen articles on across border purchasing were identified, and provide an important base for the construction of a theoretical model of cross-border shopping on the Internet. A conceptual model identifying six drivers and a moderator of cross-border shopping on the Internet is proposed. Among the six factors influencing the intention to make a cross-border purchase on the Internet, three are direct: the perceived quality of the foreign retailer’s offering, familiarity with the foreign retailer, and susceptibility of the consumer to social influence. Two factors directly affect purchasing intentions together with an indirect effect via an influence on the perceived quality of the offering: language skills and the consumer’s ethnocentrism. One factor, associated costs, has only a direct effect on the perceived quality of the offering. Finally, confidence in the foreign retailer plays a moderating role between the perceived quality of the offering and purchasing intentions. It may be noted that the three factors having a direct impact on purchasing intentions, as well as the moderator, relate to specific issues while shopping on the Internet, while the other three factors relate to the international nature of the cross-border Internet purchase. This suggests that the international dimension interferes with purchasing on the Internet when buying from a foreign retailer. The experience of cross-border shopping on the Internet could be considered to be an electronic experience, added to which the international dimension influences the consumer experience and purchasing intentions, chiefly by influencing the perception of the foreign retailer’s offering. The proposed conceptual model calls for understanding the set of determinants of cross-border Internet purchasing intentions. Even though this phenomenon is growing rapidly, marketing research in this area is scarce. It is necessary to understand the experience of cross-border purchasing on the Internet to better comprehend not only this growing trend, but also to enable significant managerial contributions.