Factors influencing consumers’ purchase intention towards online group buying in Malaysia

Abstract

Online group buying (OGB) is growing rapidly and it has become popular in many countries. Due to the lack of research and early stage of development in the developing and emerging market, we aim to examine the factors influencing consumers’ purchase intention towards online group buying in the Malaysian context. Through intensive literature review on consumers’ purchase intention and online group buying, a set of factors are proposed as leading influencers. This paper reveals that perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), price, electronic word of mouth (e-WOM), trust and perceived risk (PR) are the main determinants of online group buying. The three major factors, PU, price and e-WOM, demonstrated relatively strong impact on consumers’ purchase intention towards OGB whilst trust and perceived risk shown significant impact and moderate impact respectively on consumers’ participation in OGB. Contrarily, PEOU was found to have no influence in Malaysian consumers.