Effects of Product Type and Gender on Online Purchase Attitudes and Intentions: A Structured Abstract

Abstract

Consumers in the US continue to spend more of their shopping dollars online; online retail spending grew by 13% from the third quarter of 2010 to the third quarter of 2011 and the number of online shoppers grew by 22% during the same period (Comscore 2011). Marketers who wish to take advantage of consumers’ increased desire to shop online need to understand the factors that influence their decisions to purchase products online. This paper seeks to contribute to this understanding by i) examining how product type (i.e. hedonic versus utilitarian) interacts with gender to influence online purchase attitudes and intentions, and by ii) exploring the effects of risk perceptions in these relationships.