Digitalization and International Online Sales: Antecedents of Purchase Intent

Abstract

This paper seeks to contribute to the literature on consumers’ online purchasing behavior as an international phenomenon. Specifically, to address consumers’ Internet skills, website perceived ease of use, and website trust as antecedents of purchase intent. With a cross-national dataset of 788 consumers from different countries, five hypotheses are tested, and a model is suggested. The findings highlight that consumers’ Internet skills and website perceived ease of use positively impact purchase intent. Interestingly, trust in the website does not. To overcome the cases where consumers feel a lack of trust, this study highlights the need for website usability and adapting to consumers’ Internet skills. The findings also illustrate that online shopping is a global phenomenon, a finding that was made possible by analyzing a large international dataset. Future studies can benefit from an online international purchasing approach, which takes the internationality of consumers’ purchasing into account.