Consumer Priorities in Online Shopping

This study examines consumer behavior and priorities in online shopping through the distribution of a questionnaire—subjected to choice-based conjoint analysis—to 1341 Japanese Internet users. It finds that respondents placed a higher priority on the popularity of online shops than on other attri- butes. Surprisingly, respondents considered postage as a more important crite- rion than the selling price of goods. Our results show that respondents who made purchases at online shops were tolerant of the postage costs and selling prices of goods but expressed a stronger dislike for the former than did inexperienced respondents. In addition, respondents who had faced problems in online shop- ping estimated the popularity of online shops lower and tolerated higher selling prices more than the other respondents. These results contribute to the under- standing of customers and suggest effective marketing strategies for online shopping.