Behaviors and Trends in E-Purchasing: Case of Turkey

Abstract

In Turkey, as in many countries, online shopping has experienced modest changes in 90’s. In addition to the doubts about the quality of products purchased online, the lack of consumer confidence in financial transactions made on commercial sites account for this slow evolution. However, democratization of the Internet, development of social media and evolution of e-marketing has changed the purchasing habits of consumers. The purpose of this research is to analyze how the Internet as a tool has or may have a concrete effect on online purchasing behaviors of economic agents and to highlight the key factors influencing the decision process of e-consumer. To this end, we conducted a population survey of 1055 consumers. The data collected were analyzed using the SPSS factor analysis was then applied to the data. The results of our analysis indicate that, prior to any decision, consumers get information about the products they wish to acquire from not only the search engines, but also the decisions of other consumers. In fact, consumers trust substantially the past experiences of other consumers shared on the Internet. Noting that various discussion forums or websites can be used in the comparison of products and influence the decision of purchasing of e-customer. Our research indicates that low-price variable and/or special offers available only on the Internet are the real factor that encourages purchase online in Turkey.