Online consumer shopping behaviour: A review and research agenda

Abstract

Over the last two decades, motivated by the continuous evolution of the technology-driven retail environment, researchers have studied various aspects of online consumer behaviour. This article attempts to take stock of this environment to critically assess the research gaps in the domain and provide future research directions. Applying a well-grounded systematic methodology following the TCCM (theory, context, characteristics and methodology) framework, 197 online consumer shopping behaviour articles were reviewed. The findings reveal that the application of theories remains limited in the current pool of literature that focuses more on developed nations. While studies have primarily considered categories such as apparel and grocery, in terms of methodology experimental and survey-based studies were most common. Additionally, the article suggests some future research directions. The use of combined theories to better understand technology acceptance by consumers of online-shopping is recommended. Similarly, studies across other categories like online experiential luxury, luxury services, or second-hand products that then link to novel constructs reflecting issues with payment methods, online service quality, and online store atmosphere are portrayed as meaningful avenues that will advance research in the domain.

Device‐mediated customer behaviour on the internet: A systematic literature review

“…SLRs, as a methodology, must follow a transparent and conclusively justified process of literature selection and analysis, to which aim the development of a detailed systematic review protocol that entails clarification on the selection of the search string and the relevant databases, as well as inclusion criteria, data extraction tactics and analysis, is highly recommended (Palmatier et al, 2018; Paul, Lim, et al, 2021; Snyder, 2019). Therefore, we grounded our review in the Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews ( SPAR‐4‐SLR ) protocol (Paul, Lim, et al, 2021) to ensure a rigorous, replicable and relevant literature selection (Basu et al, 2022; Hassan et al, 2021; Sharma et al, 2022; Singh & Basu, 2023). The SPAR‐4‐SLR protocol, as illustrated in Figure 1, comprises three stages: assembling, arranging and assessing existing literature.…”

“…While acknowledging the interdisciplinary nature of this topic, our literature review specifically focuses on articles from academic journals in business and marketing, in alignment with previous SLRs on customer behaviour (e.g. Cavalinhos et al, 2021; Cummins et al, 2014; Güngör & Çadırcı, 2022; Singh & Basu, 2023; Wolf & Steul‐Fischer, 2022). With the aim of comprehensively covering the customer behaviour literature and simultaneously limiting the results to a manageable amount, we searched the top quartile of marketing journals within the Scopus database with regard to Scopus CiteScore 2021 (i.e.…”

“…The databases are consequently frequently used for SLRs within the management and marketing field (e.g. Basu et al, 2022; Cavalinhos et al, 2021; Harju, 2022; Hassan et al, 2021; Singh & Basu, 2023; Wang et al, 2022).…”

“…Of these, all but two have a CiteScore >5.0, placing them in the top 15% of journals in the subject area of Business, Management and Accounting on Scopus. 2 This shows that most publications come from premier journals (Paul, Lim, et al, 2021;Singh & Basu, 2023). The highest number were published by the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services (n = 11), followed by the Journal of Business Research (n = 10).…”

“…Previous literature reviews in the field of customer behaviour on the Internet and digital devices (see Table A1) focused on a variety of subjects including customer attitudes and intentions regarding mobile advertising (Jebarajakirthy et al, 2021; Maseeh et al, 2021), as well as the perceived value and adoption of mobile commerce (Dastane et al, 2020; Luceri et al, 2022), interactive, personalized and behavioural online advertising (Krishen et al, 2021; Tong et al, 2020; Varnali, 2021), customer decision‐making in omnichannel environments (Mishra et al, 2021; Wolf & Steul‐Fischer, 2022), in‐store mobile device usage (Cavalinhos et al, 2021) and online or digital customer behaviour in general (Cummins et al, 2014; Güngör & Çadırcı, 2022; Singh & Basu, 2023; Vanhala et al, 2020). The numerous recent literature reviews acknowledge the widespread adoption of digital and mobile technologies by summarizing and synthesizing findings on digital and mobile marketing and general online or omnichannel customer behaviour.…”