Online consumer behaviors Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Online consumer behaviors - Essay Example Addictive, compulsive, and impulsive buying are types of uncontrolled consumer behavior that have drew interest in actual shopping settings. Personally, uncontrolled buying can lead to serious life problems and consumer impoverishments. Generally, it could raise consumer prices and sustain the social problems of extreme poverty (LaRose & Eastin, 2002). Now that buying and selling have reached the Internet, has uncontrolled buying behavior become more intense?LaRose (2001) reported that major e-commerce sites possess attributes that could encourage uncontrolled buying behavior. Studies show that online buyers were more impulsive than traditional ones and that that impulsive consumers comprised a significant portion of the general population of e-commerce buyers. There was sketchy proof of addiction in statements of ‘eBay addicts’, a study on compulsive online buying (Chen, 2009). With vast numbers of online shoppers today, uncontrolled online buying emerges as a major con sumer problem. Examining Online Consumer Behaviors Teenagers and young adults are the target market of online shopping because they are the first online generation of buyers. This social group spends roughly 12 percent of their whole earnings online, and these purchases are mostly books, music, and clothes commonly linked to compulsive buying (LaRose & Eastin, 2002, 549). Young people are particularly predisposed to unreasonable buying habits because of their tendency toward ‘excessive’ online activities and uncontrolled traditional buying as well as easily accessible credit cards. According to Milne and colleagues (2009), research on compulsive buying shows that these tendencies are developed in late adolescence. According to developmental studies, Milne and colleagues (2009) added, depression negatively affects adolescents and young adults more often than other age groups, and depression has been discovered to significantly influence the emergence and growth of extrem e buying habits. Undoubtedly, the buying habits of people have changed. As stated in the 2010 report of Forrester Research, online revenues will be at $331 billion in the United States alone. The enlarging population of online buying households along with website upgrading and retailer improvements will push e-commerce to form 13 percent of overall retail earnings in 2010 (Chih-Chung & Chang, 2005, 41). Online revenues will increase at a 15 percent compound annual growth rate between 2004 and 2010. Therefore, as the Internet continuously becomes a widespread channel for consumer activities across the globe, it becomes ever more crucial to determine the aspects influencing consumer use of e-commerce. A number of studies examine the aspects influencing consumer online buying. However, Goldsmith (2010 as cited in Chih-Chung & Chang, 2005, 41) states that most studies on online buying habits is quite explanatory and not derived from consumer theory. Therefore, this paper uses the social cognitive theory of Albert Bandura to examine online consumer behavior. According to Faber and O’Guinn (1992), media were given an insignificant role in uncontrolled buying behavior in the past: encouraging consumer impulses with marketing or advertising. With the intervention of the whole retail industry thru e-commerce, a more inclusive theoretical perspective is needed. LaRose (2001) consolidated addictive, compulsive, and impulsive buying within the paradigm of Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory, asserting that they created a range of behavior characterizing different levels of poor self-control. Nearly all consumers have a tendency to buy impulsively, which is to purchase rashly, irrationally, and spontaneously (LaRose & Eastin, 2002, 549). For several consumers, the yearning for particular products or services changes to a common yearning for compulsive buying, which is repeated, persistent buying that becomes a main reaction to