Undergraduates' e-shopping inhibitors in a developing market context: stimulus-organism-response approach

Originally, shopping in most developing economies takes place in designated marketplaces and physical neighbourhood stores. Few decades ago, e-shops, are attractive alternate shopping channels that emerged in the retail ecosystem. E-channel among university undergraduates is quietly becoming fashionable as technology-enabled transactions become ubiquitous in many developing economies. Despite observed fast-expanding Generation Z consumers (born between 1995–2012) that are largely internet-savvy, under-utilisation of e-shops for shopping appears apparent among most university undergraduates. Therefore, this study seeks to unmask those factors that restrain e-shopping behaviour of undergraduates. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 320 undergraduates who have made online purchase at least once. Judgemental sampling technique was utilised in respondents’ recruitment. Partial least square-structural equation modelling was used in analysis. Findings indicate that explored independent variables – perceived product quality, delivery time, delivery cost, customer relationship/communication, product price, and misinterpretation of customers’ order/s emerged as significant inhibitory factors of online shopping; e-shopping intention also predicts e-shops’ patronage. Underpinned by the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory, this study expands frontiers of e-shopping literature by examining unexplored inhibitory factors culminating in e-shop patronage inhibitory model. Practice and theoretical implications of the findings were discussed. Copyright © 2023 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.