FACTORS AFFECTING CUSTOMER BUYING BEHAVIOR IN ONLINE SHOPPING

Globalization processes rapidly advance information and communications technologies that influence social, economic, and cultural changes and transform consumers' needs and buying behavior in online shopping. Business sector organizations operating in a dynamic environment have to adjust to the environment's uncertainty, consider the changing needs of consumers and find effective and efficient ways to create a unique value for them. However, researchers and business practitioners have different interpretations and assessments of the factors influencing end-user purchasing behavior in the internet space. Therefore, the main problem area is how to assess which approach more comprehensively reflects and conveys the online market reality related to consumer buying behavior. This study examines these issues by combining various researchers' and business practitioners' positions to assess factors influencing consumers' decision-making in online shopping. This study aims to evaluate the critical factors related to e-shop characteristics and the product features that significantly impact consumer buying behavior in online shopping. Scientific literature review showed that the most crucial e-shop characteristics are e-shop design, e-shop informativeness, e-shop convenience, e-shop security, and e-shop popularity. From product features' perspectives, scientists and business practitioners mainly focus on product design and packaging, price, brand, customer reviews, and delivery time. The case study analysis of Lithuanian consumers was chosen for a comprehensive investigation because there is a lack of complex research in Lithuania to identify which factors are the most significant for consumer decision-making in the electronic space. Research methods such as scientific literature analysis, survey (structured questionnaire), correlation, and regression analysis were used to achieve the research goal. The survey results demonstrated that Lithuanian customers prefer traditional shopping compared to online purchases. As a result, the investigation results indicate that online purchases in Lithuania are still a growing market. Depending on survey results, the most crucial e-shop characteristics affecting Lithuanian customer buying behavior in online shopping were identified as e-shop design and e-shop security. Furthermore, the most influencing product features related to customer buying behavior in online shopping were product design and packaging, product price. Correlation and regression analysis proved that significant factors are e-shop design, e-shop security, product design and packaging, product price, and customer reviews for Lithuanian buyers in online shopping.