Online versus conventional shopping: Consumers' risk perception and regulatory focus

In two experiments, the impact of shopping context on consumers' risk perceptions and regulatory focus was examined. We predicted that individuals perceive an online ( vs. conventional) shopping environment as more risky and that an online shopping environment, by its risky nature, primes a prevention focus. The findings in Study 1 demonstrate these effects by using self-report measures for risk perception and prevention focus. In Study 2, we replicated these findings and demonstrated that the effect of an online shopping environment carries over to behavior in a domain unrelated to shopping.