The impact of prior experience on shopping behaviors

Abstract

This study explores the effects of prior experience on determinants of repurchase intention and antecedents of perceived uncertainty in an online shopping environment. The study proposes a model which integrates perceived uncertainty, trust, and technology acceptance model (TAM). Structure Equation Modeling (SEM) is used to find out the difference between low- and high-experienced online shoppers. The results indicate that trust in an e-vendor vis-à-vis the TAM constructs has consistent effects on all experienced online shoppers. However, perceived uncertainty affects only the low-experienced online shoppers’ trust in an e-vendor. The data also shows that the sources of perceived uncertainty, which is classified into relationship uncertainty and environmental uncertainty, are different for the low- and high-experienced online shoppers. Our findings provide the managers of e-vendors with the information about the difference in the online shoppers’ prior experiences.