Consumer Online Buying Decisions: A Critical Appraisal of Literature

Since last two decades buying of goods and services from online stores using Internet started off. But players of this industry could reach to the general public residing in second and third category Indian cities in recent past only. Now companies are eagerly interested in understanding the factors affecting Indian consumers so that their needs and wants can be understood and served profitably. This research paper is an attempt to critically evaluate those factors which affect consumer buying behavior in Indian Internet based business environment. For the purpose of coverage of topic researcher has classified the literature under three categories which are Literature related to vendor related factors, Literature related to consumer related factors and Literature related to other factors. Vendor related factors include those factors which are primarily controlled by the companies that are engaged in selling their goods and services on internet along with their intermediaries through which such sales take place. Consumer related factors have been bifurcated under two heading that are consumer demographic factors and consumer psychographic factors. Besides this there are several other factors which may affect consumer’s buying decisions and they are classified as other factors. This research paper also tries to identify the gaps (if any) in the available literature of the factors affecting consumer online buying decisions.