Moderating effect of cognitive conflict on the relationship between value consciousness and online shopping cart abandonment

ABSTRACT Online shopping cart abandonment has become a major problem for e-tailing firms. This study aims to understand consumers’ online shopping behavior and provide valuable insights regarding psychological and cognitive factors behind shopping cart abandonment. The study uses structural equation modeling and SPSS process Macro for data analysis. The results show that ‘comparison shopping’ mediates the relationship between value-consciousness and shopping cart abandonment. Further, cognitive conflicts moderate the mediating effect of value-consciousness on shopping cart abandonment through comparison shopping. This study contributes to consumer behavior and retailing literature by identifying factors that influence online shopping cart abandonment behavior while examining cognitive consistency theory in the Indian online market. It enumerates several important implications and strategies for e-tailers, which they could implement to reduce shopping cart abandonment.