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Ergonomics

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What users want in e-commerce design: effects of age, education and

income

Nancy J. Lightnera
a
The Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, 1705 College Street, Columbia, SC
29208, USA.

To cite this Article Lightner, Nancy J.(2003) 'What users want in e-commerce design: effects of age, education and income',

Ergonomics, 46: 1, 153 168

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ERGONOMICS, 2003,

VOL.

46,

NO.

1 3, 153 168

What users want in e-commerce design: eects of age,

education and income
NANCY J. LIGHTNER*

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The Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, 1705 College

Street, Columbia, SC 29208, USA,
Keywords: E-commerce; Satisfaction; Demographics; Survey.
Preferences for certain characteristics of an online shopping experience may be
related to demographic data. This paper discusses the characteristics of that
experience, demographic data and preferences by demographic group. The results
of an online survey of 488 individuals in the United States indicate that
respondents are generally satised with their online shopping experiences, with
security, information quality and information quantity ranking rst in
importance overall. The sensory impact of a site ranked last overall of the seven
characteristics measured. Preferences for these characteristics in e-commerce sites
were dierentiated by age, education and income. The sensory impact of sites
became less important as respondents increased in age, income or education. As
the income of respondents increased, the importance of the reputation of the
vendor rose. Web site designers may incorporate these ndings into the design of
e-commerce sites in an attempt to increase the shopping satisfaction of their users.
Results from the customer relationship management portion of the survey suggest
that current push technologies and site personalization are not an eective means
of achieving user satisfaction.

1. Introduction
Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, is the selling of goods and services via an
electronic media, using technology to facilitate rapid exchange of detailed
information between buyers and sellers. While prominent e-commerce sites have
failed, examples of successful rms have emerged. For example, Amazon.com posted
a prot for the rst time for the fourth quarter of 2001 and eBay has posted quarterly
earnings since 2000. Clearly, the Internet as a marketplace has potential for success.
However, dening what elements lead to success is a monumental task, involving all
aspects of a business. While an e-commerce system consists of suppliers and
distributors as well as the business itself, the interaction is supported by information
systems, with the computer screen acting as the interface among all business
functions and between the business and its customers and potential customers. Since
web sites are currently the only interface to e-commerce, designing those sites to
accommodate target market preferences should enhance consumers' shopping
experience, and perhaps consequently, motivate them to purchase and repurchase
from the web site. Presently it is unknown what site characteristics determine online
satisfaction and what characteristics of the consumer impact those preferences. This
research investigates various aspects of the online shopping experience in order to
*e-mail: nlightner@moore.sc.edu
Ergonomics ISSN 0014-0139 print/ISSN 1366-5847 online # 2003 Taylor & Francis Ltd
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
DOI: 10.1080/0014013021000035280

154

N. J. Lightner

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make design recommendations for e-commerce companies. Since e-commerce is

relatively new, an exploratory study was undertaken as a means of identifying
aspects of design that warrant additional research. A survey of those who had
conducted business online, either for personal or business purposes, was undertaken
to identify what web site characteristics were important to their purchase decisions.
2. Conceptual background and research propositions
One proposed research model of the consumer in an e-commerce environment
includes the Web Environment, Customer and Web Technology as independent
subsystems (Helander and Khalid 2000), with issues within each subsystem identied
as possible areas of interest. This research uses the Helander model as a basis for an
investigative study into the elements of a web site that create user satisfaction and
consequently generate repeat business. It tests specic elements for their impact on
the overall model. The following propositions indicate general areas of interest
deemed important to e-commerce satisfaction and the impact of site and personal
characteristics on the importance. They are:
Proposition I:

Online shoppers prefer e-commerce web sites that contain specic

characteristics.
Proposition II: Demographic characteristics of online shoppers aect overall
satisfaction with e-commerce sites.
Proposition III: Demographic characteristics of online shoppers aect preferences
in web sites.
Proposition IV: Demographic characteristics aect online shoppers' preferences for
methods of retaining customers.
3. Research methodology
3.1. Research variables
The model of the consumer in electronic commerce proposed by Helander and
Khalid (2000) consists of three subsystems; the Web Environment, the Customer and
Web Technology. These subsystems relate in a circular fashion. The Web
Environment impacts the Customer by what is presented, the Customer in turn
controls the Web Technology, in part, through their interaction with search agents
and other features. The Web Technology determines what is available for use in the
Web Environment, depending on what technology is available and implemented.
The Helander model suggests several dependent variables for use in research,
including outcome measures such as productivity and satisfaction measures
including enjoyment. Research variables for this study were identied following
the subsystems suggested in the Helander model.
The Web Environment subsystem includes the areas of Merchandize, Navigation, Easy to Purchase, Promotions and Feedback. The research variables developed
for the Merchandize area are Information Quality, Information Quantity,
Comparison and Price. Delone and McLean (1992) identied Information Quality
as a measure of system output used in determining the success of any information
system. Characteristics that comprise Information Quality suggested are accuracy,
precision, currency, output timeliness, reliability, completeness, conciseness, format
and relevance (Bailey and Pearson 1983). Understandability (Srinivasan 1985),
report usefulness (Mahmood and Medewitz 1985), suciency, freedom from bias,

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E-commerce design

155

comparability and quantitativeness (King and Epstein 1983) are additional criteria
that have been used as measures. According to these criteria, we might consider our
variables of Information Quantity (completeness) and Comparison (comparability)
as indicators of Information Quality as well. For purposes of this study, Information
Quality was dened as the perception of whether the information contained in the
site was true, corresponding to the reliability characteristic identied by Bailey and
Pearson (1983). Information Quantity was dened as the amount of information
provided about the product under consideration. Comparison was included as a
Merchandize variable, although it refers to the ability to comparison shop based on
product specications and price.
The Navigation variable of speed was included in this study and dened as
Navigation Speed. Since the commercialization of the Internet, the speed of access is
of concern to users (Bartholomew 2001, Liao and Cheung 2002, Lightner et al.
1996). Speed to purchase and inclusion of a shopping basket were included as Easy
to Purchase variables in the Web Environment subsystem. The variable of Email was
included as a measure of the Promotions area. Contacting customers through
electronic mail is used as a means of generating additional site visits and possible
purchases. The Personalization variable was a measure of the Feedback area. Site
personalization is using technology to deliver dynamically generated content (Luedi
1997), such as suggesting products based on past buying behaviour. Luedi (1997)
claims that `personalization is the only way to create customer loyalty and generate
repeat visits to your Web sites.' (p. 22). This claim warrants an investigation into
how personalization impacts buying behaviour.
Demographic data was selected as a surrogate to the modulating variables of
Needs, Attitudes, Purchasing Power, Competence, Addiction, Motivation, Age and
Trust identied by Helander as important to the Customer subsystem. Bellman et al.
(1999) concluded that lifestyle predicts Internet usage, not demographics. This study
investigated whether demographics would predict e-commerce preferences once they
entered the online shopping arena. In addition to demographic data, the variables of
Security, Price, Reputation and Repeat Business were included to investigate
attitudes toward the buying process. The concern over security continues to plague
the online world. Despite evidence that online credit card transactions are as secure
as those involving waiters or waitresses, security consistently ranks as the number
one concern of those that shop online (Salisbury et al. 2001, Luo 2002, Wilson and
Abel 2002) and as the reason why those that do not shop online do not (Luo 2002).
The research variable of Security reects trust in the online system and the variable
Reputation reects trust in the specic vendor. Discovering whether vendors receive
repeat business reects the overall buying attitude of consumers.
The Web Technology subsystem is represented by the Sensory Impact variable.
Sensory Impact indicates whether the aesthetic properties of a site inuence the
buying behaviour or preferences for a site. The discipline of Marketing focuses on
capturing and holding the attention of consumers so that they eventually purchase
products. The Handbook of Marketing Scales (Beardon and Netmeyer 1999)
contains a compilation of measures to use to predict consumer behaviour, including
measures of Optimal Stimulation levels and other characteristics. These measures are
reported to relate to a wide range of consumer-related behaviours. As a composite,
some of the measures that address stimulus needs are categorized as Sensory Impact
in our study. Sensory Impact is accomplished with stylistic elements such as colour
and movement and exhibit Displays within the Web Technology subsystem.

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N. J. Lightner

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Online shopping satisfaction is included as a variable to measure the degree to

which web sites meet expectations.
3.2. Survey instruments
An online survey was developed containing 23 questions. Questions one through ten
asked for basic demographic information such as age, sex, education, family size,
income and amount of online purchases made. Age, education, income and
frequency and amount of purchases were collected as categorical variables. Question
11 asked respondents to rate their general satisfaction with making purchases online.
The remaining questions asked respondents to rate the importance of web site
characteristics according to a 7-point Likert scale ranging from `very strongly
disagree' to `very strongly agree'. Some of the research variables (IQL, IQN, SEC,
SIMP) were represented by two questions apiece. Other variables (COMP, BSP,
NSP, SCART, PRICE, REP) were surveyed using one question each. See table 1 for
the survey questions pertaining to buying preferences and how they relate to the
research variables examined in this study.
The original survey was made available to students at three universities who were
asked to participate for class credit. In addition, several listserv groups consisting of
Information Systems and Human Computer Interaction academics and professionals were solicited for participation. Data was collected from a total of 327
participants for this survey. Data was collected over 2 weeks, from 20 February to 7
March 2001. This survey was administered in both paper-based and on line fashion.
Students in one of the three universities lled out a printed copy of the survey and
submitted it to the instructor who manually entered the results into a spreadsheet.
Students in the other two universities submitted their responses via a web site. An
electronic mail message to several listserv discussion groups generated additional
responses to the web site, which entered the responses into a le for analysis. Since
the subject of the survey is e-commerce, it was expected that collecting data online
did not introduce bias to the sample.
A second survey was created and administered online from 15 November to 13
December 2001. This survey was identical to the rst one, except three questions
concerning the impact of customer relationship management (CRM) were added to
the end. These questions asked about the propensity towards loyalty for particular
vendors (RPEAT), whether site personalization contributed to loyalty (PERS) and
whether e-mailing announcements increased sales (EMAIL). A total of 161
participants responded to the second survey. Participants of the second survey were
university students who participated for class credit and their friends that they
recruited for additional credit.
4. Results
Three-hundred and twenty-seven sets of responses were collected from the rst
administration of the survey in early 2001. An additional 161 responses were
collected in late 2001. A set of t-test analyses showed that participant characteristics
were signicantly dierent in education level and preference for information quality,
security and sensory impact and in overall e-commerce satisfaction between the two
samples. The rst set of responses was from individuals with higher levels of
education and lower preferences for sensory impact and security. Overall satisfaction
with shopping online was reported by the second set of respondents. As shown in
table 2, the mean value for a preference for security increased a half-point between

E-commerce design
Table 1.

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Variable

157

Survey questions as related to research variables by subsystem.

Question

Web Environment subsystem

IQL
13
When I buy from an online vendor, verication that the information
on the site is true is most important to me.
IQL
20
When I buy from an online vendor, knowing that the information on
the site is true is most important to me.
IQN
11
When I buy from an online vendor, having all product details available
to me is most important.
IQN
19
When I buy from an online vendor, nding product specications in
great detail is most important to me.
COMP
22
When I buy from an online vendor, whether the site provides an
eective means of product and price comparison is most important to
me.
BSP
12
When I buy from an online vendor, a site that is organized in such a
way as to minimize the buying time will get my business.
NSP
16
When I buy from an online vendor, nding the information that I want
quickly is most important to me.
SCART
23
When I buy from an online vendor, the eective use of the shopping
cart mechanism is most important to me.
EMAIL
25
When vendors send me product or sale announcements via e-mail, I
always visit the site and usually buy something there.
PERS
26
I prefer online vendors that personalize their site to my past buying
behaviour.
Customer subsystem
SAT
9
SEC

14

SEC

18

PRICE
REP

17
21

RPEAT

24

Your level of satisfaction with your online purchase experiences: 1 7

with 1 indicating very dissatised and 7 indicating highly satised.
When I buy from an online vendor, seeing evidence that the
transaction is secure before I buy is most important to me.
When I buy from an online vendor, verifying that the transaction is
secure during the buying process is most important to me.
When I buy from an online vendor, price is most important to me.
When I buy from an online vendor, the reputation of the vendor is
most important to me.
When shopping online, I mostly use the same vendor(s) over and over
again.

Web Technology subsystem

SIMP
10
When I am searching for an online vendor, liking how the site looks is
most important to me.
SIMP
15
When I buy from an online vendor, one that attracts my attention will
most likely get my business.
IQL=Information Quality, IQN=Information Quantity, COMP=comparison shopping,
BSP=buying speed, NSP=navigation speed, SCART=shopping cart, EMAIL=use of email for advertising, PERS=site personalization, SAT=satisfaction, SEC=security,
PRICE=price, REP=vendor reputation, RPEAT=repeat use, SIMP=Sensory Impact.

the rst and second survey (sample 1 m = 6.06, sample 2 m = 6.40, t = 73.83,
p = 0.0002). Since the data were collected before and after the 11 September 2001
terrorist attacks, an increase in the preference for security may have reected an
overall national concern for security. Both values ranked highest in their respective
samples, however, indicating that security was the top concern even before the
attacks.

158

N. J. Lightner
Table 2.

Comparison of sample responses.

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Characteristic
Age
Gender
Education level
Family size
Family income
Frequency of purchaseshome
Amount of purchaseshome
Frequency of purchasesbusiness
Amount purchasesbusiness
Overall satisfaction
Preference for sensory impact
Preference for information quantity
Preference for speed
Preference for information quality
Preference for security
Importance of vendor reputation
Preference for product comparison
Preference for price
Preference for shopping cart

Sample 1
(early 2001)

Sample 2
(late 2001)

t-value

p-value

4.26
0.37
3.52
2.46
2.99
1.31
1.28
1.26
1.38
5.26
4.73
6.03
5.73
6.03
6.06
5.67
5.16
5.79
5.06

4.16
0.43
2.37
2.59
2.80
1.34
1.33
1.38
1.56
5.65
5.17
6.18
5.84
6.23
6.40
5.86
5.34
5.90
4.78

0.99
71.30
11.14
71.39
1.46
70.40
70.95
71.39
71.97
73.49
73.69
71.60
71.12
72.29
73.83
71.70
71.38
70.89
1.95

0.32
0.19
50.0001*
0.17
0.15
0.69
0.34
0.17
0.05
0.0005*
0.0003*
0.11
0.26
0.02*
0.0002*
0.09
0.17
0.37
0.05

* indicates signicance at a50.05.

Table 3 contains the descriptive statistics for the combined dataset. The average
respondent was male, young, with at least some college credits and fairly auent.
Most of them (72%) purchase infrequently for the home and spend less than $100 a
month (74%) or between $100 and $500 a month (24%). Business purchases, while
performed by fewer respondents (209 or 43%), follow the same pattern of purchases.
These statistics reect an online population that have the potential to purchase
frequently on line, but are not active buyers currently.
Further analysis was conducted on a combination of the data, since they both
reect e-commerce preferences. Respondents of the second survey represent a
dierent population in terms of education, and we consider the increase in
educational range an enhancement to the data. See table 4 for the statistics on web
characteristics for the combined data set. The overall Cronbach's alpha of 0.82
indicates that satisfactory internal reliability was achieved. Since the data for the
characteristics were derived from measures consisting of two items, the Cronbach's
alpha for each characteristic was also calculated. All achieved the acceptable value of
0.70, the desired minimum proposed by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994).
4.1. Proposition I: e-commerce site preferences
As table 4 indicates, security, information quality and information quantity ranked
highest in overall preference for e-commerce shoppers. Paired t-tests indicate that the
mean values for these three variables were not signicantly dierent (a50.05). Next
in importance for these respondents were price, navigation and buying speed and the
reputation of a vendor. The ability to shop by comparing products, the presence of a
shopping cart mechanism and a need for sensory impact in a site ranked last. Overall
satisfaction measured 5.39 out of 7, with a rating of 5 meaning `Agree' and a 6 rating

159

E-commerce design
Table 3.

Frequency counts and descriptive statistics of respondent data.

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Characteristic

Age in years (m=2.17, std. dev.=0.91)

20 and under
21 30
31 40
440

488
105
257
63
63

Gender (m=0.39, std. dev.=0.49)

Male=0
Female=1

485
294
191

Education level (m=3.14, std. dev.=1.38)

High school
Technical school diploma
Some college
College degree
Graduate degree

488
80
90
105
108
105

Family size (m=2.50, std. dev.=0.96)

1
2
35
45

486
113
66
256
51

Family income in US$ (m=2.39, std. dev.=1.07)

5$30 000
$30 000 $60 000
$61 000 $100 000
4$100 000

488
95
224
90
79

Frequency of purchase home (m=1.32, std. dev.=0.56)

Once a month or less
2 5 times a month
6 10 times a month
410 times a month

488
352
123
8
5

Average amount of purchasefor home use in US$

(m=1.29, std. dev.=0.52)
5$100
$101 $500
$501 $1000
4$1000

488

Frequency of purchasebusiness (m=1.30, std. dev.=0.63)

Once a month or less
2 5 times a month
6 10 times a month
410 times a month

209
160
40
4
5

Amount of purchasebusiness (m=1.44, std. dev.=0.62)

5$100
$101 $1,000
$1001 $5000
4$5000

202
125
67
8
2

Overall satisfaction (m=5.39, std. dev.=1.15)

1=very dissatised to 7=highly satised

488

362
118
5
3

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N. J. Lightner

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meaning `Strongly agree'. These ndings support Proposition I, which states that
online shoppers prefer e-commerce web sites that have certain characteristics.
4.2. Proposition II: impact of demographics on preferences and e-commerce
satisfaction
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) using e-commerce satisfaction as the dependent
variable and demographic data gathered in both surveys as independent variables
showed that demographic values impact satisfaction (R2 = 0.35, F = 2.43,
p = 0.0001), supporting Proposition II. As shown in table 5, family income
(F = 6.70, p = 0.0002), age (F = 2.62, p = 0.02) and education level (F = 4.20,
p50.0001) all signicantly impact e-commerce satisfaction.
Table 6 contains the intercorrelations for all of the study variables. The analysis
indicates that age, education and income are all positively and signicantly
correlated with satisfaction. These demographic variables were strongly and
positively intercorrelated as were family size and education. An ANOVA using ecommerce satisfaction score as the dependent variable and the web characteristics
tested as independent variables also showed a signicant impact of web site
preferences on satisfaction (R2 = 0.28, F = 2.23, p50.0001).
Table 7 contains the results of the ANOVA, indicating the importance of sensory
impact (F = 3.06, p = 0.0004), security (F = 2.49, p = .007), both types of speed

Table 4.

Descriptive statistics of web characteristic data. Combination of survey results

(N=488; Cronbach's a=0.82).

Characteristic

Mean

Std. dev.

Survey question(s)

Security
Information Quality
Information Quantity
Price
Speed
Navigation
Buying
Vendor reputation
Comparison shopping
Shopping cart
Sensory impact

76.17
76.10
76.08
75.83
75.76
75.78
75.75
75.73
5.22
4.97
4.88

1.04
0.99
0.97
1.25
1.02
1.16
1.16
1.12
1.36
1.46
1.27

0.86
0.82
0.76
N/A
0.70
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
0.76

14, 18
13, 20
11, 19
17
12, 16
12
16
21
22
23
10, 15

N/A indicates only one question formed the measure.

Means connected by lines are not dierent at a 40.05.
Table 5.

ANOVA of demographics to overall satisfaction (N=377; F=3.23, p50.0001).

Demographic measure
Education level
Family income
Age
Gender
Frequency of online purchaseshome
Family size
* indicates signicance at a 40.05.

F-value

p-value

4.20
6.70
2.62
3.69
0.86
0.41

0.0001*
0.0002*
0.02*
0.06
0.46
0.75

Satisfaction

CRM data
1.0
0.28 1.0
0.45 0.42 1.0
0.30 0.29 0.56 1.0

Satisfaction

Personalization

Shopping cart

1.0
0.45
0.22
0.20
0.33

E-mail

Comparison

1.0
0.41
0.29
0.21
0.03
0.12

Repeat use

Reputation

Price

Security

Information
Quality

Buying speed

Navigation speed

Information
Quantity

Sensory Impact

$ spent
business

1.0
0.33
0.02
0.04
0.08
0.14
0.04
0.04
0.06
0.03
0.03
0.05
0.02
0.08
0.11
0.05
0.04
0.32
0.23

Frequency
business

Family size

1.0
0.09
0.33
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.09
0.28
0.11
0.08
0.05
0.12
0.11
0.11
0.01
0.13
0.03
0.17
0.03
0.04

$ spent home

Education

1.0
0.00
0.01
0.06
0.08
0.10
0.06
0.05
0.07
0.07
0.05
0.09
0.03
0.01
0.05
0.06
0.02
0.05
0.11
0.02
0.04

Frequency home

Gender

1.0
0.00
0.53
0.04
0.28
0.05
0.04
0.09
0.16
0.30
0.15
0.00
0.03
0.08
0.06
0.19
0.02
0.13
0.07
0.01
0.18
0.18

Income

Age
Age
Gender
Education
Family size
Income
Frequency home
$-home
Frequency business
$-business
Sensory Impact
Information Quantity
Navigation speed
Buying speed
Information Quality
Security
Price
Reputation
Comparison
Shopping cart
Repeat use
E-mail
Personlization

Intercorrelations for the survey questions.

Demographic data
1.0
0.07
0.06
0.12
0.10
0.17
0.11
0.00
0.04
0.08
0.06
0.13
0.01
0.11
0.05
0.08
0.18
0.10

1.0
0.34
0.34
0.17
0.03
0.08
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.08
0.03
0.07
0.01
0.03
0.12
0.22
0.23

1.0
0.25
0.37
0.02
0.02
0.04
0.02
0.01
0.01
0.02
0.01
0.00
0.03
0.07
0.14
0.22

1.0
0.47
0.00
0.06
0.04
0.01
0.10
0.10
0.06
0.09
0.02
0.05
0.03
0.03
0.01

1.0
0.03
0.04
0.00
0.08
0.13
0.05
0.09
0.04
0.08
0.10
0.23
0.15
0.12

E-commerce design

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Table 6.

Web characteristics
1.0
0.36
0.34
0.33
0.32
0.26
0.18
0.24
0.37
0.31
0.32
0.40
0.48

1.0
0.50
0.44
0.64
0.48
0.39
0.35
0.33
0.20
0.02
0.16
0.01

1.0
0.54
0.37
0.38
0.37
0.31
0.35
0.31
0.19
0.05
0.18

1.0
0.36
0.34
0.31
0.32
0.41
0.32
0.23
0.09
0.19

1.0
0.62
0.33
0.44
0.38
0.30
0.03
0.07
0.10

1.0
0.29
0.42
0.26
0.23
0.04
0.01
0.17

1.0
0.18
0.39
0.18
0.05
0.14
0.01

0.15 0.07 0.17 0.01 0.27 0.06 0.03 0.03 0.12 0.10 0.14 0.15 0.17 0.15 0.13 0.08 0.05 0.01 0.01 0.23 0.18 0.13 1.0

161

*Values with shaded backgrounds are signicant at a 40.05.

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N. J. Lightner
Table 7.

ANOVA of Web characteristics to overall satisfaction

(N=488; F=2.23, p50.0001).

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Site preferences
Sensory Impact
Security
Navigation speed
Buying speed
Information Quality
Information Quantity
Price
Comparison shopping
Reputation of vendor

F-value

p-value

3.06
2.49
2.07
2.64
2.15
2.13
2.18
1.00
0.70

0.0004*
0.007*
0.05*
0.02*
0.02*
0.02*
0.04
0.42
0.65

* indicates signicance at a 40.05.

(NSP F = 2.07, p = 0.05, BSP F = 2.64, p = 0.02), price (F = 2.18, p = 0.04),

information quantity (F = 2.13, p = 0.02) and information quality (F = 2.15,
p = 0.02) on overall satisfaction. The factors of information quality, security,
sensory impact, information quantity and both speed types are also positively and
signicantly correlated (a50.05) with overall e-commerce satisfaction. As shown in
table 6, the web characteristic variables showed highly signicant and positive
intercorrelation.
4.3. Proposition III: relationship between demographics and preferences
Detailed analysis of how demographic variables aect web site preferences for ecommerce was conducted on the factors that signicantly impacted overall
satisfaction. A series of ANOVA's were performed using demographic data as
independent variables and web site characteristics as dependent variables. The results
indicate that age, education and income impact a preference for sensory impact,
price, information quantity and comparison shopping. Age and education aected
the preference for security, while gender alone aected the preference for buying
speed (table 8), with results showing that women prefer buying speed more than men.
Figure 1 shows how income level aects preferences for web site characteristics as
well as the overall preferences. The trend is clear that as income increases, the
preference for sensory impact, price and to a lesser degree, information quantity,
decreases. Figure 2 contains the same information concerning age and Figure 3
contains information concerning education levels. In all three gures, trends indicate
that as age, income and education levels increase, the preference for many of the
characteristics diminishes.
4.4. Proposition IV: relationship between demographic preferences for methods of
retaining customers
Table 9 contains the results of the ANOVA with the three CRM questions as
independent variables and overall e-commerce satisfaction as the dependent variable
(N = 161, F = 2.36, p = 0.0033). These results indicate that supporting online vendors
through repeat business impacts satisfaction, while site personalization and e-mail
messages announcing sales do not. A series of ANOVA was conducted, using
demographic values as independent variables and the three CRM questions as
dependent variables (see table 10). These results indicate that as the age of respondents

Impact of demographics on web characteristic preferences.

Web characteristics

Demographic

Sensory
Impact

Price

Information
Quantity
F
p

Security

Comparison
shopping
F
p

Navigation
speed
F
p

Buying speed
F
p

Age

8.27 ( ) 50.0001* 3.42 ( )

0.003*

3.80 ( )

0.001*

3.44 ( )

0.002* 2.93 ( ) 0.01*

2.05

0.06

1.90

0.08

Education

9.12 ( ) 50.0001* 2.52 ( )

0.01*

2.63 ( )

0.01*

2.86 ( )

0.004* 2.61 ( ) 0.01*

3.17

0.002*

0.90

0.52

Income

5.22 ( )

0.002*

3.96 ( )

0.01*

2.66 (+)

0.05*

1.07

0.36

1.40

0.24

0.55

0.65

Gender

2.65

0.10

1.40

0.24

2.38

0.12

0.10

0.75

1.11

0.29

4.13

0.04*

3.42 ( ) 0.02*
0.14

0.71

E-commerce design

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Table 8.

Direction of impact indicated by +/7 in parentheses.

* indicates signicance at a 40.05.

163

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164

N. J. Lightner

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Impact of income on web site preferences.

Impact of age on web site preferences.

increased, the preference for site personalization decreased. As family size increased,
the preference for site personalization increased, and sales generated by e-mail prompts
also increased. These ndings marginally support Proposition IV, which proposed that
demographic characteristics impact the success of CRM techniques.

165

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E-commerce design

Figure 3.
Table 9.

Impact of education on web site preferences.

CRM components to satisfaction ANOVA results (N=161; F=2.36, p=0.003).

CRM component
Repeat business
Site personalization
E-mail prompted sales

F-value

p-value

Mean

Std. dev.

6.50
0.43
0.83

50.0001*
0.86
0.55

5.08
4.72
3.61

1.35
1.55
1.77

* indicates signicance at a 40.05.

Table 10. Impact of demographics on Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

preferences.
CRM preferences

Demographic data
Age
Education
Income
Gender
Family size
Frequency of
purchase home

Repeat business
(F=1.16, p=0.30)
F
p
1.15
1.65
0.39
1.54
0.96
0.87

0.34
0.13
0.76
0.22
0.41
0.46

E-mail prompted sales Site personalization

(F=2.02, p=0.008*) (F=2.34, p=0.002*)
F
p
F
p
1.74
1.26
1.54
0.22
5.04 (+)
2.33

0.13
0.28
0.21
0.64
0.002*
0.08

2.42 (7)
1.71
1.69
0.02
5.26 (+)
2.20

0.04*
0.11
0.17
0.88
0.002*
0.09

* indicates signicance at a 40.05.

5. Discussion
The strong correlation between the frequency and amount spent on home purchases
and business purchases reinforces the notion that a `wired' lifestyle indicates a
propensity toward online shopping (Bellman et al. 1999). These ndings aid in

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166

N. J. Lightner

determining how to accommodate those that do venture online to conduct ecommerce. Results from the overall satisfaction analysis indicate that on average,
strong preferences for security, truthfulness and completeness of site contents exist.
Evidence also suggests that once buyers are comfortable with an online vendor, they
reward them with repeat business. These ndings are not dependent on any
demographic data and reect an overall preference by the buying population. Results
of the detailed analysis indicate that preferences for other site characteristics are
dependent on age, education and income levels, with older, highly educated and high
income respondents emerging as a group with clearly dened preferences for ecommerce sites. We refer to individuals in this group as `mature, auent'. The
preferences of the mature, auent may reect a dierence in the manner in which ecommerce sites are used. According to Simon's framework of decision making (1960),
gathering intelligence is the rst step in the decision making process. The second step
involves taking the intelligence gathered and formulating possible courses of action
based on it. The third step is choosing an alternative from those available. Based on
the results of these surveys, it appears as though the mature, auent buyer possibly
uses the Web as a tool during the actual purchase of goods, once the decision to buy is
made using other sources, such as friends and print media. This is evidenced by the
decrease in importance of almost all site characteristics for the mature, auent
segment. Of special interest is the phenomenon the drop in importance of price for the
mature, auent group. This may indicate that once the purchase decision is made,
price is not a factor in what site to use to make purchases. Younger, less educated and
those with less income have preferences that seem to indicate that they use the Web
for intelligence gathering and formulating alternative products to purchase.
Explanations as to why this may occur can be found in the `wired' lifestyle suggested
by Bellman et al. (1999). Younger people have been more exposed to the Internet for
a larger portion of their lives and may be more comfortable with using it and trusting
it for information gathering and as a decision aid.
5.1. Limitations
This study was limited in that it surveyed on line consumers about their preferences,
but does not present evidence that the stated preferences are reected in actual online
consumption. Since actual buying behaviour is dicult to capture, the patterns
reported may be an artifact of the collection method. The use of two surveys
conducted almost a year apart also introduces diculties with interpretation, since
design and operational aspects of e-commerce sites may have changed over the
survey time. The use of categorical variables for the demographic information
introduces diculties in performing statistical analysis for highly reliable results.
This study investigates whether demographic characteristics are predictors of online
preferences. More precise and thorough investigation is needed to explain any
phenomena shown here.
5.2. Implications for research and practice
Creating a model for e-commerce success is a daunting task, since it incorporates
many aspects of the system. This study conrms that characteristics of the Web
Environment and Customer subsystems presented by Helander and Khalid (2000)
impact e-commerce satisfaction. However, the characteristics of security, information quality and quantity were ranked highest, indicating that the usefulness of the
system is more important than its usability.

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167

We translate these ndings into practical recommendations on what to include in

an e-commerce site and how to alter the site to accommodate dierent target
markets. Overall recommendations are that regardless of the target market, evidence
of a secure site is most important to the average buyer. Conveying detailed
information about products and services and evidence that the information is true is
also extremely important satisfying buyers and generating repeat business. While
vendor reputation seems important, once buyers discover a vendor that suits their
needs, they tend to buy from them over and over again. Site personalization is not
currently a preference, nor is solicitation via e-mail messages. Since the support
system to provide these enhancements adds expense to the overall system, a cost
benet analysis will probably show that the added expense does not produce repeat
visits as expected. Since the preferences are clear for the mature, auent consumer, if
a business has those customers as its target market, we recommend removing design
elements with the purpose of providing sensory impact, such as complicated
wallpaper or animation. This group seems more intent on deciding which product
ts their needs, regardless of price, and is not as interested in elements that dissuade
them from that task. Younger, less auent consumers, on the other hand, are more
interested in having information about products available to them using a method
that invokes the senses. These consumers are concerned about price as well, but not
to a large extent.
6. Conclusions
This study shows that the individual as a consumer remains an important concern
for e-commerce research. We identied areas of most interest in e-commerce
(security, information quality and quantity), as well as dierences in preferences by
demographic group. One area that emerged for further study is in task dierences.
Browsing for product information may be considered as separate from the actual
buying process. In addition, more research into customer service and customer
relations is warranted. This study showed that eorts to attract consumers via
electronic means are not yet eective.
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