Online Shopping

Online shopping has been a growing phenomenon all over the world, especially among countries with well-developed infrastructure for marketing activities over the Internet. The development of more advanced technology has facilitated smoother surfing on the Internet. People can now access the Internet through not only from PCs, but also from the Web TVs, PalmPilots and mobile phone. According to a study, more than 600 million people will have accessed the Internet globally by the end of 2002 and spent more than US$1 trillion buying goods and services online (Straits Time, 2002). The typical online purchaser in the year 2000 was well educated, married, and had a high economic status (Coyle, 2000). Electronic retailing continues to grow in size and importance as increasing numbers of consumers buy online, and apparel purchases represent a significant portion of online purchasing. Americans spent $184 billion on total apparel in 1999 with 1.1billion attributed to online apparel purchase (Kuntz, 2000). Although some research on consumer Internet behaviour has begun to appear, little attention has been devoted specifically to buying apparel online. Our study fills this gap by focusing on this new clothing behaviour.

Online shopping is a new technology that has been created along with the development of the Internet. It is a convenient method of shopping and allows for a vast array of products to be at your fingertips. However, fraudulent use of the Internet is often a concern for many shoppers. Cyber thieves steal identities of shoppers and then exploit them causing a theft of their identity. This leads to a variety of problems, causing fraudulent credit card charges, opening new credit accounts, and misuse of current accounts. This concern is on the minds of Americans who are the largest buyer of online goods. Most however, feel as though it is worth the risk, or it is only a limited possibility. The two sides of the argument will be explored in the following pages.