Gender differences in online shoppers' decision-making styles

Abstract

Because of the SARS epidemic in Asia, people chose to the Internet shopping instead of going shopping on streets. In other words, SARS actually gave the Internet an opportunity to revive from its earlier bubbles. The purpose of this research is to provide managers of shopping Websites regarding consumer purchasing decisions based on the CSI (Consumer Styles Inventory) which was proposed by Sproles (1985) and Sproles & Kendall (1986). According to the CSI, one can capture the decision-making styles of online shoppers. Furthermore, this research also discusses the gender differences among online shoppers. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to understand the decision-making styles and discriminant analysis was used to distinguish the differences between female and male shoppers. Managers of Internet shopping Websites can design a proper marketing mix with the findings that there are differences in purchasing decisions between genders.