Purchasing Apparel Online in China and in Sweden

Sammanfattning: Problem: E-commerce is a rapidly growing business sector across the world and provides interesting expansion opportunities for retail businesses. However, differing consumer attitudes across borders create barriers for expansion, and subsequently there is a need to study these differences. Purpose: The primary purpose of this study is to examine potential differences between Chinese and Swedish consumer’s attitudes and online shopping intentions when purchasing apparel online. The secondary purpose of this study is to contribute to the TAM by adding constructs that facilitate a cross-cultural examination in an e-commerce context. Methodology: This study is explorative and descriptive and has applied a qualitative research approach. The data has been collected primarily by conducting focus groups in both China and in Sweden. Findings: Differences in consumer’s attitudes and intentions toward online shopping between China and Sweden were identified. The main differences were the perceived overall usefulness of online shopping and the level of risk that consumers perceived in online shopping. Risk related constructs added to the TAM were found to be relevant, while the relevance of certain culturally related dimensions added were questionable.