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PROFILE OF THE ELECTRONIC COMMERCE CONSUMER: A STUDY WITH BRAZILIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

This work aimed to analyze the profile of electronic commerce costumers, as well as identify characteristics that differentiate costumers from non-costumers of electronic commerce. For this purpose, a quantitative-descriptive study was carried out with university students of a federal public university of the south-western region of Brazil, during the first half of 2011, using a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, logistic regression and cluster analysis. The results showed that more than 75% of the students had already made purchases over the Internet and that security and price were major factors in their decision. Men were the primary users of electronic commerce and this type of consumption was positively related to income and the use of credit cards. In addition, consumption preferences able to differentiate consumers of electronic commerce from non-consumers were: quick and practical shopping, risk perception and indifference towards testing the products before making purchases. The results also indicated that there were four different segments in habits, preferences and socio-demographic characteristics: "controlled", "young consumers", "basic consumer" and "conventional buyers".

Dario de Oliveira Lima-Filho, Camila de Souza Alves, Filipe Quevedo-Silva, Lua­sa Brito Moreira, Vicente Rodrigues Garcez, Willian Ferreira Aratani

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