Understanding consumer online shopping behaviour from the perspective of transaction costs

 et al.
2012, Fan
 et al.
2013b).
More specifically, past studies showed that good information content/quality has a positive 
impact on purchase intention (Perdue 2002, Ranganathan and Ganapathy 2002, Ranganathan 
and Grandon 2002, Kim and Kim 2004, Bigne-Alcaniz
 et al.
2008, Ha and Stoel 2012, 
Pearson
 et al.
2012). Particularly, Perdue (2002) and Ranganathan and Grandon (2002) found 
that the quality of contents is one of the most important reasons why travellers make a 
booking on a particular travel site.
Researchers have sought to explain the influence of the overall online store design on 
consumers’ intention to buy online or actual purchase behaviour (Quick 1999, States 1999, 
Totty 2001, Liang and Lai 2002, Ranganathan and Ganapathy 2002, Zimmerman 2002, Kim 
and Kim 2004, Mark and Harris 2007, Verhagen and van Dolen 2009). The outcomes 
demonstrated a significant and positive effect. Others studies focused on the specific 
dimensions of online store design. For example, Chau et al. (2000) and Childers et al. (2001) 

---

47
studied the influence of navigation functionality of online store on consumers’ online 
purchase behaviour. They pointed out that consumers who perceive a well-organized web by 
easily using navigation function are more likely to purchase from the online store. In addition, 
scholars (Yoon 2002, Verhagen and van Dolen 2009) examined the search function of online 
stores. The results showed a positive impact of effectiveness of search function on consumers’ 
intention to purchase online. Others (Bell and Gemmell 1996, Hoffman
 et al.
1996, Bank 
1997, Fram and Grandy 1997, Peterson
 et al.
1997, Iacobucci 1998, Weinberg 2000, Powell 
2001, Udo and Marquis 2002, Cho
 et al.
2003) investigated the influence of downloading 
time on the effectiveness of a website. The results indicated that excessive download time 
hinders
online purchase behaviour and frustrated users will leave the site, abandon their 
shopping carts and post negative opinions about that site. Eroglu et al. (2003a) highlighted 
the role of the accuracy of the product/s displayed in predicting online purchase. The findings 
showed that, as varying technology may make it difficult to represent the true colours or 
dimensions of a product, the distortion makes consumers uneasy about making an online 
purchase thereby discouraging online shopping adoption.
In addition, a growing body of literature has investigated the impact of online store image on 
online shopping behaviour. Aghekyan-Simonian et al. (2012) examined the role of the overall 
online store image in predicting online purchase intention. They reported that online store 
image impacts purchase intentions indirectly by decreasing risk perceptions. Previous 
research also tested the relationship between each dimension of online store image and online 
shopping intention and adoption (Van der Heijden and Verhagen 2004, Verhagen and van 
Dolen 2009, Fan
 et al.
2013b). For example, Verhagen and van Dolen (2009) proposed that 
online store image consists of online store merchandise, atmosphere, navigation and service 
and found that online store merchandise, atmosphere and navigation are positively related to 

---

48
online purchase intention, while online store service does not have a significant effect on 
online purchase intentions. They further indicated that offline store image positively affects 
online store image. However, only offline store merchandise positively affected online 
purchase intention. Van der Heijden and Verhagen (2004) proposed a different 
conceptualization of online store image which is composed of online store usefulness, 
enjoyment, ease of use, store style, familiarity, trustworthiness, and settlement performance. 
In their study, the components were regressed on attitudes and intentions towards purchasing 
at the online store, revealing significant and direct influences from usefulness, enjoyment, 
trustworthiness and settlement performance. In an attempt to examine the role of store image 
in online shopping, Fan et al. (2013b) found that entertaining dimension of store image 
mediates the relationship between social presence and online purchase intention.