Abstract:
At present, the online store environment concept is at the growing stage in the retail
industry in Sri Lanka. With the rapid development of information and communication
technology along with the globalization, consumers are forced to become online shoppers.
Though consumers are increasingly adopting electronic channels for purchasing, explaining
online consumer behavior is still a major issue. Through this study, the attention has been
paid to analyze the relationship between online store environment and customer purchase
intention, due to lack of existing studies available in Sri Lankan context related to the
study area. So, the objective of this study is to identify the influence of each of the online
store environment factor on customer purchase intention.
The study was conducted in Southern Province and 100 respondents were selected
as the sample based on the criterion that they have purchased goods online. Primary data
were collected by using a survey based questionnaire. Basically, three online store environment
factors such as availability, appearance and usability/regularity were measured
through descriptive statistics. Additionally, the relationship between each of the store environment
factor and customer purchase intention was measured by using correlation
statistics. Results indicated that all the three store environment factors have a positive
influence to change Customer’s Purchase Intention. Specially, when purchasing a product
online, customers are highly concerning about the appearance of the store environment.