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Effects of Prior Experience and Individual Differences on Perceived Risk of Online Shoppers: A Preliminary Study

It is well known that risk is a significant factor affecting ecommerce purchases among consumers. Consumers perceive a variety of often novel risks in such transactions. This empirical study evaluates the effect of prior experience (e.g., effects of the number of online purchases, average amount of online purchases, types of purchased products, daily average number of hours spent on the Internet) and individual differences (e.g., gender and age) and their interaction effects on risk perception. Data from 573 randomly selected respondents was collected and analyzed. In this preliminary version, we interpret results from an analysis of correlations among consumer characteristics and risks (hazards) in online purchase context. Results suggest that prior experience (e.g., the number of hours spent daily on the Internet, the average amount of online purchases, online purchases made in the past 6 months) has some effect on perceived risk. Moreover, online shoppers’ gender strongly affects perceived risk while relationship between age and perceived risk is somewhat present but not strong. A more detailed analysis is in progress. The results of this study can help researchers identify whether certain factors do affect risk perceptions in ecommerce context.