International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) |Volume VI, Issue XI, November 2022|ISSN 2454-6186
Aroshan Srirajakulendra, Ajith Medis PhD
University of Kelaniya, Department of Marketing, Sri Lanka
Abstract- E-commerce provides the opportunity for retailers to attract and nurture a wider consumer base in big ticket consumer electronics trade sans the traditional high investment intensive pre-requisites such as extravagant physical presence, wide distribution networks etc. However, distrust in the mindset of the consumer in turn impede such opportunities. By using the construal level theory such reluctance could be partially explained via psychological distance; and by deploying certain tactics and manipulating the underlying dimensions of psychological distance, whether retailers have the ability to offset such reluctance in the mindset of consumers without the need for heavy investment on complicated operating structures. This research marks a unique milestone in Sri Lanka where it is the first of its’ nature to explore a heavily under-researched frontier of psychological distance in the context of e-commerce, and calls for more systematic research attention towards such. This paper offers practitioners an overview of variables such as psychological distance, online trust, perceived risk and online purchasing intention in view of expanding the local e-commerce market for big ticket electronics.
Key words: E-commerce, Psychological distance, online purchasing intention, online trust, perceived risk.
I. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background Of The Study
In times of e-commerce the physical product may be geographically far away from the consumer’s location. With the introduction and growth of online shopping, the consumer has the capacity to procure a product from a significantly distant continent at the click of button, a phenomenon that has generated considerable interest among the wider consumer community as well as academic researchers, especially where they have examined the Consumer reactions to electronic shopping in the worldwide web (Jarvenpaa and Todd 1997). The revenues from online shopping has been growing at a steady rate and the current global online retail value is estimated at USD 04 Trillion (Zhong and Zheng, 2018), with a 20% growth forecast at the start of year 2020. Pioneering e-tailers in the world such as Amazon.com indicated early signs of success with the very successfully driving one of the largest