online behaviour

Influencing the online consumer’s behavior: the Web experience
Efthymios Constantinides
The author
Efthymios Constantinides is an Assistant Professor at the
University of Twente, Faculty of Business, Public Administration and Technology, Department of Marketing, Strategy and
Entrepreneurship, Enschede, The Netherlands.

Keywords
Internet marketing, Worldwide web, Online operation,
Consumer behaviour, Buying behaviour

Abstract
Addresses one of the fundamental issues of e-marketing: how to attract and win over the consumer in the highly competitive
Internet marketplace. Analyses the factors affecting the online consumer’s behavior and examines how e-marketers can influence the outcome of the virtual interaction and buying process by focusing their marketing efforts on elements shaping the customer’s virtual experience, the Web experience.
Identifying the Web experience components and understanding their role as inputs in the online customer’s decision-making process are the first step in developing and delivering an attractive online presence likely to have the maximum impact on
Internet users. Click-and-mortar firms delivering superior Web experience influence their physical clients’ perceptions and attitudes, driving additional traffic to traditional sales outlets.
Provides a contribution to the theoretical debate around the factors influencing the online consumer’s behavior and outlines some noticeable similarities and differences between the traditional and virtual consumers.

Electronic access
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1066-2243.htm Internet Research
Volume 14 · Number 2 · 2004 · pp. 111-126 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited · ISSN 1066-2243
DOI 10.1108/10662240410530835

The consumers” buying behavior has been always a popular marketing topic,

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