FACTORS INFLUENCING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS ONLINE SHOPPING AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SABARAGAMUWA UNIVERSITY OF SRI LANKA

Abstract

Online shopping has become an increasing concern among university students in Sri Lanka. Hence, it is very important to identify and understand online shopping behaviour among university students. Therefore, this research aims at identifying the factors which influence consumer behaviour towards online shopping among university students at Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. The sample size was 250 students and primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire and analyzed with the help of Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The study revealed that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived risk and subjective norms are significant while trust is not significant in predicting online shopping behaviour. Also, online purchase intention acted as a mediator for independent variables (trust, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use).Finally, this study provides a better understanding to E-marketers and shopping website developers about the online shopping behaviour among university students in Sri Lanka empirically.