The impact of information literacy on consumer’s purchase decision in digital shopping: A case study of online local clothing business

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Master of Business Management, Payane Noor University, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant professor of science and Technology Policy, Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology (IranDoc), Tehran, Iran

3 Ph. D student in Business Administration, Halic University, Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract

Introduction: In digital shopping, numerous factors influence the consumers’ purchase decision. Among them, information literacy plays a key role. In this regard, the current study aims to develop a model of how information literacy affects the consumers’ purchase decision in digital shopping in a local clothing business. In The purchase decisions on brand choice, place of purchase, amount of purchase, and time of purchase are examined through Kotler’s model.
The concepts examined to conceptualize information literacy include the skill of using polling forums, awareness of inserting questions about the goods on the websites, ability to organize information in electronic environment, ability to gain access to information in electrical environment, ability to categorize information, skill of using different types of hardware such as laptop/computer, ability to examine accurate information, ability to establish communication between current and previous data, and skill of using information in decision-making. According to the conceptual framework presented in the current study, the major hypotheses are as follows:

Information literacy influences the consumer’s brand choice in digital shopping.
Information literacy influences the consumer’s place of purchase in digital shopping.
Information literacy influences the consumer’s amount of purchase in digital shopping.
Information literacy influences the consumer’s time of purchase.
Information literacy influences the consumer’s payment choice in digital shopping.
Information literacy influences the consumers’ purchase decision in digital shopping.

Methodology: The current study aims to examine the goods which undergo a short choice duration and the purchase decision of which is not complicated. To this end, examinations were conducted of touristic goods and products, particularly SARBINEH brand products. The statistical population consisted of all the consumers of SARBINEH local clothes (costumes) in the country. Due to the limited number of SARBINEH brand consumers, a convenience procedure was used for sampling. The participants included friends, colleagues, relatives, etc., based on the relative ease of access. A total number of 150 questionnaires were distributed but 98 were completed and returned. Then, a regression analysis was done to analyze the collected data.
Results and Discussion: The results demonstrated that SARBINEH brand consumers did not prioritize the clothes brands in digital shopping (when buying goods on the Internet), and this was not related to their information literacy. In other words, the low or high degree of information literacy had no influence on their decision in brand purchase. In this sense, it might be inferred that the consumer’s attitude towards the brand makes no change in digital environments and makes no difference where they see their desired brand to purchase. Accordingly, SARBINEH brand consumers pay particular attention to the place of purchase on the Internet in digital shopping, which is linked to their information literacy. So, a low or high degree of information literacy matters and changes their decision about the place of purchase (i.e., the website on which they make purchase).
Additionally, information literacy influenced the consumer’s purchase decision (amount of purchase) in digital shopping. In other words, a low or high degree of information literacy would change their amount of purchase (e.g, the number of clothes they bought). Also, SARBINEH local clothes consumers paid no attention to the time spent on their purchase in digital shopping; they could register their purchase at any time during 24 hours of a day. Moreover, the results indicated that SARBINEH local clothes (costumes) consumers paid attention to the payment methods (in-person or online payment) in digital shopping, which seemed to be related to their information literacy. Their low or high degree of information literacy led to a change in their payment methods. According to the findings, two variables, including information literacy and purchase decision, made no factorial impact in the sample under the study. Thus, the dependent variables of purchase decision were influenced by a certain percentage, and two variables including brand choice and time were not influenced by the information literacy. However, information literacy significantly impacted the place of purchase, amount of purchase, and payment method.
Conclusion: The study is significant in that digital environments are increasingly growing in most developing countries like Iran. Such an environment is considered as a prominent opportunity for enhancing digital markets. As a result, increasing the samples similar to the one in the current study, which sought to highlight the significance of the consumers’ purchase decision, information skills and their instrumental attraction in the virtual environment, can pave the way for the development of small businesses in virtual settings and, thereby, accelerate the development of the most important economic cycle, that is SMEs. The major innovation of in this study is the juxtaposition of two fields of marketing (a sub-discipline of management) and information literacy (a sub-discipline of information sciences) to make practical recommendations for improving the purchase rate in digital marketing. The findings were in line with those of previously conducted studies. It is worth noting that the entire model was not confirmed since Iranian customers disregard the importance of a particular level of awareness for purchasing clothes. This implies that their information literacy might be based on a specific one-to-one corresponding model of purchase decision constructs. It is also to be noted that the research model was assessed with regard to SARBINEH brand local clothing business, and a change in the studied goods would lead to different results.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Business Administration Researches
Volume 13, Issue 26
February 2022
Pages 343-369

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