Influence of online shopping behavior and consumer satisfaction on trust and product factors in retail stores

Extended Abstract
 
Introduction: The Internet-based e-commerce model has been adopted as one of the marketing strategies by companies to capture market share. A look at the exponential growth of the major players in the industry shows that there is still a large reservoir of market potential for e-commerce. The advancement of e-commerce is leading to the maturation of online shopping as a retail channel and profound changes. The features and benefits of online shopping make it one of the most common ways of shopping among consumers, especially Generation Z. Generation Z refers to the smartest generation that engages with the Internet for most of their daily activities.  Generation Z is born in the digital age. The characteristics of this generation are affected by the spread of smartphones and social networks. They expect technology to enable them to make more informed purchasing decisions; Therefore, prioritizing online sales is the best way to sell this generation. Members of this generation act differently from previous generations, which can lead to changes in consumer behavior. In this research, the behavior of Generation Z online consumers is also investigated. To improve sales, it is necessary to meet the expectations of this generation. The most important expectation of this generation is to register an optimal shopping experience. Embracing technology and providing immediate and quality services is very important for this generation. Therefore, in the retail industry, there is no other way to survive than to adapt to this generation. In order to survive and gain a competitive advantage in the e-retail business, many efforts are needed by online retailers to retain customers and meet the expectations of online customers; This means that online businesses must understand what key factors determine customer satisfaction in order to survive in today's e-commerce. For this purpose, the aim of this research is to identify and determine the influencing factors on the online shopping behavior of Generation Z and its effect on consumer satisfaction. Specifically, (1) taking into account the moderation of trust and product factors, the effect of social influence, variety seeking, personalized advertising, and convenience on consumer behavior, (2) the effect of consumer behavior on consumer satisfaction, and (3) the mediating effect of consumer behavior on the relationship between antecedents of online shopping and consumer satisfaction have been investigated.
Methodology: The research method of the current study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-survey in terms of nature and method. The statistical population of this research is considered to be all generation Z customers (zoomers or digital natives) who have had the experience of online shopping from online retailers for consumer products. In this research, the field method was used to collect the data needed to test the hypotheses and analyze the data. The data collection tool is the standard questionnaires that exist in this field and were randomly distributed among the statistical sample. Due to the uncertainty of the target statistical population, Cochran's formula was used to determine the sample size. After removing the distorted questionnaires, the final 392 questionnaires were analyzed and analyzed by the structural equation modeling method with the help of Smart PLS3 and IBM SPSS Statistics27 statistical software.
Discussion and Results: The results showed that the antecedents of online shopping including (1) social influence, (2) variety seeking, (3) personalized advertising, (4) convenience, (5) trust and (6) product factors have a positive and significant effect on online consumer behavior. Also, consumer behavior is significantly related to consumer satisfaction, and it was found that Generation Z people are more inclined to make planned purchases than to make impulse buying. In addition, the moderating effect of (1) trust in the relationship between social influence, variety seeking and consumer behavior, and the moderating effect of (2) product factors in the relationship between convenience and consumer behavior were confirmed; If the relationship between personalized advertising and consumer behavior is not moderated by product factors. Finally, the mediating effect of consumer behavior in the relationship between the antecedents of online shopping and consumer satisfaction was confirmed.
Conclusion: The results of this study provide online retailers with an insight into the most important aspects affecting the behavior of Generation Z consumers in online shopping. Faced with the findings, e-commerce retailers should be aware that customers' expectations of online services have increased compared to the past. Therefore, frequent monitoring of consumers' perceptions and expectations about online shopping, as well as identifying factors influencing online user behavior, is an important prerequisite for developing and improving online businesses and helps marketers to adjust their strategies to satisfy Consumer's needs and guarantee sustainable competitive advantage.