ABSTRACT: As business-to-consumer online shopping grows, e-commerce channel providers will need to explore ways to anticipate consumers' needs to deliver an efficient shopping experience. Yet the consumers' decision-making process and its relationship to the selection of the online channel are not well understood. Utilizing Simon's decision-making model, we examined support for decision-making phases using 134 online consumers. We also extended the model to include consumers' cost savings and time savings, as well as their satisfaction with the e-commerce channel. Structural equation modeling results indicate that the online shopping channel supported the overall decision-making process. In particular, we found strong support for the design and choice phases of online consumers' decision-making process. Our results also indicate that support for the decision-making process was mediated by the cost savings and time savings gained by the online consumers and led to their greater channel satisfaction.
Key words and phrases: B2C e-commerce, business-to-consumer commerce, consumer decision-making, electronic commerce, online selling channel