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BEHAVIOUR & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, 2002, VOL. 21, NO. 6, 373±385
Shopping behaviour and preferences in
e-commerce of Turkish and American university
students: implications from cross-cultural design
NANCY J. LIGHTNER{, MEHMET M. YENISEY{, A. ANT OZOK} and
GAVRIEL SALVENDY}
{University of South Carolina, Moore School of Business, Columbia, SC, USA; e-mail: nlightner@moore.sc.edu
{Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Management, Department of Industrial Engineering 80680 Macka,
Istanbul, Turkey; e-mail: yenisey@itu.edu.tr
}University of Maryland at Baltimore County, Department of Information Systems, Baltimore, MD, USA;
e-mail: ozok@umbc.edu
}Purdue University, School of Industrial Engineering, West Lafayette, IN, USA and Department of Industrial
Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, PR China; e-mail: salvendy@ecn.purdue.edu
Abstract. With internationalization of commerce and busi-ness
and with increased use of e-business and e-commerce, it is
important to ensure that these systems can be eVectively
utilized across cultural boundaries. To increase eVectiveness,
appropriate changes and modi®cations in the systems may be
required. With this in mind, a survey of 300 Turkish university
students was undertaken to assess their on-line shopping and
behaviour preferences, and these were compared with the
results derived from 64 US university students. The results
provide guidelines for speci®c design of features for the Turkish
population that may not be necessary for the US population.
1. Introduction
The World-Wide Web enables the Internet as a global
marketing and commerce tool, with access in almost
every country. Using international credit cards and
shipping services, it is now possible to sell products
around the globe from a Web server located practically
anywhere. Even with economic uncertainty and dot-com
crashes, the Forrester Online Retail Index indicates that
consumers spent nearly $4 billion online in July of 2001,
down from a high of $4.3 billion in April (Forrester.com
2001a). Forrester also estimates that European online
sales will reach EUR152 billion in 2006 (Forrester.com
2001b). Indications are that there is a movement of sales
on a global basis to the Internet, with less-developed
countries experiencing a lag behind the USA (Forres-ter.
com 2000). With this movement, considerations
about attracting and retaining online consumers from
diVerent global regions and cultures is gaining in
importance. While cross-cultural diVerences in general
have fascinated researchers for decades due to the
potential conceptual and design implications for pro-ducts,
never before have diVerences in shopping
preferences had such a potential impact. Responding
to cultural preferences through site design and imple-mentation
might increase global sales.
Cultural diVerences in interfaces in general exist in such
things as writing protocols. Dong and Salvendy (1999)
found that diVerences in the Chinese andWestern writing
styles (top to bottom in Chinese and left to right in
Western populations) resulted in performance increases
when menus were designed vertically for Chinese and
horizontally for US subjects. Online commerce incorpo-rates
interface issues such as this through shopping sites
as the exclusive means of communication with consumers
as well as meeting the expectations of shopping in general.
When shopping behaviour that is distinctly diVerent from
that in the USA is conceptualized, the Turkish bazaar
may come to mind. The busy atmosphere coupled with
the ability to negotiate terms more resembles the New
Behaviour & Information Technology
ISSN 0144-929X print/ISSN 1362-3001 online # 2002 Taylor & Francis Ltd
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
DOI: 10.1080/014492902100007131 6

374 N. J. Lightner et al.
York Stock Exchange than a shopping mall in the USA.
If cultural online shopping preferences exist, a compar-ison
between Turkish and US subjects might reveal
signi®cant ones. With this in mind, a survey of Turkish
university students was undertaken to identify electronic
shopping (e-shopping) behaviour and preferences. The
results of the survey are analysed and then compared to
the results of a similar survey of young adult Americans.
Conclusions are drawn concerning eVorts to respond to
cultural diVerences in shopping and technological pre-ferences
and concerns. The next section presents the
background literature which guided the survey construc-tion.
The third section discusses the survey questions and
the fourth section covers the analysis and results of the
survey. The ®fth section discusses the results and the sixth
section compares the results from the Turkish survey to a
similar one conducted in the USA. Finally, the last
section makes suggestions on accommodating cultural
diVerences in online shopping Web sites.
2. Background literature
Helander and Khalid (2000) propose a model for
human factors research in e-commerce that includes
three subsystems; the Web environment, the Customer,
and the Web technology. The Web environment consists
of design features of the site that aid in customers’
decisions during the buying process. Examples given are
merchandise descriptions, navigation aids and feedback
during the visit. Past surveys have indicated that the
Web environment can either in¯uence shoppers to
purchase or deter them from purchasing (Tilson et al.
1998). Recommendations in this area include providing
rich product descriptions in the form of text and pictures
(Jarvenpaa and Todd 1997, Lightner and Eastman 2002)
and providing spatial navigation systems (Kim 1999).
The Web environment is the area of the e-commerce
process that companies may manipulate to achieve a
competitive advantage in their ®eld. Designing an
appealing and useful Web site may help companies
realize gains from their on-line presence. Whether
cultural diVerences exist in the preferences of consumers
for Web site design is one focus of this research.
The component called Web Technology includes
features such as search agents, tools and artefacts used
for control, and display techniques such as visual and
auditory. These concerns are also a consideration in the
selection of sites, especially for certain classes of users
(Rogers and Rajkumar 1999). The Web Technology
component incorporates special input/output abilities
such as speech recognition and braille capabilities.
At the centre of the e-commerce experience is the
individual user that makes the decision not only to
purchase on-line, but where to make that purchase and
whether to shop at that site again. This component
incorporates demographic and psychographic variables
as modulating variables, which aid in the physical and
cognitive processes that occur when considering a site
and a purchase decision. User characteristics that have
empirical support for impacting online behaviour and
preferences are gender (Teo and Lim 2000), and a
`wired’ lifestyle (Bellman et al. 1999).
3. Survey
This research investigates aspects of a Web site that
are desirable and will possibly in¯uence consumers to
purchase online. A survey was developed and imple-mented
in an attempt to discover online shopping
behaviour and preferences of Turkish university stu-dents
as they relate to the three components proposed
by Helander and Khalid (2000) . The survey contains 29
questions (see Appendix A). Three questions asked for
the demographic information of gender, education level
of father and family income and four queried on general
Internet use. Most survey questions were derived from
signi®cant results in previous studies. One question asks
about the use of text and pictures as a preference (Tilson
et al. 1998, Jarvenpaa and Todd 1997, Lightner and
Eastman 2002), and one question ranks categories of
products for online purchase consideration. Twenty
questions ask participants to respond using a 7-point
Likert scale ranging from `very strongly disagree’ to
`very strongly agree’. All are positively coded. Of these
questions, nine were derived from the `Shopping
behaviour preferences’ category and include one ques-tion
each about experiencing products through physical
contact (Vaughn 1986), buying out of curiosity (Menon
and Kahn 1998), the amount of detail and the accuracy
of information received (Helander and Khalid 2000),
product and price comparison (Helander and Khalid
2000), knowing the opinions of others (Jarvenpaa and
Todd 1997), preference for credit card payment (Tilson
et al. 1998), and a mega-store format or a boutique
environment (Jarvenpaa and Todd 1997). A question
was included that concerned the ability to negotiate for
a price. This question was derived from the metaphor of
the Turkish bazaar, and implies a more interactive
scenario than currently available in online auctions.
Seven of the questions were from the `Site design
preferences’ category and include items concerning
transaction and navigation speed (Fuccella and Pizza-lota
1997), preference of pictures over text (Jarvenpaa
and Todd 1997, Lightner and Eastman 2002), presence
of a shopping cart (Tilson et al. 1998), product
classi®cation according to brand name or product

Shopping behaviour and preferences in e-commerce of Turkish and American university students 375
family (Jarvenpaa and Todd 1997), and site organiza-tion
speed (Fuccella and Pizzalota 1997). Five questions
were from the `Technology Issues’ category and include
one concerning transaction security, two concerning the
use of credit cards online and one about personal
information privacy (Tilson et al. 1998). One queried on
an eVective search mechanism (Jarvenpaa and Todd
1997). We considered the issues of security and privacy
as technology issues because technologies such as
cookies and databases allow for the tracking and storing
of personal information, including credit card informa-tion,
making it accessible to online hackers.
Students from a large Turkish university were asked to
participate in the paper-based survey. All of the 303
respondents were junior and senior undergraduate stu-dents
from the Department of Industrial Engineering at
the Technical University of Istanbul in Istanbul, Turkey.
The data was collected during May and June of 2001.
4. Analysis and results
The ®rst step in data analysis was an examination of
the responses to discern patterns in them. In an eVort to
explain the diVerence between those that have purchased
on line and those that have not, t-test comparisons were
conducted. Descriptive statistics also aid in determining
the most important attributes in an online shopping
experience. Finally, correlation analysis is used to
evaluate which aspects of online shopping are related.
The primary goal of this study is to de®ne online
shopping behaviour and preferences of a young,
educated Turkish population. The overall internal
reliability as measured by Cronbach’s alpha was 0.67.
In this section, the results from the survey are presented.
4.1. Pro®le of respondents
As shown in tables 1 and 2, the average respondent is
male and uses the Internet almost every day, predomi-nantly
for communication (by e-mail, chat and instant
messaging) and learning. Since all were university
students, the education gauge used was the father’s
education level, of which 41% indicated a level of
Bachelor’s degree. Of those that responded with a family
income range, 31% indicated the highest level of more
than one billion Lira. This represents above average
income, equivalent to approximately $50 000 USD. It
appears as though their educational environment has an
eVect on online behaviour, with 80% of respondents
checking `to learn new things’ as a main use of the
Internet. The survey question asking about the use of
the Internet allows for multiple selections. Surprisingly,
most respondents (82%) indicated that they have never
purchased on line. As a result, these results are more
Table 1. Demographic pro®le of Turkish respondents.
Variable Ð description (possibilities) n Mean Std. Dev.
Gender: Male=1, Female=2 303 1.36 0.48
Highest education your father achieved: 269 3.95 1.61
3=High school, 4=2 year university, 5=Bachelor degree
Family income: (2=201 ± 400 million, 3=401 ± 600 million, 244 4.08 1.63
4=601 ± 800 million, 5=801 ± 1000 million)
Frequency of Internet use: 1=once a day or more, 302 1.50 0.64
2=1 ± 4 times a week, 3=1 ± 4 times a month
Frequency of Internet shopping: 1=never, 2=less than once a 302 1.31 0.73
year, 3=2 ± 5 times per year, 4=over 5 times per year
Table 2. Internet usage behaviour of Turkish respondents
(n=303).
Survey question Percentage
3. I use the Internet for . . .
Communication 86.8
Learn new things 79.5
News 68.3
Entertainment 67.7
Software 26.7
Banking 18.5
Shopping 8.6
5. If you have never shopped online, why?
I don’t trust shopping on the Web 62.7
It is complex 5.0
I can’t ®nd what I look for 4.3
I have heard bad things about online shopping 4.0
15. What do you want to buy online mostly? Percentage
(select in order of priority, 1: most often of No. 1
and 6: least often) Ranking (%)
House wares 26.1
Food 15.8
Cleaning materials 13.2
Health 12.2
Clothing 11.9
Entertainment 11.2

about general shopping preferences and behaviour than
actual online preferences and behaviour.
Of those respondents that have never shopped online,
83% indicated that the reason was that they do not trust
shopping on the Web.
Table 3 contains the areas of diVerence between those
that had experience purchasing online and those that do
not. There are several trends evident in these responses.
Those that do not purchase online also spend less time
online performing other tasks and indicate less of a need
for transaction speed. They are more concerned about
security, as indicated by the higher scores in the credit
card risk and credit card reluctance questions and the
lower score in the question indicating a preference to
pay with a credit card instead of cash. Those that do
purchase online buy housewares online less frequently
than is speculated by those who do not. Perhaps the
most important diVerence between these groups is the
income brackets. Those that do not purchase online
reported less income (between 400 ± 800 million Lira)
than those that do (801 ± 1000 million Lira).
4.2. Shopping behaviour preferences
Table 4 presents the ®ndings for the 20 questions in
the survey that were derived from the three categories of
`Shopping behaviour preferences’, `Site design prefer-ences’
and `Technology issues’. The questions are
ordered according to the category speci®cation and
within that, descending by the mean score. The overall
ranking in importance for the item is contained in
column 1. As the last row of the table indicates, the
average response rated a 5.45, or in between the àgree’
and `strongly agree’ scale items.
These results reveal that of the three categories, the
Turkish respondents were most concerned about the
`Technology Issues’ of security and privacy, with all four
questions scoring above the overall mean. Jarvenpaa
and Todd (1997) suggested that two types of risk are
prevalent in the online world. Personal risk is due to
credit card fraud. The low response to Ì have heard bad
things about online shopping’ , plus the ®rst place
ranking of transaction security by respondents rein-forces
that transaction security is the major issue with
online shopping.
The questions rating the highest from the `Site design
preferences’ category were speed-related, with site
navigation and organization speed ranking fourth and
sixth and an eVective search mechanism ranking tenth.
One may argue that a good search engine hastens
locating relevant product information, as evidenced by
the high correlation coe cient between the search tool
and the navigation speed questions (r=0.46Ðsee Table
5).
`Customer Preference’ questions ranking the highest
included the need for accurate and detailed information,
price negotiation, product and price comparisons
available and physical contact with the product. The
other type of risk as suggested by Jarvenpaa and Todd
(1997) is performance risk. Performance risk exists
because the product may not function as expected.
The high value placed on accurate and detailed
information, ranking them number two and three
respectively, indicate that performance risk is another
major concern to potential online shoppers.
Table 5 contains the overall correlation matrix for
these 20 questions, organized by question category and
ranking within the category. Speed and security-related
questions were highly correlated and also ranked high
in overall importance. Gender diVerences were evident
in these results, reinforcing the ®ndings from Teo and
Lim (2000). Female respondents reported higher
family incomes and were more concerned with
Table 3. DiVerences between those who purchase online and those who do not ± Turkish survey. Higher values indicate stronger
agreement.
Do Purchase Don’t purchase
Variable mean n mean n t-value Pr 4|t|
Frequency of Internet use 1.25 56 1.56 246 3.33 0.001
Why don’t you use to shop 1.93* 15 1.30** 215 72.93 0.004
Transaction speed 6.10 56 5.15 247 74.63 50.0001
Pay with a credit card 4.75 56 3.97 247 73.01 0.003
Credit card risk 4.79 56 5.90 247 5.84 50.0001
Purchase housewares 2.33 45 3.11 221 2.63 0.009
Reluctance to use credit card 5.07 56 6.03 245 4.62 50.0001
Income 5.00 46 3.87 198 74.39 50.0001
Shaded boxes indicate signi®cantly higher values for respondents who purchase online.
*Indicates a more frequent response of Ì can’t ®nd what I looked for’.
**Indicates a more frequent response of Ì don’t trust shopping on the web’.

Table 4. Descriptive statistics for the 20 7-point scale questions in the survey.
Rank Questions Mean Std. Dev. Total (n)
transaction security. Men preferred price negotiation,
physical contact with the product and faster transac-tion
speed.
5. Discussion: Turkish population behaviour and
preferences
The results of this survey of Turkish university
students indicates that issues related to the relatively
new technology of online shopping are of most concern.
Transaction security had the highest mean score and
lowest standard deviation (mean=6.58, s.d.=0.74) of
any question, indicating a high degree of concern for a
secure online environment. While information privacy
and issues with credit card payment had mean scores
above the overall average, they ranked fourth (tied with
navigation speed), ninth and twelfth. This concern for
security and privacy may be due to the popular press
reporting credit card and identi®cation theft that has
occurred in the online world. We speculated that online
transaction security concerns may arise from infrequent
credit card purchases in general, so in March 2002 we
Responses
conducted a survey of 98 Turkish university students to
determine their general credit card use. Results from
that survey indicate that 41% have a credit card, with
71% of those using it at least two to three times a
month. See Table 6 for more detailed results. The use of
credit cards has probably risen in the year since the
original survey, as credit and credit card addiction has
expanded globally, and younger consumers around the
globe are becoming comfortable incurring debt by using
small personal loans, usually obtained through credit
cards (Neusner 2002).
Accurate and detailed product information ranked
second and third overall, indicating a preference for
investigating products online and using online informa-tion
as a reliable information source. The related
question concerning product and price comparison
ranked eighth. These respondents may already be
accustomed to the convenience of the Web for ®nding
school-related information and feel they should be able
to trust what they ®nd.
Speed was the next highest rated area, with site
navigation speed tied for fourth with information
privacy and site organization speed ranked sixth. It is
Shopping behaviour preferences
2 Accurate information 6.49 0.82 302
3 Detailed information 6.40 0.75 303
7 Price negotiation 5.91 1.37 301
8 Product and price comparison 5.89 1.10 301
11 Physical contact with the product 5.74 1.46 302
15 Knowing the opinion of others 4.67 1.52 301
17 Mega-store versus boutique store format 4.57 1.66 300
18 Credit card payment 4.12 1.77 303
20 Purchase a new product out of curiosity 3.91 1.53 303
Site design preferences
4 Site navigation speed 6.17 0.95 301
6 Site organization speed 6.09 1.12 303
10 EVective search mechanism 5.78 1.13 301
13 Transaction speed 5.33 1.43 303
14 EVective shopping cart 5.07 1.34 299
16 Pictures or text for information 4.58 1.32 303
19 Classi®cation by brand-name or product family 4.06 1.70 296
Technology issues
1 Transaction security 6.58 0.74 302
4 Personal information privacy 6.17 1.38 300
9 Risk of giving credit card number on line 5.85 1.45 301
12 Reluctance to give credit card number on line 5.70 1.36 303
Overall mean: 5.45*
*Items scoring above the overall mean are in bold.

Table 5. Correlation matrix for demographics and the 20 7-point scale questions in the survey*.
expected that site and transaction speed is important.
The ranking below security and product information
indicates that these respondents value a quality experi-ence
over a hasty one.
Two aspects of a shopping experience that are
currently available online, but not widely, are price
negotiation and product and price comparison. These
questions scored above the overall mean and were
ranked seventh and eighth. Price negotiation is available
to a degree at auction sites, but only for products placed
there by individuals. Auction sites typically sell used
products and not the wide variety of new merchandise.
Name-your-own-pric e sites, such as Priceline.com, also
incorporate a type of price negotiation, but it is not the
real-time, interactive exchange that takes place in a
market or bazaar. Product and price comparisons are
possible within sites and through shop-bots. However,
thorough product and price comparisons are best
performed manually.
Physical contact with a product scored above the
overall mean and was ranked eleventh of the 20
questions. This is one area that will only be resolved
in real time when transporter s of the Star Trek2
television show type are developed. Experiencing a
product before the actual purchase is only available
online with electronic products such as software, since a
demonstration can occur online. Physical products
suVer from the same lack of contact that hinders
catalogue merchants. Consumers take a chance that
the product is represented fully and fairly and that if
they are not satis®ed, the return process will accom-modate
them. When asked what products they would
r

like to buy online, survey respondents indicated that
they would purchase house wares most often. House-wares,
such as small decorative and functional pieces,
can be described fully with text and pictures and are
familiar enough that surprises may be avoided.
Low scores on the questions concerning `knowing the
opinion of others’ and `purchase a new product out of
curiosity’ does not bode well for the persuasive sell or
the marketing of new products. While these consumer
characteristics are not related to online shopping,
current marketing practices may be personalized to an
individual user in an online environment.
6. Comparison to US results
6.1. Comparison of survey results
A survey of 64 undergraduate university students was
conducted in the USA during April of 2001 that was
similar in nature to the Turkish survey. The overall
reliability measure for the US survey was acceptable
(Cronbach a=0.76). The pro®le of the average US
respondents was similar to the Turkish one in that there
were more males than females and the family income
was high ($61 000 ± $100 000 per year). Interestingly,
67% indicated that they shop online once a month or
less and 27% said they shopped online between two and
®ve times a month. Clearly, university students in the
USA are not frequent online shoppers either with 94%
shopping online ®ve times a month or less. T-test
analysis between those that are frequent shoppers and
those that are not did not result in any statistically
signi®cant (a50.05) diVerences in the responses between
these groups.
The Turkish and US surveys contained ®ve questions
that were identical. These questions concerned the
accuracy of product information, site navigation speed,
site organization speed, product comparison and the
presence of a shopping cart mechanism. Security issues
were included in two of the US questions, while general
security was included in one of the Turkish survey
questions. Comparisons to this question are made for
both the US questions separately. T-test results indicate
that Turkish and US students have similar concerns, but
they are exaggerated in the Turkish subjects. The main
diVerences between the perception and behaviour of
Turkish and US university students about e-shopping
are:
. Turkish subjects are more interested than Amer-icans
in the speed of retrieving information
(t=2.45, p=0.01);
. Price comparison (t=3.63, p=0.0002) and per-ceived
accuracy of information (t=4.77,
p50.00001) are more important to the Turkish
students than to the USA;
. Turkish students are more concerned with Internet
security than US students (t=5.25, p50.00001).
In addition, diVerences exist between Turkish re-spondents
based on whether they purchase online or
not (see Table 3). Therefore, those who purchase online
and those who do not are considered separately. Table
7 contains the results from the similar questions on the
surveys between the Turkish respondents that shop
online and the more frequent shoppers from the US
survey. This data shows that the relative importance of
the issues is very similar between the two cultures.
Security issues ranked ®rst, achieving the highest
means and lowest standard deviations in both popula-tions.
Information accuracy ranked second in both
populations. Speed concerns ranked next and product
and price comparisons and a shopping cart were
ranked ®fth and last respectively, in both populations.
While the relative order of the issues was very similar
between the populations, the mean Turkish scores were
around half a point higher in every instance. Five out
of the six times the Turkish results were signi®cantly
higher.
Table 8 contains results from the comparison between
the Turkish respondents that do not shop online and the
US respondents that either do not shop online or shop
very little on line. The results re¯ect similar ranking in
both populations, with security ranking ®rst and site
organization speed ranking fourth, comparisons ranking
®fth and the presence of a shopping cart ranking last.
The rankings diVered in that the ranking of information
accuracy and site navigation speed was switched
between the two populations. Three of the six scores
were signi®cantly higher for the Turkish population
than the US responses.
Table 6. Results of credit card usage survey of 98 Turkish
students.
Credit card use
% of
respondents
% within
response
Do not currently have a credit card 59
Currently have a credit card 41
Regularly use
(2 ± 3 times per month)
71
Infrequently use
(*1 time per month)
24
Used once in their life 5
Have never used a credit card,
regardless of whether currently
have one or not
27

These results indicate similar areas of importance and
concern in electronic shopping for Turkish and US
university students.
6.2. Economic factors
Data recently collected by the US National Tele-communications
and Information Administration
(NTIA) indicates that demographic data including
age, income, education, and Internet usage while at
work (US Department of Commerce 2002) correlates
with Internet usage. These variables are aVected by
multi-collinearity, so it is di cult to determine which
factor has the most in¯uence. However, our survey
essentially controlled for these factors by only collect-ing
responses from university students who are of
similar age, family income bracket and education level.
All of the students had access to the Internet via their
University. When comparing data gathered about the
Table 7. Comparison between Turkish and US participants who do purchase on line.
Turkish survey US survey
Category Survey question Mean
Std.
Dev. n Mean
Std.
Dev. n
Per cent diV.
of means* t-value p-value
Technology issues Security{ 6.54 0.74 56 6.05/
5.70
1.07/
1.45
21/
20
7.5/12.8 2.27/
Table 8. Comparison between Turkish and US participants who do not purchase on line.
Turkish survey US survey
Category Survey question Mean
Std.
Dev. n Mean
Std.
Dev. n
3.30
Per cent diV.
of means* t-value p-value
Technology Issues Security{ 6.59 0.74 246 6.07/
6.12
0.99/
1.00
43 7.9/7.2 4.04/
3.67
<0.00001
Shopping behaviour
preferences
Information accuracy 6.50 0.81 246 6.02 1.02 42 7.3 3.36 0.0004
Site design
preferences
Site navigation speed 6.17 0.97 245 6.14 0.80 43 0.40 0.40 0.43
Site design
preferences
Site organization speed 6.03 1.13 247 5.79 0.98 42 4.1 1.32 0.09
Shopping behaviour
preferences
Product-price comparison 5.87 1.09 245 5.28 1.22 43 10.1 3.22 0.0007
Site design
preferences
Shopping cart 5.04 1.32 243 5.00 1.40 43 0.80 0.18 0.43
Shaded boxes indicate results from the Turkish survey that are signi®cantly higher than results from the US survey.
*Per cent diV. of means = [(Turkish mean ± US mean)/(Turkish mean)] * 100.
{Security question comparison between one question on Turkish survey and two on US survey.
0.01/
0.0007
Shopping behaviour
preferences
Information accuracy 6.48 0.87 56 5.67 1.53 21 12.6 2.93 0.002
Site design
preferences
Site navigation speed 6.20 0.84 56 5.67 1.32 21 8.5 2.09 0.02
Site design
preferences
Site organization speed 6.32 1.03 56 5.57 1.29 21 11.9 2.66 0.005
Shopping behaviour
preferences
Product-price comparison 5.98 1.15 56 5.43 1.29 21 9.2 1.81 0.04
Site design
preferences
Shopping cart 5.18 1.43 56 5.14 1.24 21 0.70 0.11 0.46
Shaded boxes indicate results from the Turkish survey that are signi®cantly higher than results from the US survey
*Per cent diV. of means = [(Turkish mean ± US mean)/(Turkish mean)] * 100.
{Security question comparison between one question on Turkish survey and two on US survey.

Internet use of the USA and Turkey, it is evident that
technology use is less prevalent in Turkey and is more
expensive (The World Bank Group 2002). Considering
the average per capita income, converted using
purchasing power parity rates, is reported as 9210
USD for upper middle income Turks in 2000, while it
is 27 770 USD in the USA, the use of Internet
technology is signi®cantly more expensive in Turkey
than in the USA. However, economic factors and
availability of the Internet do not fully explain the
diVerences in responses between the country surveys. A
search of available literature did not ®nd comparisons
of technology use between Turkey and the USA.
7. Conclusions
As this survey shows, online shopping in a country
considered less technologically advanced than the USA
is still in its infancy. Based on this survey, the following
guidelines are proposed for the design of e-commerce for
use by Turkish university students:
. Embed the perception of security in e-commerce
sites;
. Provide bidding possibilities for product purchase;
. Develop technology to provide the perception of
physical feelings for products.
As evidenced by this study, security remains one of
the largest issues in the online world. Even though credit
card companies do not hold cardholders liable when
theft occurs, the apparent vulnerability concerns shop-pers
to the point that they avoid purchasing online.
Trust has been shown to guide social behaviour and
especially decision-making (Luhmann 1979). Conveying
trustworthiness by providing a secure and private
shopping environment seems paramount for online
success. These results reinforce previous studies and
reports that indicate the historical importance of these
issues for e-commerce and e-business (Forcht and Fore
1995, Soh et al. 1997, Furnell and Karweni 1999, Saito
et al. 2001, Matthews et al. 2001). Seemingly, if security
concerns were addressed, more of the population of
Turkey and the USA would purchase online. Gefen
(2000) reports that familiarity builds trust in the online
world, indicating that as shoppers become more
comfortable with the technology and speci®c vendors,
they may purchase more.
The second guideline suggests that allowing for price
negotiations would provide a more satisfying shopping
environment. The technology required to provide such
an environment involves software modules, called
agents. Agents such as this have been developed for
research activities (Kersten and Noronha 1999, Liang
and Doong 2000). The study conducted by Liang and
Doong (2000) indicates that Chinese consumers prefer
shopping at online stores that oVer bargaining even
when the price they achieve is greater than at a store that
does not oVer bargaining. Bargaining is commonplace in
Taiwan as it is in Turkey, but only when prices are not
marked (www.taiwanho.com/shopping/). Currently, e-shopping
sites do not oVer the type of interactive
bargaining available in the agent-aided research envir-onments,
as the technology investment is signi®cant.
The third recommendation is to provide as much
realism in the product presentation as possible. Again,
the technical di culties encountered when addressing
senses other than vision online are daunting. This
presents one of the biggest drawbacks of the cyber
world, which is its lack of realism (Bonsor 2001). The
®rst additional sense addressed online is that of smell,
with various companies making smells available via the
Internet. TriSenx Corporation allows for smells and
tastes to be sent via a network (www.trisenx.com). The
conveyance of smells and tastes are limited and are still
not a substitute for having the product in hand.
Further investigation is required to discover how
much of the diVerences between Turkish and US
students are due to shopping behaviour preferences, Site
design preferences or technology issues. For example,
the ®nding that Turkish students are more concerned
with information retrieval speed may re¯ect faster online
access in the USA. Therefore, organizing site informa-tion
to facilitate fast access may aid those with slower,
dialup access, such as those in less technologically
developed countries. This ®nding is supported in other
research (Fucella and Pizzalota 1997, Larson and
Czerwinski 1998). New technologies such as Extensible
Markup Language (XML) are touted as enabling data
sorting without re-retrieving it from the Web server,
greatly increasing site response times. Download and site
organization speed is dependent on technology as is
Internet security. Strict use of encryption techniques and
®rewalls, as well as credit card company and vendor
policies, already provides a relatively secure environ-ment.
However, current and prospective online shoppers
still seem uncomfortable with it.
Acknowledgements
This research has been made possible with the support
of the Istanbul Technical University Overseas Research
Support Program.
Special thanks to Dr Kubra Dogan Yenisey, Winston
Bonawi-tan and Dr Xiaowen Fang for their invaluable
assistance during the data collection phase of this study.

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Appendix A
QUESTIONNAIRE
This is a survey to obtain information about diVerences between Turkish and American people for on-line shopping.
This survey is conducted by two professors from Turkey and the USA. The information obtained will be used for some
suggestions about web sites constructed for Turkish people. If you would like to share your e-mail address, we would
be pleased to share with you the survey results. We would like to express our thanks to you in advance for your kind
cooperation. My e-mail address is (Optional): ________________________________ . We would most appreciate your
good cooperation in responding to each of the questions below and returning the questionnaire to us. Thank you.
(1) Gender
* Male * Female
(2) How often do you use the Internet?
* once a day or more * 1 ± 4 times a week * 1 ± 4 times a month * less than once a month * never
(3) I use the internet for ........ (choose as many as applicable)
* news * software * entertainment * banking * communication * to learn new things * shopping
(4) Frequency of purchasing on-line:
* never * less than once a year * 2 ± 5 times per year * over 5 times per year
(5) If you have never shopped on-line, why?
* I don’t trust shopping on the web
* I can’t ®nd what I looked for
* It is complex
* I have heard bad things about online shopping
For responses to questions 6 to 27 (with exception of 11 and 15) please use the scale below.
Very strongly
disagree
Strongly
disagree Disagree
Neither disagree
nor agree Agree
Strongly
agree
(6) If negotiation is possible, I want to try negotiation with the vendor for a cheaper price.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(7) If I have no previous information about the product, it is important to me to touch the product, to feel it physically.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(8) Time is an important issue for me. I want to shop as quickly as possible.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(9) I always prefer paying with credit card to paying with cash.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(10) I may buy a new introduced or an interesting product because of my curiosity.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(11) I like the sites which have . . . .. (Please ®ll in the blank with the most proper statement for you).
* more pictures than text * qual amount of pictures and text * more text than picture
Very strongly
agree
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(12) It is risky to give credit card number on the Internet.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(13) Detailed information about products is important for me.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(14) I prefer pictures to text for information about product.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(15) What do you want to buy online mostly? (Select in order of priority, 1:most often, and 6:least often)
_____ food _____ clothing _____ cleaning materials _____ entertainment _____ health _____ house ware
(16) When I buy from an on-line vendor, a site that is organized in such a way as to minimize the buying time will get
my business done.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(17) When I buy from an on-line vendor, transaction security issues must be emphasized.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(18) When I buy from an on-line vendor, ®nding the information that I want quickly is most important to me.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(19) When I buy from an on-line vendor, knowing that the information on the site is true is most important to me.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(20) When I buy from an on-line vendor, whether the site provides an eVective means of product and price comparison
is most important to me.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(21) When I buy from an on-line vendor, the eVective use of the shopping cart mechanism is most important to me.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(22) When I buy from an on-line vendor, I prefer brand-name classi®cation to product based classi®cation.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(23) When I buy from an on-line vendor, to obtain other people’s opinions and experiences about products I don’t
know is important to me.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(24) When I buy from an on-line vendor, a well-designed search mechanism is most important for me.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(25) When I buy from an on-line vendor, I prefer stores having all kind of products to product speci®c stores.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(26) When I buy from an on-line vendor, It is important to me that the vendor keeps my personal information secret.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7
(27) When I buy from an on-line vendor, I hesitate to give my credit card number.
* 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7

The following questions are optional:
(28) Highest education of your father:
* Elementary school * Secondary school * High school * 2 year university * Bachelor
* Master or doctorate
(29) Total monthly income of your family:
* less than 200 Million Lira * 201-400 Million Lira * 401 ± 600 Million Lira
* 601 ± 800 Million * 801 ± 1000 Million Lira * More than 1 Billion Lira
Thank you very much for participating in this survey.

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