Title: Perceived consumer issues associated with online vehicle purchase decisions

Authors: Alan D. Smith

Addresses: Department of Marketing, Robert Morris University, Pittsburgh, PA 15219-3099, USA

Abstract: Being an informed buyer has assumed new meaning and companies, especially among especially among empowered supply chain professionals. In examining automobile online purchasing, there were ten significant clusters in creating the independent variable constructs, which were tested against a factor-based dependent variable construct, named new vehicle purchase incentives. These were statistically tested to determine the most important factors that impact a consumer's decision. The exploratory factor analysis and specific hypothesis testing illustrate that the major factors for online vehicle purchases are convenience, purchase agreements, and low-cost bargain searching are key factors for this segment of car buyers. It was found that there were no significant relationships among the various payment plans (i.e., credit or debit cards, direct funds transfer services), type of vehicles interested in (i.e., SUV, crossover, family sedan, mid-size, and compact/economy), and vehicle condition (i.e., new or used); the same was true for most demographics, except for price.

Keywords: auto industry; CRM; factor analysis; manufacturing; online vehicle purchases; supply chain; uses and gratification theory.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPMB.2023.130487

International Journal of Process Management and Benchmarking, 2023 Vol.14 No.1, pp.84 - 107

Received: 16 Aug 2018
Accepted: 20 Apr 2019
Published online: 21 Apr 2023 *

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