SSRN-id3734389.pdf

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FACTORS AFFECTING THE ONLINE PURCHASE INTENTION
DURING COVID-19 CRISIS: THE CASE OF MOROCCO
ASMAA AITYOUSSEF a
, MOUNA JAAFARI b
, LHACEN BELHCEN c
a
School of Law and Economics, Hassan II University Casablanca, asmaa.aityoussef-etu@etu.univh2c.ma
b
School of Law and Economics, Hassan II University Casablanca, mouna.jaafari@etu.univh2c.ma
c
School of Law and Economics, Hassan II University Casablanca, LHACEN.BELHCEN@univh2c.ma
ABSTRACT
During the health crisis, governments took safety measures to prevent the widespread of
COVID-19. This resulted in a shift in customer behavior towards daily activities and created an
opportunity for online businesses. This research aims at building an understanding of the factors
affecting the online purchase intention during a health crisis and specifically during the period
of Covid-19 in Morocco. An extended model of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Theory
of Planned Behavior (TPB), and structural assurance would be in a more comprehensive manner
to understand the behavioral intention of online shopping. Furthermore, a sample survey is used
to empirically examine this framework. The results show that all variables are significantly
impactful of the customer’s intention to use online shopping during COVID-19 crisis.
KEYWORDS
Electronic commerce, Online purchase intention, TAM, TPB, Structural assurance, Covid-19
crisis.
INTRODUCTION
Electronic commerce (EC) is a business innovation involving non-physical and electronic
interactions, and maintenance of business relationships through the sharing of information and
knowledge. It is an internet and worldwide application with new methods of communications,
business transactions, market structures, education, and works (Doukidis, 1998). EC has not
only shifted many aspects of our daily life but also attracted many researchers’ interests in
studying various facets associated with the adoption and use of online shopping (Ngai and al,
2002). Early research in EC adopted a transactional perspective to focus on customer-company
exchanges by investigating ways to improve the efficiency of an EC website (Lohse and al,
2001) with much of the research work using the theories of acceptance and use of technology
(Davis, 1989) to explain online shopper’s intention to adopt a specific website or application.
On December 31, 2019, cases of pneumonia of unknown origin were detected in the city of
Wuhan in China, in whom a new Coronavirus 2019-nCoV was detected on January 7, 2020.
Faced with the rapid evolution of the international epidemiological situation of COVID-19, the
World Health Organization (WHO) has declared it a "Public Health Emergency of Scaling
international” on January 30, 2020, then pandemic on March 12, 2020. Up until the moment,
This preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3734389
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this article is made, the world counts 49.9 million active cases of COVID-19, 1.25 million
deaths, and 32.8 million recovered1
. To face this global pandemic government around the world
took some drastic measures such as imposing lockdown, closing of public places (stores,
restaurants, and schools) and emergency state.
The measures taken to ensure the health security of the people and the monitoring of this
pandemic caused important damages to many enterprises. According to Forbes, with the spread
of COVID-19 forcing store closures across the world, large retail companies are on the brink
of financial disaster (Victoria’s secret, J.C. Penny, Gap, Foot Locker, H&M, Nordstrom JWN
and LOFT and so on) (Forbes, 2020)
On March 19th
, the interior Ministry of Morocco declared a 1-month state of health
emergency. Public places were closed such as malls, markets, restaurants, cafes, etc. On Mai
18th
, it was extended to three additional weeks. It was extended again on ninth of June. Morocco
was under a health emergency state for 113 days, almost 4 months.
With the widespread of COVID-19 and the measures taken by the government, the
customers’ behavior towards purchasing is bound to be affected. The customers are shifting
towards online purchasing due to the closing of facilities such as malls, restaurants and markets.
For this particular reason, the number of consumers increased on online shopping sites. The
tracking entity of the mobile application well known as Apptopia (March 6th
, 2020) has
signified that the daily downloads of popular grocery applications and food delivery apps have
been coming forward significantly starting at the end of February. With the closing of all offline
stores, which represents up to 93% of Moroccan purchase preference, online stores are the
ultimate alternative.
To provide a solid theoretical basis for examining the use of online purchasing services
during the COVID-19 crisis, this paper draws on the works of two theoretical model of
technology use: the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis et al., 1989) and the Theory
of Planned Behavior (TPB) (Azjen, 1991). Since TAM and TPB have been used in many works
to study the intention to use technology and its impact on technology adoption (Gefen et al.,
2003; Hsu and et al., 2006; Wu and Chen, 2005), they are the most adequate tools for
understanding online purchasing behavior during COVID-19 crisis.
This study enlarges the scope of the decision to use online purchasing services including
structural assurance above with the TAM and TPB to use a more comprehensive model of
online purchasing evaluation and adoption. The research can provide practitioners an increased
understanding of customers’ perceptions of online purchasing intention to use during the health
crisis of COVID-19, which can be used to develop business strategies and trust-building
mechanisms to encourage online purchasing adoption.
The purposes of this study are:
1. To investigate whether technology acceptance factors significantly affect customers’
behavioral intention to use online purchasing services.
2. To clarify which factors are more influential in affecting the intention to use online
purchasing services during COVID-19 crisis?
1
COVID-19 Map: https://bit.ly/38jo9MR
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FACTORS AFFECTING THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY: THEORITICAL
BACKGROUNG
Examining and explaining customer intentions to use technology have been the focus for
scholars and practitioners worldwide, and this issue has seen a dramatic growth in the relevant
literature of online purchasing services. Indeed, by using different approaches and according to
a variety of theoretical foundations, researchers progressively attempt to explain how customers
formulate their perceptions, attitudes, intention, and behavior toward technology. The literature
of information systems (IS) is rich in theoretical models related to technology acceptance. Many
of such studies embrace the work of Davis (1989) (TAM).
TAM is one of the most widely used theories in IS research since proposed by Davis and al
in 1989. It provides a basis for revealing the impacts of external variables on adoption decisions.
TAM suggests that the users’ decision to accept a new technology is based on Perceived
Usefulness (PU), defined as “the users’ expectation that using a new information technology
(IT) could result in improved job performance” (Davis and al, 1989: 320). In addition,
Perceived Ease Of Use (PEOU), defined as “the degree to which a person believes that using a
particular system would be free of effort” (Davis and al, 1989: 320). An individual’s intention
to use an online purchasing service is explained by his/her perception of the technology’s
usefulness and its simplicity of use. Its effectiveness has been established by numerous
empirical studies (Lee and al, 2003).
Although TAM has received much empirical validation (Gounaris and al, 2008), the model
does not provide information regarding the users' perception about adopting a specific
technology since it includes only PU and PEOU. Therefore, it is important to expand the model
and integrate it with other factors affecting the intention to use technology.
The strengths of Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) have been explored to
enrich TAM by integrating external variables that influence a technology’s adoption decision-
making process. TAM does not include the influence of social and interpersonal variables on
technology adoption decisions (Ukoha and al., 2011), TPB complemented TAM’s constructs
with subjective norms and perceived behavioral control to explain perceptions of ease or
difficulty of performing an act given resource constraints. Other researchers validated,
modified, extended, and improved TAM under different situations to make for wider
applicability in the novel knowledge economy (Venkatesh and al, 2000).
Efforts were made to extend the TAM model to a more comprehensive framework (Lingyun
and al. (2008), Gefen and al. (2003), Fayada and al. (2015)). Many researchers investigated the
impact of trust on the intention to use online purchasing services (Pavlou and al., 2004). Other
than the usefulness and ease of use of the technology, trust is considered as a key foundation to
gain and maintain customers. An issue has been attracting great attention of researchers. Gefen
and al. (1997) provided insights into this construct and identified four factors: knowledge-based
trust, institution-based trust, calculative-based trust, cognition-based trust, and found trust was
as important as TAM use-antecedents. Trust is based on multi-dimensionality of trust concluded
by Tan and Sutherland (2004) and taking Gefen’s research as a reference. This study integrates
trust into TAM to explore the adoption of online shopping service and to examine the role of
trust in an EC context. Trust is multi-dimensional: dispositional trust, institutional trust, and
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interpersonal trust respectively. In trust literature, interpersonal trust is widely studied and
empirically examined. Institutional trust refers to the believes that “effective third-party
guarantees will enable the other party to act as expected” (McKnight and al., 1998, pp: 473-
490). Two types of institutional trust are concluded: situational normality and structural
assurance. Situational normality is defined as the belief that “success is likely because the
situation is normal” (1998, p: 478). Structural assurance is the belief that “success is likely
because such contextual conditions as promises, contracts, regulations, and guarantees are in
place” (1998, p: 478). In the context of technology trust, the perception of the user that
technology is backed by the guarantees, warranties, or other technical support creates a feeling
of ease with the use of technologies. In this study, we will focus primarily on institutional trust,
namely, structural insurance.
Many researchers have tested the relationship between PU and PEOU and intention to use
technology (Davis and al, 1989). It was found that PU has a strong influence on the intention
to use a technology. In research on EC, the TAM was applied by adding consumer trust as a
determinant of intention to shop online (Gefen and al., 2003). Intention to use EC was defined
as the intention of the subject to provide his or her credit card numbers and personal information
to the online platform (Gefen and al., 2003). Actual shopping behavior was not measured. PU
was found to be highly influential towards the intention to use EC than was PEOU or trust. The
authors acknowledged that the conceptualization of the intended behavior in their study was
narrow. They suggested that future researchers include an overall measure of intention to shop
online again. They also suggested that future researchers include in their studies other
measurements of intention to use EC (Gefen and al, 2003).
MOROCCO: COVID-19 CRISIS AND PURCHASING BEHAVIOR
From the initial alert on COVID-19 virus, Morocco began the preparation process to face
the pandemic. 306,995 active cases of COVID-19 have been registered in Morocco until
19/11/20202
. 1st
imported case was detected on February O2, 2020, while the 1st
case of local
transmission was recorded on March 13, 2020. The number of confirmed cases has gradually
increased, leading Morocco to implement measures of social distancing, consisting of closing
land, air and maritime since March 15, 2020, ending studies for all school levels and academics
and stopping prayers at mosques since March 16, 2020, the gradual confinement of the
population since March 20, 2020. These measures, the impact of which must be observed within
10 to 14 days of their entry in force, have allowed a relative slowdown in the spread of the
epidemic. Recent research on public and private sector digital transformation readiness in the
COVID-19 era in Morocco showed that COVID-19 and measures taking by the government
have affected the way both public and private sectors perceive digital transformation. Both
made or were forced to make, some strides to implement digital tools and solutions to enable
adequate products and services and reach the customers (Nachit, H, Belhcen, L (2020)).
Besides, these changes completely shifted the customers' purchase behavior, without the
usual brick and mortar options of shopping for goods, online shopping would be an alternative
2
The official portal for Corona virus in Morocco https://bit.ly/3izDZoe
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for customers. According to Nachit and Belhcen (2020), the COVID-19 crisis causes a dramatic
change in the behavior of Moroccan consumers. Purchasing priorities shifted, a huge concern
over the availability of certain food products on the market, notably the panic buying of hygiene
products, revealed that Moroccans are willing to spend more than before for their hygiene
purchases as well as for certain food products. On one hand, this behavior can be perceived as
new motivation that encourage purchasing. On the other hand, it also creates several obstacles,
mainly the decrease of the purchasing power and risk of contamination in supermarkets or
pharmacies.
Therefore, confining consumers to their homes has affected their perceptions of consuming.
This change in behavior calls for companies to review their offers through strategic and not just
operational adaptation. This adaptation can be focused mainly on new distribution channels for
which EC remains an essential option.
Several indicators relating to the accessibility of the Internet in Morocco reflect a dazzling
growth in the connectivity rate among Moroccans. In one of its reports, the National
Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ANRT) revealed that more than 74% of households
had access to the Internet in 2018 and that more than 75% of Moroccans between the ages of
12 and 65 are equipped with a smartphone.3
On June 30th
, the interbank electronic payment center reported that the internet payment
business remained on an upward trend with an increase of 23.6% during the first half of 20204
.
The activity of online payments for Moroccan cards grew by 29.6% in number of transactions,
from 4.5 million transactions during the first half of 2019 to 5.8 million transactions during the
first half of 2020, and by 26.2% in amount, from 2.1 billion DH during the first half of 2019 to
2.7 billion DH during the first half of 20203
.
Another impact, the interest of the seller in EC (distance selling) with payment via the
Internet or on 3G TPE on delivery, as well as an awareness of the usefulness of the use of
contactless payment. This rise of digital seems to reflect an increasingly high recourse by
Moroccans to commercial sites, while in reality and according to a study published by ANRT,
in 2018, only 14% of Moroccans made purchases online. Thus, our interest is to explore the use
of online shopping during this health crisis, mainly customers’ intention to use or not to use this
shopping option during COVID-19 crisis and the factors affecting this decision.
DEVELOPMENT OF CONSTRUCTS AND HYPOTHESES
This paper’s main objective is to study the factors that influence the intention to use online
shopping during a health crisis in the case of COVID-19 in Morocco. More specifically, our
research question aims to examine which factors and to what extent each of these factors
influence the online shopping intention. To explore the impact of TAM, social norms, and
structural assurance factors on customer intention to adopt online shopping services, initial
empirical work using a survey, as the data collection method is found appropriate, as it provides
the necessary data to test the validity of the hypothesis.
Research on technology acceptance highlights the relevance of TAM, TPB, and trust, which
3
ICT INDICATORS COLLECTION SURVEY, July 2019 https://bit.ly/3akTo99
4
Key figures for e-commerce payment activity in Morocco https://bit.ly/30LUeIP
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is based on five factors. Concerning the TAM and TPB research predicting new IT/IS
acceptance, Behavioral Intention (BI) often measures usage. Thus, this research considered
‘intention to use’ as the dependent variable, rather than actual use as stated.
Ø Perceived Ease Of Use:
Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) refers to the level of effort the technology user needs to
implement to use it effectively (Davis and al, 1989). In this research, PEOU is related to the
level of easiness that one feels when purchasing through EC platforms. Browsing, searching,
and buying a product on EC websites is often a time consuming and frustrating task for
consumers. It is a common issue amongst online shoppers to have left EC websites without
finding what they want (Silverman and al., 2001). The platform needs to offer characteristics
that support the shopper decision making. The platform should provide adequate search support
(e.g., via a search engine), make relevant recommendations in response to the user’s search,
and organize the contents (including products) effectively. These efforts can enhance the
function and design of the EC platform and result in increased ease of use as perceived by the
online shopper.
H1: PEOU has a significant impact on the intention to purchase online
Ø Perceived usefulness:
Perceived usefulness (PU) is ‘‘the degree to which a person believes that using a specific system
will increase his or her job performance’’ (Davis and al, 1989: 320). It is the perception that the
technology used will help achieve a valued outcome that is not related to the purpose of use.
For example, investing less time and access to a large variety of choices.
H2: PU has a significant impact on the intention to purchase online
Ø Social Influence:
Social Influence (SI) refers to “the perceived social pressure to perform or not to perform the
behavior” (Azjen, 1991, p: 188). This influence can be internal (family and friends) which is
considered more important than external influences (media). Rogers and al. (2009) suggest that
there are external and internal sources of social influences. Kiesler and al (1999) also showed
that internal sources of influence are important for implementation. Based on their findings,
internal sources, such as word-of-mouth influence from friends, family, and others
(Parthasarathy and Bhattacherjee, 1998; Lekvall and Wahlbin 1973) are considered more
impactful towards intention to use a technology.
H3: SI has a significant impact on the intention to purchase online
Ø Structural Assurance
In this study, institutional trust will be integrated with TAM. We distinguish two types of
institutional trust: situational normality and structural assurance (McKnight and al., 1989).
Since online shopping is emerging in the context of the study and few individuals know much
about this service, it is not practical for them to tell whether the situation of online shopping is
normal. Therefore, in this study, we will refer to institutional trust as structural assurance (SA).
H4: SA has a significant impact on individuals’ intention to use online shopping.
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Figure 1: Conceptual framework
METHODOLOGY
This cross-sectional (one-shot) study is a hypothesis testing, trying to explain the extent
to which research independent variables represented in terms of perceived usefulness, perceived
ease of use, structural assurance, and social influence can impact the intention to use online
shopping. Researchers have based analysis-targeting individuals of the society, representing the
unit of analysis. The measurements of items were taken from the previous studies and merged
items with the same meaning, the perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness items were
taken from the works of Davis and al. (1989) and modified to fit the studies of online shopping.
The perceived ease of use was covered by 3 items, while the perceived usefulness was covered
by 4 items. The 2 items of structural assurance were taken from McKnight and al. (1989). The
social influence was covered by 2 items taken from Ajzen and Fishbein (1980). The 3 items
that measure intention to use online shopping were taken from previous studies related to the
TAM (Venkatesh, 2003). Each item was surveyed directly on a five-point Likert type scale,
with scales named in the following manner 01 “strongly agree”, 02 “ agree”, 03 “ neutral”, 04
“ disagree”, 05 “ strongly disagree”.
Ø Data Collection
There is no reliable data available about the users of online shopping in Morocco.
Therefore, the subjects of the study were contacted through the online distribution of the
questionnaire. Literature suggests that the target population is the entire group of subjects of
interest that is defined by the research objectives (Zikmund, 2000). However, there is a variation
and differences among the population that a researcher is attempting to study and the population
that is available for sampling (Zikmund, 2000).
According to ANRT (2019), the total number of Internet users in Morocco (the country
where data was collected for this study) is estimated to be 25.3 million people5
, which
represented 64 % of the population in Morocco. Therefore, it is hard, if not impossible, for the
researcher to approach everyone who uses the Internet in the country. In this research, each
individual, who used the internet, became a member of the sampling population. Thus, the
individual customer or user who is currently a user of the Internet and/or online shopping
services was chosen. Unfortunately, there was no data available for those people who are users
5
https://www.anrt.ma/sites/default/files/publications/2019_t4_tb_internet. pdf
Perceived Ease Of use
Perceived Usefulness
Structural Assurance
Social Influence
Intention to use online
shopping sites
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of both the online shopping systems and the Internet in Morocco. Therefore, it was justified for
this researcher to administer an online survey questionnaire to identify the subjects for this
study.
In this study, the questionnaire was distributed through an online Google Forms application
via social media from July 16th
, 2020 to July 28th
, 2020. The study utilized the convenience-
sampling method. The method used is consistent with the approach adopted in many previous
studies of technology adoption (Featherman and Pavlou, 2003; Luarn and Lin, 2005; Wu and
Wang, 2005). The participants were explained that the research was being conducted to explore
their perception of and/or intention to use online shopping during a health crisis, more
specifically the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the participation in the survey was voluntary
and confidential. In total, 302 questionnaires were collected and valid.
Ø Respondents’ profile
The target of this study were individuals of all ages who used the Internet. They were asked to
answer the questionnaire concerning whether they had used online shopping sites during the
COVID-19 pandemic. 61.9% of the respondents were female and 38.1 % were male. They
ranged from 18 to over 55 years, and most of them (83.8%) were between 18 and 40 years old.
Majority of respondents (73.51%) are employees or have some sort of monthly income.
Students also represent a significant level of responses with 22.52 %.
78.1% of respondents used online shopping services before the health crisis, amongst them
63.25%, continued using these services. 21.9% of respondents did not use online shopping
services before the COVID-19 crisis and only 7.28% converted to online shopping during the
lockdown. Details of the respondents’ profiles are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1. Respondents characteristics
Category Sub-category Frequency Percentage
Gender Males 187 61,9
Females 115 38,1
Age Below 18 4 1,3
18-25 82 27,2
26-40 171 56,6
41-54 36 11,9
Above 55 9 3,0
Profession Student 68 22,52
Employee 87 28,81
Civil servant 30 9,93
Executive 68 22,52
Liberal profession 18 5,96
Retired 2 0,66
Independent 17 5,63
Unemployed 10 3,64
Other 1 0,33
Use frequency before
health crisis
No 66 21,9
Yes 236 78,1
Use frequency during
health crisis
No 89 29,5
Yes 213 70,5
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DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
Ø Reliability
The reliability for this study was measured by using the Cronbach-alpha coefficient in the
Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. The value ranges from 72 % (social
influence) to 98% (Perceived ease of use). All variables in our research model demonstrated
acceptable reliability. These coefficients are represented in Table 2.
Table 2. Reliability
Variables
Perceived
ease of use
Perceived
usefulness
Structural
Assurance
Social
Influence
Intention to
use
Cronbach’s alpha ,934 ,98 ,78 ,72 ,83
Ø Significance of the Model
Before proceeding the influence of the research independent variables on the dependent variable
using a regression analysis, a Spearman Correlation Matrix analysis explaining the relationship
between those variables and their dependency on them appeared necessary and is conducted.
Table.3 shows that all variables are significantly related, in a positive direction, to the intention
to use online shopping during a health crisis. Perceived usefulness is best related to Intention to
use with (r=.918). However, with (r=.778), the lowest relationship is between structural
assurance and intention to use online shopping. Table.3 sums the results of the Spearman
Correlation Matrix of relationships.
Table 3. Spearman Correlation Coefficients of the relationship of independent variables with the dependent
variable
Variables Coefficient
Perceived ease of use ,861**
Perceived usefulness ,918**
Structural Assurance ,778**
Social Influence ,798**
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Ø Multiple Regression Analysis
Table. 4 shows the findings of a stepwise multiple linear regression including the standardized
coefficients, t values, and the explanation of model variance. The explanatory power of the
model (R square) is 95 %. As expected, hypotheses H1, H3, and H4 were supported, in that
PEOU, SI and SA all have a significant effect on the intention to use online shopping, while
PU, (ß = 0.429, p < 0.001) contributes more to intention than contributed by PEOU (ß= 0.286, p
< 0.001), SI (ß= 0.202, p < 0.001) and SA (ß= 0.187, p<0.001).
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Table 4. Stepwise multiple Regression Analysis
Model Coef. ß Sig R-Square Adjusted R-square F Sig
PEOU ,286 ,000
,951 ,950 11.069 0.000
PU ,429 ,000
SA ,187 ,000
SI ,202 ,000
DISCUSSION
Several researches used the TAM model, which predicts the acceptance and intention to use
IS by individuals. Indeed, the TAM relies on two variables: perceived usefulness (PU) and
perceived ease of use (PEOU). Recent researches that aim to determine the factors that affect
the intention to use online shopping (Lingyun and al (2008), Gefen and al. (2003), Fayada and
al. (2015)) reveal that structural assurance (SA) have a significant influence on intention to use
these technologies. In addition, the TAM model does not include the influences of social and
interpersonal variables on IT adoption decisions (Ukoha and al, 2011), therefore social
influence was included in this model.
Researchers’ findings support this extended to understand the intention of people towards
the use of online shopping services. The findings show that perceived usefulness (PU) and ease
of use (PEOU) have a significant effect which is supported by (Silverman and al. (2001), Chau
& Lai (2003); Al Sukkar & Hassan (2005)). Social influence (SI) affects intention to use online
shopping which is supported by (Parthasarathy and Bhattacherjee (1998); Lekvall and Wahlbin
(1973)). In addition, structural assurance (SA) affects intention to use online shopping
(McKnight and al., 1989).
PU significantly influences the customer’s intention to purchase online. Therefore, the need
to focus on the customers' perception of the online service. Indeed, online shopping service
provider needs to focus on their offer value and their communication. In one hand, the service
provider needs to have a clear idea about their customer needs and create a satisfactory customer
experience. For instance, the service provider should conduct market research on the needs,
wants, and demands of their target customers to identify the potential early success online
shopping applications as well as provide suitable and useful services for them. On the other
hand, their offer value needs to be visible to the customer. Customers should be able to identify
the service usefulness instinctively. Such as, online service provider should highlight that their
platform can help individuals get timely information, make quick responses or decisions, get
the best deal and so on. PU have a powerful influence on the intention to use online shopping,
the online service providers should take advantage of the added-value characteristics of online
shopping in promoting its usefulness.
Ease of use is a significant concern for consumers when using online shopping. Particularly,
the language used to communicate on the platform should be common for the users. For
instance, in the case of Morocco, the main languages are Arabic and French. However, taking
into consideration the level of literacy of 73.75% in this country6
, the language used should
6
http://uis.unesco.org/country/MA
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accommodate all people regardless of their educational background. Otherwise, the main target
would be the 25% of the population. Furthermore, design the interface should in a way that it
is easy to navigate and find what you are looking for. The service provider should facilitate the
dealing with these services and alleviate the digital divide resulting from differences in family
income, educational attainment, occupation, gender, age, and geography. Furthermore,
organizing education and training courses in various online shopping services can facilitate
people’s familiarity with these services and help them develop positive ease of use beliefs in
the online shopping services. Thus, in order to enhance customers perception of ease of use,
online service providers should take into consideration the specificity of their customers
regarding their ability to understand and use their technology.
Social influence appears to be as impactful as PEOU. According to the respondents, the
use of online shopping sites by their social group influence their intention to use it as well.
Undoubtedly, online purchasing became a social practice that is adopted by family members,
friends, and digital influencers. For instance, with the growth of social media platform, we are
witnessing the development of "Digital Influencer". Many brands collaborate with them in
order to gain more visibility online. Therefore, online service providers should engage with
their customer to get feedback quicker and be permanently present, especially in a health crisis
where changes are made regularly. When health emergency ended on July 9th
, stores reopened
and their only way of communication that would be accessible to the masses was social media.
In this regard, online service providers should invest in their online brand image to establish a
digital community that will get their latest campaigns and offers.
Structural assurance is found to be a significant factor (even with lowest coefficient)
influencing user’s intention to purchase online. Users believe that protective structures in place
help secure the online purchase operation, as argued by McKnight and al. (1998). Protective
structures may include “favorable conditions” which refers to the legal, regulatory and technical
environment perceived to support the success of online purchase service (McKnight and
Chervany, 2002) such as guarantees, contracts, regulations, promises, legal recourse, processes,
or procedures (Kooli and al., 2014). Structural assurance is a technology-related factor. The
increase of credit card security and personal information privacy will affect the level of trust of
customers. The decrease of web risk perception related to the use of one’s personal and financial
information can engender a secure feeling, users will be more included to use specific online
purchase sites.
It is also important to note that only 7.28% of the respondents used online shopping during
the lockdown for the first time. This finding can be explained by the lack of familiarity or trust
people have towards online shopping. Consequently, the online service provider should focus
on their user experience, understand their customers’ needs and provide suitable and visible
support to have an easy and useful service.
CONCLUSION
This study empirically tests four antecedents for individuals’ intention to use online
shopping sites during a period of health crisis. The results of this research reveal that PEOU,
PU, SA, and SI affect consumer intention to use online shopping platforms.
The findings will contribute to the literature on factors affecting the intention to use online
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12
shopping sites. Based on the authors’ knowledge, prior research has not considered the two
variables SA and SI.
In addition, the data collected highlights that the number of individuals that have used online
shopping sites before COVID-19 has decreased by 8% during the period of the pandemic. A
possible explanation is the lockdown effect. As stated previously, the government established
a quarantine and emergency state where malls, stores, restaurants, and others were closed.
The results of this study have several significant theoretical implications. First, this research
applied an extended model of TAM in a new context of online shopping services and a critical
health crisis period. Due to the lack of data on online shopping in Morocco, this study can
provide an idea of the current situation of online shopping in Morocco. The results suggest that
the proposed model of online shopping demonstrates a considerable explanatory data that can
be used in future studies. Given the large investment in developing new IS, an understanding
of the factors influencing users’ acceptance of online shopping would be useful for service
providers. This will enable them to prioritize their resources efficiently. For example, perceived
usefulness was found to have a strong impact on users’ intention towards using online shopping.
To increase the perceived usefulness, online shopping service providers should build systems
that are user-friendly and easily accessible. In addition, to increase behavioral intention, service
providers could develop applications that are personalized to their customer’s needs.
Although the findings of this study are encouraging and useful, it has some limitations as
most field surveys suffer from. Firstly, in this study, we used an extended TAM model. This
model includes TAM, social influence, and structural assurance. The model is used in many
researches but as indicated in the findings the main factors influencing the use of online
shopping are related to the user interface and service/products offered. Thus, the need to
investigate further the specific aspects that make an online shopping service user friendly.
Secondly, the population investigated is representing the urban population only, not taking
into perspective the prospect customers from rural regions. Indeed, since the questionnaire was
distributed online, particularly, on social media platforms, we were able to reach the population
with internet connection and social media account. With 64.3% of the population is using
internet and 49% are using Facebook7
, this study does not include the 30% of the population
that represents potential users of online shopping.
Thirdly, limitation concerns as well the operationalization of variables. We have adapted
items proposed by previous researchers to the context of our study. However, it will be
beneficial in future works to develop other items more in-depth of each variable. For instance,
PU adds item indicating the aspects that make the online experience useful, for PEOU
determines the specific user interface that the customer prefers or dislikes. This way, we can
determine specific factors that understand and bring out more details about factors affecting
one’s intention to purchase online in a period of crisis. In addition, other variables should be
taking into consideration, especially if the rural population is included. The rural population
was reported to be 37.01 % in 20198
. On one hand, logistic variable, reaching regions that are
further location from the main cities, will take additional time for delivery. The delay of delivery
can be an influencing factor for online shopping usage. On the other hand, is the internet
7
Internet and Social media coverage in Moroccohttps://bit.ly/3frqcA9
8
Rurale population in Morocco in 2019 : https://bit.ly/3pLm4PW
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13
connection, in rural region, internet coverage is not as prominent comparing the urban cities.
Thus, the need to investigate the technical factors and their influence on the usage of online
shopping.
The exploratory nature of this study can provide a significant database for future research
in the field of technology acceptance, particularly online shopping. Thus, the need to investigate
aspects related to the operations of buying online such as interface, communication, logistics
and technology aspects such as internet coverage.
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14
APPENDIX
Appendix 1: Constructs, code name, and their items.
Constructs Code Items References
Perceived
ease of use
PEOU1 Learning how to use online shopping sites and apps
is easy for me
Davis and al. (1989)
PEOU2 My interaction with online shopping sites and
applications is clear and understandable
PEOU3 It would be easy for me to have the skills to use
online shopping sites and apps
Perceived
usefulness
PU1 During the lockdown, I found that using online
shopping sites and applications allowed me to
access the products I needed more quickly
PU2 During the lockdown, I found that using online
shopping sites and applications allowed me to
improve my purchasing efficiency
PU3 During the lockdown, I find that using online
shopping sites and applications makes shopping
easier
PU4 During the lockdown, I find shopping sites and apps
very useful
Structural
Assurance
SA1 The online shopping sites and apps have enough
security in place to make me feel comfortable using
them to shop online
McKnight and al.
(1989)
SA2 In general, online shopping sites and applications
are now a robust and secure environment in which
we can transact
McKnight and al.
(1989)
Social
Influence
SN1 People around me (family and friends) and public
figures shop online
Fishbein and Ajzen
(1980)
SN2 During lockdown, the use of online shopping
became a trend
Fishbein and Ajzen
(1980)
Intention
to use
INT1 I have the intention to start using online shopping
during a health crisis
Venkatesh (2003)
INT2 I am curious to shop online Venkatesh (2003)
INT3 I intend to discover online shopping during a health
crisis
Venkatesh (2003)
Appendix 2: Descriptive statistics
N
Statistics
Mean
Statistics
Standard
Deviation
Variance
Kurtosis
Statistics
Standard
error
INT 302 2,4272 ,99000 ,980 -,987 ,280
PEOU 302 2,6854 1,51064 2,282 -1,490 ,280
PU 302 2,7235 1,22004 1,488 -1,312 ,280
SA 302 2,8278 1,12514 1,266 -,868 ,280
SI 302 2,7997 1,29223 1,670 -1,300 ,280
N Valid 302
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Appendix 3: Correlation test
Spearman's
Rho INT Correlation coefficient 1,000 ,861** ,918** ,780** ,792**
Sig. . ,000 ,000 ,000 ,000
N 302 302 302 302 302
PEOU Correlation coefficient ,861** 1,000 ,773** ,613** ,629**
Sig. ,000 . ,000 ,000 ,000
N 302 302 302 302 302
PU Correlation coefficient ,918** ,773** 1,000 ,668** ,670**
Sig. ,000 ,000 . ,000 ,000
N 302 302 302 302 302
SA Correlation coefficient ,780** ,613** ,668** 1,000 ,634**
Sig. ,000 ,000 ,000 . ,000
N 302 302 302 302 302
SI Correlation coefficient ,792** ,629** ,670** ,634** 1,000
Sig. ,000 ,000 ,000 ,000 .
N 302 302 302 302 302
**. Correlation is significant at 0.01
Appendix 4: Normality test
Kolmogoro-Smimova
Shapiro-Wilk
Statistics ddI Sig. Statistics ddI Sig.
INT ,159 302 ,000 ,938 302 ,000
PEOU ,179 302 ,000 ,858 302 ,000
PU ,127 302 ,000 ,930 302 ,000
SA ,120 302 ,000 ,953 302 ,000
SI ,153 302 ,000 916 302 ,000
a. Lilliefors meaning correction
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