THE IMPACT OF WEBSITE DESIGN ON CONSUMER DECISION MAKING – EVIDENCE FROM NORTH MACEDONIA

Abstract

It is estimated that there are more than 26.5 million e-commerce sites and more than 2.64 billion digital buyers worldwide. The hypothesis that more life moves online, the less damage to our environment is still unclear. E-commerce sites and the underlying supply chain can have both positive and negative impact on the environment. Sustainable web design is an approach in designing websites that puts people and planet first. It is a growing movement as organizations look opportunities to reduce their influence on the environment. This research investigates the impact of website design on consumer decision making in e-commerce. It discusses how different website characteristics determine consumer behaviour that shapes online purchase processes and affects the final consumer decision to buy. Consumer decision making and behaviour during online shopping in the literature is measured by numerous models. One of the primary motivators for any online store to attract customers is the quality of website design. Website quality refers to the overall excellence, effectiveness, and usability of a website. It influences consumers’ perceptions of product quality and affect online purchase intentions (Sun, Chen, and Huang, 2014) and even continuation intentions (Chawla et al., 2015). Website quality as well positively affects the online impulse buying behaviour (Akram et.al. 2018). The design of a website interface plays an important role in online purchasing, and customers are more likely to visit and buy from better designed websites (Chiu and Yang, 2016). This paper proposes that website design quality is a multi-dimensional construct. To support the importance of the construct, examples for specific products and website characteristics from online consumers from the country will be presented. This study has managerial implication for e-vendors implying that to promote online shopping, they need to improve quality features of website and enhance users’ trust.