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Assessing Website Quality Affecting Online

Purchase Intention of Malaysia's Young
Consumers

Article in Advanced Science, Engineering and Medicine · October 2016

DOI: 10.1166/asem.2016.1937

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 RESEARCH ARTICLE

Copyright © 2016 American Scientific Publishers Advanced Science, Engineering and Medicine
All rights reserved Vol. 8 (10), 836-840, 2016
Printed in the United States of America

Assessing Website Quality Affecting Online

Purchase Intention of Malaysia’s Young Consumers
Tan Shea Lee1, Mohd Shoki Md Ariff1*, Norhayati Zakuan1, Zuraidah Sulaiman1
1
Deparment of Business Administration, Faculty of Management,
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia.

This study attempted to examine online sellers’ website quality affecting Malaysia’s young consumers’ intention to
continually purchase online. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Theory of planned behavior (TPB) and
review on different types of electronic service quality scales, a conceptual model of online sellers’ website quality and
purchase intention of the young consumers was developed. Constructs of website quality - Website design,
reliability/fulfillment, security, privacy & trust, and customer service – were based on e-TailQ and other scales related to the
quality of electronic services, to determine the online sellers’ website quality. Primary data was gathered from 240 young
consumers, aged between 18 to 25 years old, using online questionnaire and convenience sampling procedure. The result
indicated that all constructs of website quality were positively and significantly affects intention of the young consumers to
continuously purchase via online channels. This study concludes that online purchase intention of Malaysia’s young
consumers was positively affected by the website quality of online sellers.
Keywords: Online purchase intention, Website Quality, eTailQ, Theory of Planned Behavior, TAM

1. INTRODUCTION thus, providing huge online market for online retailers3-4.

According to Malaysia Crush 2010, Malaysia's online
purchasing market size was RM 1.8 billion, and it is
estimated to increase to RM 5 billion in 2014. Out of the
1.8 billion, 45% or RM 825 million was spent on local
online sellers’ websites. Online consumers who use
Internet as a shopping approach are increasingly in line
with the changing habits of purchase, particularly among
the young generation1. Currently, there are more than 8
million of Malaysians have actually experience the online
purchase2. From the perspective of internet users, it can
be seen that young consumers are dominating the usage
of internet. In Malaysia, most internet users are youths3-4
(15-20 years old; 50 percent) and young adults (20 – 29)
years old; 39 percent), and these groups of users consist of
those between 15 – 29 years of age, and they play an
important role in online shopping. These groups of
internet users are active internet users and it is expected
that they will dominate online shopping market segment,
*email: m-shoki@utm.my
This development provides a clear signal of positive and
high growth of online purchase in Malaysia. Further, it
was observed that most studies of websites quality of
online sellers were carried out to examine their effect on
purchasing behavior among young users, for examples in
New Zealand5 and India6. In Malaysia, studies addressing
online purchase intention and repeat purchase are less
emphasize, particularly among young consumers.
Therefore, to ensure online consumers’ intention to
continuously purchase online, local online sellers need to
examine how well their websites fulfil expectation of
online buyers. It is vital to examine quality of online
sellers’ website that may affect continuance of online
consumers to purchase online in the Malaysian context.
Such study will enriches current literature of website
quality and consumer online purchase intention especially
in different countries and groups of online consumers. It
will also help local online sellers to have better
understanding of behavioral intention of online
consumers, thus creating a long term profitable
relationship with the buyers.
Vol. 8, No. 10, 2016
 Vol. 8 (10), 836-840, 2016
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Internet Technology allows buyers to purchase online
and online shopping is increasingly adopted as a
convenience way of buying product7, particularly among
young consumers. Online shopping is a process of
buying products through Internet and it involves online
consumers accessing online sellers’ websites to search,
select, purchase, use, and dispose of goods and services,
in satisfying their needs and wants3. Companies need to
catch-up on e-commerce to avert losing out on the
growing online shopping market, and e-commerce is
considered as an unstoppable force8. Online sellers need
to design quality websites in order to increase the
companies’ visibility online, thus increase the possibility
for online consumers to access and buy products online.
Thus, quality of online sellers’ websites must be enhanced
in order to be successful in online shopping.
Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)9 and Theory of
Planned Behaviour (TPB)10 are used as a foundation to
form a conceptual model of this study. TAM is used to
explain user acceptance of technology in the workplace9. It
proclaims that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of
use of a technology, in this case online shopping system or
website, influence user’s attitude toward using the website.
In turn, it will affect behavioral intentions, i.e. to purchase
online, which ultimately determine adoption and use of the
system/website9. TPB is employed to forecast an
individual’s intention towards online shopping. The
intention is to explain factors influencing the individual’s
behavior, for example intention to purchase. Intention is
assumed to capture the motivational variables that
influence an individual behavior. In TPB, attitude,
subjective norms and perceived behavioral control
influence the behavior intentions of consumers. In online
shopping context, the motivational variables that
influence an individual behavior include how a person
perceives quality of online sellers’ website.
Different scales to measure electronic service quality
and websites quality of online sellers are developed. E-
SERVQUAL deals with customer’s interactions with a
website, the extent to which the website promotes
effective shopping, efficient purchasing and delivery11-12.
The scale contains core scale (E-S-QUAL) which
embraced efficiency, fulfilment, system availability and
privacy, and recovery scale (E-RecSQUAL) which
constituted of responsiveness, compensation and contact.
WEBQUAL13-14 composed of 3 dimensions which are
information quality, quality of interactivity, and usability
of site/usability and design. E-tailQ15 consists of website
design, reliability, security and customer service.
SITEQUAL16 contained four dimensions of ease of use,
aesthetic design, processing speed, and security.
E-tailQ was developed by adopting focus group and
large population of respondents. Each of the E-tailQ
factors, variables and items indicate high level of inter-
item reliability and validity3,5,15. Website design3,17,
RESEARCH ARTICLE
website reliability/fulfilment18-19, website security and
privacy,19, trust7,20 and Website customer service3,5 were
widely used in determining quality of websites for online
retailing. As mentioned by Durkan21, customer trust on
website is important prior to the development of favorable
attitude of online buyers. Customer trust is linked with
security and privacy. This is supported by Djahantighi22,
who stressed that online trust is the obstacle to online
retailers to succeed in online business.
Based on the TAM, TPB and assessment of the
different scales of electronic service quality and website
quality, a conceptual model of this study is proposed, as
depicted in Figure 1.
Website Design
Website Reliability/ Online Purchase
Fulfilment Intention
Website Security,
Privacy & Trust
Website
Customer Service
Figure 1: The conceptual model of the study
In online purchasing, when a customer is satisfied
with the website quality of online sellers, then it will
increase his or her involvement in online shopping23.
This caused customers return to the website more often
and create more favorable image of the online sellers.
Previous researches highlighted that website design has a
positive and significant effect on customer online
purchase intention17,24. Website design is an important
factor influencing online buyers' intention to continuously
use a website and it is considered to be one of consumers'
attitude areas with regards to online buying3,5. Thus, H1a
is proposed: In online shopping, website design of online
sellers’ website quality positively and significantly affects
consumers’ purchase intention.
Website Reliability/Fulfilment represents the ability
of the online sellers’ website to fulfil orders correctly,
deliver promptly, and keeps personal information secure18.
It is about meeting the promised service in a reliable and
dependable manner5. Previous studies indicated that
website reliability and fulfilment positively and
significantly influence online consumers’ intention to
continuously purchase online3,5-6. Therefore, H1b is
established: In online shopping, website
reliability/fulfilment of online sellers’ website quality is
positively and significantly affects consumers’ purchase
intention.
Website Security, Privacy and Trust are the main
concern of the online consumers who want to purchase
online. According to Malhotra, Kim, and Agarwal25,
privacy concerns is a critical issue for many web
consumers due to the demands for customers’ information.
 RESEARCH ARTICLE

Perceived security is defined as a hazard that creates an Primary data of this research was obtained through
event lead to economic hardship to data or network online questionnaire (google docs) from online consumers
resources in the form of destruction, disclosures, aged between 18 and 25 years old. Since the population
modification of data, and denial of service, fraud, waste of this study is unknown, multivariate research procedure
and abuse26. Hence, security is an important concern for was employed using nonprobability convenience
online consumers and one of the most imperative factors sampling. The total questions in this questionnaire are 24,
in the success of e-commerce27. Further, when a customer thus a minimum of 120 sets of questionnaire are required
trusts the online sellers, he or she believes in the online for 10% margin error and 240 sets of questionnaire are
sellers’ capability to protect one’s privacy and it is safe to needed for 5% margin error29. It was decided to collect
complete an online transaction. Previous researchers 240 completed and usable questionnaires to achieve the
found that these factors influenced how online consumers 5% margin error. The 240 usable questionnaires had been
rate quality of online sellers, and subsequently effect their successfully collected within 3 weeks.
online purchase intention3,5,27. Thus, H1c is proposed: In
online shopping, website security, privacy and trust of 4. RESULTS
online sellers’ website quality positively and significantly
affects consumers’ purchase intention. A total of 240 sets of questionnaires were gathered
Website customer service deals with prompt responses from the young consumers who have online purchasing
to consumers’ concerns and enquiries3,5,15. It is vital to experience using the online sellers’ websites. The
provide customer service in an online shopping demographic profiles of these consumers are presented in
environment as most of the customers significant Table 1.
attributes of shopping online are convenience and
accessibility15. Lack of immediate response, particularly Table 1: Demographic profile of the respondents
to online consumers’ e-mail enquiries, will create Respondents’ Profile Frequency %
inconvenience situation to them, and this will affect their Gender Male 126 52.5%
Female 114 47.5%
online purchase decision. This means that if the customer
Age ≥22– 25 years old 147 61.2%
service of online sellers provides immediate response to 18 – 21 years old 93 38.8%
customers’ enquires, it will cause online consumers to Marital Single 228 95%
visit and re-visit online sellers’ website for online status Married 12 5%
shopping3,5. Thus, H1d is proposed: In online shopping, Education Post-graduate degrees 17 7.1%
website customer service of online sellers’ website Bachelor degree 115 47.9%
Diploma 25 10.4%
quality is positively and significantly affects consumers’
Secondary school 80 33.3%
online purchase intention. qualification
Primary school 3 1.3%
3. METHODOLOGY qualification

This study employed an online survey questionnaire to
determine website quality of online sellers affecting
online purchase intention of young consumers in
Malaysia. Details of the questionnaire are discussed, as
follow:
• Section A of the questionnaire consists of seven (7)
demographic questions including gender, age,
marital status and education level of the online
consumers. Two filter questions of "Have you ever
made any purchase online" (a list of local online
sellers is provided for respondents to choose) and
‘are you in the age of 18 – 25 years’ are asked to
choose the right respondents for this study, before
they can proceed to fill-up the questionnaire.
• Section B with 18 questions developed to determine
online buyers' perception of web quality of the local
online sellers. The website quality is measured by
website design3,5,15, reliability/fulfillment3,15,
3,15
website customer service and website security,
privacy & trust15,28.
• Section C with 6 questions used to determine young
consumers’ purchase and repurchase intention3,5.
The validity and reliability of the instrument used in
this study was assessed. The KMO value for web quality
is 0.865 and KMO value for online purchase intention is
0.805, which are greater than 0.6. In addition, the KMO
results are supported by the value of the Bartlett’s test of
Sphericity of 0.000. Thus, the adequacy of sample
requirement was met to proceed with the Exploratory
Factor Analysis (EFA).
Result of EFA indicated that all the dimensions of
website quality are retained as originally proposed and no
items were omitted since all factor loading for the items
are >0.5. The Rotated component matrix for website
quality (the independent variable) perfectly yielded all the
items according to the proposed four dimensions of
website quality. The total variance explained by the
website quality is 67.434%. For dependent variable, only
one dimension was extracted; i.e. young consumer’
purchase intention with the total variance explained of
51.797%. All items of online purchase intention were
retained since all factor loading for the items are >0.5.
In addition, The Cronbach’s Alpha values for website
security, privacy and trust is 0.874, 0.841 for website
customer service, 0.805 for website design and 0.755 for
Vol. 8, No. 10, 2016
 Vol. 8 (10), 836-840, 2016 RESEARCH ARTICLE

reliability/fulfilment. The entire reliability coefficient for online consumers to continuously purchase online6,17.
website quality is 0.919. For online purchase intention, the Thus it is important for web designers and online sellers
Cronbach’s Alpha value is 0.856. Thus, the instrument to stress on speed and personalization in the design of
used in this study is valid and reliable for further analysis. websites as well as comfortable of online consumers
The correlational analysis of Pearson Correlation when they are surfing the websites. Website
indicated that all the variables in this study are positively reliability/fulfilment is positively and significantly
and significantly correlated (the correlation is significant influence online consumers’ purchase intention5,17. It
at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). It shows that all the four shows that fulfilling orders of online consumers correctly,
independent variables - website design (Correlation timely and error free transaction are highly valued by the
of .460, Sig. 001), website reliability/fulfilment online consumers.
(Correlation of .498, Sig. 001), website security, privacy In this study, website security, privacy & trust were
& trust (Correlation of .577, Sig. 001); and website found to have positive and significant effect on intention
customer service (Correlation of .649, Sig. 001), are of the consumers to continuously purchase online. The
positively correlated to the dependent variable of finding is consistent with the previous researches5,27. In
consumers’ purchase intention. online shopping, this dimension has been identified as a
As can be seen in Table 2, all the four factors of critical issue affecting purchase intention of online
online sellers’ website quality positively and significantly consumers20,31. Consumer trust is important because it
affect purchase intention of online consumers. influences a buyer judgement whether or not to perform
Specifically, website design (β = 0.172, t 2.845, P<.005), an online transaction. Consumer trust is very important
website reliability/fulfilment (β = 0.151, t 2.121, P<.035), for online sellers to succeed in e-commerce7,20. This
website security, privacy & trust (β = 0.176, t 2.458, finding is commonly observed worldwide because online
P<.015) and website customer service (β =0.473, t – consumers expect their privacy information and credit
7.092, P<.000) affect the online consumers’ intention to card particulars are protected, safe transaction and trusted
continuously use online as their purchasing channel. The services delivered by the online sellers5-6,18. The similar
website customer service (β =0.473, t – 7.092, P<.000) is situation is observed among online consumers worldwide,
the most significant predictor of website quality affecting for example among Saudi’s women32 and Indonesia
online consumers’ purchase intention. online buyers,7,28 who are concerned with issues of trust,
internet trustworthiness and risk in their online
Table 2: Results of online sellers’ website quality shopping,3,5-6 as well as online consumers in New
affecting young consumers’ purchase intention Zealand5 and India6. It can be concluded that, when
Parameter B Std β t Sig. VIF
Error
online consumers rated high on security and privacy of
Constant 1.213 0.19 6.369 0.000 online sellers’ websites, they trust the websites as well,
Website
0.153 0.054 0.172* 2.845 0.005
1.667 then they are willing to continuously purchase online.
design
Website 2.112
Website customer service is also positively and
reliability/ 0.156 0.056 0.151* 2.121 0.035 significantly influence online consumers intention to
fulfilment continuously deal with the online sellers3,5,27. This
Website 2.344
security,
finding calls for online sellers to focus on responsiveness,
0.139 0.057 0.176* 2.458 0.015 willingness to help the online consumers and prompt
privacy &
trust reply to buyers’ enquiries in their online offering.
Website 2.026
customer 0.421 0.059 0.473** 7.092 0.000
service 6. CONCLUSION
R = 0.696 F – Value = 55.143
R Square (R2) =0 .484 Std. Error of the Estimate = .35837
Adjusted R2 = .475 This study highlighted that website quality of online
a. Dependent Variable: Purchase intention sellers is important in influencing the purchase intention
of young consumers in Malaysia online shopping.
5. DISCUSSION Website design, reliability/fulfilment, security, privacy &
trust and website customer service are determinant of
The finding of this study indicated that how young online consumers’ purchase intention.
consumers’ rated online sellers’ website quality will Some limitations are encountered in this study.
influence their online purchase intention. In other words, Firstly, respondents who were involved in this study are
the consumers’ intention to continuously purchase online limited to Malaysia’s young consumers. For future
is affected by the quality of website design, reliability/ research, assessing online sellers’ websites quality from
fulfilment, security, privacy & trust of the website, and online consumers in different countries should be carried
the customer service provided. Thus, H1a, H1b, H1c and out because online shopping is about borderless world.
H1d are accepted. In general, this finding is consistent Secondly, young consumers involved were those between
with the previous researches3,30. Specifically, website 18 – 25 years, who are also part of Y-Generation
design of online sellers will influence the intention of consumers. Therefore, expanding this research to cover
 RESEARCH ARTICLE
various groups of Y-Generation would be interesting to
research because this generation is expected to actively
involved in online purchasing. Further, the young
consumers participated in this research includes active
and non-active buyers. Active online consumers are
those who are familiar with the online websites and they
may perceive that online purchase is ease, convenient and
less risk. In contrast, non-active buyers are those who
have limited experience with online purchase and they
may evaluate online purchase troublesome, inconvenient
or risky. Therefore, focusing on active online buyers
would produce accurate assessment of a website quality,
thus contributing to highly reliable conceptual model of
website quality and consumers’ purchase intention.
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