Exploring the Consumers’ Purchase Intention on Online Community Group Buying Platform during Pandemic

Abstract

One of the main methods of shopping for many consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic was through online community group-buying. This shopping method caters to the consumer demand of reducing contact and centralized procurement. However, some online community group-buying platforms could not attract many consumers, and consumer participation was low. Therefore, determining which factors affect consumers’ willingness to use online community group buying is important. Based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and perceived risk theory, this research explores the effects of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and perceived risk on consumers’ willingness to use online community group buying. In this research, a questionnaire survey was used, and the sample randomly collected from online consumers who had experience in online community group buying. A total of 280 respondents were collected. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, reliability, validity, correlation, and regression analysis. The results show that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence have a significant positive effect on the purchase intention of community group-buying consumers, while facilitating conditions and perceived risk have no significant positive effect. This research further enriched and improved the research on the use intention of an online community group-buying platform by integrating the UTAUT model and perceived risk theory. In practice, this research provides a new perspective and practical reference for how the online community group-buying platform can better attract consumers and maintain sustainable long-term customer relations.