Analysis of Influencing Factors on the Willingness and Behavioral Consistency of Chinese Consumers to Purchase Tea via E-Commerce Platforms

Abstract

Tea is a global economic crop. In the traditional sales model, the quality of tea is difficult to judge via external clues, and it basically relies on consumers to taste and experience it firsthand. However, currently, most e-commerce platforms can only provide consumers with product information and cannot provide experiential services, which strengthens consumers’ purchasing concerns and makes it difficult for them to take practical actions even if they have the desire to purchase tea online. Therefore, this article is based on a questionnaire survey of consumers in China, the world’s largest tea producing and selling country, using unordered multi classification logistic analysis data and calculating the marginal effect proportion of consistency occurrence. Through data analysis, it is shown that there is a serious inconsistency between consumers’ willingness and behavior in choosing online tea purchases. However, under the influence of some internal and external factors, there will also be positive changes; for example, the level of education, online shopping age, familiarity with tea, convenience, product diversification, online evaluation, and other variables will increase the motivation for consumers to convert their purchase intention into actual behavior. In addition, increasing the level of variables such as age, cultural association, cultural experience, convenience, information reliability, award-winning status, familiarity with tea, product diversity, online evaluation, and service attitude in online shopping can enhance consumers’ willingness to shop online and reduce extreme situations where there is neither intention nor behavior. This study provides evidence from a consumer perspective to enhance the efficiency of tea e-commerce marketing and proposes countermeasures and suggestions based on the research results, which could also provide ideas for marketing strategies for tea or other similar agricultural products.