The Effect of O2O on Behavioral Intention and Preference in China

Purpose - As the development of group-purchasing, Online to Offline (O2O), a new model of e-commerce, has been gradually recognized and accepted by consumers. O2O is to allow consumers online to buy goods and services which are not online and then get the goods and services offline. As a new business model, O2O promotes the development of e-business of traditional manufacturing enterprise and service firm, enhances the competitiveness of e-commerce platform and extends the traditional e-commerce platform. 2012 was the first year of O2O, because O2O is an innovative business model, O2O had been explored and used in traditional enterprise, the flourish e-commerce business, and people's livelihood related enterprises such as bank, telecommunications, and entertainment industries. Research design/data/methodology - This study deduced four O2O characteristics (promptness, convenience, conversation, entertainment) which influenced behavioral intention and preference. From Sept. 10th, 2013 to Sept. 30th, 2013, in order to get the information about consumers purchase experiences in group-purchasing, 200 questionnaires were sent to consumers who were shopping online and using O2O in Jinan city, Shandong Province, China, 200 copies. We used AMOS18.0 to calculate the confirmatory factor analysis to test the validity application of this research. Exogenous variable was made up of constituent factors of relationships, conversation, entertainment and presence, judging from the result of confirmatory factor analysis. Conclusion - Promptness, Convenience, Conversation and Entertainment had a positive influence on the behavioral intention. The higher the promptness of O2O was the higher behavioral intention was. The higher the convenience of O2O was the higher behavioral intention was. Recently researches on conversation mainly focused on shopping malls, e-learning, and online communities. The same as in the information system, web site, online shopping mall, and B2C open market e