Shopping orientations and patronage preferences for internet auctions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of consumers’ shopping orientations and income on online auction patronage intentions. Design/methodology/approach – The study collected data using a national sample of 3,000 online auction consumers over the age of 18, who had purchased from internet auction sites eBay, Yahoo, or Bargain Hunter in the previous six months and used structural equation modelling for data analysis. Findings – The results suggest that consumers’ price consciousness shopping orientation, which increases shopping in online stores, decreases patronage intentions towards the online auction site. In addition, the findings indicate that consumers’ search orientation, convenience orientation and income level increase patronage intentions towards the online auction site. Originality/value – The key theoretical and academic contribution of this study focuses on testing and integrating the shopping orientations literature in the more modern area of online auction retailing. Practitioners also benefit from the findings of the online auction customer motivations captured by this study.