Virtual Consumers, 1998-1999

This project was a study of public responses to early developments in electronic commerce (e-commerce). The aims and objectives were:<br> to provide new data (qualitative and quantitative) relating social and psychological variables to uses of e-commerce;<br> to relate aspects of design and implementation of e-commerce websites to social psychological variables;<br> to provide an analysis of consumers' understandings of the regulatory and social context of e-commerce;<br> to make a methodological contribution by introducing a new application of user trials in the context of social psychological consumption research;<br> to reflect upon the implications of the development of e-commerce for the academic study of consumption.<br> Three modes of data collection were used - focus groups, user trials and a national survey. The focus groups ranged across social grade, gender and user trial. The user trials were conducted in people's own homes and sampled a range of household types: single, households with children, cohabitees, varying across social grade, age and experience with technology.