Particularities of the European Consumer’s Behavior in Online Environments

Although it is no longer a novelty that the Internet has now become “fashionable”, being a means of informing, socializing and trading, which is being increasingly used by the general public, it is now imperative to study the implications of its use both on the consumer, including all the roles that it can take (initiating, financing, influencing, decision making, actual consumption of goods and services) and on the marketer, who is forced to consider the Internet as a marketing tool that can be used as a lever to generate positive reactions from the consumers. Against this background, the orientation of the individuals towards the online environment, defined by specialized literature as “the second life”, comes to justify, on the one hand, the consumers’ need for social interaction, and, on the other hand, the need for comfort and speed in identifying optimal alternatives. This paper aims to address only a facet of the behavior of the digital consumer, proposing a theoretical and instrumental analysis of the purchasing behavior of online goods and services.