Influencing Factors of Cross-Border e-Commerce Consumer Behavior-Taking in Malaysia

Abstract

Cross-border e-commerce consumption drives growth, with consumer psychology and behavior varying based on culture, environment, and e-commerce platform systems. Malaysia's diverse and multilingual population necessitates a keen understanding of consumer psychology and behavior for merchants aiming to penetrate the market. This paper explores consumer behavior in Malaysia's cross-border e-commerce, analyzing factors such as perceived value, purchase intention, and behavior theories. Consumers' psychological characteristics significantly influence their decision-making behavior when shopping on cross-border e-commerce, influenced by the shopping experience and online shopping issues. The research provides a contribution reference for nations or businesses to develop a cross-border e-commerce strategy. The study investigates Malaysian e-commerce consumers through a questionnaire survey, utilizing a non-probability technique with convenience sampling, resulting in 508 valid responses. The study is based on herd consumption psychology and consists of three dimensions: informational influence, normative influence, and value expression influence. The study found a significant correlation between crowd consumption psychology's informational influence and consumers' perceived usefulness and purchase intention with a p-value of 0.001, 0.000, and 0.125, while normative and value expression influences were insignificant. The study provides empirical and conceptual evidence to support the government's initiative on navigating international regulations in cross-border e-commerce, a complex yet crucial task. Customs administrations must collaborate with all stakeholders to develop a comprehensive approach for managing e-commerce transactions, focusing on trade facilitation and enforcement. It recommends reviewing the accurate measurement of cross-border e-commerce, which is crucial for making informed policy and business decisions.