PERCEIVED RISK WHEN BUYING ONLINE: EVIDENCE FROM A SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW

In order to gain deeper understanding in consumers’ perceptions regarding risk involved when buying online, a semi-structured interview was employed. 30 internet users that have purchased a product or service using the Internet within the last three months were questioned regarding their fears when deciding to buy from an e-commerce web site. The respondents were selected according to a stratified sampling technique. Based on the respondents’ answers but also taking into consideration previous empirical findings, I classify different types of perceived risk into: financial risk, privacy risk, performance risk, delivery risk, time risk, psychological risk and social risk. The results show that Romanian consumers perceive a high degree of risk when conducting an electronic transaction, which could be the reason why Romania has a small e-commerce adoption rate although the internet penetration rate is quite high. Further managerial implications are discussed.