Evaluation of online shopping website preferences of young consumers by conjoint analysis and market simulation

With the rapid development of Internet technology and the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for online shopping has increased significantly. However, e commerce businesses need to determine the factors affecting online consumers' preferences of e-commerce website and the effect levels of these factors on consumer preferences in order to use e-commerce efficiently and increase sales and market shares. In this study, conjoint analysis was used to determine the factors affecting the e commerce website selection preferences of young consumers between the ages of 18-25. Consumers were asked to evaluate the hypothetical e-commerce sites created by using the factors and levels determined by one-on-one interviews and literature review, according to their own preferences. As a result, the most important factors in terms of consumers in choosing an e commerce website are respectively; security and privacy, quality of customer reviews, product variety and quality, general price level, product information and images of the website, brand awareness of the website, ease of use and design of the website were found. Finally, the effect of the change in product characteristics on preference shares was examined with the simulation performed using the data obtained in the conjoint analysis.