Information Commerce (i-Commerce) Usage and Purchase Decisions Among University Students During COVID-19

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between information commerce usage and purchase decisions made by university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/Methodology/Approach – Survey questionnaires were distributed to students at public and private universities through a variety of online platforms. Data was collected from 151 respondents within a two-week period and analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 26 for descriptive (i.e., mean, standard deviation, reliability test, model fit test) and inferential (i.e., correlation and regression for hypotheses testing) purposes. Findings and implications – The findings indicate that, while students engage in information commerce for its convenience, their usage of it is unrelated to the degree of trust. Nonetheless, price comparison has a sizable influence on how information commerce is used. Additionally, information commerce usage has an effect on purchase intention, while purchase intention is found to be a significant predictor of purchase decisions. Limitation – This study examined factors that influence the usage of information commerce among students in Malaysian universities, as well as their purchase intention, on a rather small sample size. Originality – This may be the first study to define information commerce usage, with its results confirming students’ purchase behavior and demonstrating that online shopping simplifies their lives. Surprisingly, the findings suggest that the degree of trust does not influence the usage of information commerce. This contradicts previous studies conducted by Anas et al. (2021) and Viktoria et al. (2021).