Gap in Trade Companies’ Perception of Consumers’ Purchasing Processes

Consumer behaviour is an inherent element of marketing science. It provides a significant contribution to the cognition of the mechanisms that govern the units that select and purchase goods and services. At the same time a question arises, the extent to which these behaviours are known to companies and the extent to which this knowledge is used as a foundation for creating marketing and sales strategies become apparent. The purpose of this article is to present selected results of research showing, based on the example of the Polish information technologies market, the gap that exists between the perception of consumer behaviour by conventional and on-line trade companies, and its actual/real course.