ANALYZING DEMOGRAPHIC CLUSTERS BEHAVIOR AND PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS EBANKING IN EMERGING FREE-MARKET ECONOMIES SOUTH AFRICA AND UKRAINE

The objective of this study is to portray banking customers’ behavior and perceptions towards the use of new technology platforms, apps, services and products, to advise banks in their strategic approach to designing customized digital offers. The analyzed data were collected by means of a questionnaire administered online to 374 participants selected using convenience sampling. The empirical findings demonstrated that eBanking behavior and perceptions differ statistically significantly from one country to another as well as for demographic clusters such as gender, age, level of education, occupation, and digital banking level of knowledge. They confirmed the importance of scrutinizing demographic clusters’ behavior and perceptions towards online banking, an area, which is largely under-researched in both South Africa and Ukraine. This study suggested banks elaborate tailored marketing strategies to enhance banking customers’ intention to use eBanking and increase their positive perceptions for specific clusters. Providing the in-depth understanding of each demographic cluster’s eBanking behavior and perceptions that this study provides will serve banks in their segmentation and targeting strategies to enhance the use of digital platforms and apps, services and products in developing economy countries. Furthermore, they will be adequately informed to design customized eBanking offers.