Högskolan i Skövde

Using a large representative sample of the Swedish population, the present study aimed to explore the relationship between the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality and frequency of online shopping. On three different occasions, surveys were sent out to 9,000 Swedish residents using a systematic random sampling procedure. In total, 5,238 individuals responded to the survey which, inter alia, included measures of the FFM of personality (i.e., HP5i, 15 items) and online shopping. A confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the construct validity of the HP5i. To examine whether and to what extent the FFM predicted self-reported frequency of online shopping, a hierarchical regression analysis was conducted in which gender and age were used as control variables. Our findings indicated that online shopping was positively associated with Openness to experience (i.e., openness to feelings) and Extraversion (i.e., hedonic capacity), and negatively associated with Conscientiousness (i.e., a high degree of impulsiveness). These results suggest that online shoppers are affective, hedonic, and impulsive; that is, characteristics that contrast with the classical view of online shoppers as cognitive, utilitarian, and goal-directed. We argue that these results, alongside the use of a large representative sample and frequency of online purchase, are a needed addition to previous research as previous research studies mainly have focused on the intention or motivation to online shopping using smaller non-representative samples. Implications for online retailers and society as well as directions for future research are discussed.