Abstract

The paper aims to explore the effect of privacy, trust, and security perception on webrooming behavior of Generation Z in luxury e-commerce settings with the help of combined TAM and TPB. The luxury e-commerce websites involve high levels of perceived risks due to financial value, authenticity issues, and sharing of sensitive information. This makes trust-related constructs particularly important for the decision-making of the customers. In the study, a quantitative approach was used, and the data were gathered from 364 valid responses, which were collected using a purposive sampling technique involving Gen Z customers who had experience in luxury shopping. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach was used to test the relationship between different constructs proposed in the study. The results found that the model had strong explanatory power with a coefficient of determination of R² = 0.62, showing that 62% of the variance of webrooming behavior can be explained by the model. It was found that the attitude towards webrooming is significantly affected by perceived usefulness (β = 0.558, p < 0.001) and perceived ease of use (β = 0.229, p < 0.001). Subjective norm (β = 0.303, p < 0.001) and perceived behavioral control (β = 0.564, p < 0.001) significantly influence behavioral intention, and perceived behavioral control proves to be a more robust determinant of the behavioral intention variable. In addition, behavioral intention significantly influences webrooming behavior (β = 0.652, p < 0.001), thus substantiating the relationship between the intention-behavior construct. The proposed model shows considerable predictive validity with regard to hybrid shopping behavior in a luxurious setting. This research advances the existing framework (TAM-TPB) through adding elements of privacy, trust, and security and providing further insight into digital consumption behavior patterns of Generation Z customers.