Abstract

This research aims to explore the impact of culture on online retailing stores across three Asian countries. Hofstede’s culture theory has been used as the theoretical foundation. After reviewing four culture dimensions including individualism-collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity-femininity, we investigated the potential cultural impact on three online retailing stores from China, India, and Thailand, respectively. We compared the website design, primary offerings, major features, communication channels, and payment methods across three cases in order to see if cultural difference could explain the variations. The analysis shows that cultural differences lead to diverse feature design and payment method among these stores. In addition, trust, brand image, and value-added perception play an essential role when consumers make purchasing. Moreover, cultural dimensions such as large power distance and uncertainty avoidance seem to be a barrier against people’s intention to shop online. The results suggest practitioners consider cultural factors when designing online retailing stores. The results also provide a starting point for researchers to further investigate the impact of specific cultural factors on online store design and consumer behavior.

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