ABSTRACT
Consumer behavior is a complex set of related mental and physical activities that people pursue to conduct the exchange and consumption aspects of their lives (Markin 1974; Peter and Olson 2008). E-commerce solution providers must understand how consumers employ the Internet in their conduct of these exchange and consumption activities. These activities can be conceptualized as responses to various internal (physical and mental) and external (social and physical-including marketing) stimuli. When consumers recognize unmet needs as a result of processing these stimuli, they engage in a sequential (and sometimes reiterative) series of goal-directed mental and physical activities. These include the perception of a de£cit or problem, a determination of available solutions for the problem, an evaluation of the alternative solutions, a choice of solutions, and post choice and post consumption processes.
