Payment methods influencing purchase behavior in the clothing e-commerce : A study of millennials in Jönköping, Sweden

Background: Electronic commerce has recently been seen as a very auspicious service of technology witnessed in the last decade. Several types of e-commerce initiatives include very modernized and upgraded facilities such as smart cards, online retailing, and remote payments that help make the payment process faster and more consistent. Therefore, there is a need to explore the factors from payment methods that influence a change in the purchasing behavior of a customer, due to the fact that constant development in technology is occurring. Furthermore, due to the ability to access and control digital technology, millennials are believed to be destined for a current business and have a significant impact on the corporate world. Therefore, this thesis contributes to the research on the effect of payment methods on millennials’ purchase behavior by exploring millennials in the context of clothing e-commerce in Sweden. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to understand how electronic payment methods influence purchase behavior of millennials in Sweden in the clothing e-commerce. Method: The study follows interpretivism philosophy due to integrating human interest and meaning. For a more in-depth understanding, the research used qualitative methods by conducting individual in-depth semi-structured interviews. The data was collected by fifteen millennials in Sweden and analyzed within the thematic analysis. Conclusion: The results show that payment methods tend to influence millennials in Sweden differently depending on several factors such as trust, ease of use, and time consumption. The findings showed that the easier it is to use the payment method, the faster and smoother it is for millennials to complete the purchase. Moreover, when the website is organized and well-designed, there is a higher demand for purchasing from it, which leads to trust in the website and the operated payment methods in it to a higher extent. Hence, establishing the trust and credibility of the selected payment method was one of the essential points of the purchasing process. Additionally, certainty, reliability, and suspiciousness were highly taken into consideration when purchasing products from countries other than Sweden, as their operating payment methods vary significantly