The decision to use e-commerce platforms by Gen Z: A comparison of regression and ANN method

Abstract

The research objective is to analyze factors affecting Gen Z customers' decision to use e-commerce platforms in the city. Ho Chi Minh. The study surveyed 258 consumers, and the author used regression and artificial neural network (ANN) methods to analyze and compare the results. The regression method evaluates the impact of independent variables on the dependent variable. The magnitude of the Beta coefficient represents the influence of the independent variable on the dependent variable. The ANN method calculates normalized relative importance (NRI) between independent variables. The research results show consistency between the regression and the ANN methods. The decision to use an e-commerce platform is influenced in descending order by factors such as Usefulness, Social influence, Trust, and Website design. Both methods confirm that usefulness is the most important factor affecting the decision to use an e-commerce platform. Therefore, to attract more customers, e-commerce platforms should increase their usefulness by supporting shopping at any time, supporting payment by many methods, and improving search tools to help customers choose the appropriate product in the shortest time.