Geo-discrimination in Online Shopping. The Consumer’s Perspective
Geo-discrimination in Online Shopping. The Consumer’s Perspective

Summary/Abstract: The goal of the paper is to explore geo-discrimination practices by online retailersfrom consumers’ perspective with a focus on young Polish consumers, usingsecondary data and six mystery shopping tasks embedded in the online questionnaire(n=405) with debriefing during group interviews.Consumers experience multiple forms of geo-discrimination in cross-border onlineshopping. Some forms are more severe than others, including refusal to sell, theobligation to use expensive forms of payment or delivery/return. The paper dealswith the perception of such practices. In general, the consumers are dissatisfied(re-routing is perceived least burdensome and refusal to delivery most oppressive),although they do not feel discriminated.Practical implications include creating guidelines for consumers to avoid someof the obstacles or unnecessary cost, as well as for the consumer policy.Social implications focus on the commonality of geo-discrimination by nationalityor place of residence with denying access to some products or services, leadingto unsatisfied needs and suboptimal allocation of consumer resources.

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