Uncertainty is the Other Side of the Coin of Information Online Search

Consumers pre-purchase information search is an essential part of consumers´ online buying and decision making process. There are nearly 60 factors that have been found to have an influence on consumer pre-purchase information search. In the literature, uncertainty has been established as the motive of consumer search. Uncertainty is a concept that provides a theoretical frame to link online search research to consumer buying behaviour research, and decision making research. We base our study on Beatty and Smith ´s (1987) research of External search determinants. In this paper, we studied 1) how uncertainty is related to the external search determinants in online purchase and 2) what kind of uncertainty consumers perceive when purchasing online.We found that experience, education or demographic background does not have an influence on consumer perceived uncertainty. All consumers perceive uncertainty in the general decision making phases by Simon 1957.