Unveiling the Transition from Traditional to Online Shopping: An Extended UTAUT2 Framework in a Vietnamese Regional Hub

Abstract

This study investigates the transition from traditional to online shopping in Can Tho, a mid-sized regional city in Vietnam undergoing rapid digital transformation. Moving beyond adoption-focused research, the study examines the behavioral switching process in the post-pandemic context using an extended UTAUT2 framework. Based on survey data from 424 consumers and structural equation modeling, the findings indicate that facilitating conditions and social influence are the most influential determinants of attitudes toward online shopping, highlighting the central role of infrastructure readiness, logistics systems, and collective social norms in a collectivist cultural setting. Performance expectancy and price value exert secondary effects, while effort expectancy, hedonic motivation, trust, and perceived risk are not significant, suggesting a mature e-commerce environment where baseline trust and risk perceptions are largely stabilized. Attitude strongly drives switching intention, which in turn translates into actual online purchasing behavior. The model explains 64.1% of the variance in attitude and over 32% of both switching intention and behavior, demonstrating strong explanatory power and offering empirical insights into digital consumption transitions in emerging regional markets.