The proliferation of internet shopping has imposed enormous pressure on traditionalstores. Few studies have examined the geographic distribution of online buyers and itsimplications on retail development and transportation. Using 585 internet users in theMinneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, this study develops structural equation models totest two competing hypotheses regarding the connections between spatial attributes ande-shopping: diffusion of innovation and efficiency. The results demonstrate that theinfluence of shopping accessibility on e-shopping is not uniform, but depends on thelocations in metropolitan areas. Specifically, internet users living in urban and/or highshopping accessibility areas tend to purchase online more often than their counterparts inother areas because the former are better educated and use the internet more heavily thanthe latter. However, low shopping accessibility in exurban areas does promote the usageof e-shopping, compared to exurban areas with relatively high shopping accessibility.
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