摘要：Nowadays, in Brazil, many companies are launching their E-Commerce operations in several areas, through horizontal portals that host several virtual shops or also through vertical portals specialized in pre-determined segments. The internet, together with Cybermarketing, gained its multimedia face, which is no longer a means of communication only, but has also become a tool with new and powerful applications. This research, descriptive in character, sought through the answers of 368 internet users in nine Brazilian states, to identify the behavioral variables determinant for the decision to shop through virtual retail among three groups of users: those who use; those who gave up using and those who do not use E-Commerce. A non-probabilistic methodology was used, by means of which data were collected through a questionnaire developed in HTML and hosted in the site www.pesquisams.hpg.com.br, over the period October 8th to November 28th 2001. The main variable determinants for the three groups were found to be: convenience – the main influence in favor of virtual shopping; preference for the real shop and the fact of not being fond of shopping without seeing and feeling the product – the main influence for giving up virtual shopping; and, for those who do not use this form of shopping, the disliking the idea of shopping without seeing and feeling the product.
