Consumer attitudes towards mobile commerce applications and continued purchase intentions

Abstract Mobile commerce (m-commerce) has revolutionised consumer-business interactions by offering convenient, fast, and flexible shopping through mobile applications. Its growth is fuelled by smartphone advancements and widespread mobile device usage, especially among younger, technology adept users. However, despite its popularity, many retail applications struggle with user retention and lower conversion rates compared to desktop platforms. A descriptive research design utilised an online questionnaire to collect quantitative data. The target population comprised South African adults who purchased via m-commerce applications within six months before data collection.The study finds that ease of use, usefulness, and customisation qualities of m-commerce applications shape consumer attitudes and continued purchase intentions toward m-commerce, while enjoyment and subjective norms associated with such applications show no meaningful impact. Results highlight the dominance of functional and personalised factors over social and hedonic influences among educated, younger adults (predominantly aged 18–15) m-commerce users in an emerging market. This study extends technology acceptance research by demonstrating that functional and customisation-based drivers outweigh hedonic and social influences in an emerging market context, positioning economic and usage pragmatism as boundary conditions for established m-commerce attitude models. This study finds that ease of use, usefulness, and customisation of m-commerce applications shape consumer attitudes and drive continued purchase intentions, highlighting functional experiences. In contrast, user enjoyment derived from using m-commerce applications and subjective norms associated with its use are not significant influencers, challenging earlier research. The findings affirm the TAM’s relevance while suggesting exploration into how demographic, psychological, and cultural factors affect m-commerce behaviour in emerging markets like South Africa.