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The use of mobile applications (MA) and social media (SM) platforms is reshaping the access to the internet. This study aims to analyse if consumers prefer to use a MA/SM platform or a retail website to search for a product or service and what are the reasons supporting their choice. Data was collected through unstructured interviews applied to internet consumers. A total of 770 replies were returned with their perspective analysed through text mining to uncover hidden patterns of knowledge. The outcome revealed that the vital aspect that makes consumers prefer a retail website is due to service quality. The choice for MA/SM platforms is its system quality in the act of searching for a product or service online. The demographic analysis exposed that younger generations prefer MA/SM, suggesting a different future for retail websites.
Ramos et al. (Sun,) studied this question.