THE DIGITAL SHOPPER JOURNEY IN BALTIC DIGITAL STORES: A STAGED DIAGNOSTIC FRAMEWORK

Abstract

Digital retail scholarship has mapped adoption thresholds and purchase journeys as parallel research streams. No integrated framework exists that traces the shopper's sequential progression from platform entry through post-purchase re-engagement, assigns stage-specific influencing factors at each point along that progression, and situates that architecture within the structural conditions of a transitional digital economy. This study addresses that absence for the Baltic-3 region: Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Drawing on the Technology Acceptance Model and the Consumer Decision Journey as complementary theoretical lenses, proposing a staged diagnostic architecture, stage-by-stage analytical instrument which maps four sequential journey stages against their dominant behavioral determinants. Consumer trust governs the pre-purchase acceptance threshold. Interface quality suppresses perceived risk during active evaluation. Trust and perceived risk converge as opposing co-determinants at the moment of purchase. Logistics reliability determines post-purchase loyalty re-entry or exit. Baltic-specific friction amplifiers, rooted in the region's uneven digital skills penetration and structurally significant cross-border e-commerce volume, contextualize each stage's behavioral mechanics within the regional retail environment. Three falsifiable propositions operationalize the framework as a partial least squares structural equation modelling agenda across stratified Baltic consumer samples. The result advances TAM scholarship beyond the adoption threshold, CDJ scholarship beyond descriptive stage mapping, and Baltic digital commerce research beyond macro-level adoption metrics which is for the first time within a single integrated architecture.