Low-Carbon Consumer Behavior in the Digital Age: Investigating the Determinants of Green Product Purchase Intentions in E-Commerce Platforms

Abstract

Digital commerce is reshaping how consumers discover, evaluate, and purchase products, creating new opportunities to encourage lower-carbon consumption while also intensifying convenience-driven consumption and information overload. This article examines the determinants of green product purchase intention in e-commerce by integrating behavioral, value-based, trust-based, and digital-information perspectives. It develops an integrative conceptual framework that links environmental concern, attitudes toward green products, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, green perceived value, price perceptions, green trust, digital information quality, electronic word of mouth, platform affordances, and perceived greenwashing to purchase intention. The article uses a structured integrative review of recent research and authoritative sustainability reports, emphasizing studies published from 2021 onward while retaining established theories where needed to explain underlying mechanisms. The synthesis indicates that pro-environmental concern is important but rarely sufficient on its own: consumers must also believe that a product performs well, offers acceptable value, can be purchased without excessive effort, and is supported by credible evidence. Digital interfaces may reduce information costs through certification details, traceability, reviews, and product comparisons, yet they can also amplify unsubstantiated environmental claims and impulsive purchasing. Green trust and perceived information usefulness therefore emerge as central mechanisms connecting digital communication to intention, while price sensitivity, perceived risk, delivery impacts, and doubts about green claims can weaken the relationship.