Examining the impact of rich media on consumer willingness to pay in online stores

This research examines the impact of rich media on purchase intentions and willingness to pay in online stores. Via an online experiment, we tested the effects of two rich media presentation formats: product videos and virtual product experience, and compared them with static displays. The results confirm that the rich media displays enhanced the feeling of informedness about the examined products and increased excitement regarding the shopping experience. Virtual product experience had a direct positive effect on consumer purchase intentions, suggesting that virtual product experience-focused tools have the potential to outperform passive videos. Moreover, consumers showed higher willingness to pay values for experience products than for search products when interaction was possible.     

Situational variables in online versus offline channel choice

Since the advent and rapid diffusion of the Internet, the subject of consumer channel choice has attracted a large amount of research, mainly focused on the influence of channel, consumer and product category characteristics as its drivers. The interaction between channel choice and the purchase situation has been largely ignored, however. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap by identifying the key purchase situation variables and conducting an experiment to assess their impact on the choice between the traditional retail outlet and the online store. The results show that the key determinants of channel choice relate to time and distance. Distance-to-store and time pressures are among the factors affecting the probability of online purchase. Using a conceptual framework to explore differences in the impact of situational variables across product categories (high/low involvement, search/experience good), we show that distance-to-store has more influence on the likelihood of online purchase in situations involving search goods, while social variables are found to play a role only in the context of high-involvement goods.     

The influence of information cascades on online purchase behaviors of search and experience products

Online users usually observe or refer to others’ behaviors and discount their own information when purchasing products online. This research employed a fixed-effect regression model to elucidate how information cascades could influence online purchase behaviors and how they moderated the influence of online word-of-mouth and product prices. To uncover the underlying mechanisms behind informational cascades, we compare search products and experience products. In particular, we utilize publicly available data from a B2C e-commerce site in China, i.e., Tmall.com. Our results indicate that online users’ choice of products was heavily driven by changes in product rankings after controlling for cumulative sales, online user reviews and product price, as predicted by informational cascades theory. Due to the information cascades effect, review volume had no impact on online users’ choice of products with high rankings, whereas it did exert a significant positive impact on consumer purchase decisions of products with low rankings. User rating had no impact on online users’ purchase decisions. Product price had a significant and negative impact for products with high rankings, but had a significant and positive influence on users’ choice for products with low rankings. Moreover, information cascades were more prominent for experience goods than for search goods.     

In-store consumer behavior: How mobile recommendation agents influence usage intentions,product purchases,and store preferences

Product information given in purchase situations influences purchase behavior. In online purchase situations, the use of recommendation agents increases the value of product information as information becomes adaptive and thus more relevant to consumers’ information needs. Correspondingly, mobile recommendation agents (MRAs) may also increase the value of product information in bricks-and-mortar stores. In this sense, product information is not only adaptive but can also be requested at any place such as in front of products consumers are interested in. Because unprecedented, we investigate the use of a MRA that is virtually bound to a physical product via an RFID-enabled mobile device and provides product information. Based on Theory of Planned Behavior, Innovation Diffusion Theory, and Technology Acceptance Model, we develop a model to better understand the impact of MRAs on usage intentions, product purchases and store preferences of consumers. This model is then tested in a lab experiment (n = 47). Among high usability scores, results indicate that perceived usefulness of a MRA influences product purchases, predicts usage intentions and store preferences of consumers. Thus, new business models for retail stores can be considered in which MRAs satisfy both the information needs of consumers and the communication needs of retailers.     

Eyeing the web interface: the influence of price,product, and personal involvement

Although Internet retailing has become part of mainstream commerce, there is still lack of research related to web interface design as a function of product price, product complexity, and personal involvement of consumer with the product. Different types of products require different aspects of information and environment as demanded by consumers; thus, it is imperative for retailers to appropriately tailor their online presentation of products. Drawing from the elaboration likelihood model and media richness theory, we investigate the effectiveness of peripheral cue-dominated interfaces, balanced cue-dominated interfaces, and central cue-dominated interfaces on consumer purchase intention. Nearly 1000 subjects participated in this study over a period of 2 years. Our analyses provide support for the contention that the role of website cues (peripheral and central) on the consumer varies by the type of product. Our findings have implications for research and practice.     

Consumer perceptions on web advertisements and motivation factors to purchase in the online shopping

The principal objective of this study was to investigate the mediating and moderating effects of product involvement and trust toward websites in relation to the effects of the attributes of web advertisements on customers’ purchase intentions. We collected data consisting of a total of 264 responses from individuals with previous experience with purchasing products from online shopping mall sites, and utilized the PLS (partial least squares) method to analyze the collected data.     

Online purchase intentions: A multi-channel store image perspective

The advantages of the bricks-and-clicks retail format in the battle for the online customer has been widely discussed but empirical research on it has been limited. We applied a multi-channel store image perspective to assess its influence on online purchase intentions. Drawing on a sample of 630 customers of a large music retail store in the Netherlands, the results demonstrated that offline and online store perceptions directly influenced online purchase intention. In addition, our findings confirmed that offline store impressions were used as references for their online store counterparts. Synergy and reference effects are discussed.     

Energizing business transactions in virtual worlds: an empirical study of consumers’ purchasing behaviors

Virtual marketplaces for products and services have become major profit sources in virtual worlds (VWs). The large quantity and growth of virtual product transactions and their platform providers’ profits have made it critical to understand consumer purchasing behavior in VWs. However, as open-ended VWs such as Second Life have environments that differ from those of other online communities, the underlying mechanisms of consumers’ e-commerce behavior may not explain their VW behavior. Therefore, this study examines consumers’ VW behavior by considering three categories of factors influencing their purchasing behavior: the platform context (i.e., technical characteristics such as interactivity and vividness and social characteristics such as involvement), product context (i.e., product value), and virtual experience (i.e., flow and satisfaction). This study examines how these factors affect consumers when they purchase virtual products. Its results highlight the importance of flow experience in consumers’ VW behavior. Interactivity, vividness, and involvement are found to affect consumers’ virtual experience—flow, and involvement exhibits a significantly stronger influence on flow. Flow and involvement are found to affect product value, and flow exerts a stronger influence than involvement on product value. Flow and product value directly impact consumers’ willingness to purchase, whereas satisfaction with the virtual world experience, which is significantly affected by flow, is not associated with willingness to purchase. The results further indicate that product value is more influential on willingness to purchase than is flow. After describing the study’s contributions to both research and practice, I conclude the paper by presenting avenues for future research.     

Online store image: conceptual foundations and empirical measurement

Perceptions regarding an online store, developed after a brief study of the website, can significantly influence somebody’s attitude towards purchasing at that store. These perceptions are collectively characterised as an “online store image.” Our research developed reliable and valid measures for the components of an online store image, and examined the relationships of these components to attitudes and intentions to purchase online. Conceptually, the paper relied on the relatively established literature on “traditional” store image and technology acceptance research. Empirically, we focused on the store images of two online bookstores.Following standard processes for instrument development, we conducted two rounds of data collection (pilot sample, n=61; main sample, n=312) to assess reliability and validity. The paper presents multiple-item measurements for components of a store image: online store usefulness, enjoyment, ease of use, store style, familiarity, trustworthiness, and settlement performance. The components were regressed on attitudes and intentions towards purchasing at the online store, revealing significant, direct influences from usefulness, enjoyment, trustworthiness and settlement performance.     

The effects of product involvement and impulse buying on purchase intentions in mobile text advertising

While research in mobile advertising is abundant, limited attention has been paid to date to how consumers respond to mobile advertisements for different product categories and in which way impulsivity affects intentions to purchase. In this paper, we study the dimensionality of the product involvement construct and its effects on consumers’ purchase intentions via a simulated field experiment (N = 736). We show that the cognitive dimension of product involvement and impulsiveness significantly affect purchase intentions. We also present that the relationship between product involvement and purchase intention is moderated by the consumers’ impulse buying personality traits. These findings progress the current state-of-the-art in mobile advertising research, while also having significant practical consequences for the design of effective mobile SMS advertising campaigns.     

How online social ties and product-related risks influence purchase intentions: A Facebook experiment

Drawing on information processing theory and the stimulus–organism–response model, we developed research hypotheses about consumers’ decision-making processes. Specifically, we examined the effects of online tie strength, perceived diagnosticity, and product-related risks on consumers’ purchase intentions. We conducted a field experiment on Facebook to test these hypotheses. We found that the product information and recommendations provided by friends with whom consumers have strong ties are perceived as having a high level of diagnosticity. The latter increases the probability that the consumers will purchase the product in question. Product-related risks moderate the effect of tie strength on perceived diagnosticity. For high-risk products, the information and recommendations provided by strong-tie contacts have a greater effect on purchase intentions than the information and recommendations provided by weak-tie contacts. However, we did not find this effect for low-risk products. We discuss the implications of our findings for both theory and practice.     

Does online interactivity matter? Exploring the role of interactivity strategies in consumer decision making

Given that the Internet does not afford an opportunity to inspect products before purchase, some customers hesitate to shop online. Online interactivity can supplement online decision-making with added product information. Based on the theories of impression management and deception, this study focuses on sellers’ online interactivity strategies (SOIS) and aims to explore the role of SOIS played in online purchase decision-making process. According to the stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) paradigm, this study aims to understand how each component of SOIS affects transaction intention through consumer perceptions (perceived deception and perceived diagnosticity) and how this affect is moderated by product types (search goods and experience goods) in online marketplaces. Data collected from 475 respondents support most of our hypotheses. Product type positively moderates only the link between image creation and perceived deception. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed.     

The online framing effect: the moderating role of warning,brand familiarity,and product type

This study examines the framing effect on online consumer purchase intention. Three framing effect moderators—warning type (text-based/picture-based), brand familiarity (familiar/unfamiliar), and product type (utilitarian/hedonic)—were considered. The results demonstrated that a positive frame message could create more favorable preferences toward the product than a negative frame message could. Further, consumers with text-based warnings who received positive framing messages had higher purchase intentions toward the target product than did those receiving negative framing messages. However, the online framing effect was not significant for consumers receiving picture-based warnings. Moreover, the online framing effect was significant for consumers familiar with the brand. Finally, positive messages resulted in higher purchase intention for hedonic rather than utilitarian products. This study further examined gender differences in framing effects and found women exhibited greater framing effects than men under the negative frame. The findings provide guidance for designing appropriate product strategy to induce online consumer purchase intentions that favor online retailers.     

How does justice matter in online retailers’ reputation and purchase intentions: an empirical study of China

In recent years, online shopping has been proliferated around the world. Online retailers’ reputation and purchase intentions are critical for survival and profitability of any online store. Thus, this study proposes a research framework to examine the perceived justice effects on customers purchase intention and online retailers’ reputation. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to demonstrate the reliability and validity of the measurement model, and the structural equation modelling technique was used to test the research model. The hypothesised model was validated empirically using data collected from 383 online shopping customers in China. The results indicated that perceived procedural, distributive and interactional justice components were strong predictors of customers purchase intention and online retailers’ reputation while online retailers’ reputation had significant effects on purchase intentions. Finally, theoretical and managerial implications are also presented in the paper.     

An investigation into the antecedents of prepurchase online search

This study investigates what influences consumers' extent of online search (i.e., the number of relevant web stores visited) before a purchase. A dataset containing website visitation and transaction activities from a panel of US consumers is used to test the hypotheses developed in the study. The results indicate a diminishing effect of competitive density on the extent of search, and the use of advanced information technologies induces more searches. Consumers also search more for experience products than for search products in contrast to the prediction in the nonelectronic market. Furthermore, online purchase experience increases, while product-specific experience reduces, prepurchase search.     

Antecedents of trust in online auctions

Customer loyalty or repeat purchasing is critical to the online auction sellers’ survival and success. Previous research has established that online repeat purchase intentions are the product of buyer assessments of trust in the online seller. Previous research has also affirmed the importance of justice perceptions in engendering trust. These perspectives, however, have been examined independently by IS and management researchers. By integrating these two perspectives, a richer understanding of buyers’ underlying beliefs and subsequent repeat purchase intentions can be gained. In the research model, bidding justice is proposed as a formative second-order construct driven by distributive justice, procedural justice, interpersonal justice, and informational justice. Bidding justice is hypothesized to positively affect trust in the community of sellers, which in turn is hypothesized to positively affect repeat purchase intentions. Data collected from 412 buyers in Yahoo-Kimo’s online auction marketplace provide support for the proposed model. The study shows that trust is a significant positive predictor of buyers’ intentions to repeat purchase. The study also shows that the four dimensions of justice are important components of bidding justice, which in turn has a strong positive effect on trust in the community of sellers. Implications for theory and practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Which is more important in Internet shopping,perceived price or trust?

Price and trust are considered to be two important factors that influence customer purchasing decisions in Internet shopping. This paper examines the relative influence they have on online purchasing decisions for both potential and repeat customers. The knowledge of their relative impacts and changes in their relative roles over customer transaction experience is useful in developing customized sales strategies to target different groups of customers. The results of this study revealed that perceived trust exerted a stronger effect than perceived price on purchase intentions for both potential and repeat customers of an online store. The results also revealed that perceived price exerted a stronger influence on purchase decisions of repeat customers as compared to that of potential customers. Perceived trust exerted a stronger influence on purchase decisions of potential customers as compared to that of repeat customers.     

Product type and consumers’ perception of online consumer reviews

Consumers hesitate to buy experience products online because it is hard to get enough information about experience products via the Internet. Online consumer reviews may change that, as they offer consumers indirect experiences about dominant attributes of experience products, transforming them into search products. When consumers are exposed to an online consumer review, it should be noted that there are different kinds of review sources. This study investigates the effects of review source and product type on consumers’ perception of a review. The result of the online experiment suggests that product type can moderate consumers’ perceived credibility of a review from different review sources, and the major findings are: (1) consumers are more influenced by a review for an experience product than for a search product when the review comes from consumer-developed review sites, and (2) a review from an online community is perceived to be the most credible for consumers seeking information about an experience product. The findings provide managerial implications for marketers as to how they can better manage online consumer reviews.