Secure webs and buying intention: the moderating role of usability

El presente trabajo ha planteado un modelo conceptual a fin de mostrar como los antecedentes de la intención de compra se ven reforzados en contextos de Webs altamente usables. Específicamente, el trabajo analiza en profundidad el rol moderador de la usabilidad en la explicación de la conexión entre seguridad de una Web e intención de compra. Entre ambos extremos (seguridad e intención de compra), se han incluido diversas variables para explicar mejor su conexión. Para ello, ha sido diseñada una Web ficticia de ropa dirigida al segmento joven de clase media. A fin de alterar la usabilidad de la Web se han realizado dos tipos de manipulaciones: la velocidad y la facilidad de uso de la Web. Las dos Webs creadas (alta usabilidad y baja usabilidad) fueron visitadas por un total de 170 encuestados que fueron compensados con un USB valorado en 15 euros. Los resultados muestran que la seguridad percibida en la Web acarrea tres interesantes efectos (especialmente para la Web altamente usable): (i) mejora las actitudes agrado, (ii) reduce el nivel de riesgo percibido; (iii) aumenta la confianza. Los dos últimos efectos, a su vez, acaban aumentando la intención de compra.. Por último, se ha demostrado que la usabilidad, efectivamente, refuerza las relaciones consideradas en el modelo propuesto para explicar la intención de compra.A conceptual model has been proposed to show how buying intention antecedents are reinforced in highly usable contexts. Specifically, this paper deeply analyses the moderator role of system variables (usability) on explaining the relationship between Web security and buying intention. Between both extremes (security and buying intention), several relationships have also been stated to better explain this effect. An “ideal” fictitious Website was designed for a non existent clothing company directed at the segment of middle class consumers. In order to alter Web usability, two blocks of changes were made, one concerning Website speed and the other related to ease of use. Our experiment sample consisted of 170 respondents who participated in exchange for a pen-drive (USB) valued at 15 euros. The results show that improving website security has three interesting effects (especially in high usable contexts): (i) it improves pleasure attitudes, (ii) reduces the level of perceived risk and (iii) increases trust. Secondly, it has been found that to increase buying intention, two actions must be taken: (i) to diminish perceived risk and (ii) to improve users’ pleasure attitudes towards the Website. Finally, usability has been found to have a moderating role in all the relationships considered (reinforcing them)

Modelling 3D product visualisation for online retail atmospherics

Purpose: The Stimulus (S) Organism (O) Responses (R) paradigm has been extensively studied in conventional retailing but has received little attention in the online context. This study aims to investigate the effects of an online retailer atmospheric using three dimensional (3D) product visualisation. Design/methods/approach: We operationalise 3D antecedents, the main online atmospheric cues, as the “stimulus” (S) that attracts consumers’ attention towards the online retailer, authenticity of the 3D, hedonic and utilitarian value as the “organism” (O) part, and consumers’ behavioural intention as the “responses” (R) part. A hypothetical retailer Web site presents a variety of laptops using 3D product visualisations. Findings: The control and animated colours represent the main stimuli (S). Furthermore, 3D authenticity, hedonic and utilitarian values are the main determinants of behavioural intentions. The proposed conceptual model achieves acceptable fit and the hypothesised paths are all valid. Practical implications: Retail website designers can contribute to enhancing consumers’ virtual experience by focusing more on utilitarian and hedonic value. Any 3D flash should include the essential information that consumers seek and consumers should be able to click to any part of the 3D flash to access further information. Originality/values: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first in the U.K. that uses a U.K. sample to investigate the effects of using 3D product visualisation on consumers’ perceptions and responses. Our research makes an important contribution to the online atmospheric literature by providing a rich explanation of how authenticity of the 3D virtual models adds more information, fun and enhances consumers’ responses towards the online retailer

Critical review of the e-loyalty literature: a purchase-centred framework

Over the last few years, the concept of online loyalty has been examined extensively in the literature, and it remains a topic of constant inquiry for both academics and marketing managers. The tremendous development of the Internet for both marketing and e-commerce settings, in conjunction with the growing desire of consumers to purchase online, has promoted two main outcomes: (a) increasing numbers of Business-to-Customer companies running businesses online and (b) the development of a variety of different e-loyalty research models. However, current research lacks a systematic review of the literature that provides a general conceptual framework on e-loyalty, which would help managers to understand their customers better, to take advantage of industry-related factors, and to improve their service quality. The present study is an attempt to critically synthesize results from multiple empirical studies on e-loyalty. Our findings illustrate that 62 instruments for measuring e-loyalty are currently in use, influenced predominantly by Zeithaml et al. (J Marketing. 1996;60(2):31-46) and Oliver (1997; Satisfaction: a behavioral perspective on the consumer. New York: McGraw Hill). Additionally, we propose a new general conceptual framework, which leads to antecedents dividing e-loyalty on the basis of the action of purchase into pre-purchase, during-purchase and after-purchase factors. To conclude, a number of managerial implementations are suggested in order to help marketing managers increase their customers’ e-loyalty by making crucial changes in each purchase stage

The curious case of curiosity: unpleasant advertising and curiosity

Previous research demonstrated that advertisements that induce positive feelings are effective. However, unpleasant advertising are frequently used and can be effective as well. This research examines whether evoked curiosity can explain the effectiveness of unpleasant advertising. Our results indicate that although unpleasant advertising did not lead to behavioral intention with regard to the advertised product, unpleasant advertising did evoke curiosity. Curiosity itself proves to be a strong predictor of behavioral intention

The Impact of Experiential Augmented Reality Applications on Fashion Purchase Intention

Utilizing the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of augmented reality (AR) (specifically augmentation) on consumers’ affective and behavioral response and to assess whether consumers’ hedonic motivation for shopping moderates this relationship. An experiment using the manipulation of AR and no AR was conducted with 162 participants aged between 18 and 35. Participants were recruited through snowball sampling and randomly assigned to the control or stimulus group. The hypothesized associations were analyzed using linear regression with bootstrapping. The paper demonstrates the benefit of using an experiential AR retail application (app) to positively impact purchase intention. The results show this effect is mediated by positive affective response. Furthermore, hedonic shopping motivation moderates the relationship between augmentation and the positive affective response. Because of the chosen research approach, the results may lack generalizability to other forms of augmentation. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed model using different types of AR stimuli. Furthermore, replication of the study with other populations would increase the generalizability of the findings. Results of this study provide a valuable reference for retailers of the benefits of using AR when attempting to optimize experiential value in online environments. The study contributes to experiential retail and consumer purchase behavior research by deepening the conceptualization of the impact of experiential technologies, more specifically AR apps, by considering the role of hedonic shopping motivations.Peer reviewe

3D product authenticity model for online retail: An invariance analysis

This study investigates the effects of different levels of invariance analysis on three dimensional (3D) product authenticity model (3DPAM) constructs in the e- retailing context. A hypothetical retailer Web site presents a variety of laptops using 3D product visualisations. The proposed conceptual model achieves acceptable fit and the hypothesised paths are all valid. We empirically investigate the invariance across the subgroups to validate the results of our 3DPAM. We concluded that the 3D product authenticity model construct was invariant for our sample across different gender, level of education and study backgrounds. These findings suggested that all our subgroups conceptualised the 3DPAM similarly. Also the results show some non-invariance results for the structural and latent mean models. The gender group posits a non-invariance latent mean model. Study backgrounds group reveals a non-invariance result for the structural model. These findings allowed us to understand the 3DPAMs validity in the e-retail context. Managerial implications are explained

Consumers pnline: Intentions, orientations and segmentation

Purpose – This paper examines the purchase intentions of online retail consumers, segmented by their purchase orientation. Design/methodology/approach – An e-mail/web survey was addressed to a consumer panel concerning their online shopping experiences and motivations, n = 396. Findings – It is empirically shown that consumer purchase orientations have no significant effect on their propensity to shop online. This contradicts the pervasive view that Internet consumers are principally motivated by convenience. It was found that aspects that do have a significant effect on purchase intention are prior purchase and gender. Research limitations/implications – There are two limitations. First, the sample contained only UK Internet users, thus generalisations about the entire population of Internet users may be questionable. Second, in our measurement of purchase intentions, we did not measure purchase intent per se. Practical implications – These findings indicate that consumer purchase orientations in both the traditional world and on the Internet are largely similar. Therefore, both academics and businesses are advised to treat the Internet as an extension to existing traditional activities brought about by advances in technology, i.e. the multi-channel approach. Originality/value – The paper adds to the understanding of the purchase orientations of different clusters of e-consumer

The role of attention and emotional responses on online retargeting campaigns

Retargeting consists of communicating towards consumers that have already been in contact with a brand - because they visited the website or clicked on an advert, for example. Although nowadays people tend to avoid advertising, retargeting has proven to be a very successful method for bringing back consumers that did not conclude a purchase or simply people that showed previous interest in a brand. Also, it is known that attention and emotions play a big role in how people react to advertising and how they perceive the brands that communicate with them. Bearing this in mind, this study hypothesizes that retargeted advertising gets higher levels of attention than either generic or targeted advertising. In the same way, it is proposed that retargeted advertising induces higher levels of positive emotions than the other types of advertising. In order to study such topic, a two-day experiment was created to simulate a decision-making process. Participants were exposed to products but did not finish a purchase of their choice on day one, only to see it advertised on a blog a few days later, among other types of advertising. This way, it was possible to study participant’s reactions to different types of advertising - retargeted, targeted and generic - on a longitudinal study and how retargeted adverts impact their intention to revisit the website, purchase and recommend. This study shows that retargeted advertising gets higher levels of attention than the other two types of ads. Also, it was possible to understand that retargeted advertising has a positive direct relationship with intention to revisit, and a positive indirect relationship with intention to purchase and intention to recommend, both mediated by intention to revisit.O retargeting consiste em comunicar directamente com consumidores que já tenham estado em contacto com a marca - porque visitaram o website anteriormente ou porque clicaram num anúncio da marca. Apesar de se saber que as pessoas tendem a evitar os anúncios, o retargeting tem provado ser um método muito bem-sucedido para trazer de volta consumidores que não chegaram a finalizar uma compra, ou que simplesmente mostraram interesse na marca anteriormente. É também sabido que a atenção e as emoções têm um papel muito importante na definição da maneira como as pessoas reagem à publicidade e do modo como percepcionam as marcas que comunicam consigo. Tendo isto em consideração, o presente estudo lança a hipótese de que anúncios retargeted recebem níveis mais elevados de atenção que anúncios targeted ou genéricos. Da mesma forma, é proposta a hipótese de que os anúncios retargeted induzem níveis mais positivos de emoções, quando comparados com os restantes tipos. Uma experiência de dois dias foi criada de modo a simular um processo de decisão de compra incompleto. Os participantes não finalizavam a compra de um produto que escolhiam como o seu desejo, de modo a que alguns dias depois esse mesmo produto aparecesse num anúncio num blog, entre os outros tipos de anúncios. Desta forma, foi possível estudar as reações dos participantes aos diferentes tipos de publicidade - retargeted, targeted e genérico - mas também estudar o modo como os anúncios retargeted influenciam a intenção de compra, intenção de revisita e intenção de recomendação. Este estudo permitiu concluir que os anúncios retargeted têm genericamente melhores níveis de atenção que os restantes tipos de anúncio. Também foi possível perceber que a publicidade retargeted tem uma relação direta positiva com a intenção de revisita, e uma relação indirecta positiva com a intenção de compra e de recomendação - ambas mediadas pela intenção de revisita