Psychological elements explaining the consumer's adoption and use of a website recommendation system: A theoretical framework proposal

The purpose of this paper is to understand, with an emphasis on the psychological perspective of the research problem, the consumer's adoption and use of a certain web site recommendation system as well as the main psychological outcomes involved. The approach takes the form of theoretical modelling. Findings: A conceptual model is proposed and discussed. A total of 20 research propositions are theoretically analyzed and justified. Research limitations/implications: The theoretical discussion developed here is not empirically validated. This represents an opportunity for future research. Practical implications: The ideas extracted from the discussion of the conceptual model should be a help for recommendation systems designers and web site managers, so that they may be more aware, when working with such systems, of the psychological process consumers undergo when interacting with them. In this regard, numerous practical reflections and suggestions are presented

The Number of Alternative Products and the Information about it on the Online Shop

As the Internet can aggregate and distribute a great amount of information to users, providing numerous products for consumers has been recognized as a major advantage of electronic commerce. Causing by the problem of information overload, however, consumers facing many alternatives on the online shop may feel hard to decide which one they prefer. Based on the theory of decision style and prospect theory, this study explores if too many products sold on the online shop will reduce consumers’ subjective status toward their buying decision. A 3×3 between subjects experiment was conducted and showed that the buyers’ decision style, the quantity of alternative products and the information about it will affect consumers’ subjective status. These results suggest that we should consider the role of electronic intermediaries more carefully, and further examine the theory of information overload and the need for information literacy to prepare for the future

Exploring the Preference Structure for Online and Traditional Retail Formats

retail, structure, formats

E-tailers versus Retailers: Which Factors Determine Consumer Preferences

The growth of Internet technology and electronic commerce has not been matched by theoretically-guided social science research. Clear and well designed consumer research is needed to describe, explain, and predict what will happen to this changing landscape. The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the structure for consumer preferences to make product purchases through three available retail formats - store, catalog, and the Internet. Conjoint analysis was used to assess the structure of the decision and the importance of the attributes in the decision-making process. The results from this study noticeably show that the structure of the consumer decision-making process was found to be primarily one of choosing the retail format (store, catalog, or Internet) and price of product (set at low, medium or high) desired. The strength of the retail store format suggests that fears that the Internet will take over the retail arena seem, at least at this point in time, overblown and exaggerated. However, there seems to be an identifiable segment of customers that has a preference for the Internet as a retail shopping alternative.Economics ;

Do you Get Tired of Shopping Online? Exploring the Influence of Information Overload on Subjective States towards Purchase Decision

The increase and development of shopping websites make customers confront with too much information, this may influence subjective states towards purchase decision. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of information overload on subjective states towards purchase decision. Based on the framework of stressor-strain-outcome, we regard information overload as the antecedent of website fatigue and website anxiety, which could further influence subjective states towards purchase decision. Besides, customer involvement should be considered. The results show that information overload leads to the low level of subjective states towards purchase decision through website fatigue and website anxiety and customer involvement plays as a moderator. Implications and limitations are also raised

Function-Based Categorization of Online Product Information Types

Hardly any in-depth knowledge is currently available on how different types of product-relevant information influence online consumer trust and purchase decision. To address this research gap, we apply a generic function-based information typology to systematically classify the large variety of online product information and plan for a focused comparison of their functional roles and differential effects on online consumer decision making. The ultimate goal is to provide a theoretical basis for guiding and prioritizing online information organization and provision, which becomes increasingly important in the current context of information overload. The paper briefly reviews information research in e-commerce, discusses the conceptual basis of applying the generic function-based topical relevance typology to analyze online product information, and uses a variety of product examples from Amazon.com to demonstrate the process. The paper concludes with preliminary findings from this pilot study

Exploring Choice overload in Online Travel Booking

When searching for their holidays online, consumers are frequently presented with thousands of options that require a large amount of cognitive effort to digest. This often results in consumers feeling overwhelmed, causing them to experience choice overload. This study explored and identified the moderators and outcomes of choice overload that could be specific to an online travel booking experience. A qualitative methodology was adopted to tap deeper into the experiential aspect of the online booking process from the perspective of the consumer. Indepth interviews were carried out with eleven participants who had prior experience in making online holiday bookings. Findings suggested that there were both intrinsic and extrinsic moderators that affected choice overload in an online travel booking context. There also seemed to be different forms of outcomes of choice overload in the online environment. In light of these findings, marketing implications for online travel booking operators are discussed

Cognitive load during planned and unplanned virtual shopping:Evidence from a neurophysiological perspective

Rapid adoption of virtual-reality-assisted retail applications is inadvertently reshaping consumer buying patterns, making it crucial for businesses to enhance their shopping experience. This new scenario challenges marketers with unique hurdles in both the commercialization of products and in managing information cues derived via VR retailing. Therefore, this study examined consumers’ impulsive behavior and unplanned purchases in a virtual retail store, using self-reports and electroencephalography. Borrowing assorted perspectives from retailing, virtual reality, and neuromarketing literature, we extended the stimulus-organism-response framework to evaluate how unplanned behavior evolves through conscious and unconscious measures. We found that consumers’ impulsiveness was significantly associated with their unplanned expenditure and the number of unplanned purchases. Using mediation analysis, we observed that flow experience during shopping partially mediated the relationship between the sense of presence and the desire to stay longer in a virtual shopping store. Desire to stay in the virtual store positively influenced store satisfaction, basket-size deviation, and budget deviation. Additionally, cognitive workload obtained via electroencephalogram revealed significant differences during both planned and unplanned purchases. These findings provide fresh opportunities for retailers to leverage the disruptive potential of immersive and interactive virtual technology to transform consumer shopping experiences

The Impact of Perceived Valence, Perceived Information Credibility and Valence Intensity of Online Reviews on Purchase Intentions

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of the quality of product recommendations on buying intentions. An online experiment was conducted testing both the effect of the two dimensions of review quality (perceived valence and perceived information credibility) and the influence of valence intensity of the review content on purchase intentions. Both dimensions of the review quality were found to have a significant impact on purchase intentions. This effect holds for books and hotels, which were chosen to serve as research objects to provide information for both search and experience goods. In a subsequent analysis, we compared the effect of moderate and strong valence intensity of the review content. Interestingly, we found no significant difference of the effects of positive versus negative product reviews on purchase intentions in the two groups with moderate valence intensity. Although the present study is rather exploratory in nature, these findings are novel and crucial for both marketing research and practice