Consumer behavior in electronic and virtual commerce: merging behavioural and neurophysiological perspectives

In the last two decades, pragmatic shifts in technology have assisted Business-to-Consumers retailers to seek novel avenues for expanding their businesses and excite consumers with newer shopping experiences. On one hand, due to the continuous technological developments retailers have leveraged the power of Web 2.0 to make a shift from traditional brick-and-motor to e-commerce retail stores and empowered consumers with user-generated contents (UGC). With the advent of Web 3.0, retailers are attempting to set up stores in a three-dimensional space of extended reality by using virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), or mixed reality (MR), thereby creating virtual world(s) for consumers to interact and share using Artificial Intelligence (AI). Evidently, this has resulted in a change of consumers’ patterns of shopping and has directly necessitated the need for researchers to develop apparatus to capture and understand the ever-evolving nature of consumer behavior. Parallelly, marketing research has taken huge strides to incorporate tools and techniques to observe consumers’ conscious and subconscious measurements. While conventional marketing techniques involved self-reports, focus group and panel data to understand explicitly stated observations, the advent of neurophysiological tools, such as Electroencephalography (EEG), Heart rate Variability (HRV) and Eye tracking (ET) has made it possible to record and quantify consumer’s unstated subconscious observations vis-à-vis marketing stimulus. These advancements exhibit future course of research as well as carries with itself newfound challenges such as identifying critical aspects of UGC that influences purchase behavior, triangulating neurophysiological data with explicit measurements, and dynamic consumption patterns in immersive marketplaces. Therefore, the development of this thesis partakes various domains– retailing, neuromarketing and virtual reality – only to contribute a fresh perspective on understanding consumer behavior and therefore, overcoming some of the challenges. The overarching aim of this thesis is to extend academic scholarship on consumer behavior through novel theoretical frameworks and methodological techniques. From conceptual perspective, the studies move on to examining purchases behavior in e-commerce to virtual commerce environments. In the e-commerce format, analyzing the attributes of product reviews on purchases decisions for different product categories broadened the classical cue-utilization framework (Chapter 2). In virtual reality format, critical differences in planned and unplanned purchase behavior while shopping in a virtual supermarket are stated (Chapter 4). From a methodological point-of-view, this thesis incorporates implicit (neuro physiological) measurements along with traditional explicit (self-report) measurements. Utilizing neuroscientific tools served two interconnected goals for this thesis – (a) updating classical marketing frameworks for today’s practitioners (Chapters 3 and 4); and (b) for evaluating the impact of marketing interventions (advertisement and retailing) on consumer purchase intentions (Chapter 4 and, in Appendix 1, 2 and 3). The usage of neuroscientific tools, in Chapter 3 and 4 (also in Appendix 1, 2 and 3) allowed for directly capturing real-time subconscious decision-making of consumers’ during the purchase stage of consumer journey. This allowed for updating the classical consumer behavior models (e.g., stimulus-organism-response) to include both explicit and implicit (like Cognitive load) measurements. Therefore, rather than relying on a single technique, this dissertation also contributes to the growing awareness of the benefits of triangulating data to understand consumer decision-making at a more fundamental level in varied contexts.En las últimas dos décadas, los cambios pragmáticos en la tecnología han ayudado a los minoristas Business-to-Consumers a buscar vías novedosas para expandir sus negocios y entusiasmar a los consumidores con nuevas experiencias de compra. Por un lado, debido a los continuos desarrollos tecnológicos, los minoristas han aprovechado el poder de la Web 2.0 para hacer un cambio de las tiendas físicas tradicionales a las tiendas minoristas de comercio electrónico y empoderaron a los consumidores con contenido generado por el usuario (UGC). Con la llegada de la Web 3.0, los minoristas intentan establecer tiendas en un espacio tridimensional de realidad extendida mediante el uso de realidad virtual (VR), realidad aumentada (AR) o realidad mixta (MR), creando así mundos virtuales para que los consumidores interactúen y compartan usando Inteligencia Artificial (AI). Evidentemente, esto ha resultado en un cambio de los patrones de compra de los consumidores y ha hecho necesario directamente que los investigadores desarrollen aparatos para capturar y comprender la naturaleza en constante evolución del comportamiento del consumidor. Paralelamente, la investigación de mercados ha dado grandes pasos para incorporar herramientas y técnicas para observar las mediciones conscientes y subconscientes de los consumidores. Si bien las técnicas de marketing convencionales incluían autoinformes, grupos focales y datos de panel para comprender las observaciones explícitamente establecidas, la llegada de herramientas neurofisiológicas, como la electroencefalografía (EEG), la variabilidad de la frecuencia cardíaca (HRV), el seguimiento ocular (ET), etc., es posible registrar y cuantificar las observaciones subconscientes no declaradas del consumidor frente a estímulos de marketing. Estos avances muestran el curso futuro de la investigación y conllevan nuevos desafíos, como la identificación de aspectos críticos de UGC que influyen en el comportamiento de compra, la triangulación de datos neurofisiológicos con mediciones explícitas y patrones de consumo dinámicos en mercados inmersivos. Por lo tanto, el desarrollo de esta tesis participa en varios dominios (venta minorista, neuromarketing y realidad virtual) para contribuir con una nueva perspectiva para comprender el comportamiento del consumidor y, por lo tanto, superar algunos de los desafíos. El objetivo general de esta tesis es ampliar los estudios académicos sobre el comportamiento del consumidor a través de marcos teóricos y técnicas metodológicas novedosos. Desde una perspectiva conceptual, los estudios pasan a examinar el comportamiento de compras en entornos de comercio electrónico y comercio virtual. En el formato de comercio electrónico, el análisis de los atributos de las reseñas de productos en las decisiones de compra para diferentes categorías de productos amplió el marco clásico de utilización de señales (Capítulo 2). En formato de realidad virtual, se establecen diferencias críticas en el comportamiento de compra planificada y no planificada al comprar en un supermercado virtual (Capítulo 4). Desde un punto de vista metodológico, esta tesis incorpora mediciones implícitas (neurofisiológicas) junto con mediciones tradicionales explícitas (autoinforme). La utilización de herramientas neurocientíficas sirvió para dos objetivos interconectados para esta tesis: (a) actualizar los marcos de marketing clásicos para los profesionales de hoy (Capítulos 3 y 4); y (b) para evaluar el impacto de las intervenciones de marketing (publicidad y venta minorista) en las intenciones de compra de los consumidores (Capítulo 4 y, en el Apéndice 1, 2 y 3). El uso de herramientas neurocientíficas, en los Capítulos 3 y 4 (también en los Apéndices 1, 2 y 3) permitió capturar directamente la toma de decisiones subconscientes en tiempo real de los consumidores durante la etapa de compra del recorrido del consumidor. Esto permitió actualizar los modelos clásicos de comportamiento del consumidor (por ejemplo, estímulo-organismo-respuesta) para incluir mediciones tanto explícitas como implícitas (como la carga cognitiva). Por lo tanto, en lugar de depender de una única técnica, esta disertación también contribuye a la creciente conciencia de los beneficios de triangular datos para comprender la toma de decisiones del consumidor a un nivel más fundamental en contextos variados

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

Motivation in the Metaverse:A Dual-Process Approach to Consumer Choices in A Virtual Reality Supermarket

Introduction: Consumer decision-making processes involve a complex interrelation between perception, emotion, and cognition. Despite a vast and diverse literature, little effort has been invested in investigating the neural mechanism behind such processes. Methods: In the present work, our interest was to investigate whether asymmetrical activation of the frontal lobe of the brain could help to characterize consumer’s choices. To obtain stronger experimental control, we devised an experiment in a virtual reality retail store, while simultaneously recording participant brain responses using electroencephalogram (EEG). During the virtual store test, participants completed two tasks; first, to choose items from a predefined shopping list, a phase we termed as “planned purchase”. Second, subjects were instructed that they could also choose products that were not on the list, which we labeled as “unplanned purchase.” We assumed that the planned purchases were associated with a stronger cognitive engagement, and the second task was more reliant on immediate emotional responses. Results: By analyzing the EEG data based on frontal asymmetry measures, we find that frontal asymmetry in the gamma band reflected the distinction between planned and unplanned decisions, where unplanned purchases were accompanied by stronger asymmetry deflections (relative frontal left activity was higher). In addition, frontal asymmetry in the alpha, beta, and gamma ranges illustrate clear differences between choices and no-choices periods during the shopping tasks. Discussion: These results are discussed in light of the distinction between planned and unplanned purchase in consumer situations, how this is reflected in the relative cognitive and emotional brain responses, and more generally how this can influence research in the emerging area of virtual and augmented shopping

Heart rate variability in marketing research: A systematic review and methodological perspectives

Heart rate variability is a promising physiological measurement that accesses psychophysiological variations in response to a marketing stimulus. While its application spans diverse fields, there is a limited understanding of the usability and interpretation of heart rate variability in marketing research. Therefore, this hybrid literature review provides an overview of the emerging use of heart rate variability in marketing research, along with essential methodological considerations. In this context, we blend marketing mix framework with stimulus-organism-response theory, segregating the use of heart rate variability in various marketing research contexts. We follow the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) framework to reflect on 33 records obtained from six databases. Our findings suggest that 42% of studies used heart rate variability to investigate promotion-related topics. Overall, heart rate variability is mostly used in combination with Galvanic skin response (48%). Further, 39% of studies used non-portable systems for data collection. Last, using the theory characteristics methodology (TCM) framework, we identified six research avenues: (1) affective, cognitive, and sensorial constructs; (2) personality, thinking style, and demographics; (3) product experience; (4) advertising and branding; (5) correlation with immersive technologies; and (6) triangulation with other neurophysiological tools

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

Interaction between extrinsic and intrinsic online review cues: perspectives from cue utilization theory

We examine the interaction efects of linguistic style and verifcation of online reviews in terms of their valence on purchase intention for search and experiential products. We adopt the cue utilization framework to examine the interplay between the extrinsic cues of online reviews—content style (general versus specifc), verifed purchase (VP) badge (present versus absent), and valence (positive versus negative)—in two product categories—search product (tablet) and experiential product (trip package)—using an experimental design. The fndings of the frequentist and Bayesian analyses show that valence supersedes other attributes’ impacts on purchase intention in both product categories. Variations in the content style of the reviews have minor infuences on purchase intention. The presence of a VP badge on a review has a negligible infuence on purchase intention across both product categories. Valence-content style and valence-VP badge interactions signifcantly afect purchase intention. Based on these fndings, implications are discussed