Abstract
The methods consumers use to reduce their perceived risk and make reasonable purchase decisions can be synthesized under the umbrella term “consumer information search behavior” (CISB). As one key factor that conveys a product’s value and quality, price has a significant impact on CISB. There are few studies that comprehensively consider the impact of price level (PL) and perceived price dispersion (PPD) on CISB, and there is a certain disagreement about the impact of PPD specific to the online shopping environment. To address this research gap, we construct a model using the data from 5515 consumers’ purchasing and browsing behavior on a B2C e-commerce website, selecting six products as our research objects. We use a hierarchical regression analysis method to study the influence of product PL and PPD on CISB, and to explore the moderating effect of product categories (durables and consumables) on the relationship between PL, PPD and CISB. The results show that PL significantly affects CISB, and that product categories have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between PL and CISB. For durable goods, when the PL is high, consumers tend to increase their search behavior, both in depth and in breadth, and for consumables with low PL but higher purchase frequency, consumers likewise tend to increase their search behavior. In the B2C online shopping environment, PPD has a significant positive effect on CISB, and product category has a moderating effect on the relationship between PPD and CISB. When consumers purchase consumables, the higher the PPD, the higher the depth of CISB. The findings have several implications for marketing practitioners and enterprises advertising, also can help customers save time and energy in their search behaviors.
Highlights
Introduction iationsWith the rapid development of the Internet and e-commerce, online consumption is becoming more and more popular and convenient
This paper is organized as follows: in Section 2, we review the literature on the influence of price level (PL) and perceived price dispersion (PPD) on consumer information search behavior” (CISB), and propose the research hypotheses
We selected five kinds of durable goods (Refrigerator, laptop, electric rice cooker, Electric kettle, U disk) and five kinds of consumables (Infant milk powder, rice, Facial cleanser, toothpaste, Tissue) according to the definition of durable goods and consumables in literature [38], we found out all the consumers who have purchased the above 10 products from the dataset
Summary
Consumers’ purchase decisions depend heavily on consumers processing the results of the search for product information. In the offline shopping environment, PPD has a positive effect on CISB: if consumers feel that the price and quality of products in the market are more different, they will conduct a more extensive search for information before buying, because when the product’s price difference is greater, consumers will be motivated to search more to reduce their perceived financial risk and obtain the most benefit from their purchase [11,12]. CISB is the basis of consumers’ purchase decision-making framework It is the process of inquiring and obtaining product information in external environments for processing and making reasonable purchase decisions; the fundamental for this behavior is to reduce the uncertainty of decision-making to avoid risk, and to maximize the benefit to the purchase decision.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
