Social Cues and the Online Purchase Intentions of Organic Wine.

Stefanie Sohn,Barbara Seegebarth,Tabea Sippel,Martin Kissling

doi:10.3390/foods9050643

Stefanie Sohn, Barbara Seegebarth + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9050643

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Abstract

This study investigates how online store atmospherics (i.e., social cues) affect consumer purchase intentions of organic wine. A between-subject experiment with a quantitative survey conducted among German consumers reveals that the mere presence of social cues (i.e., a chat box) on a wine sellers’ online platform positively affects the intention to purchase organic wine from this online store because social cues elicit perceptions of social presence that translate into trust in the online store and brand trust. The latter promotes purchase intentions. Internal (i.e., familiarity with organic wine purchases) and situational (i.e., goal-directedness of shopping) factors do not moderate the effects of social cues.

Highlights

Against an overall trend of a rather stagnant wine consumption since 2010 [1], online wine sales increased substantially between 2010 and 2017 [2]
The data were analyzed by using Mplus 7.4 and in particular, with the implemented maximum likelihood procedure with robust standard errors estimator in several steps [66]: (1) this study used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to assess the reliability and validity of the employed measures, (2) structural equation modeling (SEM) to test Hypothesis 1a (H1a) –Hypothesis 1d (H1d), (3) a bootstrapping algorithm to test Hypothesis 2 (H2), and (4) a multi-group SEM analysis (MGA) to test Hypothesis 3 (H3) and H4
4, this study examined in a first step whether the measurement models were invariant across samples, namely, organic wine purchaser versus non-purchaser and goal-directedness invariant across samples, namely, organic versus and goal-directedness

Summary

Introduction

Against an overall trend of a rather stagnant wine consumption since 2010 [1], online wine sales increased substantially between 2010 and 2017 [2]. Hundreds of online wine sellers including food retailers, specialists and wholesalers are vying for the favor of the customer [2]. In this competitive environment, insights are needed on how to convert visitors of online wine stores to purchasers. The overall aim of the current research is to examine the intersection between organic and online wine purchasing. To provide retailers with information on how to benefit from the current market growth opportunities, this work aims to understand consumers’ purchase intentions of organic wine in online retail environments

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