The Role of Information Overload on Consumers’ Online Shopping Behavior

Abstract

In today's market, there exists a variety of products and brands for creating various items based on the needs and demands of customers. As technology advances, more companies are emerging, and it is evident that multiple businesses have developed products that are comparable to one another. To expose the products to the market and attract customers, each of these businesses adopts unique description techniques. This sometimes results in information overload. The study sought to investigate the role of information overload on consumers’ online shopping behavior. Based on reviews of relevant theories and principles of the consumer decision-making process, questionnaires were used to gather data from 201 respondents. The findings revealed that as a textual description of product attributes increases, so do the perceptions of information overload, and customers become overwhelmed while trying to process the information. The findings indicated that information overload significantly causes consumers to experience stress, frustration, and perceived risk. Following the study findings, it recommended that managers realize that excessive information can potentially decrease consumers' ability to analyze attributes of products and to compare alternatives; hence, they should analyze the scope to which the amount of provided information can be processed by their target consumers without difficulty.