Online Shopping Environments Research Articles

Research and Evaluation of Multi-Sensory Design of Product Packaging Based on VR Technology in Online Shopping Environment

The development and application of virtual reality (VR) technology significantly enhances consumer immersion. Exploring a multi-sensory evaluation model for virtual packaging is valuable for integrating VR technology with packaging. This study developed a multi-sensory evaluation model for virtual packaging using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Eye-tracker experimentation was conducted to identify consumer attention indicators when interacting with virtual packaging. These indicators were quantified using Saaty’s nine-level importance scale and expert input, resulting in a comprehensive multi-sensory evaluation model. Subsequently, a VR shopping system focused on potato chips and cola as packaging design objects. This system was evaluated using the established model, and the results were analyzed. Based on the findings, improvements were made, and the system was re-evaluated using the modified model. The post-improvement evaluation demonstrated significantly enhanced sensory experiences. These results validate that the developed evaluation model effectively guides multi-sensory design approaches for packaging within a VR environment.

NAVIGATING DIGITAL MARKETING: EXAMINING SELF-ESCAPISM ATTITUDES AND ONLINE BUYING INTENTIONS IN SAUDI ARABIA

Online shopping is a widely acknowledged phenomenon in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), with platforms like Noon and Amazon.sa serving as prominent destinations for millions of users. Driven by both utilitarian and hedonic motives, users in KSA actively engage in online shopping activities. While existing literature highlights the significance of self-escapism as a fundamental hedonic motivation, users' attitude towards online buying and purchasing behavior remain understudied. This study explores dimensions of users' self-escapism which includes self-suppression and self-expansion motivation in the context of online shopping in KSA and its direct and mediated effects on their attitude and buying behavior. The research is based on the collection of data from 219 users of noon.com and amazon.sa in KSA through an online survey. The findings of this study reveal that users' self-escapism motivation in online shopping engagement is a two-dimensional construct, encompassing self-suppression and self-expansion factors. This motivation directly influences customers' engagement with online shopping. The study identifies mediating roles of attitude toward online shopping intention during users' online buying experiences. This research provides valuable insights into the motivations of users who turn to online shopping as a means of self-regulation in the KSA context. Sellers can leverage these perceptions to create online shopping environments that cater to the self-escapism needs of users, thereby influencing and encouraging them to make online purchases.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0758/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

How Important Is Word of Mouth? Development, Validation, and Application of a Scale

Companies spend large amounts of money to induce word of mouth (WOM) and spread it among consumers. This research introduces the concept of “WOM relevance,” which measures the importance of WOM for consumers’ purchase-decision process in a specific category. It uses three studies to develop and validate a parsimonious scale to measure WOM relevance at the consumer level across various product categories and different types of WOM, and applies the scale in an additional set of five studies. Specifically, this research disentangles the consumer-level and category components of WOM relevance; shows that the consumer-level variation is (much) larger than the category-level variation; and provides insights into differences in WOM relevance across categories, consumers, and WOM types. It also empirically shows that electronic WOM relevance relates to consumers’ search behavior and consideration-set formation in an online-shopping environment. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the proposed scale predicts choices as well as a more sophisticated choice model does. Finally, this research shows that WOM relevance influences not only consumers’ own purchase-decision process but also their intentions to retransmit others’ WOM messages.

A Dual Process Model of the Influence of Recommender Systems on Purchase Intentions in Online Shopping Environments

Whereas much research has looked at how recommendation systems influence online purchase intentions, this article illustrates the dual process model by which they occur. Using two studies, we fill the research void in interactive marketing by demonstrating how the dual processes of social proof and risk avoidance mediate the impact of recommendation labels on consumer decision-making contingent upon their level of involvement. Study 1 (n = 73), used a mixed-subjects design with a college student sample to demonstrate that both types of recommendation labels will lead to higher purchase intentions in an online setting. Most importantly, it provides evidence for the main effect of our theoretical model across different product categories. Study 2 (n = 160) provides support for our remaining four hypotheses by demonstrating the underlying process through which recommendation labels have a two-fold effect on purchase intentions. Specifically, the recommendation label increased the risk avoidance effect for high-involvement consumers and enhanced the social proof effect for low-involvement consumers. In both cases, the recommendation labels increased purchase intentions. Implications of our findings for theoretical and practical contributions and future directions are also explored.

Customer’s Satisfaction via Online Shopping Environment: The Case of China

The increase in Internet technology popularity due to the advancement of information technology is bound to rise at an unprecedented pace in China. The development of E-commerce has become an important part of people everyday lives in certain sectors of business activities such as online advertising, online shopping, online promotional advisory and service. This study examines critical factors in online shopping that affect customer satisfaction. The philosophy of positivism was used to evaluate the online shopping behaviour in a Chinese context. The philosophy defines a structural method that combines logical deduction with accurate and well-known observation of personal character and behaviour. The data on the level of customer satisfaction collected by E-mail and survey. The results of the validity and reliability test, Pearson's correlation and Multiple Linear Regression analyses suggested that online shopping websites’ privacy, delivery system and service quality would improve customer satisfaction in China. The Companies must carefully develop the E-commerce environment in terms of customer behaviour in China, emphasizing the factors that have a significant impact on their online customer satisfaction

The Influence of Product Diversity on Consumers’ Impulsive Purchase in Online Shopping Environment

This paper explores the impact of product diversity on consumers’ online impulse purchase intentions in the context of e-commerce development, and finds that product diversity has a significant negative impact on consumers’ online impulse buying intentions. Compared with the great product diversity, consumers have higher online impulse buying willingness when they do not have many choices. Further, we found that this effect is regulated by different shopping objects (oneself vs. intimate others). At the same time, information processing fluency plays a mediating role in this effect.

With a little help from my friends: Cultivating serendipity in online shopping environments

Many important findings and discoveries in science and everyday life are the result of serendipity, that is, the unanticipated occurrence of happy events such as the finding of valuable information. Consumers are increasingly seeking serendipity in online shopping, where information clutter and preprogramed recommendation systems can make product choice frustrating or mundane. However, it is notoriously difficult to design online shopping environments that induce it. In this study, we explore how social media affordances such as obtaining access to peer-generated content and being connected to online friends can help create the right conditions for serendipity in online shopping. We supplement this analysis with an account of two individual factors that are also likely to be instrumental in a shopping context, namely, the intensity of shoppers’ information search and their aversion to risk when faced with a product choice. Our investigation relies on a conceptualization of serendipity that has two defining elements: unexpectedness and informational value. The results of an experimental study in which we manipulated an online product search environment reveal the superiority of designs that incorporate online friendships, and these results support the positive effects of search effort and risk aversion on serendipity. This study contributes by developing a theoretical framework for the analysis of serendipity and by explaining how social commerce, that is, the integration of social media and electronic commerce, can cultivate serendipity.

A Random Forest Approach for Predicting Online Buying Behavior of Indian Customers

Online retailing in India has shown remarkable growth in the recent years. Despite having a low internet penetration rate of 34.5%, India has the second largest number of internet users in the world after China. Given the growing importance of the online retail industry in India and its diverse set of sensitivities and region wise socio-psychological barriers, it is imperative for retailers to understand customer shopping preferences. In this paper, we attempt to understand various factors influencing the online buying behavior of Indian customers in different product categories, across geographic locations in India. Also, we developed and validated the Random Forest prediction model for each identified product category, to understand if the Indian online shopping market is ready for these product categories or the traditional channel is preferred over by customer. A questionnaire based survey is used to collected data from 124 Indian respondents from 18 states of India. The survey captured from both offline and online shopping environment to aggregate understanding of customers’ shopping preferences. The high Sensitivity (above 85%) of the Random Forest model for Books and Electronics categories suggests inclination of purchase intension of customer towards online shopping. Retailers can use this model to predict the buying behavior of customers based on the location. However, for product categories like Movies, Sports equipment and Handbags, the high value of Specificity signifies the model prediction towards offline purchase intensions. So for these product categories retailers may like to focus more on customer services at retail stores.

Consumer Attitude and Loyalty in Online Shopping Environments

In the online shopping environment, loyal customers are considered extremely valuable. Loyalty is generally attributed to satisfaction with the quality of service offered by the e-marketers' to their customers. The application of technology-based service has grown rapidly in the recent years, but the current understanding of customer retention and attitude in such contexts remains limited. The present article empirically investigates the roles of e-store facets, consumer attitude and loyalty in online shopping environments. The results posit that the e-store facets such as ease of use, credibility, price benefit, security and service quality positively influence online consumer loyalty via online consumer purchase attitude, whereas functionality and innovativeness do not have much influence on consumer attitude and loyalty. The findings afford not only practical implications for e-marketers but also directions for future research on online customer attitude and loyalty.

Research on the Influence of Recommended Sources on the Adoption Intention in Online Shopping Environment

The development of shopping website allows consumers to enjoy the convenience brought by the Internet, but too much commodity information makes consumers have no choice, thus the personalized recommendation come into being. A good personalized recommendation system can help consumers reduce the cost of information search and make quick purchase decisions. Correspondingly inappropriate recommended time nodes and recommendation information will cause consumer dissatisfaction, affecting the consumer’s shopping experience. This paper focuses on the impact of the recommended information sources in the personalized recommendation service on the adoption of consumer information. It also verifies the mediating and regulatory effects of perceived usefulness and cognitive complexity on the effect of recommended information on the adoption intention.

The Role of Extrinsic Cues in Consumer Decision Process in Online Shopping Environments

Online merchants must learn how to compensate for the absence of a physical environment by using distinct cues in the form of site features, functionalities, and utilities to enhance online purchase intentions in the minds of consumers. Drawing on the cue-utilization research in marketing, the author extends the notion of extrinsic cues to online consumer decisions. In this research, the author explores the existence, relative importance, and salience of extrinsic cues in online consumer decision processes. Using a sample of 205 online shoppers, the author finds that web interface cues, transaction cues, and vendor image cues are important predictors of online purchase intentions. This paper also examines the individual effects of specific cues to assess the relative importance of these cues. The findings indicate that security-related cues have relatively higher positive association compared with other cues. Though nice site layout and design emerge as significant cues, information content and vendor image have greater positive association with online purchase intentions.

The Role of Extrinsic Cues in Consumer Decision Process in Online Shopping Environments

Online merchants must learn how to compensate for the absence of a physical environment by using distinct cues in the form of site features, functionalities, and utilities to enhance online purchas...

A feedback control approach to maintain consumer information load in online shopping environments

The heterogeneity of e-commerce users requires online shopping environments to advance from a simple framework to one that is adaptive. This need results from the negative consequences of user frustration due to information load. We used a feedback control theory based approach to address the online consumer information overload issue in an adaptive manner. To demonstrate the efficacy of this feedback control approach, a design science method evaluated the feedback controller. The main effect was that the dynamic adaptivity did not have to rely on summarizing data for inference to the individual. The proposed feedback control design is therefore a robust and viable option for organizations to incorporate into their online shopping environments to accommodate user variation of information load for e-commerce adaptivity.

Increasing Trust in Online Shopping Environments Increases Purchasing Behavior

Trust has been shown to be a critical factor in promoting online purchasing behavior. This study tested the ability of three website modifications to increase levels of trust and intent to purchase. Previous theory dictates that trust is akin to certainties in the presence of uncertainty. Three easily implementable website features were chosen to reduce uncertainty, thus creating trust and in turn increase economic activity. Options on shopping websites of (1) overnight delivery, (2) in-store pick-up, and (3) a live video stream of a business's facilities were tested for effects on trust and usefulness via survey. The results suggest there are significant increases in at least some measures of trust and other correlates of purchasing behavior for all three suggested website enhancements.

The k-means range algorithm for personalized data clustering in e-commerce

This paper describes the k-means range algorithm, a combination of the partitional k-means clustering algorithm with a well known spatial data structure, namely the range tree, which allows fast range searches. It offers a real-time solution for the development of distributed interactive decision aids in e-commerce since it allows the consumer to model his preferences along multiple dimensions, search for product information, and then produce the data clusters of the products retrieved to enhance his purchase decisions. This paper also discusses the implications and advantages of this approach in the development of on-line shopping environments and consumer decision aids in traditional and mobile e-commerce applications.

Animation attracts: The attraction effect in an on-line shopping environment

Two studies examine the attraction effect—an inconsistent choice behavior typically observed when consumers are presented with two products (target and competitor), both good for different reasons, and a worse “decoy”—in the context of online consumer decisions with different product displays (animated or static). The experiments, with different participant populations, show that the attraction effect in an online shopping environment depends on the animation format of the products. Experiment 1 (with Italian participants) suggests that the attraction effect is eliminated when target and competitor are both animated and is accentuated when the target is animated and the competitor is static, regardless of whether the decoy is animated or static. Experiment 2 replicates this animation/attraction effect in the United States, where on line shopping is more common than in Italy. The paper concludes with theoretical and practical implications for on line shopping. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Temptation and resistance: An integrated model of consumption impulse formation and enactment

Research pertaining to the consumption impulse is sparse in the literature. To address this lacuna, the author presents and validates a detailed theoretical framework explicating the consumption impulse formation process, and examining the role played by cognitive and volitional processes in its resistance or enactment. The model makes the distinction between consonant (harmonious) impulses and dissonant (conflicting) impulses and elaborates on the role of the impulsivity trait, situational variables, and constraining factors in enactment or resistance of the consumption impulse. The results of two studies provide support to the general working of this theoretical framework. This research has the potential to inform many critical issues surrounding consumer behavior, such as regulating consumption impulses in retail and on-line shopping environments, and developing interventions for prevention of harmful consumer behaviors such as addictions. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.