Pre-purchase Stage Research Articles

Enhancing customers’ life satisfaction through AI-powered personalized luxury recommendations in luxury tourism marketing

Empowered by artificial intelligence (AI), luxury tourism and hospitality brands are increasingly using personalized recommendations as a novel approach to engage customers in the pre-purchase phase. While considerable research exists on customers’ post-purchase responses to luxury tourism products, their psychological states driven by personalized recommendations during the pre-purchase stage are not well understood. Differing from traditional marketing strategies, personalized recommendations impart implicit social labels, often exclusive to the customers. Therefore, personalized luxury cues in tourism products, driven by AI, significantly contribute to customers’ positive self-perception due to their scarcity and exclusivity, further influencing their psychological states such as life satisfaction. Drawing upon self-perception theory, three scenario-based experiments across various tourism contexts were conducted to investigate this effect. Results reveal that personalized recommendations for luxury (vs. ordinary) tourism products can enhance customers’ life satisfaction by fostering perceived future self-growth. However, this positive effect is less pronounced under user-based recommendation framing.

Whether and How Prepurchase Word of Mouth Affects Postpurchase Word of Mouth

Consumers often purchase new products based on online reviews and recommendations from both friends and strangers. Previous studies have extensively explored the effects of word of mouth (WOM) on the prepurchase stage, but little is known about whether WOM from friends or strangers can alter consumers’ postpurchase behavior. The authors propose that positive WOM from distant (vs. close) others increases consumers’ intention to share negative WOM when the product/service fails to perform to their satisfaction due to two distinctive motivations. First, consumers perceive that positive WOM from distant others might mislead more people, and, consequently, consumers expect their negative WOM to have a greater impact on helping others. Second, when receiving positive WOM from close others, they are less willing to publicly contradict the close others’ WOM even though they believe the WOM is misleading. Studies 1a and 1b demonstrate the main effect of interpersonal closeness on negative WOM intention, while Study 2 reveals the dual mediating effects of anticipated impact and relationship norm. Studies 3 and 4 validate these mechanisms by showing the moderating role of the self-construal level while ruling out the role of impression management. This research offers practical implications for WOM management across different social ties.

Joy and excitement in the purchase process: the role of materialism and brand engagement

PurposeThis paper aims to use the cognitive appraisal theory to investigate the effects of brand engagement and materialism on the positive emotions of joy and excitement evoked by a product at different stages of the purchase process.Design/methodology/approachTwo complementary studies were conducted to achieve the research objectives. Study 1 used a longitudinal design, examining the pre-purchase stage and a moment shortly after the purchase. Study 2 adopted a cross-sectional approach, focusing on the post-purchase stage. Relationships among variables were analyzed through hierarchical regression and moderation analyses.FindingsThe findings indicate that materialism is not significantly associated with consumers’ positive product-evoked emotions (joy and excitement) before and shortly after purchase. At these two stages, brand engagement predicts positive emotions. In the post-purchase stage, where materialism is weakly related to joy and excitement, a robust positive link exists between brand engagement and positive product-evoked emotions. Moreover, higher levels of materialism reduce the experience of joy and excitement among participants with high levels of brand engagement.Originality/valueExperiencing joy and excitement is crucial in consumer behavior. However, little is known about the determinants of these emotions in the consumption context, especially concerning internal consumption-related factors and different stages of the purchase process. This paper contributes to the field by shedding light on the role of brand engagement and materialism in the experience of positive product-evoked emotions. The findings provide evidence that brand engagement significantly enhances consumers’ positive product-evoked emotions, highlighting its importance in consumer behavior research.

The influence of social media influencers on consumers’ decision making of restaurant choice

Purpose of the research: This research aims to examine the influence of social media influencers on consumer decision-making process in restaurant selection.
 Design/methodology/approach: This research employed questionnaire technique to collect primary data. Snowball sampling technique is employed. The customer journey theory is also adopted as a theoretical underpinning of the study to examine the influence of SMI trust on consumer decision-making of restaurant selection. The research data was analysed using Smart PLS. 
 Findings of the research: The results of the study showed that each steps of consumers decision-making of restaurant selection is positively correlated with trust in SMIs. According to the findings consumers showed tendency feeling desire to visit a restaurant that recommended by an SMIs and, search for information provided by influencers. There is also a significant correlation between trust and evaluating alternatives and buying decisions indicating that consumers are significantly influenced in pre-purchase stage. Significant association between SMI trust and satisfaction and experience sharing shows the significant effect of trust in the post-purchase. 
 Originality/Value: Being one of the first attempts to investigate the influence of social media influencers’ trust on diners’ decisions to choose a restaurant employing customer journey theory. Also, this research makes a contribution to the consumer decision-making journey literature by investigating and providing evidence regarding each step of decision-making journey in the context of restaurant selection.

This Product Seems Better Now: How Social Media Influencers’ Opinions Impact Consumers’ Post-failure Responses

ABSTRACT Extant research on social media influencers primarily focuses on the prepurchase stage (i.e., how influencers affect consumers’ purchase intentions), while overlooking the postpurchase stage. In this research, we investigate how the valence of an influencer’s product review can impact consumers’ affective states after a dissatisfactory experience with the product. Specifically, two rival hypotheses, based on Social Contagion theory and cognitive dissonance theory, respectively, are tested to assess whether an influencer’s positive (vs. negative) review about the same product can improve consumers’ affect. Results from automatic facial expression analysis and sentiment analysis show that an influencer’s positive (vs. negative) review leads to an improvement in consumers’ post-failure affect. Reconciling the two theories, the authors show that the improvement in consumers’ post-failure affect is a result of their improved attitude toward the product, following an influencer’s positive review. In addition, findings suggest this effect is moderated by the level of trust in the influencer, as well as the severity of the product failure. The results also show an important managerial outcome: An improvement of consumers’ post-failure affect (i.e., happiness) leads to a decrease in consumers’ willingness to share negative word-of-mouth.

Advancing the understanding of the pre-purchase stage of the customer journey for service brands

PurposeService branding research predominantly focuses on the purchase and postpurchase stages of the customer journey. This study aims to expand the lens of enquiry to the prepurchase stage, showing the role service brand awareness and service brand retrieval play before customer experiences and relationships can be established.Design/methodology/approachThe research presents and empirically examines a new framework that links service brand awareness and service brand retrieval to key “battlegrounds” in the prepurchase stage of the customer journey: entry into the Awareness Set, Consideration Set and Repertoire Set. The empirical work draws on data from both services and goods markets from two UK-based consumer surveys (N = 771 and N = 270, respectively).FindingsThe findings indicate that, prepurchase, service brands compete most intensively to establish and reinforce a broad array of memory associations, rather than a specific corporate or brand image.Research limitations/implicationsTo improve the generalizability of the conclusions drawn, the findings of this study should be replicated in additional service categories and consumer samples.Practical implicationsThe findings translate into novel, long-term strategies for the management of service brands at the prepurchase stage of the customer journey, especially opportunities for effective and creative marketing communications.Originality/valueThis study contributes to marketing research and practice by introducing the notion of service brand retrieval and highlighting its role, together with service brand awareness and prepurchase.

The role of information for the customer journey in mobile food ordering apps

Purpose This study aims to determine how to influence the customer journey of mobile food ordering applications (MFOAs) users. It researches how available information could influence customers’ intention to use MFOAs platforms in the prepurchase stage and explores the potential of personalized information to improve customer satisfaction with these services in the postpurchase stage. Design/methodology/approach This research followed a mixed design, combining qualitative (focus groups) and quantitative (online survey) research and using both content analysis and partial least squares structural equation modeling. Findings Two types of available information (firm-generated information and online customer reviews) had a positive influence on the behavioral intention to use MFOAs. Additionally, findings showed that different web personalization strategies, namely, content personalization, functional personalization and system-driven personalization, were useful tools to create customer satisfaction with this type of platform. Research limitations/implications The study discusses limitations regarding the sample and sampling process, indicator variables and measures. Practical implications The present research provides actionable insights for online food delivery providers. Originality/value This study addresses a research gap in the literature and provides a novel and richer understanding of customer behavior toward mobile food delivery platforms. Also, it adds to the personalization research by identifying and testing a range of web personalization strategies.

Medical Tourism and Cognitive Dissonance: Exploring Tourist Choice Behavior, Post-Choice Pre-Outcome Regret, and Visit Intention

ABSTRACT This study examines the underlying mechanism of cognitive dissonance in medical tourism and its impact on tourist behaviors, which is yet under-explored in the extant literature. Study 1 reveals how cognitive dissonance arises in medical tourism and presents key relationships among constructs. Study 2 empirically analyzes the data gathered online from 647 Chinese respondents. Findings show that the health conditions of tourists impact their medical tourism combination choice under the significant mediating impact of perceived medical treatment risk. Medical tourism combination choice impacts post-choice pre-outcome (PCPO) regret. Additionally, PCPO regret negatively impacts tourist visit intention. To fill the lacuna, this study employed the theory of cognitive dissonance to examine medical tourist behavior as a reflection of tourist health conditions, PCPO regret, and medical tourism combination choice, which remained mixed and fragmented in previous studies. Medical tourism strategies aimed at reducing tourist cognitive dissonance at the pre-purchase stage may fuel tourist cognitive comfort during the medical tourism decision-making process, potentially exerting a favorable impact on tourist visit intention.

ANALISIS PENGOLAHAN PERMINTAAN DAN KAPASITAS PRODUKSI UMKM BENGKEL TOYO MOTOR

The Toyo Motor workshop MSMEs was established on January 7, 2019, which is located at Ruko Royal Sincom Blok C No.16. There are many industries around Ruko Royal Sincom, one of which is PT. Panasonic Batam. The number of employees from PT in the industrial area is not small and on average the employees use motorbikes as their means of transportation to go to work. In order to increase the productivity of Toyo Motor's workforce, the MSME owners always understand and maintain good relationships with their employees. By building a good or healthy relationship with the workforce, their performance will also get better. The interview technique used is to prepare several questions for owners that are indirectly related to consumer behavior in service such as the prepurchase stage, service encounter stage, and post encounter stage as well as several other questions regarding the MSME into new information which refers to a conclusion. We use financial statements as data to manage. The author will analyze the effect of implementing the prepurchase stage, service stage and post encounter stage on the increase or decrease in the turnover of Toyo workshop MSMEs. MSMEs have a trend demand pattern where this pattern occurs when there are several customers who like some of the trends that are happening. In today's increasingly competitive era of globalization, it is well understood that the key to winning business competition is to provide quality services that create customer satisfaction.

AI is better when I'm sure: The influence of certainty of needs on consumers' acceptance of AI chatbots

This study examines how the certainty of consumer needs affects consumers' acceptance of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots in the online pre-purchase stage. Three experiments are conducted to demonstrate that consumers are more likely to choose AI chatbots when their needs are more certain. This effect is mediated by consumers' perceived effectiveness of AI chatbots and moderated by product type. Specifically, when the certainty of needs is higher, consumers perceive AI chatbots to be more effective, ultimately promoting consumers' acceptance of AI chatbots. For search products, higher (vs. lower) certainty of needs increases consumers' acceptance of AI chatbots, while for experience products the certainty of needs does not significantly affect consumers' acceptance of AI chatbots. These findings make important theoretical contributions to the existing literature on AI chatbots and also provide some practical implications for electronic commerce companies to implement AI chatbot strategies more effectively.

Links and effects of channel integration in the prepurchase and purchase stages of omnichannel retailers

ABSTRACT Sales channel integration is promising, but consumers likely respond to integrations in various stages of the consumer journey differently. Therefore, it is valuable to analyze how omnichannel firms profit from perceived channel integration effects in stages of the consumer journey and whether they need to account for the increasing online shopping experience. The authors propose a theory-based framework and apply sequential mediation modeling over time to study the channel integration effects in the pre-purchase stage and the purchase stages on repurchase intention through omnichannel retailer quality as a mediator. They rely on longitudinal data obtained in three waves over ten months. The results show only indirect effects of channel integration in both stages. Importantly, the indirect and total effects of both stages differ and are moderated. The findings have implications for managers who want to know how interacting channel integrations in consumer journey stages attracts consumers in light of their increasing level of online experience with a retailer. Theoretically, this study contributes to the application of the accessibility-diagnosticity theory and disentangles the effects of channel integration in two phases of the consumer journey.

Towards a model of social commerce: improving the effectiveness of e-commerce through leveraging social media tools based on consumers’ dual roles

ABSTRACT Social media has been integrated into traditional e-commerce, creating an innovative technology-based approach to changing business practice and service, yet few researchers have attempted to provide an understanding of how this approach is changing consumer decision-making and purchase behaviours. Combining the expectation-confirmation theory and the expectation-confirmation model and information systems continuance, we propose a model for social commerce, illustrating how social media is utilised in online shopping as a three-fold process (pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase stages) from a consumer perspective. The model consists of three phases: social commerce motivation, social commerce adoption, and e-commerce effectiveness. Using two rounds of surveys, we find that (1) autonomous motivation and controlled motivation have positive effects on social commerce information seeking and sharing, and (2) social commerce information seeking formulates consumers’ pre-purchase decisions, thus affecting their actual purchase outcomes, repurchase intentions, and social commerce information-sharing intentions in the post-purchase stage. In addition, our study indicates that consumers may play dual roles in social commerce: as information seekers in the pre-purchase stage and as information providers in the post-purchase stage. Our findings have important implications for literature and practice.

The Impact of Social Media on the Pre-purchase of Plurals

The study objects to how the pre-purchase of plurals is influenced by social media. Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube as the integrated social media platform were considered to examine social media usage and assess their impact on three dimensions of the pre-purchase stage including identification of needs, search information and evaluation of alternatives. A conceptual model for this study was developed using the previous literature. The study contains 250 plurals users as respondents; selected by adopting stratified sampling and snowball sampling. The empirical evidence was collected by surveying through a structured questionnaire. The dataset was analyzed using structure equational modeling in Smart PLS 3.0. Positive results have been found for social media influence on pre-purchase of consumer decision making process of plurals. Moreover, need recognition was highly influenced ( H1), followed by search of information ( H2) and evaluation of alternatives ( H3). Among all social media platforms, Instagram was mostly used by plurals. This research was confined to the Punjab state of India only, though other areas can take this research further. Additionally, only plurals as generation cohort were chosen; however, millennials and alpha generations can be considered for future empirical testing. This study provides ample scope to marketers in understanding the pre-purchasing behavior of plurals and their social media usage, which could be beneficial for them in developing digital marketing strategies for targeting this age group through social media.

A method of customer valuation score and implementation for marketing strategy

PurposeThis study aims to introduce a compelling customer value score method (CVSM), which is applicable for different product categories, and elaborates customer values in three components (direct economic value, depth of direct economic value and breadth of the indirect economic value) throughout three stages of customer journey.Design/methodology/approachThis study collected data from the Internet-shopping platforms, namely Taobao and T-Mall from 2019 to 2020 with particular focus on three product categories: lipstick (fast-moving consumer goods), mobile phones (durable goods) and alcohol (a hybrid of the other two product types) from 37 selected firms. The CVSM employs an entropy-based multiple criteria analysis, of which the weight of each indictor is not fixed artificially, but computed by the entropy-based method that calculates informative differences among the indicators (profit, revenue, positive reviews, search index and likes and favorites).FindingsThe result shows that product categories and market status have a moderation effect on three components in customer values. The findings suggested marketing strategies for different consumer goods, where the fast-moving consumer goods like lipstick should focus on the pre-purchase stage while the durable goods should emphasize post-purchase stage when the market is rapidly changing.Originality/valueThe study brings new insights to Kumar’s customer value theory by integrating product categories and the market status, revealing that three components of customer values differ in their contributions to the whole customer values. This paper further contributed managerial suggestions for marketers with regards to three stages of customer journey.

SafeCX: a framework for safe customer experience in omnichannel retailing

PurposeThe experience of safety as perceived by customers is a central issue in retailing, and its importance has increased because of the pandemic. Substantial literature exists addressing different factors related to safety/security experience in different types of retail channels. However, what is missing is a unified framework to guide safe customer experience initiatives across all channels. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the safety elements in omnichannel retailing as perceived by customers and how these safety elements affect customer experience (CX) judgments and consumer behavior in a post-pandemic context.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review on safety/security studies in a retail context is conducted, followed by a qualitative study driven by a means-end-chain laddering technique collecting data from 62 retail customers in Australia, the USA and UK.FindingsFourteen distinct safety elements in omnichannel retailing are identified. Four elements are relevant to the CX at the pre-purchase stage of the customer journey: social inclusiveness, role readiness, employment policy and safety policy enforcement. Six elements are relevant to the during-purchase stage: physical safety, personal hygiene, spatial distancing, fraud prevention, security surveillance and safety signal. The remaining four elements are relevant to the post-purchase stage: delivery safety, safety recall, mental health and data usage.Originality/valueThis study presents a new unified framework addressing safety and security in post-pandemic retail service settings. The SafeCX framework offers researchers and managers a holistic understanding of the distinct safety elements that shape customers’ perceptions across each customer journey stage of the retail CX.

“Take it or leave it?”: Evidence on cultural differences affecting return behaviour for Gen Z

Both culture and age have a direct impact on consumers' shopping behaviour. Similarly, this paper explores consumers’ return behaviour in two different cultural contexts, China and Italy, characterized by low/high individualism vs. high/low collectivism. To this end, the research employs a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews collected in May and June 2020 for a sample of Generation Z consumers in China and Italy. Results show differences and similarities affecting consumers' willingness to return in the different stages of effective purchase behaviour. For instance, in the pre-purchase stage, Chinese consumers often show a limited interest in return policies since they usually prefer not to return and repurchase otherwhere the product to maximize their cost-benefit trade-off. In contrast, when retailers adopt return policies, Italian consumers are more interested in feeling protected against the risk of wrong purchases. Instead, both samples are very attentive in return and refund efficiency in the post-purchase stage, which are perceived as two discriminating factors in terms of repurchase from the same retailers.This study offers theoretical and managerial insights towards consumers' return behaviour, offering new directions for future studies.

Mobile payment adoption at the pre-purchase stage

Mobile payment adoption at the pre-purchase stage

Mobile payment adoption at the pre-purchase stage

Mobile payment adoption at the pre-purchase stage

Exploring the Customer Journey of Voice Commerce: A Research Agenda

Voice commerce creates unprecedented opportunities for consumers and vendor firms to interact, engage, and relate. With artificial intelligence-powered voice assistants, consumers can make technology-mediated purchases without using their tactile senses, which represents a new space for commercial interactions. Drawing on the customer journey as an organizing framework, this article proposes a structured research agenda, in an attempt to shed light on the bright side effects of voice commerce while also acknowledging concerns for consumer protection and society in general. Voice assistants can enhance every stage of the purchase journey, yet their use might have negative consequences for customer relationships. In the prepurchase stage, voice assistants can act as information curators or manipulators. In the purchase stage, voice assistants can adopt roles as shopping concierges or impediments. In the postpurchase and usage stage, voice assistants can become trusted relationship partners or hostile intruders in consumers’ lives.

Exploring the Customer Journey of Voice Commerce: A Research Agenda

Voice commerce creates unprecedented opportunities for consumers and vendor firms to interact, engage, and relate. With artificial intelligence-powered voice assistants, consumers can make technology-mediated purchases without using their tactile senses, which represents a new space for commercial interactions. Drawing on the customer journey as an organizing framework, this article proposes a structured research agenda, in an attempt to shed light on the bright side effects of voice commerce while also acknowledging concerns for consumer protection and society in general. Voice assistants can enhance every stage of the purchase journey, yet their use might have negative consequences for customer relationships. In the prepurchase stage, voice assistants can act as information curators or manipulators. In the purchase stage, voice assistants can adopt roles as shopping concierges or impediments. In the postpurchase and usage stage, voice assistants can become trusted relationship partners or hostile intruders in consumers’ lives.