Abstract
Although Internet retailing has become part of mainstream commerce, there is still lack of research related to web interface design as a function of product price, product complexity, and personal involvement of consumer with the product. Different types of products require different aspects of information and environment as demanded by consumers; thus, it is imperative for retailers to appropriately tailor their online presentation of products. Drawing from the elaboration likelihood model and media richness theory, we investigate the effectiveness of peripheral cue-dominated interfaces, balanced cue-dominated interfaces, and central cue-dominated interfaces on consumer purchase intention. Nearly 1000 subjects participated in this study over a period of 2 years. Our analyses provide support for the contention that the role of website cues (peripheral and central) on the consumer varies by the type of product. Our findings have implications for research and practice.
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Website design quality plays an important part in influencing consumer purchase intentions in an e-commerce context [20, 26, 27, 30, 45, 53, 56, 57, 105]. These studies have shown that website design quality (as measured by ease of use, entrainment, navigability, credibility, and visual appeal) influences consumers, independent of product attributes conveyed on the website. This suggests that website design quality independently influences consumer perceptions. In an online context, consumers show a high degree of reliance on their perception of website design, indicating consumers exhibit high levels of confidence in assessing website quality, and thus are more likely to use determinations in website quality when making a purchase decision [54, 55].
Product understanding has been addressed in IS research from multiple aspects. Product understanding has been shown to reduce product uncertainty, increase trust, and influence consumer attitudes and purchase intentions [41]. An online environment limits consumers’ ability to feel intrinsic attributes (e.g., feel, touch, taste, etc.) [32], thus sellers need to heavily leverage informational cues to facilitate customers’ understanding of product quality and to make purchase decisions [73]. Information cues allow consumers to associate product quality as well as the ability to understand the product [84, 105]. Insufficient product demonstration can lead to low perceived product understanding, which is a major impediment to e-commerce [41, 86]. Information cues on a website are designed to introduce products to consumers and to enable consumers to form a clear understanding of products [41].
Convenience products can be classified as inexpensive and easily accessible (e.g., toothpaste, milk, light bulbs); shopping products are usually higher priced and brought infrequently (e.g., clothing, chinaware, appliances, electronics); and specialty products are relatively expensive and have brand loyalty (e.g., jewelry, cars) [64].
The fit indices of the other three models (PCD, BCD, and CCD) were also consistent with the base model and desirably above/below the recommended thresholds. Single item constructs under control variables were not included to improve the fit of the models.
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Walia, N., Srite, M. & Huddleston, W. Eyeing the web interface: the influence of price, product, and personal involvement. Electron Commer Res 16, 297–333 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-015-9200-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-015-9200-9