Virtual agents in retail web sites: Benefits of simulated social interaction for older users
Highlights
► We investigated virtual agent benefits for older users’ experience in e-commerce. ► Focus group interviews revealed six barriers to online shopping adoption. ► Key barriers include perceived risks, and lack of trust and social support. ► Laboratory experiment tested the effects of virtual agents on key barriers. ► Virtual agents led to increased social support, trust, and patronage intent.
Introduction
Virtual agents, representing animated embodiments that respond to users through verbal and non-verbal communication (Cassell, Sullivan, Prevost, & Churchill, 2000), have been increasingly implemented on various online retail and service Web sites in recent years. For example, Ikea.com, a Swedish furniture and home goods retailer, features an automated virtual assistant named Anna who dons the company uniform and answers customer queries on Ikea’s products and services. Similarly, Alaska Airlines features Jenn, a virtual assistant who dons the company uniform and answers questions about airline reservations. Virtual agents on e-commerce and online retail Web sites most often serve a search support function by presenting product and service information based on user specified criteria. A few virtual agents serve a basic decision support function where they compare alternatives to assist the buyer with a choice decision (Sproule & Archer, 2000). However, an important aspect missed by online retail agent implementations is the navigational/procedural support function.
Navigational and procedural support in e-commerce interfaces, defined as assisting the buyer through the online transaction process, is important to low experience users and those who experience continuing challenges in online tasks despite repetitive usage, such as older users. Recent national surveys on Internet use continue to indicate the existence of an age-based digital divide. In 2011, 41% of adults aged 65 and over were Internet users, as compared to 74% of those aged 50–64, 87% of those aged 30–49, and 94% of those aged 18–29 (Pew Internet, 2011). These distinctions become greater when comparing the use of the Internet for specific functions such as searching product information and purchasing products online, ranked as the top 4–6 online activities performed by the American population as a whole (Pew Internet, 2009). Findings from the Pew Survey from September 2007 revealed that only 23% of Internet users 50–64 years old and 6% of Internet users 65 years old and older, have ever made an online purchase (Horrigan, 2008). This report revealed that attitudes towards online shopping do differ by age and that consumers over 50 years of age perceive the online shopping process to be more complicated, time-consuming, and less convenient than those under the age of 50, which may be an important deterrent to their adoption of online shopping (Horrigan, 2008). Due to the complexity of the online purchasing process, older users face barriers in adopting online shopping although access to goods and services online becomes critical as out-of-home mobility declines with age (McMellon & Schiffman, 2000).
This paper presents two studies. Study 1 inductively investigates and explains current barriers to the adoption of online shopping among the older population, and Study 2 puts forth a novel approach to address these barriers through the evaluation of a virtual agent serving both search and navigational/procedural support on a retail interface. In spite of the growing evidence documenting the merits of virtual agents in e-learning environments, there is a lack of research on how virtual agents can benefit older users and increase their adoption of specific e-commerce applications such as retail Web sites. This study proposes and tests a conceptual model that delineates the effects of virtual agents in an online store on the main barriers to online shopping among older users.
Section snippets
Study 1
In Study 1, focus group interviews (FGIs) were employed in answering the research question “What factors inhibit the adoption of online shopping among older users?”
Study 2
The goal of Study 2 was to test whether virtual agents in an online retail interface can address barriers identified through Study 1. Specifically, the scope of Study 2 is limited to the first three barriers (perceived risks, trust, and social support) that are conceptually related. The main thesis of Study 2 is that (1) social presence through virtual agents in an online store will enhance older users’ perceptions of social support from the online store; (2) this enhanced perceived social
Discussion
The two-phased approach employed in Studies 1 and 2 allowed for the systematic investigation of factors that influenced older users’ adoption of online shopping, using both inductive qualitative and deductive quantitative methods. Through FGIs, Study 1 revealed six main barriers to online shopping adoption among older users, which were further differentiated into specific dimensions. The broad categories included perceived risk barriers, trust barriers, social support barriers, familiarity
Implications
Employing a combination of inductive and deductive approaches, this study helps to create an in-depth understanding of the problems older users face in adopting online shopping, and how virtual agents in retail Web sites can benefit older users by alleviating some of the barriers experienced. This study examines the theory behind a new model for trust building and online retail patronage among older users, by specifying the perceived social support-trust-perceived risk linkage that enhances
Acknowledgments
This material is based in part upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number IIS-0955763. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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