Optimizing customer engagement content strategy in retail and E-tail: Available on online product review videos

The present study attempts to examine how the various emotions expressed in customer engagement content available on online product review videos reflect purchase intentions. The study identified 97 popular review videos of different technical products on YouTube, with a total of 93,181 comments posted between January 2018 and June 2021. After filtering, the final set of data consisted of 18,452 comments. The paper employed both Poisson and negative binomial regression to test the hypotheses and strengthen the findings. The study explores new insights for predicting purchase intentions of potential customers with the help of a four-factor model based on customer engagement content available on online product review videos. Thus, this research supports the applicability of MRT, CET and SOR theories in the existing literature on retailing and e-tailing by developing a four-factor model. A wide range of consumer responses, both quantitative and qualitative, have been taken into account to predict purchase intentions using sentiment analysis, which makes this study unique and robust. Additionally, the paper entails several significant managerial implications for retailing and e-tailing firms to reformulate their marketing strategies.     

Do Vendor Cues Influence Purchase Intention of Online Shoppers? An Empirical Study Using S-O-R Framework

The purpose of the current research is to understand the influence of vendor cues like brand reputation. Brand familiarity and offline presence on trust and attitude of online shoppers and consequently on online purchase intention. Data was collected through a web based survey. The findings of the study reported that vendor offline cues have a strong and positive impact on the online purchase intentions of the shoppers. Further, this study also contributed by proving that the trust has a strong relationship with purchase intention as compare to attitude.     

Celebrity endorsement: How celebrity–brand–user personality congruence affects brand attitude and purchase intention

The present study provides and tests a conceptual framework aimed at comparing the relative effectiveness of celebrity–user, brand–celebrity, and user–brand personality congruence on brand attitude and brand purchase intention (BPI) thereafter. The data collection was done via an online survey of a representative group of consumers (n = 431) located across India. Hypotheses were tested using regression analysis with mediation approach. The results indicate that while user–brand and brand–celebrity personality congruence have a significant impact on brand attitude and purchase intention, celebrity–user congruence does not. Further, brand attitude is found to be a partial mediator on the relationship between the pair-wise personality congruence on BPI. The findings have major implications for marketers in understanding the significance of personality congruence among celebrity–brand–user in the formation of brand attitude and purchase intention that can be used in positioning and in increasing the advertising effectiveness of brands using celebrity endorsement. The present study is a pioneer in contributing to the celebrity endorsement literature by investigating the relative impact of three pairs of personality congruence: celebrity–brand, brand–user, and celebrity–user, on brand attitude and BPI, thereby supporting the applicability of McCracken's Meaning Transfer Model [McCracken (1989), The Journal of Consumer Research, 16 (3) 310–321) and the Hierarchy-of-effects model (Lavidge and Steiner (1961), Journal of Marketing, 25 (6) 59–62].     

The role of product brand image and online store image on perceived risks and online purchase intentions for apparel

Purchase intentions for apparel products often require physical examination prior to purchase. Hence, greater risk is associated with shopping online for apparel products, making it important to examine factors that reduce various risks influencing online purchase intentions. This study examines and compares the impact of two of the most important risk reducers for online apparel shopping – product brand image and online store image – on specific types of perceived risks and online purchase intentions for apparel. The results show that product brand image influences consumers' online purchase intentions both directly and indirectly by reducing various risk perceptions. Online store image impacts purchase intentions indirectly by decreasing risk perceptions. The results of this study provide fresh insight into understanding the impact of product brand image and online store image on each type of perceived risk associated with online shopping.     

Investigating the impact of shopper personality on behaviour in immersive Virtual Reality store environments

The increasing availability of immersive Virtual Reality (VR) hardware in private households has opened up significant opportunities for innovations in online retailing. Online retailers can develop realistic, albeit simulated, three-dimensional retail environments that use immersive elements to create a more exciting online shopping experience. Nevertheless, to date, very little is known about how observed shopper behaviour in immersive VR store environments compares to existing knowledge in the physical or other online retail research literature. To that end, this paper focuses on human personality traits and whether these translate to familiar observations of in-store shopper behaviour. Specifically, the research examined the ‘Big Five’ personality traits – agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience, and their impact on purchase behaviours such as product inspection time, proportion of private label purchases, and impulsive buying. It is further investigated how the purchase behaviours impact the outcomes of the shopping trip. The results revealed a variety of expected relationships between purchase metrics and the outcomes of the shopping trip; however, in stark contrast to the findings of extant studies, shopper personality did not show any impacts on the investigated purchase behaviours. Further research is needed to determine whether this failure to replicate past studies of shopper personality was, in fact, due to differences in the store environment or rather due to the moving from survey-based method of shopper data collection to naturalistic observation. Nonetheless, this finding has important implications for e-retailing strategies and market research practices.     

The Effectiveness of Branded Mobile Phone Apps

Mobile phone applications (“apps”) have generated substantial interest among marketers, primarily because of their high level of user engagement and the positive impact this presumably has on a user's attitude toward the sponsoring brand. This study utilized a pre-test/post-test experimental design to determine whether using popular mobile phone apps affects brand attitude and brand purchase intention. The results show that using these apps has a positive persuasive impact, increasing interest in the brand and also the brand's product category. The relevance of the product category makes no difference, but apps with an informational/user-centered style were more effective at shifting purchase intention, most likely because this style focuses attention on the user, and therefore encourages making personal connections with the brand. Experiential game-like apps were less successful, because they focus attention on the phone. These results suggest that understanding how to maximize the impact of mobile phone apps will be a key topic for future research.     

The impact of brand equity on brand preference and purchase intentions in the service industries

The antecedents of brand equity are considered to be brand attitude and brand image, and the consequences of brand equity are considered to be brand preference and purchase intentions. This study concentrates on service brands, selecting 18 from 3 service categories. A structural equation model is presented. Not only does it show a good fit with the research constructs but also the relationships between brand image and brand equity, and brand attitude and brand equity. The impact of brand equity on customer preference and purchase intentions is confirmed as well, which tends to validate the proposed research framework.     

Beyond brand attitude: Individual drivers of purchase for symbolic cobranded products

Cobranding, or the use of two brand names on a single product, generally coincides with higher purchase intentions. Prior research focuses on ingredient co-branding and suggests that attitude toward both the primary and the secondary brands and congruence between the brands are important drivers of cobranded products' success. This research shows that self-congruity with the secondary brand and need for uniqueness have significant positive impacts on symbolic co-branding purchase, in addition to perceived congruence and attitude toward the primary brand. In contrast, attitude toward the secondary brand does not relate to purchase of symbolic cobranded products. Therefore, managers should rely on self-congruity, instead of attitude toward the secondary brand, when choosing a partner for symbolic cobranded products. Moreover, product category involvement enhances the impact of self-congruity on purchase intent.     

Measuring the impact of brand-celebrity personality congruence on purchase intention

The present study aims to understand the impact of congruence between brand and celebrity personality on consumers attitude and purchase intentions. The data were collected from 382 business school students in India. Drawing from the theoretical frameworks of Attribution theory, Attitude theory, User imagery, Elaboration Likelihood Model, and match-up hypothesis, results reveals that congruence between celebrity and brand personality positively impacts the brand recall, brand associations, and reinforces the brand personality. Which favorably and significantly impacted attitude toward the advertisement and brand. Attitude toward brand has positively impacted purchase intention. ‘Brand personality self-image congruence’ and ‘involvement level with the brand’ were found to moderate the impact of brand association and brand personality reinforcement on attitude toward advertisements and brand. The paper provides practical implications for the advertisement agencies and media managers.     

The Hare and the Tortoise: Do Earlier Adopters of Online Channels Purchase More?

Earlier adopters of a product or service tend to be more valuable than later adopters. Does this empirical generalization equally apply to earlier adopters of a multichannel retailer's new online channel too? This study segments customers on the basis of their responses to a new online channel and investigates the effects of their online channel adoption on purchase volumes across segments. The data cover 12.5 years of purchase history and individual transactions at a large multichannel French retailer of natural health products. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it is not innovators or early adopters, but rather the late majority segment that purchases more than the other segments, both before and after online adoption. Adoption of the firm's new online channel does not influence purchase volumes of heavy shopper segments (late majority and innovators), whereas light shopper segments tend to increase their purchases after adopting this new channel.     

Conveying Trustworthiness to Online Consumers: Reactions to Consensus, Physical Store Presence, Brand Familiarity, and Generalized Suspicion

Etailers have been losing market share to brick and mortar retailers that also sell products online. Two related studies investigate means by which etailers can convey trustworthiness to consumers and thereby increase purchase intentions relative to hybrid firms. Study 1 examines whether consensus information (i.e., the extent of satisfaction agreement among previous customers) and brand familiarity exert independent or interactive effects on consumer perceptions across retailers that possess, or lack, a physical presence. Study 2 tests a potential boundary condition of the effects of consensus information and brand familiarity by introducing generalized suspicion, which is a common condition for online buyers. Results suggest that consensus information provides a broad cue that conveys trustworthiness and leads to greater purchase intentions for both familiar and unfamiliar brands, as well as hybrid and etailer firms. In comparison, the effects of physical presence and brand familiarity were somewhat narrower in scope. However, we find that consensus information alone is not sufficient to buffer against active, generalized suspicions online. Instead, a combination of high consensus and brand familiarity is necessary for this purpose. The paper concludes with recommendations on how etailers can convey trustworthiness in online exchanges and how future research can build upon these findings.     

A comparison of online and offline gender and goal directed shopping online

The aim of this paper is to model the effect of the consumers’ perceptions of their offline and online gendered behaviour on online utilitarian shopping motivation and purchase intentions. We hypothesise that when consumers shop online, their behaviour is mediated by two gendered behaviours, namely offline and online. To test this hypothesis, 515 usable responses were collected in face-to-face interviews. The conceptual model was tested with confirmatory factors analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) across five product categories. Our findings show that the effect of a consumer's perception of their gendered behaviour offline vs. online on online utilitarian shopping motivation and purchase intentions is significantly different. In particular we found that utilitarian shopping motivation online has a significant effect on purchase intentions online mediated by gender (online) overall: strongly for females but not for males. Conversely, utilitarian shopping motivation online has a significant effect on purchase intentions online mediated by gender (offline) for males but not overall and for females.     

Drivers of consumer adoption of e-Commerce: A meta-analysis

E-commerce has significantly reshaped consumers’ shopping processes and habits. The need to understand the key drivers of online shopping has received keen attention and fueled a rich strand of studies. To help managers and researchers synthesize this growing body of evidence, we conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis to unearth the factors that influence consumers’ online shopping. Our main takeaways reveal that the most important drivers of online shopping (a) conform to the TAM and TPB theories, in addition to (b) website characteristics and past experience. In particular, the multiple predictors are strongly related to online purchase intentions and purchase behavior, where attitude and convenience show the strongest impact. Furthermore, moderator analyses indicate that cultural traits have specific moderating effects on the links between purchase intention and some of its drivers. For instance, power distance and uncertainty avoidance have a positive effect, while individualism, indulgence and masculinity have a negative one. Finally, we apply meta-analytic structural equation modeling to test a conceptual framework including four groups of drivers (consumer–channel interactions, website characteristics, social influence, and consumer characteristics) and different aspects of online shopping. The findings provide valuable insights for online shopping research and practice.     

Exploring Brand Personality–Celebrity Endorser Personality Congruence in Celebrity Endorsements in the Indian Context

The objective of the research reported in this paper was to develop and test a model of brand personality–celebrity endorser personality congruence and its impact on consumers’ attitudes and intentions. In particular, the study drew on social adaptation and attribution theories to develop hypotheses related to the impact of this congruence on consumers’ perceptions of endorser credibility and suitability, and the subsequent impact of these perceptions on consumers’ attitudes and intentions. The study was motivated by recent attention being paid to the importance of personality in choosing celebrities for product endorsements and the fact that the brand personality–celebrity endorser personality congruence has not been explored before. The model was tested based on data obtained from a sample of participants in India. Results from path analyses indicated a positive and significant impact of personality‐based congruence on endorser credibility and suitability, which, in turn, positively and significantly impacted ad believability. Ad believability in turn significantly impacted attitude toward the ad, which had a significant impact on brand attitude and purchase intentions. Research and managerial implications are discussed, as are directions for future research.     

Involvement,Tolerance for Ambiguity,and Type of Service Moderate the Effectiveness of Probability Marker Usage in Service Advertising

Results of two experiments reveal that the use of probability markers in advertisements affects brand attitude and purchase intentions, and that this is moderated by the type of service, customers’ involvement, and their level of tolerance for ambiguity. Services in the study were classified as more or less hedonic/utilitarian, and more or less involving. Probability markers affect consumers’ brand attitude and purchase intentions for less-involving services, while this effect is not significant for more-involving services. In addition, higher tolerance for ambiguity results in preference of hedges over pledges or no probability markers, while for consumers with lower tolerance for ambiguity the opposite holds. With regards to service type, for more-hedonic, less-involving services the use of hedges in advertising copy increases brand attitude and purchase intentions, while for more-utilitarian, less-involving services pledges result in highest levels of brand attitude and purchase intentions.     

Measurement of factors influencing online shopper buying decisions: A scale development and validation

The paper attempts to develop an ‘Online Susceptibility Scale’ (OSS) by focusing on the factors that influence shopper buying decisions in an online environment as they are not adequately addressed in the literature. The proposed scale supports the understanding of the impact of online information which leads to consumer decisions. The study involves qualitative and quantitative studies to develop the scale. Eleven items are identified for the scale development which were borrowed from literature and modified through focus group discussions. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) resulted in three factor groups: Evidential online influence (five items), Confirmational online influence (three items), and Experiential online influence (three items). Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) has validated the factor structure. Results indicate that the three factors explaining online information sources have a significant impact during buyer purchase decision-making. The study relates ‘Online Susceptibility Scale’ (OSS) to online retailers for exploring the online shopping influences, thereby managing their campaigns accordingly. Managerial and theoretical implications of this new scale are discussed.     

The Effects of Credible Online Reviews on Brand Equity Dimensions and Its Consequence on Consumer Behavior

Consumers are using social media platform to gain and share knowledge on brands. In the virtual environment, consumers are exposed to various online reviews on brands that leave an impression of brands on the minds of the consumers. The present study combines Yale attitude change model and attribution theory to examine the effects of credible online reviews on brand equity dimensions. The present study views, through the lens of Yale attitude change model, the various factors that affect credibility evaluation of online reviews. Further, attribution theory is used as the theoretical backbone to analyze the effects of credible online reviews on brand equity dimensions and finally on purchase intention. This study uses structural equations modeling (SEM) to investigate the impact of online credible reviews on customer based brand equity (CBBE) dimensions and its consequence on consumer behavior (purchase intention). Results indicate that source and review quality are the most important factors that affect consumer's credibility evaluation of a review. Online credible reviews have more significant impact on brand awareness, perceived value and organizational associations and thus leads to consumer's purchase intention in the context of consumer electronic products in India.     

Children and advergames: the role of product involvement,prior brand attitude,persuasion knowledge and game attitude in purchase intentions and changing attitudes

The central aim of this study is to build upon previous research by investigating the role of product involvement, prior brand attitude, persuasion knowledge and game attitude in the brand attitude changes and purchase intentions of children after playing an advergame. In all, 279 respondents between the ages of 10 and 12 years participated in the study. First, they were asked to complete a pre-test survey addressing product involvement and prior brand attitude towards several products and brands. Two weeks later, the respondents were asked to play an advergame and complete a survey addressing brand attitude, purchase intention, persuasion knowledge and attitude towards the game. Our analysis reveals that a positive attitude change is more likely when the game player has already evaluated the brand positively. Furthermore, game attitude is positively related to attitude changes towards the advertised brands, consistent with affect transfer theory. Counterintuitively, a higher level of persuasion knowledge is associated with a higher intention to buy the advertised product. Finally, children who had a more positive attitude towards the game were more likely to report higher purchase intentions, indicating that games which provide good experiences positively influence behavioural intentions. We conclude the paper by discussing the study's limitations and suggestions for future research.     

Checkout button and online consumer impulse-buying behavior in social commerce: A trust transfer perspective

To enhance social media users' shopping experiences, social media platforms launched an online shopping feature – the checkout button –allowing users to browse new products, examine items via multiple photos and videos, and purchase items without leaving the platform. Yet, few studies have examined the impacts of the ‘checkout button’ on social commerce users' perceptions and impulse-buying behaviors. Thus, this study seeks to investigate the impact of the ‘checkout button’ on consumers' trust and impulse-buying behavior based on the trust transfer theory, as well as how the impact will differ based on social factors and brand familiarity in social commerce. This study provides valuable insights into social commerce. Checkout within Instagram does not facilitate impulse-buying behavior, but brand familiarity and social factors influence consumer trust and impulse-buying intention. This indicates that well-known brands might be more suitable for social commerce. Furthermore, active social interaction is conducive to impulse-buying intentions in social commerce.     

Need-for-touch and online purchase propensity: A comparative study of Portuguese and Chinese consumers

This study analyses the impact of Need-for-Touch (NFT) on online purchase propensity by evaluating the influence of the consumer's country of origin. Although NFT has been a major topic of research over the past years, the link between NFT and purchase propensity has rarely been empirically proven. For assessing the relationship an online questionnaire was made available in Portugal and China. A total of 295 complete responses were obtained and the data studied through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, namely multivariate analysis of variance and structural equation modeling using AMOS. The results indicate that the consumer's country of origin seems to affect the relevance of the sense of touch for apparel. Consumers with high levels of NFT are more likely to engage in additional brand touchpoints and consequently having stronger brand experiences. The impact of perceived information credibility and brand experience on the perceived product quality influences the propensity to search and to purchase online. Consumer NFT was shown having no direct influence on online purchase propensity but instead is mediated by other variables such as brand experience and the online research propensity. This study is innovative by comparing the NFT between two very different cultures and by providing insights on the relationships between cultural differences and NFT, which could be of great interest for Portuguese companies planning on investing in the Chinese market and vice versa.