E-lifestyles of Indian online shoppers: A scale validation

Online shopping in India is growing at a dramatic rate and marketers are still working on understanding the lifestyles of online shoppers for purpose of segmentation, targeting and promotions. The scales for such requirements developed in other countries may not be apt for use in India. Hence there is a need to develop appropriate scales applicable in the Indian context. By way of review of the previous literature as well as exploratory study through interviews and focus group with online shoppers and experts in the field, the authors develop a pool of items relating to electronic lifestyles, henceforth called e-lifestyles of Indian online shoppers. Further using exploratory as well as confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and validity of the scale is confirmed and a six factor scale consisting of e-enjoyment, e-distrust, e-self-inefficacy, e-logistic concerns, e-negative beliefs and e-offers is developed. The study is a first step towards identifying a more holistic picture of factors that influence Indian online shopper lifestyles or e-lifestyles. The findings of this study can be integrated into marketing and promotional strategies of the web retailers.     

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.     

eTailQ: dimensionalizing, measuring and predicting etail quality

Quality is related to customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty in both product and services settings. Thus, quality is expected to be a determinant of online retailer success as well. Based on online and offline focus groups, a sorting task, and an online survey of a customer panel, the authors establish the dimensions of the etail experience, and develop a reliable and valid scale for the measurement of etail quality. The analysis suggests that four factors—website design, fulfillment/reliability, privacy/security and customer service—are strongly predictive of customer judgments of quality and satisfaction, customer loyalty and attitudes toward the website.     

A model of adolescents' online consumer self-efficacy (OCSE)

This paper investigates adolescent online shopping and self-efficacy development in the virtual setting. The authors present and test a model of antecedents and mediators to two dimensions of online consumer self-efficacy. Additionally, a discriminant analysis finds that more involved adolescent online shoppers can be differentiated from less involved online shoppers on key variables of interest-shopping motivations, self-efficacies, shopping behaviors, and relative influence in household decision-making.     

Identifying the determinants of online retail patronage: A perceived-risk perspective

The literature has examined the determinants of retail patronage from various perspectives, however, its online counterpart has received less attention. This study adapts a perceived-risk perspective to identify the antecedents of online retailers’ service quality and subsequent online patronage behavior. In addition, the contextual role of security concerns is also examined. Data were collected from online shoppers, and PLS-SEM was used for analysis. The results indicate that product quality, price transparency, and website convenience are positively associated with service quality. In addition, security concerns negatively moderate the relationship between service quality and online retail patronage. Implications for research and managers are discussed.     

Explicating the privacy paradox: A qualitative inquiry of online shopping consumers

Online consumers often voice discontent and concern over their privacy and yet fail to take adequate precautions. Nor do they abstain from disclosing information. This study aims to explore this phenomenon which is known as the privacy paradox. Based on semi-structured interviews with online shopping consumers and thematic analysis of data, this paper illuminates the privacy paradox using three themes: psychological distance of privacy, perceived social contracts of privacy, and learned helplessness and privacy empowerment. Our findings contribute to the privacy paradox discourse and provide several implications for consumers, online retailers, and policymakers.     

Service quality in airport hotel chains through the lens of online reviewers

Airport hotel chains target the specific and important segment of accommodation near airports, thus benefiting from travelers seeking to stay near an airport. This study addresses service quality by analyzing TripAdvisor online reviews over units from both a high-end and a low-end chain in five European cities (Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Paris). Using text mining and topic modeling, ten heat matrices were drawn (one per unit) to summarize the main services characterizing the computed topics. Seven hypotheses grounded on existing literature were tested, from which some interesting findings emerged (e.g., related to transfer services, staff, food and beverage, cleanliness, and punctuality). This study contributes to the standardization versus adaptation debate by unveiling a globalized strategy in staff management and breakfast services, while bar services adopt a localized strategy. Transportation services, while not offered by the hotels, are frequently mentioned, which signals hoteliers to interact with local authorities to improve accessibilities.     

Measuring experienced emotions during service recovery encounters: construction and assessment of the ESRE scale

The role of emotions is increasingly gaining attention as a central element in understanding customer evaluations of service failure and recovery experiences. Despite the importance of emotions for service organizations, however, empirical investigations of customers’ emotional response to service recovery encounters remain scarce. A reason for this has been the absence of a valid and reliable measurement instrument for analyzing and comparing the emotions associated with different recovery experiences. Addressing this issue, the current paper presents the development and validation of a new scale specifically designed to measure experienced emotions during service recovery encounters (ESRE). The results show that the ESRE scale is a valid and reliable instrument, which should be helpful for empirically studying the role of emotional responses to service failure and recovery encounters.

Developing a framework to improve virtual shopping in digital malls with intelligent self-service systems

Growing movements to urban places, increasing unemployment, decreasing buying power, rising real estate cost and demanding consumers for convenience and price are creating challenges for retailers. This paper reviews a sample list of retail channels, and proposes a systematic framework for conceptualizing the data-driven, and mobile- and cloud-enabled intelligent self-service systems to improve virtual shopping. With adoption of intelligent self-service systems, – more service oriented, more instrumented (from sensors to smart phones for monitoring consumers׳ behaviors), interconnected (patterns of interactions), and intelligent (algorithms help recognize patterns) – retail organizations can provide more cost effective quality retail service experiences to consumers.     

Business at the fingertips of consumers: a scale for measuring resale motivations in online settings

Our current understanding of what motivates consumers to resell second-hand products online is limited. This article lays out the development and validation of an online resale motivation (ORM) scale based on three studies involving 1119 respondents. Study 1 presents the ORM scale development process and the resulting multidimensional construct, including the protester, economic, generative, recreational, practical and social facets of motivation. Study 2 replicates the scale and investigates its predictive value, demonstrating that the ORM scale successfully predicts online resale frequency. Study 3 examines the mediating role of ORM on the relationship between planned resale intentions and online resale behaviour. The findings show that there is no direct link between a consumer’s intention to resell an item prior to its purchase and the frequency with which they resell online. Rather, consumers who more frequently resell online items that they acquired with the intention of reselling do so because they perceive positive economic, practical and recreational outcomes associated with online reselling.     

Determinants of online food purchasing: The impact of socio-demographic and situational factors

The amount of food sold online is increasing, but it accounts for a small share of total e-commerce. In this study, we investigate the factors that influence individuals' likelihood to buy food online. Applying a logit model to a sample of 34,488 respondents who participated in the Italian National Institute of Statistics multipurpose survey ‘Aspects of Italian Daily Life’, we explore the effects of socio-demographics and situational factors. We found that the food-online consumer is likely to be a young, well-educated, female, living in a small family, with a very good or adequate overall economic condition. Among situational factors, working time, being obese, having health problems, and practising a sport regularly positively affect the probability to buy food online. Surprisingly, distance from brick-and-mortar stores and car possession are not predictors of online shopping. These findings can support marketers and retailers in defining their marketing strategies and enhance the knowledge of this emerging food market.     

Intra-household task allocation in online grocery shopping: Together alone

This paper explores how households organize the process of e-grocery buying in a click-and-collect context, down to the level of the two main subtasks: the online ordering and the picking-up. Self-collected survey data on 112 users of Belgian click-and-collect services first provide a quantitative perspective. But we primarily exploit in-depth interviews with 15 households. Both our quantitative and qualitative findings indicate that women today are still the main responsible for grocery shopping, even in an online context. Especially the ordering is a woman's task; the collecting is more equally divided across genders. But the key result is that couples exploit the opportunities for further task division provided by e-grocery shopping. In our survey we find that in 72.5% of the couples both partners are involved in the process, but that in roughly three quarters of these cases at least one of the tasks is performed independently. In other words, many couples do it ‘together alone’. Our qualitative analysis further shows that the roles of the partners have become more fixed, in that subtasks are assigned exclusively to one partner. As for the reasons behind the task allocation, we find indications of the relevance of time availability, relative resource, and gender arguments (respectively, the presence of young children, imbalances in educational status and income, and traditional roles), but also of purely pragmatic reasons.     

The fluent online shopping experience

Consumers increasingly use various Internet-enabled devices for online shopping; thus, a critical topic for both research and practice is the visual characteristics of the information presented in this medium. This study builds on fluency theory within an environmental psychology framework. Specifically, this research examines how consumers' perceived fluency of the verbal online information affects their perceived cognitive effort and positive affect within a choice context. The experimental results show that (1) perceptual fluency affects both cognitive effort and positive affect experienced during online shopping and (2) cognitive effort and positive affect influence judgments about the perceived decision quality of the choice made. This research is notable in its simultaneous (as opposed to consecutive) examination of the relationship among the three dimensions of processing fluency (perceptual fluency, positive affect, and cognitive effort) and their impact on consumers' choice satisfaction with an online shopping task.     

U.S. online shopping: Facts,fiction, hopes and dreams

Much online shopping research has been viewed from the seller׳s side, i.e., volume, timing and the like. This paper looks at online shopping/buying from the buyer׳s view. Based on 285,000+ individual responses from an online U.S. panel, the questionnaires, gathered between 2006 and 2013, form the analytical base. Findings include an increase in online shopping volume among a declining customer base. Consumer reported details such as leading online retailers (Amazon.com), online product preferences, comparisons of online and fixed location research and buying scenarios, buying influences and the like are discussed. Managerial implications and suggestions for future research are included.     

Perceived value,transaction cost,and repurchase-intention in online shopping: A relational exchange perspective

This study proposes a framework to understand the impacts of both value-related and transaction cost-related factors on repurchase intention from online shoppers' perspective. In particular, this study defines the construct of cost as a three-component conceptualization (i.e., information searching cost, moral hazard cost, and specific asset investment). Based upon empirical evidence on a survey of 887 online shoppers, this study shows that consumers' perceived value and each cost component are positively related to repurchase intention. Importantly, information searching cost exerts the most significant influence on repurchase intentions among the four relational factors. The result suggests that providing sufficient cues to reduce consumers' information searching cost is the core element of repurchase intention formation. This article closes with theoretical and practical implications.     

Exploring customer sentiment regarding online retail services: A topic-based approach

User-generated content is a valuable source for understanding online shoppers' emotions. Using text-mining techniques, this study identifies seven topics regarding online retail services in online posts: product, retailer promotion, delivery, payment, communication, return/refund, and price. The topics are associated with the sentiment polarity of online shoppers' posts. This study further explores whether the emotional responses from domestic and cross-border online shoppers differ with regard to these topics. The results show that differences exist in these two groups' sentiments concerning product and payment. Furthermore, there are differences in the two groups’ respective negative emotions (i.e., anger, sadness, and fear) concerning delivery, communication, and return/refund. The findings of this study provide online retailers with important managerial implications.     

Designing corporate brand experience in an online context: A qualitative insight

This study explores the dimensions and components of corporate brand experience in an Internet setting. Corporate brand experience (CBE), which is a source of a company's added value, could be an effective way to position a corporate brand in relation to the overall corporate marketing strategy. However, the concept of CBE has attracted very little attention from previous research, thereby our understanding of what the concept is and how to operationalize it is limited. Previous brand experience research is mainly focused on the conceptual understanding of brand experience itself, and/or the product brand level (rather than at corporation level). Understanding CBE is important because corporate brand equity (e.g. corporate image, brand loyalty) is dependent not only on how one is satisfied with the product (mostly addressed by functional/performance values of product), but also through the values of the corporation (corporate brand values). This study thus contributes theoretically to the corporate and online branding literature by proposing underlying new dimensions and components of CBE in an online environment. A series of focus group discussions (FGDs) with 32 online banking respondents informs the study. We identify five main themes and 26 sub-themes of corporate brand experience — corporate visual identity, functionality, emotional, lifestyle and corporate/self-identity. Financial service providers can address these dimensionalities during the process of brand positioning and when designing their corporate marketing in an online setting.     

The effects of 3rd party consensus information on service expectations and online trust

The marketing literature has recently explored a number of ways in which trust can be communicated by Internet retailers, including 3rd party consensus ratings. This paper explores the impact of consensus sequences over time and across high and low ranges, rather than the mere valence of ratings as presented in past research. Second, effects are compared across products with variant levels of risk. Two experiments investigate service quality inferences, expected satisfaction, and trust beliefs for online retailers as outcomes of 3rd party consensus information (i.e., agreement among a firm's past customers). Results indicate that online trust beliefs vary positively with consensus ratings and trust is higher when ratings trends increase rather than decrease. Service quality inferences and expected satisfaction are shown to mediate these relationships. More interestingly, results of study two suggest sequence direction becomes insignificant when ratings do not approach certain range limits (e.g., high, moderate, low cut-offs). Comparisons across products varying in risk show that consensus ratings are more important when consumers evaluate high risk products. Implications for both researchers and practitioners are offered.     

Assessing the Self-service Technology Encounters: Development and Validation of SSTQUAL Scale

Self-service technologies (SSTs) have enhanced the role technology plays in customer interactions with firms, yet instruments that systematically measure the service quality of SSTs from the perspective of customers remain underdeveloped. Based on psychometric scale development approaches, this study conceptualized, constructed, refined, and tested a multiple-item scale that examined key factors influencing SST service quality. Through qualitative and quantitative studies in four separate phases, a 20-item seven-dimension SSTQUAL scale was developed that includes functionality, enjoyment, security, assurance, design, convenience, and customization. The scale demonstrates sound psychometric properties based on findings from various reliability and validity tests as well as vigorous scale replications across industries and consumer traits using several different samples. The utility of the proposed scale is discussed for implications, limitations and future research.     

A cross-country comparison of online deal popularity effect

The paper examines the effect of online deal popularity for service deals in a cross-country context. A 2 (deal popularity: low vs high) X 2 (culture: collectivist vs individualist) quasi experimental design was used to collect data in Australia and Taiwan to examine the consumer reactions toward deal popularity information of service deals on e-retailing websites. Results show consumers' perceived performance and psychological risk mediate the effect of deal popularity on purchase intention both in the Australian and Taiwanese samples. In addition, consumers' reactions towards online popularity information for online service deals do differ across cultures. While high deal popularity increases the Australian consumers' performance and psychological risk perceptions, which in turn lowers their purchase intention, high deal popularity decreases the Taiwanese consumers’ risk perception and enhances their purchase intention. This paper contributes to the broader fields of retailing and services studies by providing insights for online retailers concerning how deal popularity can be leveraged as a means to reduce perceptions of risk for Taiwanese consumers but with caveats for their Australian counterparts. As a first study that examines the effect of online deal popularity for service deals in a cross-country context, it extends the body of knowledge in a fast-changing domain of consumer behavior e-commerce settings.