Facilitate Flow in the Internet Shopping Yi (Maggie) Guo Arun Sen, Ph. D. April 5 th, 2003

2 Agenda Objectives Introduction of Shopping Experience Literature Review Online Shopping Experience Pilot Study and Result Future Studies

3 Objective Open the black box of online consumer experience

4 Shopping Experience Shopping Experience (SE) is the episodes of interaction between a shopper and retail establishments. Online Shopping Experience (OSE) is the episodes of interaction between a shopper and commercial web sites.

5 Shopping Experience Retailing establishment characteristics Shopping experience (Flow) Outcomes Product/task characteristics Shoppers’ individual characteristics Other situated factors Figure 1. A general model of shopping experience

6 Shopping Experience Components Behavioral activities Cognitive activities Affective activities In-progress responses Flow Descriptive attributes Duration, Breadth, Depth, Intensity

7 Related Theories Consumer Problem Solving Model Cognitive Activities Technology Acceptance Model Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Behavioral Intention, Actual Adoption External variables In-progress responses

8 Related Theories Retail Atmospherics Stimulus – Organism – Responses Emotions: Pleasure – Arousal – Dominance Responses: approach vs. avoidance Flow Theory Preconditions: clear goal, feedback, balance of challenge and skill Effects: concentration, control, time distortion, loss of self, involvement Result: autotelic experience

9 Online Shopping Experience Behavioral activities Navigating, orientating, browsing, viewing product, consulting, purchasing, managing account Cognitive activities Product information comprehension, product information evaluation, Product comparison, purchase decision making, environmental cue perception, environmental cue evaluation Affective activities Negative/positive emotion attribution In-progress responses Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, behavioral intention Flow Interactivity, time distortion, telepresence, concentration, enjoyment

10 Research Design Model Development Literature Review Exploratory study 2 Controlled experiment A N A LY S I S Exploratory Study 1 Experiment preparation Figure 2 Research design

11 Exploratory Study 1 Subjects 7 undergraduate and graduate students Task Shopping list: birthday gift, a bookcase, sportswear Constraint: budget of $150 Web site: target.com Procedure Demo & training session Post-study questionnaire

12 Data Collection Methods Concurrent verbalization: “think aloud” Client-side logging: Mouse movement Back up Data sets Video files for each subject Video cassettes

13 Data Analysis Protocol analysis Transcribing: verbalization and mouse movement Segmenting and coding Coding schema 5 categories: 23 preset rules “I don’t like the site.” – AA-EAN “this bookcase would look nice in my room.” – CA-PIE

14 Preliminary Results Subject Total Behavioral activities Cognitive activities Affective activities In-progress responses Flow sum

15 Conclusion Online shopping experience Consists of actions and responses describes the dynamic, situated experience Limitations Small sample size Verbalization More engaging task

16 Next ? Modeling online consumer behavior Figure 3 Research Model Online Shopping Experience (OSE) Goal fulfillment Return Intentions Site design factor Task factor Web site attitude Flow Other factors

17 Exploratory Study 2 Objectives Repeat exploratory study 1 Try out measurements, procedures, etc. Discovery design factors and task factors Procedures Pre-study questionnaire Group I: concurrent verbalization Group II: experience sampling method Post-study questionnaire Task: a shopping task Incentives: extra credit, cash lottery

18 Controlled Experiment Independent variables Design factors Task factors Mediating variables OSE & Flow Dependent variables Goal fulfillment Return intention Web site attitude Control variables

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