Facilitate Flow in the Internet Shopping

1. Facilitate Flow in the Internet Shopping Yi (Maggie) Guo Arun Sen, Ph. D. April 5th, 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. Shoppers’ individual characteristics Retailing establishment characteristics Shopping experience (Flow) Outcomes Product/task characteristics Other situated factors Figure 1. A general model of shopping experience 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

10. Model Development ANALYS I S Literature Review Exploratory Study 1 Exploratory study 2 Experiment preparation Controlled experiment Figure 2 Research design 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

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

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

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