Bringing Social Presence to Online Shopping through the Web Interface

1. Bringing Social Presence to Online Shopping through the Web Interface Dr. Khaled Hassanein Associate Professor of Information Systems & Director, McMaster eBusiness Research Centre (MeRC) DeGroote School of Business McMaster University Dr. Milena Head Associate Professor of Information Systems & Associate Dean Academic DeGroote School of Business McMaster University METIS Security Seminar Series – March 10, 2006

2. Shopping .. a rich experience

3. Online Shopping …..

4. Online vs. Offline Shopping • Offline shopping: • a wide range of emotions involving various types of social interactions • engages our five senses • Online shopping: • geared towards reducing the user’s cognitive burden through functional and performance based Website design heuristics • engages only 2 of our senses

5. Trust in the Online Environment • Trust is more difficult to build in an online environment because … • different locations • less data control • lower barriers to entry and exit • Perceptions of lower security • lack of physical trust cues • lack of physical evaluation • impersonal, anonymous and automated

6. Social Presence • Social presence (SP) is the extent to which a medium allows users to experience others as being psychologically present • It can also refer to the richness of the media or the interactivity afforded by the media • SP could also be connected to the warmth felt through the medium.… A feeling of human contact .... Sociability .... Sensitivity • Instilling human warmth through: • actual interaction with other humans • stimulating the imagination of interacting with other humans

14. An investigation …. • Varying levels of social presence though text and pictures • Impacts on trust, enjoyment and TAM … and ultimately on attitude

15. Perceived Usefulness Perceived Ease of Use Trust Attitude Enjoyment The Model … Social Presence

16. Low Social Presence

17. Medium Social Presence

18. High Social Presence

19. The Stats …. • Content validity • Constructs drawn from existing validated measures • Construct validity • Convergent validity • Loadings above 0.6; alphas above 0.8; AVE above 0.5 • Discriminant validity • Correlations between items of any two constructs < square root of AVE shared by items within a construct • Manipulation validity • Post-hoc Tukey test confirmed significant differences between groups

20. Perceived Usefulness R2=0.324 Perceived Ease of Use 0.400** 0.247* 0.349** Trust R2=0.138 Attitude R2=0.463 0.372** 0.410** 0.342** 0.193* Enjoyment R2=0.117 The Results … Social Presence n=78

21. “straight forward” “clear” “to the point” Low Social Presence “too plain” “dull and boring” “lacked a personal touch”

22. “fun and imaginative” “interesting” Medium Social Presence “not helpful in assessing what the [product] looks like” “did not help in making a decision”

23. “clothing was masked by all the actions in the pictures” “enjoyed seeing people wearing the clothing and the activities they were taking part in” “appealing” High Social Presence “helped better visualize the product” “gives me ideas on how to dress … in which situations I should wear the clothes”

24. Interesting …. .... but does this vary by product type???

25. Different types of products Visual evaluation Tactile evaluation

26. Product Types according to Burke* • Infrequently purchased durable goods (e.g., appliances, consumer electronics, furniture), • consumers want retailers to provide detailed product information and excellent service; • frequently purchased nondurable goods (e.g., groceries, health items, office supplies) • consumers want to have fast, convenient shopping experiences; • entertainment (e.g., books, toys, games) and apparel goods • consumers want to have fun and entertaining shopping experiences. *Burke, R.R. Technology and the consumer interface: What consumers want in the physical and virtual store. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 30, 4 (2002), 411–432.

27. Low Social Presence

28. Medium Social Presence

29. High Social Presence

30. Perceived Ease of Use Clothing Clothing Clothing Clothing Clothing Clothing Clothing Headphones Headphones Headphones Headphones Headphones Headphones Headphones Comparing across product types … Perceived Usefulness Attitude Trust Social Presence Enjoyment n(Clothing)=78 n(Headphones)=90 Social presence does not appear to have the same impact!

31. Comments …. “cut to the chase without extra fluff!” “easier to view the product when people were not included in the pictures” “pointless … I know how to use headphones” “untrustworthy because it tried too hard to get an emotional response about a technical product” “makes me suspicious” “freaky .... I don’t need to see someone wearing headphones!”

32. Conclusions • Incorporating social presence on commercial Web sites DOES have a significant impact on consumer attitudinal antecedents towards retailing Websites • It’s easy enough to do! • Not all product types will benefit from this approach

33. Future Directions • Study impact of social presence on other product types • Study other methods of introducing social presence on Websites • Does the impact of social presence vary by: • Culture • Gender • Consumer goal

34. Help turn window shoppers into … Windows shoppers! This type of research is important to ….

35. Reference Hassanein, K. & Head, M., (2005/06) “The Impact of Infusing Social Presence in the Web Interface: an Investigation across Different Products”, International Journal of Electronic commerce (IJEC), Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 31–55.

36. Thank you! Khaled Hassanein hassank@mcmaster.ca