Pattern Of Online Customers' Behavior

Online consumer behavioral research is of high concern for academic scholars and practitioners globally. Examining the wide use of online consumption there is a large devotion of attention given towards online consumption patters, specifically how to attract consumers is a focal point that online entrepreneurs deal with today. This study examines the processing of online shopping information and its effect on consumer decision based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) Theory. We provided a new perspective to design reputable systems for online shopping sites and developed a foundation for managing marketing campaigns for online marketers.This study systematically examined the processing of online information and online decision-making by case study, semi-structured interview, and laboratory experiment. This study was developed in four stages:Research 1:Case study for online shopping information and new ventures. In this study, the researchers collected data from e-commerce websites in Mainland China to examine the e-market situational factors with a strong focus on the content and format of various online shopping information. The results show that there were several formats of online shopping information,which mainly are product introductions and online vendors reputation messages. The product introductions usually deal with two different schemes:the central argument and the peripheral cues. The reputation messages are usually fulfilled by the use of a ranking system. Among today's online shops, mainly new ventures posses a relatively low reputation and level of constomer's trust.Research 2:Interview analysis for the online consumers' decision-making process. During this section of research a semi-structured interview and coding analysis for 25 online consumers were conducted to analyze the characteristics of online consumers' psychometric and behavioral determinates. The key factors that influence decision-making were also analyzed. We developed a consumer online vendor selection process model where online information reviewing contains high importance. Moreover, we found that consumers relied on vendors' reputation, former purchasing experience, and the communication with the vendor in order to build a trust basis for consumption decisions.Research 3:Analysis for the online consumers' explicit attitudes. Laboratory experiments and simulated online shopping scenarios were adapted to study how the explicit attitudes are influenced when consumers face different online information. 160 subjects took part in the experiment. The results showed that overall, strong arguments bring more positive explicit attitudes. Moreover, task involvement and the product introductions have an interaction effect on explicit attitudes. For high-involvement task, customers become more sensitive to the persuasive quality of product introduction, and the difference of argument strength creates a gap between positive and negative explicit attitudes.Research 4:Analysis for the online consumers' implicit attitudes. We simulated online shopping scenario by developing questionnaires to discuss the relations amongst consumers' implicit attitudes, task involvement, product introduction, and online trust.160 subjects took part in the experiment. The results showed that both strong arguments of introduction and high-level online trust lead to more positive implicit attitudes. Meanwhile, task involvement and the product introductions have an interaction effect on explicit attitudes. Task involvement and the online trust also have an interaction effect. For high-involvement task, online trust is a normal factor considered by customer, while for low-involvement task, trust becomes more important and perceived as peripheral cues by customers.In conclusion, product information and online trust are vital factors that directly influence online consumer decision-making. Task involvement, product introduction, and online trust have an effect on customers' explicit and implicit attitudes. We conclude that online information and trust act through different processing routes when customers' makes decisions. When the likelihood of elaboration is high, the central route is utilized. Otherwise, online customer prefers the peripheral route. For high-involvement task, consumers choose the central route to elaborate information, and carefully consider the product rather than the level of trust. For low-involvement task, consumers adapt to the peripheral route to perceive product information and rely on trust as a peripheral cue for decision-making.We believe that during e-commerce transactions with a new venture, the key to retain customers is to provide better products and service. Limiting the low-trust effect, entrepreneurs should choose higher involvement goods to minimize the likelihood of trust considerations and maximize likelihood of product information elaboration.