Modelling Fashion Consumer Emotional and Behavioural Responses to Product Presentation Technology on Multi-Modal Mobile Devices

Abstract

Due to a lack of physical interaction with products during online shopping, visual and verbal cues are essential in acquiring detailed product information. Literature demonstrates static and dynamic product presentation for online fashion goods can facilitate decision- making and mitigate perceived product risk as well as online returns (Park et al., 2005; De et al., 2013). While there is extant e-commerce research that confirms a high level of this cue positively influences consumer behaviour, there is limited research from a m- commerce perspective. Applicability to the m-commerce platform may be unsuitable given the differences in screen size and interface (Kahn, 2017) as well as growing consumer shifts towards m- commerce (Faulds et al., 2018). As a result of these differences, understanding the impact on consumers' cognitive processing can reveal useful insights (Kahn, 2017; Sohn, 2017b). Fluency theory has been explored in e-commerce research to determine the influence of atmospheric cues on the ease of processing stimuli (Mosteller et al., 2014; Im et al., 2010; Wu et al., 2016). To determine the influence of fashion product presentation towards m- commerce, the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework with fluency theory was employed. To evaluate the influence of online fashion product presentation on consumers' cognitive, affective and behavioural outcomes when shopping on a mobile device, a two-phase mixed-methods approach was adopted. For the first phase, two online surveys were conducted with the same questions, but based on m-commerce fashion sites that differed in product presentation levels (i.e. low vs high). For the second phase, a 2 (level of product presentation) x 2 (product type) between-subject eye tracking study was employed alongside a survey and interview to understand the influence of product presentation on visual attention, perceptual fluency and purchase intentions as well as consumer perceptions and attitudes. Findings were converged to assess and explain behavioural differences towards fashion product presentation. By analysing visualisation strategies adopted by online fashion retailers in the UK, this study has particular relevance towards the current use of static and dynamic imagery on the m-commerce platform. Findings contribute to a growing body of literature on product presentation, m-commerce atmospheric cues and perceptual processing during online shopping.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2019
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Delia Vazquez (Supervisor) & Patsy Perry (Supervisor)