Web-Store Aesthetics in E- Retailing: A Conceptual Framework and Some Theoretical Implications

Academy of Marketing Science Review,  2007  by Tractinsky, Noam,  Lowengart, Oded

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Web-Store Aesthetics in E- Retailing: A Conceptual Framework and Some Theoretical l Implications

INTRODUCTION

The introduction of e-commerce "is the most wide-ranging and significant area of current development in marketing" (Barwise, Elberse, and Hammond 2002). Thanks to the power of telecommunications and information technologies, consumers can now access information about vendors more easily than ever before. Moreover, new software tools make it easy for consumers to compare and assess the quality, image, and price of products. The result of this might be the shrinking of the already diminishing profits of today's vendors (Berthon, Holbrook, and Hulbert 2000). The crowded field of competitors in B2C e-commerce indicates that achieving long-term success in Web retailing requires e-vendors to adhere to traditional economic and marketing principles and apply traditional marketing strategies.

These trends increase the importance of how potential consumers view Web-stores. Previous studies have indicated that design decisions made by the retailer influence consumer perceptions of the retailer and their intentions to shop at those sites (Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky 1999; Zhang and von Dran 2000). Yet, while there is now a growing body of research on consumer behavior in electronic retail settings, little research has been done to date on the specific question of why consumers prefer one Web-based retailer over a competing retailer. In addition, answers to this question depend upon the type of products sought (Tractinsky and Lowengart 2003). Thus, consumers weigh various store attributes differently when shopping for low- or high-risk products (Jarvenpaa et al. 2000; Lowengart and Tractinsky 2001). Consumers also weigh design attributes of Web-stores differently, depending on the type of product or service offered by those sites Zhang et al. (2001).

One such Web-store attribute is the aesthetic design. Over the years, the term "aesthetics" has been defined and used differently in various domains of inquiry (cf. Lavie and Tractinsky 2004; Schmitt and Simonson 1997). While the term covers a broad range of phenomena, in this paper we refer to aesthetics in its narrow (yet common) sense as "an artistically beautiful or pleasing appearance" (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language), or as "a pleasing appearance or effect: Beauty" (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary). In other words, in this paper the terms "aesthetics" and "beauty" are interchangeable. We further clarify our position by considering the following potential distinctions. Firstly, an important debate in the study of aesthetics relates to the question of whether aesthetics is an attribute of the object or is perceived subjectively by the observer (cf Porteous 1996). In this manuscript we adopt the subjective approach to the study of beauty. Still, as various studies have demonstrated, there is often a wide agreement among observers regarding what constitutes an aesthetic object (e.g., Tractinsky 1997; Veryzer and Hutchinson 1998). Secondly, aesthetic evaluations of an artifact can be both (a) made in strictly perceptual terms and (b) mediated by cognitive evaluation of the artifact's appearance (e.g., Lindgaard and Whitfield 2004). Here we refer to the design properties that create appearance, such as proportion, color, shape, and size (Bloch et al. 2003), which we distinguish from concepts such as symbolism (Rafaeli and Vilnai-Yavetz 2004; Tractinsky and Zmiri 2006), identity, or image (Schroeder 2006) that relate more to the artifact's meaning or to the elicited associations. The distinction between the meaning of aesthetics in this paper and other potential interpretations is depicted in Figure 1.

The importance of beauty has been recognized since antiquity. For example, Vitruvius, the first systematic theoretician of architecture (first century BC), counted beauty among architecture's three basic requirements (Kruft 1994). Modern social science has established the importance of aesthetics in everyday life. In a seminal paper, Dion, Berscheid, and Walster (1972) demonstrated that a person's physical appearance influences other aspects of the social interaction. People are affected by the aesthetics of nature and of the environment (e.g., Nasar 1988; Porteous 1996; Schroeder 2002) as well as the aesthetics of artifacts (Coates 2003; Norman 2004; Postrel 2002).Major headings should be bold, capitalized and centered.

Figure 1

Meaning of "aesthetics" in this paper. Our definition follows the trail to the right, which is distinguished from potential interpretations on the left-hand side.

The design of Web stores should also take aesthetic considerations into account. The Internet has emerged as a potent shopping channel in recent years. Furthermore, Internet shopping outlets are also becoming entertainment and stimulation centers. In this context, we are interested in two main questions regarding the Internet store: (a) Do the aesthetic qualities of a Web-based store matter in terms of consumer behavior in Web shopping? (b) How do aesthetic aspects of Web-based stores interact with different characteristics of products, stores and consumers? Based on integration of findings and theories from various disciplines, we argue for a positive answer to the former question and offer research propositions towards understanding the latter question.