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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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Proposition 4: The aesthetics of a Web store are more important for experience quality products than for search quality products.

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The product's durability is another attribute that moderates the effect of Web-store aesthetics on consumer behavior. Because performance and longevity are central attributes of durable products, issues of credibility, reliability, and quality in general are more important for this type of products than for nondurable ones. Because these attributes are difficult to assess in advance, aesthetics as well as other surrogate attributes are used to evaluate the quality of durable goods (e.g., Brucks, Zeithaml, and Naylor 2000; Chang, Burns, and Noel 1996). In Creusen and Schoormans' (2005) words, "aesthetic value often will be important to consumers for durable products, as these products are often used for many years and are visible in consumer's homes or to other people" (p. 75). As suggested above, aesthetic design may serve as a cue or even as an argument that the store is operated by competent professionals. Thus, because of the greater sensitivity to aesthetic cues in durable goods shopping, we expect that consumers shopping for durable goods will be more affected by this cue In the context of online shopping than consumers buying nondurable goods.

Proposition 5: Aesthetic design is more important for Web stores selling durable products than for Web stores selling nondurable products.

The analyses of the importance of aesthetics given different product characteristics are integrated in Figure 4. The importance of aesthetic design increases for durable (vs. nondurable) products, for hedonic (vs. utilitarian) products, and for experience (vs. search) goods. The longer interval on the hedonic-utilitarian continuum illustrates that the variance in the role of aesthetic design for this characteristic is larger than on the experience-search continuum. The figure's cells include examples of products in various combinations of product characteristics categories.

Figure 4

Importance of Aesthetic Web-site Design Given Product Characteristics

Finally, a distinction between specialty, shopping, and convenience products can be drawn based on the amount of effort consumers will place on comparing products for better fit to their needs or their price. For example, consumers are less likely to engage in elaborated decision processes when shopping for convenience products (e.g. a box of tissues). At the other end of the continuum, consumers are likely to elaborate more regarding the purchase of specialty goods (e.g., a high-end home theater system). In between these two types of products lies a range of shopping goods.

Because the degree of elaboration decreases along the continuum from the specialty to the convenience goods, we expect the influence of aesthetic design to vary accordingly. For convenience goods, aesthetics may be used as a peripheral cue to influence purchase decisions positively. However, this effect may diminish due to the fact that for this type of goods, aesthetic considerations may be less relevant. For specialty goods, the effects of aesthetics may resemble those of the high-involvement condition, as postulated by the ELM, with the additional qualification that, in general, aesthetics appear to be relevant to specialty goods. Thus, if consumers are engaged in highly elaborated decision processes when shopping for specialty goods, Web-store aesthetics will likely serve as an argument, which strengthens the persuasive message of the store.

Advertising Industry

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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