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The role of website objective sensory features on consumers’ purchase intentions

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In an online context, marketers can only benefit from sensorial marketing by exploiting visual stimuli through objective sensory features (OSF). These play a determining role in the brand-consumer connection, arousing emotions, feelings, and impressions in the consumer's subconscious. For decades, retail brands have been benefiting from sensory marketing to deliver a unique and engaging brand experience and consequently, increase sales. Previous research has shown that the OSF of a website is one of the key dimensions to impact user's emotions and impressions. However, the relationship between OSF and consumer purchase intentions (PI) lacks research. Moreover, the following two dimensions of OSF, picture size (PS) and menu titles and filters (M&FT) that impact the aesthetics of a webpage layout, will enhance the consumers’ response to a retail brand website. Nonetheless, there are still few empirical studies on this area. This dissertation aims to understand the role of OSF in customer PI through the manipulation of two of its dimensions, PS and M&FT, explain the importance of these dimensions in a website and provide guidelines for companies to take advantage of these crucial, relatively unexplored dimensions of OSF. This research was conducted through a random distribution of four questionnaires, representing a different combination of two OSF dimensions, applied to cosmetics online e-commerce. The collected data were analysed through a variance analysis with two factors for repeated measures (Factorial ANOVA) and three linear regressions to validate the hypotheses of the proposed model. The results demonstrate that an “affective website” increases consumers' PI due to the intermediating role of affective responses (AR) and trust. By using positive website’s OSFs through moderate-high stimuli, brands can induce In an online context, marketers can only benefit from sensorial marketing by exploiting visual stimuli through objective sensory features (OSF). These play a determining role in the brand-consumer connection, arousing emotions, feelings, and impressions in the consumer's subconscious. For decades, retail brands have been benefiting from sensory marketing to deliver a unique and engaging brand experience and consequently, increase sales. Previous research has shown that the OSF of a website is one of the key dimensions to impact user's emotions and impressions. However, the relationship between OSF and consumer purchase intentions (PI) lacks research. Moreover, the following two dimensions of OSF, picture size (PS) and menu titles and filters (M&FT) that impact the aesthetics of a webpage layout, will enhance the consumers’ response to a retail brand website. Nonetheless, there are still few empirical studies on this area. This dissertation aims to understand the role of OSF in customer PI through the manipulation of two of its dimensions, PS and M&FT, explain the importance of these dimensions in a website and provide guidelines for companies to take advantage of these crucial, relatively unexplored dimensions of OSF. This research was conducted through a random distribution of four questionnaires, representing a different combination of two OSF dimensions, applied to cosmetics online e-commerce. The collected data were analysed through a variance analysis with two factors for repeated measures (Factorial ANOVA) and three linear regressions to validate the hypotheses of the proposed model. The results demonstrate that an “affective website” increases consumers' PI due to the intermediating role of affective responses (AR) and trust. By using positive website’s OSFs through moderate-high stimuli, brands can induce hedonic emotions and impressions such as interest and comfort and, consequently, trust. Finally, the results determined that the greatest OSF combination is large pictures and simple menus and, that the most determinant OSF dimension to influence consumers' ARs is PS. To conclude, this study provides a contribution to the literature by explaining the role of OSF in consumers’ PIs. Also, by presenting a set of relevant implications, it aims to increase the knowledge of companies and researchers on this relevant topic.
Num contexto online, os marketers só podem beneficiar do marketing sensorial explorando estímulos visuais através de funcionalidades sensoriais objetivas (OSF). Estas desempenham um papel determinante na ligação marca-consumidor, despertando emoções, sentimentos e impressões no subconsciente do consumidor. Durante décadas, as marcas retalhistas têm beneficiado do marketing sensorial para proporcionar uma experiência única e envolvente com a marca e, consequentemente aumentar as vendas. Pesquisas anteriores demonstraram que a OSF de um website é uma das dimensões chave a ter impacto nas emoções e impressões de um utilizador. Porém, a relação entre OSF e as intenções de compra dos consumidores (PI) carece de investigação. Além do mais, as duas seguintes dimensões-chave do OSF, tal como o tamanho da imagem (PS) e os títulos dos menu e filtros (M&FT) que têm impacto no layout da webpage e, por conseguinte, na ligação entre a marca e o consumidor, enfrentam uma lacuna significativa. Esta dissertação visa compreender o papel do OSF na PI do cliente através da manipulação de duas das suas dimensões, PS e M&FT, explicar a importância destas dimensões num website no comércio eletrónico de cosméticos e fornecer diretrizes para que as empresas possam tirar partido destas dimensões cruciais do OSF, relativamente inexploradas. Esta pesquisa foi realizada através de uma distribuição aleatória de quatro questionários, que representam uma diferente combinação de duas dimensões do OSF, aplicadas ao comércio online de cosméticos. Os dados recolhidos foram analisados através de uma análise de variância com dois fatores para medidas repetidas (Factorial ANOVA) e de três regressões lineares para validar as hipóteses do modelo proposto. Os resultados demonstram que um “website afetivo” aumenta as PI dos consumidores devido ao papel de intermediação da resposta afetiva (AR) e da confiança. Ao utilizar as OSF positivas de um website através de estímulos moderados-altos, as marcas podem provocar emoções e impressões hedónicas como interesse e conforto e, consequentemente, a confiança. Por último, os resultados também demonstraram que a combinação mais forte são as grandes imagens e simples menus e que a dimensão mais determinante nas ARs dos consumidores é o tamanho da imagem. Em conclusão, este estudo contribui para a literatura explicando o papel das OSF nas PI dos consumidores. Contudo, ao apresentar um conjunto de implicações relevantes, pretende ser um contributo para aumentar o conhecimento das empresas e dos investigadores sobre esta área.

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E-commerce website Objective sensory features (OSF) Ppicture size (PS) Menus and filters title (M&FT) Affective responses (AR) Trust Purchase intention (PI) Website de comércio eletrónico Funcionalidades sensoriais objetivas (OSF) Tamanho da imagem (PS) Títulos dos menus e filtros (M&FT) Respostas afetivas (AR) Confiança Intenção de compra (PI)

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