I virtually try it … I want it ! Virtual Fitting Room: A tool to increase on-line and off-line exploratory behavior, patronage and purchase intentions

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2016.08.006Get rights and content

Abstract

E-commerce has important advantages compared to traditional shopping (e.g. time, choice, price) but offers only a partial view of the shopping environment. For example, the lack of physical apprehension is a major disadvantage of online purchasing. To create a shopping environment close to reality, some companies now propose Virtual Fitting Rooms (VFR1) on their websites. This research aims to highlight the effects of an online VFR on consumer's exploratory behavior and intention to purchase, both online and offline contexts. Results of two experiments showed that the presence of such a tool significantly increases specific curiosity about the product, intention to patronize (online and offline) and intention to purchase (online and offline). The latter effect is mediated through firstly perceptual specific curiosity about the product and then the intention to patronize.

Introduction

In July 2013, retailing today.com published a study which announced that 81% of consumers seek out online before making a purchase. But the information they can find online is often limited. For example, they cannot interact with a salesperson or enjoy the atmosphere of a store or smell, touch or try on the product… In line with this statement, engineers try to minimize the gap between the real store and the website by developing new sales aids based on new technologies such as virtual center, virtual agent, virtual fitting room and so on. In an editorial special issue focused on the impact of these new technologies on retailing, Pantano (2010) insists on the relevance to understand their effects on consumer behavior. Moreover, Pantano and Naccarato (2010) proposed five research priorities to understand the effects of these technologies on behavior including need recognition, search of information, pre-purchase evaluation, purchase, and post-purchase evaluation. In an other way, Ostorm et al. (2010) proposed similar research priorities for the science of service in particular related the stimulation of service innovation. Thus, a lot of research has been developed. The aim of this paper is to highlight and to understand the effect of such new technologies on exploratory consumer behavior and more precisely on specific curiosity.

Existing literature on these tools can be presented in two parts. A major part concerns the research on social new sales aids – such as virtual agents or avatars – and their effects on pre-purchase, per-purchase and post-purchase/consumption variables. In general, most research has shown that consumers increase their exploratory behavior (Swaminathan, 2003), trust (Lemoine and Notebaert, 2011), immersion (Wang et al., 2007), positive emotions (Murray and Häubl, 2008), purchase intention (Senecal and Nantel, 2004), and satisfaction with the website (Viot and Bressolles, 2012) in the presence of a social new sales aid (vs. not). The second part of the research is less developed and is devoted to the direct effects of environmental new sales aids which could be assimilated to the design and ambient factors of the atmosphere (Baker, 1986). Such tools as virtual fitting rooms or virtual centers have significant and positive effects on consumers' intention to try on and visualize products (Ganapathy et al., 2004), power of retention of the website (Murray and Häubl, 2008, Häubl and Figueroa, 2002), flow (Hoffman and Novak, 2009), trust on the product (Trifts and Häubl, 2003), purchase intention (Li, Daugherty and Biocca, 2002) and satisfaction (Murray and Häubl, 2008). While the effect of social new sales aids on exploratory behavior has been examined (Swaminathan, 2003), the effect of environmental aids on this dimension of behavior has been largely unexplored. To fill this theoretical gap, the current research further examines the direct effects of a Virtual Fitting Room (VFR) on online consumers' exploratory behavior and the underlying mechanism (Experiment 1).

Moreover, today, 88% of consumers look for information online before making their purchase offline2 (Digitas Sutdy, Vivaki advance, 2013). Accordingly, we also test the effect of VFR on offline behavior (Experiment 2).

First, we develop the theoretical background and hypotheses. Then, the research method and major results are presented, followed by the general discussion and conclusion.

Section snippets

Theoretical background and hypotheses development

In the theoretical framework presented above, exploratory behavior is measured through the time spent on a product page (Murray and Häubl, 2008) or the amount of search (Swaminathan, 2003). Theories on consumer motivation are not addressed yet even if they are essential to understand the exploratory behavior (Deci and Ryan, 2000). Work on motivation distinguishes the intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is defined as “the inherent tendency to seek out novelty and

Experiment 1: the influence of VFR on online consumers' behavior

We suspect that the presence of VFR may increase the perceptual specific curiosity about the product, online patronage intention and online purchase intention (respectively H1, H2, and H3). We also suppose that perceptual specific curiosity and patronage intention mediate the effect of VFR on online purchase intention (H6).

Experiment 2: the influence of VFR on offline consumers' behavior

Experiment 2 tests H1, H3 and H5, which suppose the positive effect of VFR on perceptual specific curiosity, offline patronage intention and offline purchase intention. We also test the mechanism engaged related to H7.

Summary of main findings

The results of present experiments show the influence of online VFR on consumers' online and offline exploratory behavior and purchase intentions. The results also highlight the mechanism engaged in the presence of VFR such as in the following figure (Fig. 3).

Experiment 1 revealed that the presence of a VFR on a website increases significantly the perceptual specific curiosity about the product, the online patronage intention and the online purchase intention (versus an e-catalog). Consumers

References (55)

  • M.-H. Huang

    Designing website attributes to induce experiential encounters

    Comput. Hum. Behav.

    (2003)
  • V.D. Kaltcheva et al.

    Impact of retail environment extraordinariness on customer self-concept

    J. Bus. Res.

    (2011)
  • D.-M. Koo et al.

    The interactional effects of atmospherics and perceptual curiosity on emotions and online shopping intention

    Comput. Hum. Behav.

    (2010)
  • S. Pace

    A grounded theory of the flow experiences of web users

    Int. J. Hum.-Comput. Stud.

    (2004)
  • E. Pantano

    New technologies and retailing; trends and directions

    J. Retail. Consum. Serv.

    (2010)
  • E. Pantano et al.

    Entertainment in retailing: the influences of advanced technologies

    J. Retail. Consum. Serv.

    (2010)
  • E. Pantano et al.

    Modeling innovative points of sales through virtual and immersive technologies

    J. Retail. Consum. Serv.

    (2012)
  • I. Poncin et al.

    The impact of “e-atmospherics” on physical store

    J. Retail. Consum. Serv.

    (2014)
  • M.-O. Richard et al.

    Modeling online consumer behavior: preeminence of emotions and moderating influences of need for cognition and optimal stimulation level

    J. Bus. Res.

    (2016)
  • S. Senecal et al.

    The influence of online product recommandations on consumers' online choices

    J. Retail.

    (2004)
  • V. Swaminathan

    The impact of recommandation agents on consumer evaluation and Choice: the moderating role of category risk, product complexity and consumer knowledge

    J. Consum. Psychol.

    (2003)
  • V. Trifts et al.

    Information availability and consumer preference: can online retailers from providing access to competitor price information?

    J. Consum. Psychol.

    (2003)
  • R. Agarwal et al.

    Time flies when you're having fun: cognitive absorption and beliefs about information technology usage

    MIS Q.

    (2000)
  • M.P. Arnone et al.

    Curiosity, interest, and engagement in technology-pervasive learning environments: a new research agenda

    Educ. Technol. Res. Dev.

    (2011)
  • P. Aurier et al.

    Assessment of consumer knowledge: a multi-dimensional approach

    Adv. Consum. Res.

    (1999)
  • J. Baker

    The role of the environment in marketing services: the consumer perspective

  • J. Baker et al.

    An experimental approach to making retail store environmental decisions

    J. Retail.

    (1992)
  • Cited by (177)

    View all citing articles on Scopus

    This research was supported by Neolane/Adobe Campaign. We thank our colleagues from Adobe Campaign who provided access to their platform on panel FocusMind that greatly assisted the methodology research.

    1

    VFR: Virtual Fitting Room.

    PSC: Perceptual Specific Curiosity.

    View full text