The Influence of Avatars on Online Consumer Shopping Behavior

Abstract

An impediment to Web-based retail sales is the impersonal nature of Web-based shopping. A solution to this problem is to use an avatar to deliver product information. An avatar is a graphic representation that can be animated by means of computer technology. Study 1 shows that using an avatar sales agent leads to more satisfaction with the retailer, a more positive attitude toward the product, and a greater purchase intention. Study 2 shows that an attractive avatar is a more effective sales agent at moderate levels of product involvement, but an expert avatar is a more effective sales agent at high levels of product involvement.Martin Holzwarth is a consultant at Marketing Partner, MP Management

The Influence of Peer Reviews on Source Credibility and Purchase Intention

“…With eWOM, consumers do not have previous experience with, or knowledge about the source or what motivated the source to provide the review other than what may be provided by the reviewer's profile, and these factors influence perceived source credibility offline [19,29]. This means that when online, they have to make judgments of source credibility using just an image, possibly the reviewer's profile, and some text the reviewer provided.…”

“…There is a lot of variance in the types of computer generated images online. The appearance and morphology of these images can vary according to user preferences, design decisions, system affordances, and computer processing ability, with all of these possible variations influencing perceptions of the source and associated information in different ways [13,16,18,29,[33][34][35][36][37]. Previous research looking at Buddy Icons selected for Instant Messaging interactions showed shown that only about 32% of people select human images to self-present, the rest of the images selected were either object (20%), scenes (12%), or animals (8%) [38].…”

“…There are individual differences including personality variables and interaction goals that predict perceptions and reactions to avatars and images [33], and these factors interact with the format of presentation to influence how people process the information provided and how this information ultimately impacts purchase intention [10,29]. The perceived credibility of images has been shown to influence perceptions of presidential candidates, television commercials, and even people met face to face, avatars and online images have a similar influence on perceived credibility of the associated sources [11,16,19,39].…”

Personality assessment using multiple online social networks

“…They are found to be very useful in getting users' attention and giving them an entertaining and high-quality experience. Avatars also play an enormous role in character representation and tend to give a realistic perception to the user [52], [35] . However, current avatars are homogeneous and do not accurately represent a character's personality.…”

Co-design Research and Business Development: Case of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS)

“…An Avatar communicator creates a more positive perception of the entertainment value and informativeness of a Web site which leads to shoppers being more satisfied with the retailer, more positive about the product, and more likely to purchase the product (Holzwarth et al 2006). However, factors such as age, language, income, disability and education may prove to be obstacles in obtaining and consuming the services on offer.…”