University of Twente Student Theses
Online shopping abandonment rate a new perspective : the role of choice conflicts as a factor of online shopping abandonment
Muster, Robert Florentin (2016) Online shopping abandonment rate a new perspective : the role of choice conflicts as a factor of online shopping abandonment.
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| Abstract: | The high rates of online shopping abandonment are a major problem in a trillion dollar industry. In this research we focused on the extent to which choice conflicts influence online shopping cart abandonment. We began by investigating exploratorily the nature, frequency, and sources of choice conflicts as they manifest themselves in the online environment. Next, we studied experimentally the effects of choice conflicts on the shopping cart abandonment using a custom developed webshop to replicate a real online shopping session. For this purpose, we used a 2x3 factorial experimental setup and we analyzed data from 164 participants. We found that choice conflicts were not a direct cause of online shopping abandonment. Instead, results indicate that with each experienced choice conflict, the chance of a perceived higher decision difficulty increased 17 times. Subsequently, a perceived higher level of decision difficulty increased the chance of abandoning the shopping cart by 22%. Additionally, we found that the effort to search information and product attribute alignment also influenced the perceived decision difficulty; at the same time, maximizing behavior was identified as the main source of choice conflicts. The resulting research model illustrates the conjoint effect of choice conflicts and perceived decision difficulty on increasing the chance of online shopping abandonment. We found that displaying products with nonaligned attributes decreased the perceived decision difficulty and reduced the chance of shopping abandonment. Further research is needed to develop methods to lower the chance of experiencing choice conflicts and high decision difficulties. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 05 communication studies |
| Programme: | Communication Studies MSc (60713) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/69297 |
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