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Consumer Confusion in Consumer Confusion in eCommerceeCommerce

Diploma Thesis OutlineDiploma Thesis Outline

Consumer Confusion in Consumer Confusion in eCommerceeCommerce

Diploma Thesis OutlineDiploma Thesis Outline

Martin WaigunyMartin Waiguny

October 22October 22ndnd 2004 2004

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Consumer ConfusionConsumer Confusion

Consumer Confusion is a „consumer failure to develop a correct interpretation of various facets of a product/service, during the information processing procedure. As a result this creates misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the market“ Turnbull et al., 2000

3 Formssimilarity confusionoverload confusionunclearity confusion

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Consumer ConfusionConsumer Confusion

SC

OC

UC

ConfusionEnvironment

too similar stimuli

too much stimuli

ambigous stimuli

complex stimuli

Behaviour

abandon/postpone

clarify buying goals

seek additional information

narrow down the choice set

share delegate the decision

Rudolph/Schweizer, 2003; Mitchell et al. 2004p

erc

ep

tion

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Similarity ConfusionSimilarity Confusion

„...a lack of understanding and potential alteration of a consumer’s choice or an incorrect brand evaluation caused by the perceived physical similarity of products or services“ Mitchell et al. 2004

Antecedentsbrand imitationimitation of physical componentsinformation imitationequalization of products and servicessimilar websites and webshops

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Overload ConfusionOverload Confusion

„...consumers are confronted with an overly information rich environment. This information overload inhibits the customer to process the information and to fully understand, and be confident in, the purchase situation.“ Mitchell et al., 2004

Antecedentshigh amount of productshigh amount of informationhigh amount of shops/webshops

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Unclearity ConfusionUnclearity Confusion

„...when customers are “forced to re-evaluate and revise current beliefs or assumptions about product or purchasing environment” Mitchell et al. 2004

Antecedentscomplexity of productsambigous/conflicting information

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Confusion Reduction StrategiesConfusion Reduction Strategies

used to clarify the situation and ease the decision

6 generic forms (Mitchell/Papavassiliou, 1997)

do nothing/ignore

abandon/postpone

clarify buying goals

seek additional information

narrow down the choice set

share delegate the decision

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StudyStudy

questionaire based on preceeding studies from Mitchell/Papavassiliou, 1997 and Walsh, 2002

online-purchase technical goods132 participantsonline-hotelbooking 228 participantstourists at Innsbruck Airport

focus of the studyconfirming consumer confusion in eCommerceexplore various reduction strategies in eCommerce

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ResultsResults

Similarity Confusion

Overload Confusion

Unclearity Confusion

Reliability (C.R.) 0,64 0,80 0,74

Information on Hotels in online-booking-systems is sosimilar that you cannot do a bargain buy.

0,58

I t is difficult to recognized the differences between the hotels inan online-booking-system.

0,78

There are so many hotels you can book that you arereally confused.

0,73

As there are so many reservation systems and hotelhomepages that it is difficult to decide which one youshould chose.

0,75

You get so much information about hotels in the internetthat you lose orientation.

0,78

Hotels have so many additional services (e.g. swimmingpool, sauna) and characteristics (view, room size, etc.)that you can not compare the hotels.

0,64

I f you book online you do not have the impression thatyou have enough information on the hotel.

0,71

Hotels have so many additional services (e.g. swimming pool,sauna) and characteristics (view, room size, etc.) that youdon’t know on what you should focus.

0,68

confirmatory factor analysis foronline-bookinghotels

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Similarity Confusion

Overload Confusion

Unclearity Confusion

Reliability (C.R.) 0,71 0,91 0,83

Information on dvd-players in webshops is so similarthat you cannot do a bargain buy.

0,89

I t is difficult to recognized the differences between thedvd-players in a webshop.

0,92

There are so many dvd-player you can buy online thatyou are really confused.

0,97

As there are so many webshops/auctionsites where dvd-players to buy, that it is difficult to decide which one youshould chose.

0,92

You get so much information about dvd-players in theinternet that you lose orientation.

0,79

Dvd-players have so many additional functions that youcan not compare the hotels.

0,93

Dvd-Player have so many functions and characteristicsthat you don’t know on what you should focus.

0,84

confirmatory factor analysis foronline-purchasing dvd-player

ResultsResults

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used reduction strategies for online-booking hotels

Reduction Strategy r² Stand. Coefficient

p Stand. Coefficient

p Stand. Coefficient

p

Rely on familar brand 0,03 -0,02 0,84 n.s. -135,00 0,14 n.s. 0,20 0,04**

Make a quick decision 0,04 -0,13 0,09* -0,07 0,463 n.s. 0,27 0,01**

I don't book online 0,20 0,09 0,19 n.s. 0,21 0,01** 0,23 0,01**

Rely on familar reservation system 0,06 0,02 0,80 n.s. -0,04 0,63 n.s. -0,23 0,02**

Seek additional Information from other media

0,03 -0,18 0,02** 0,09 0,31 n.s. -0,01 0,93 n.s.

Share/delegate the decision 0,02 -0,06 0,47 n.s. -0,03 0,72 n.s. -0,18 0,06*

Rely on classic attributes (stars, pictures)

0,05 -0,19 0,02** -0,06 0,24 n.s. 0,06 0,55 n.s.

Similarity Confusion Overload Confusion Unclearity Confusion

ResultsResults

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used reduction strategies for online-purchasing dvd-player

Reduction Strategy r² Stand. Coefficient

p Stand. Coefficient

p Stand. Coefficient

p

Make a quick decision 0,05 -0,09 0,39 n.s. 0,26 0,03** -0,01 0,97 n.s.

Rely on familar/trustfull Web-Shop 0,03 -0,11 0,32 n.s. 0,19 0,11 n.s. 0,01 0,97 n.s.

Abandon the online purchase 0,29 0,30 0,00*** 0,15 0,14 n.s. 0,21 0,03**

Share/delegate the decision 0,04 0,13 0,22 n.s. 0,07 0,53 n.s. 0,30 0,79 n.s.

Rely on expensive/familar brand 0,03 -0,14 0,19 n.s. 0,15 0,19 n.s. -0,09 0,40 n.s.

Cheapest offer 0,02 0,40 0,73 n.s. 0,12 0,31n.s. 0,02 0,88 n.s.

Seek addtional Information in the Internet

0,07 -0,17 0,10* 0,35 0,01** -0,17 0,12 n.s.

Seek additional Information from other media

0,03 -0,10 0,37 n.s. 0,13 0,28 n.s. 0,11 0,316 n.s.

Similarity Confusion Overload Confusion Unclearity Confusion

ResultsResults

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Conclusion and limitationsConclusion and limitations

Conclusionconsumer confusion occurs in eCommercereduction strategies are rather special for the situation

Limitationsmoderating variables not testedconvenience samplelow reliability of scales

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Thank‘sforyourattention