Product Uncertainty in Online Markets: The Influence of Situational Factors and Individual Characteristics on Purchase Decision Reversal

Date

2019-01-08

Contributor

Advisor

Department

Instructor

Depositor

Speaker

Researcher

Consultant

Interviewer

Narrator

Transcriber

Annotator

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Volume

Number/Issue

Starting Page

Ending Page

Alternative Title

Abstract

E-commerce has traditionally suffered from significantly higher product return rates than offline retail (30 % online vs. 10 % offline). Product uncertainty at the time of purchase has been identified as one of the key drivers of purchase decision reversals in online markets. In this study we analyze the impact of situational factors (1. Purchase channel choice, 2. Time pressure) and individual differences on product uncertainty and purchase decision reversal. Following the conceptualization of product uncertainty by Hong and Pavlou (2014), we distinguish between product fit uncertainty and product quality uncertainty. To test our hypotheses, we employ a large-scale empirical analysis based on panel data from a large European online fashion retailer. We find that product fit uncertainty is higher for mobile channel users, which is attenuated by prior brand experience. Time pressure leads to lower return rates despite higher product uncertainty.

Description

Keywords

Practice-based IS Research, Organizational Systems and Technology, consumer decision-making, decision reversal, multi-channel, online consumer behavior, product uncertainty

Citation

Extent

10 pages

Format

Geographic Location

Time Period

Related To

Proceedings of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

Related To (URI)

Table of Contents

Rights

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Rights Holder

Local Contexts

Email libraryada-l@lists.hawaii.edu if you need this content in ADA-compliant format.