Putting Yourself in the Picture: An Evaluation of Virtual Model Technology as an Online Shopping Tool
Authors: Smith, Stephen P.; Johnston, Robert B.; Howard, Steve
Journal: Information Systems Research (2011)
<jats:p> The electronic gulf between shoppers and products makes evaluating a physical product on offer at an e-store a potentially problematic activity. We propose that the outcome of the product evaluation task is determined by the fit between the type of information provided and the type of information sought by the consumer and that this, in turn, influences a consumer's attitude toward an e-store. An experiment to compare the impact of one type of advanced evaluation support technology, the virtual model, with a more basic online catalog, is then described. Results indicate that virtual models are potentially valuable when a customer is concerned with self-image and considerably less valuable when concerned with functionality. In more general terms, variation in end-user attitudes toward the object of the task (evaluative attitude) influenced how informed consumers felt about a product when using different technologies. Feeling informed, in turn, had a strong effect on consumer attitudes toward the store. Our results highlight two important issues for online stores: (1) a consumer's information requirements depend on his or her attitude to a product rather than product attrib…