The Effect of Non-verbal Communication using Cinemagraph in Mobile Electronic Commerce of Agrifood on Visual Attention and Purchase Intention

Abstract

This paper is a study on what kind of effect non-verbal communication in mobil electronic commerce has on purchase intention and visual attention. For this purpose, the screen of mobile shopping mall produced arbitrarily was exposed to the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group was exposed to the screen of mobile shopping mall that expressed non-verbal communication making use of cinemagraph images and the control group was exposed to the screen of mobile shopping mall based on still images. For the study, survey research and experimental research were conducted simultaneously. Data of survey research were analyzed by MANOVA and t-test, and by using eye-tracker experimental research recorded the duration of time that the subjects stared images. The results of experiment show that in non-verbal communication the experimental group that saw cinemagraph images recorded shorter average staring time than the control group that saw ordinary images, and the cinemagraph had statistically significant effect on visual attention as well. And it was analyzed that non-verbal communication had significant effect on the purchase intention of the experimental group, but had no effect on the purchase intention of the control group. The results can be interpreted that the people who saw cinemagraphs in mobile shopping environment had spent shorter time in seeing products than the people who saw ordinary images, but still the former came to have purchase intention on the products. The results of the present study can be useful for marketers who try to sell agrifood in mobile environment.