A study of emotional and rational purchasing behavior for online shopping

Abstract

Emotion has gained much attention in product design over recent years. It is not surprised that the aesthetic appeal may determine the fate of a product, namely its success or failure in the market. Unlike the traditional marketing channel, websites provide a different opportunity for promoting the products to the potential customers who may know the products via a computer mediated website and its user interface. Previous studies have shown that website design features and usability can influence the willingness of the purchase. However, whether the product characteristics on the websites and the customers' attitudes (emotional thinking vs rational thinking) will affect the purchasing behavior is still unknown. In this study, the influence of the emotional appearances of the websites and the product characteristics as well as the user characteristics to the purchase behavior was examined. The findings suggest the emotional web appeal may not be able to affect the thinking style which may further enhance the purchasing intention of specific products. Further study on web appeal and web design strategies may be needed to identify and attract online customers. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.