Satya Menon and Barbara E. Kahn

There is little doubt that the Internet will become an important channel for retailing in the 21st century. Online retailers are likely to try to influence consumers' shopping behavior through atmospherics and service, just as physical stores do. While technological innovations hold the promise that traditional atmospherics such as color, music, smell, and light can be effectively deployed to make the online retail environment approach the ambience of traditional retail stores, it seems very likely that new types of "atmospheric variables" may become relevant in electronic retailing. Three key aspects are notably different in e-commerce: (1) the window of sight is narrower–the shopping environment is a small screen rather than a huge store, (2) distance and time are compressed, and (3) consumers have more control over the information they seek and the websites they visit. The narrow frame suggests that consumers immediately focus in on particular items, and time compression suggests that items seen earlier are more likely to have an influence on items seen later. Further, the fact that consumers can control their path (rather than being controlled by store layout) in e-commerce suggests that Thus, a new type of atmospheric variable may influence shopping behavior—the sequence of products or websites that a consumer encounters in a single shopping event.

In this research, we looked at how product experiences encountered early in an Internet shopping trip can impact the pleasure and arousal emotions of shoppers and thereby influence the time spent, the nature of browsing, and promotional interactions during the rest of the trip. Our primary interest was in studying exploratory shopping/browsing behavior on the Internet where search may be motivated more by hedonic motives than by practical, goal-oriented purposes. To illustrate our basic proposition, consider a consumer surfing through an Internet mall. In one case, the consumer first encounters a wine retailing website, where s/he encounters sensory-laden descriptions of wines, with photographs of beautiful vineyards and/or receives recommendations about the perfect wine to pair with a special dinner entree. In another case, the consumer first encounters a site offering paper towels and reads about available sizes, thicknesses, and price ranges. We propose that the characteristics of these initially encountered products or websites (similar to the effects of traditional atmospherics) would affect the amount of pleasure and arousal that the consumer experiences. Further, we propose that these emotions influence the subsequent choice of websites and shopping behavior.

Using Internet-simulated environments in our experiments, we controlled the stimulation level and pleasantness of websites that our study participants initially encountered. We found support for the idea that the characteristics of initially encountered websites will have carry-over effects on subsequent shopping behaviors. Specifically, we found that if study participants were exposed initially to pleasing Internet websites, they were more likely to engage in subsequent approach shopping behaviors–they browsed more, engaged in more promotional interactions, and sought out more stimulating products and categories. We also found that if websites encountered initially were higher in stimulation and information load, study participants were less likely to engage in subsequent browsing or shopping behavior that might further increase overall stimulation.

These findings offer some useful insights to designers of web pages or Internet shopping mallstelevision shopping shows . The order in which consumers are exposed to websites can have significant effects on subsequent purchase behaviors. The initial experience can influence whether consumers stay within a particular website and explore the site deeper, move on to other sites, or even move off the web entirely. If a marketer is advertising its website for directed tasks, such as making a purchase, registering, or something that involves an immediate reaction, and deeper browsing or exploration is not required or even desired, those websites should perhaps be designed or electronic shopping malls with arousing stimuli. If the initial site is arousing, consumers are more likely to complete their task and less likely to seek other stimulation or move on to other sites. On the other hand, if marketers want to encourage consumers to stay longer at their site, to browse more and to explore different links, they may want to adorn their electronic doorways with very pleasing, enjoyable stimuli to encourage browsing and receptivity to impulse shopping.

Understanding the emotional reactions to website characteristics has implications also for the dynamic presentation of websites. One could speculate that if the emotional state of the consumer could be measured (perhaps by having consumers register their feelings on an "emotion meter"), or discerned by tracking their online browsing activities prior to entering a virtual store, e-retailers could dynamically react to that emotional state. Thus, rather than design static websites, a marketing firm could design a website to interact with the consumer and to adjust to his or her emotional state. If the consumer indicates that s/he is experiencing too much arousal, she can be exposed to simpler web pages. On the other hand, if the consumer indicates that s/he is feeling pleased with what s/he has witnessed, or if online tracking indicates that s/he is entering the store from a simple, not very stimulating search engine link, s/he can then be exposed to more arousing links and experiences. The goal then would be for the marketer to optimize the overall arousal potential of the site to respond to the emotional state of the individual.

On the whole, this research suggests that browsing and shopping experiences on the Internet may be enjoyable and stimulating in and of themselves, just as regular store shopping is to some customers. Browsing on the Internet not only provides cognitive, informational findings, but also provides a hedonic consumption experience. . This is a limitation of the work and would hope that future research may be undertaken to replicate and extend our effects in real Internet shopping situation.