Hedonic and Utilitarian Motivations for online Retail Shopping Behavior

Hedonic and utilitarian motivations for online retail shopping behavior:

This article talks about the relationship between Ultilitarian along with Hedonic and their effect on online shopping. Utilitarian is defined as “Designed to be useful or practical rather than attractive” (Oxford Dictionary), as Hedoric is “relating to or considered in terms of pleasant (or unpleasant) sensations” (Oxford Dictionary). “Amazon.commaintains that “one secret to success is thinking of a way to make online shopping experience more fun””(Childers, T. L., Carr, C. L., Peck, J., & Carson, S. (2001).The Authors in this article talk about navigation, convenience, sub experience, usefulness, ease of use, enjoyment, all are connected in the attitude of the online shopper. 274 students were given a written survey to determine if all of those areas were factors to online shopping. In this sample the authors find that those areas are motivations for consumers to shop online.

Childers, T. L., Carr, C. L., Peck, J., & Carson, S. (2001). Hedonic and utilitarian motivations for online retail shopping behavior. Journal Of Retailing, 77(4), 511.

Shopping Online for Freedom, Control, and Fun:

 The Authors asked participants if they shop for entertainment or for specific needs. What they noticed was participants  shop in whatever minutes they have free to locate information, shop across multiple sessions that include online and offline looking, and often abandon online shopping carts, as it is easy to return and make the transaction later after further thought.

“Users want the choice of when and how they use the medium to interact with this "Human face' to be firmly under their control. Shopping Online with Experiential Motives Experiential shopping behavior is shopping with a desire to be entertained, to have fun, and to be immersed in the experience” (Wolfinbarger, M., & Gilly, M. C. (2001)). While some of the participants said they do not engage in extended browsing at all online, others report specific circumstances that are associated with frequent, longer, and thus more "experiential" visits to sites.

It was noticed that the participants liked checking out an offline store so they can touch or try on merchandise before buying online or looking for product information and pricing online and then purchasing offline. While consumers like to shop online when they are goal-oriented, they also like shopping offline when they wanted to touch and feel items, and enjoy the"experience" of being out, including sights, smells, people watching, and spending time with friends and family.

“Understanding consumer motivations for shopping at your web site as well as at your land based stores can provide direction for planning and implementing features and benefits that will increase customer satisfaction and loyalty both online and offline” (Wolfinbarger, M., & Gilly, M. C. (2001).

Wolfinbarger, M., & Gilly, M. C. (2001). Shopping online for freedom, control, and fun. California Management Review, 43(2), 34-55. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/216150949?accountid=35812

Online consumer retention: contingent effects of online shopping habit and online shopping experience

Customer retention is an even more challenging issue in the matter of online shopping, where severe competitors exist and the switching costs for customers are minimal.
“The post purchase satisfaction, on the other hand, is associated with the customer's experience with after-sale services, for example, online customer support, help desks handling returns/refunds, and online installation manuals, etc.”( Khalifa, M., & Liu, V. (2007.
They measured the online shopping habit, online shopping experience, and online repurchase intention using reflective items that were “adapted from the literature to identify specific usefulness factors for all phases of online shopping, we relied on belief elicitation to develop a formative measurement model for the construct of perceived usefulness”( Khalifa, M., & Liu, V. (2007.) Their results showed a strong support for both the mediated and moderating effects of online shopping habit. Their results also showed that experienced and repeat customers, when satisfied, “are more likely to be retained, another useful market segmentation criterion may be the level of prior online shopping experience and online shopping habit”( Khalifa, M., & Liu, V. (2007.) Customers could be placed into four major profiles, satisfied shoppers with online shopping experience or habit, satisfied shoppers with less or without online shopping experience or habit, and dissatisfied shoppers with online shopping experience or habit, and dissatisfied shoppers without online shopping experience or habit.

Khalifa, M., & Liu, V. (2007). Online consumer retention: Contingent effects of online shopping habit and online shopping experience. European Journal of Information Systems, 16(6), 780-792. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000711