Cross-Category Effects of Induced Arousal and Pleasure on the Internet Shopping Experience

Predictions regarding the impact of stimulation and pleasantness on browsing and shopping behavior in an Internet context are tested. It is suggested that the characteristics of products, websites and shopping experiences that are encountered early can significantly influence the level of arousal and pleasure that consumers experience, and thereby influence their later shopping behavior. Two experiments show that if the initial experiences encountered in a simulated Internet shopping trip are higher in pleasure, then there is a positive impact on approach behaviors and subjects engage in more arousing activities (e.g., more exploration, more tendencies to examine novel products and stores, higher response to promotional incentives). Further, if higher stimulation or information load is provided by the initial Internet experiences, then subsequently consumers tend to engage in less arousing activities. 2 Shopping for fresh fish in the Tokyo fish market is quite different from shopping for fresh fish in a modern American supermarket, even if the fish were exactly the same. Many studies have shown that the shopping atmosphere or retail store environment can influence browsing, Most of these studies have focused on atmospherics such as colors, lighting, smells, or music – aspects of physical stores environments, and have shown that these aspects can significantly influence the emotions (e.g., pleasure and arousal) of retailer shoppers and thereby, affect their shopping behavior. As shopping begins to move towards electronic commerce, for example, home shopping networks, Web-TV or shopping on the Internet, it is important to examine the characteristics of the computer mediated shopping environment that can produce measurable effects on consumers' emotional experiences. It seems likely that in electronic retailing, new types of " atmospheric " variables may become relevant. Two key aspects are notably different in electronic commerce: (1) the window of sight is narrower – rather than walking into a huge physical environment, the shopping environment is a small screen, and (2) distance and time are compressed. The narrow frame suggests that consumers immediately focus in on particular items and the time compression suggests that items seen earlier are more likely to have an influence on items seen later (Burke et. al. 1992). Thus, in electronic commerce, a new type of " atmospheric " variable that may influence shopping behavior is the sequence of products or websites that a consumer encounters in a single shopping event. 3 In this research, we look at how product experiences encountered early on in …