Impact of information presentation modes on online shopping: An empirical evaluation of a broadband interactive shopping service

Abstract

With the increasing cost-effectiveness of communication technologies, online shopping has emerged as one of the most important areas of electronic commerce. A major problem facing online shopping service providers is the heterogeneity of user profile. Unlike organizational systems that have a well-defined universe of users and system boundary, these shopping services are designed for public users with very different cognitive and demographic profiles. The major challenge lies in designing friendly and effective user interfaces for online shoppers. Previous studies on online shopping suggest that a good user interface with an appropriate mode of information presentation is the key to system acceptance. In this article, we report on an empirical study that looks at product information presentation modes in an actual broadband supermarket shopping environment. Four prototypes with different combinations of text and picture displays were developed and evaluated in an experimental setting. The findings suggest that there is a close relation between product familiarity and shopping effectiveness. When the system is used to purchase familiar product items, pictures are better than text in terms of both efficiency and effectiveness. However, when users are not familiar with the product items, the advantages of pictures over text diminish. Implications of the findings and future research areas are discussed.