Role of local presence in online impulse buying

• Published in: Information & management Vol. 54; no. 8; pp. 1038 - 1048
• Main Authors: Vonkeman, Charlotte, Verhagen, Tibert, van Dolen, Willemijn
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-12-2017
• Subjects: Impulse buying; Interactivity; Local presence; Online product presentation; Vividness; Interactivity; Local presence; Online product presentation; Vividness; Impulse buying
• ISSN: 0378-7206; 1872-7530
• DOI: 10.1016/j.im.2017.02.008

•Perceptions of local presence increase when products are presented in a vivid and interactive manner in a web store.•Perceptions of local presence increase the urge to buy impulsively through increased product affect.•Although local presence reduces perceived product risk, product risk does not inhibit the urge to buy impulsively.
This paper proposes and tests a model to explain how consumers’ perceptions of product presentation technologies may affect online impulse buying. Data from a laboratory experiment (N=212), which were analyzed using a structural equation modeling approach, showed that vividness and interactivity of online product presentations increased the participants’ perceptions of local presence, which refers to the sense of a product being present with a consumer in his or her own environment. Local presence, in turn, influenced the urge to buy impulsively by generating both cognitive (perceived risk) and affective (product affect) product responses. The implications of these results are discussed.