Online Repurchasing: Disclosure, Hope and Goal Attainment
Online shopping has changed the relationship between consumers and brands. While in a typical bricks and mortar store the consumer is largely anonymous, however the nature of online retail necessitates some transfer of private information. At a bare minimum, this includes personal information, payment methods and delivery instructions. However, it is common for retailers to solicit much more personal information to help facilitate transactions, comply with legislation, as well as a range of marketing activities such as customer relationship management or market research. American Express for example requires not only financial information, but demographic (age, gender, education, income, family lifestyle, etc.), psychographic (religion, beliefs, culture, etc.), and geographic (location, country, suburb, etc.) information.
While consent is typically given to initially collect this data, consumers are not always aware of how this information is spread between firms afterwards. While consumers largely accept that some information exchange is necessary to facilitate an online retail transaction, privacy concerns raised by policymakers and consumer groups are increasingly undermining consumer’s faith in these systems.
This presents consumers with a dilemma when it comes time to share information with an online retailer and makes them question if what they are receiving in exchange is worth the information disclosure. For example, a consumer may be willing to share information on their favourite holiday locations with an online travel booking website, hoping that future discounts they receive will be tailored to their disclosed locations. However, when consumers do not expect to receive anything in exchange, disclosing such a personal piece of information may seem intrusive and negatively influence their future purchase intent.
This is an issue, as past research has highlighted that the more comfortable consumers are with disclosing their information, the more likely they are to return and repeat their purchase. However, existing research does not explore the relationships between emotional responses, such as hope and expectation, repurchase intention, and the disclosure of information online.
Method
This research explores information disclosure and consumer responses over two studies. In the first study (n=135) participants were asked to complete a thought experiment in which they either encouraged or discouraged the disclosure of personal consumer information online. They then completed a short survey that measured emotional state and consumer hope.
In the second study (n=418) online surveys were collected from online shoppers exploring their shopping experience with online retailers. Measures included purchase intention, goal attainment, product knowledge, how much information they disclosed and consumer hope.
Key findings
1. As with past research, when consumers felt conformable disclosing their private and personal information, they were more likely to want to return and repurchase.
2. When consumers have positive hope (both desiring and expecting a positive outcome from the online exchange) they are much more likely to see disclosing information as a positive step towards achieving their goals and had higher repurchase intentions.
3. This positive relationship between hope, goal attainment and repurchase intention was present across the studies, regardless of how much the customers knew about the product they were purchasing.
4. The types of goals that consumers pursue, contributing to their feeling of hope and willingness to disclosure information, include purchasing to build social identity (such as purchasing a high-status object) or satisfying values (expressing identify through purchases).
5. These goals are more common with luxury product purchases, and this research shows that the link between information disclosure and hope are strongest with these products, and less significant for convenience products.
Recommendations
This research highlights the importance of streamlining the process of disclosing personal information, by identifying it as a key factor in repurchasing decisions
Managers should both make the process of disclosing necessary information as easy as possible, while also making the process feel as risk free and secure as possible. This includes making consumers aware of the security procedures that will protect their personal information and being transparent about the way that this information will be used in the future.
This research also shows that consumers will be more comfortable disclosing information when they are hopeful that the information will be used to help them achieve the goals they have set before visiting the business’s website. Some of these goals will be simple, such as achieving the best value purchase possible, but others will include more complex social and emotional goals that underpin why the product was being purchased in the first place. Such as the desire to build social identity or avoid the fear of missing out.
As these emotional goals contribute more powerfully to the feelings of hope that increase acceptance of information disclosure, managers can seek to support disclosure by highlighting how this information will be used to benefit the customer achieve these goals. For example, highlighting how this information can be used to tailor exclusive promotions and special offers relevant to these goals.
That consumers see little value in disclosing information when purchasing convenience products is the result of these products not aligning with emotional goals. Online retailers should facilitate the purchase of these products by removing barriers and reducing requests for personal details.
Comparatively, luxury goods and other goods associated with personal values or social status are often associated with these emotional goals. This supports the collection of more detailed personal information for these types of purchases, particularly when the collection of this information can be linked to the consumer’s hopes for the purchase of these products.
Researcher
More information
The research article is also available on eprints.