How Would the E-Retailer’s Website Personality Impact Customers’ Attitudes toward the Site?

Abstract

This research investigates the relationships between website personality and two key variables of e-retailing, site involvement and site attitudes. A conceptual model is tested through a survey on the e-shopping experiences of 588 respondents from a large Northeastern university. Findings show that the five dimensions of website personality are not equally effective in shaping reactions towards the site. While enthusiasm has a positive impact and unpleasantness has a negative impact on both site involvement and site attitudes, some other dimensions influence only site attitudes (genuineness), site involvement (solidity), or neither of the two (sophistication). Implications for segmentation and targeting are discussed.