Effects of visual and textual information in online product presentations: looking for the best combination in website design

Abstract

Online product presentation constitutes a key challenge for marketers and designers who want to satisfy consumers’ needs. Visual and textual product information affect recognition and knowledge about the product. This research examines whether the presence (vs absence) of a product image and textual information in a schematic mode (vs paragraph mode) affect users’ recall and perceptions of the quality of the electronic products’ information. The moderating role of user's familiarity with the website and product also may play a role; the evolution of these variables likely will determine trends in e-commerce research. The results show that a schematic display of textual information improves perceptions of information quality. When a picture of the product appears together with textual information, users remember more information and consider it easier to remember if that information appears schematically. However, without a product picture, users allocate more resources to process paragraph information and therefore recall more information and perceive it as easier to recall. The degrees of familiarity also have important directional effects on these relationships.

Keywords:

• product presentation
• visual information
• textual information
• information quality
• recall
• user familiarity

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carlos Flavián Blanco

About the authors

Carlos Flavián Blanco holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration and is Professor of Marketing in the Faculty of Economics and Business Studies at the University of Zaragoza (Spain). His research has been published in several academic journals, specialized in marketing (European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Journal of Strategic Marketing, International Journal of Market Research, etc.) and new technologies (Information & Management, Industrial Management and Data Systems, Internet Research, etc.). He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Industrial Marketing Management, the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, the International Journal of Services and Standards and the Journal of Marketing Communications.

Raquel Gurrea Sarasa

Raquel Gurrea holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration and is assistant professor in the Faculty of Economics and Business Studies at the University of Zaragoza (Spain). Her main research lines are online consumer behavior, multichannel distribution and the analysis of the advantages and limitations of the Internet in the development of the economic activity. Her work has been published in several journals, such as International Journal of Market Research, Information & Management, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Internet Research, Online Information Review and Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing.

Carlos Orús Sanclemente

Carlos Orús is predoctoral grant holder in the Faculty of Economics and Business Studies at the University of Zaragoza (Spain). His main research lines are online consumer behavior and the relevance of website design for developing of the economic activity on the Internet. His work has been published in several journals such as Online Information Review and has been presented in national and international conferences with high impact such as International Conference on Recent Advances in Retailing and Services Science, International Conference on Corporate and Marketing Communications and Management International Conference.