Consumer Vigilance and Choice Overload in Online Shopping

Abstract

Are there too many options in online shopping? Although extant studies have largely focused on the effects of choice overload, few shed light on choice overload in online shopping situations. In light of online shopping’s untouchable nature and sorting mechanisms, we argue that choice overload in online shopping is associated with consumer vigilance and assortment desirability. Across four experiments, we found that the size of the online choice set significantly influences consumers’ choice difficulty and choice deferral. We also discovered that consumer vigilance and assortment desirability moderate these relationships. Specifically, high vigilance increases the negative impact of assortment size on consumer decision, whereas assortment product desirability alleviates this consequence. We contribute to the literature by extending prior predictions of choice overload and proposing a framework involving choice overload, vigilance, and desirability for future research.

KEY WORDS AND PHRASES:

• Assortment desirability
• choice overload
• consumer vigilance
• e-retail
• online shopping

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the helpful input of the editor, associate editor, and reviewers. In addition, the authors acknowledge the support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (71772124, 71942003, 71671115, 71701139), Ministry of Education of China (17YJA630097), and the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities (No. 20161140019).

Notes

1. Taking China as an example, statistics show that the growth rate of consumer goods’ total retail sales nationwide was 10.2% for the year 2017, with a total volume of more than RMB 33 trillion, whereas online retail sales achieved a much more remarkable increase of 32.2% and exceeded RMB 7 trillion over the same period (http://www.stats.gov.cn).

2. As shown in the 2019 report of the Office of the United States Trade Representative, 33 online markets and 25 brick-and-mortar stores across 36 countries engaged in and facilitated substantial copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting (https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2019/april/ustr-releases-annual-special-301).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fenghua Wang

Fenghua Wang ([email protected]; first author) is a Professor of Marketing at School of Business and Management, Key Laboratory of Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Shanghai International Studies University, China. She received her Ph.D. in marketing at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. Dr. Wang’s research focuses on online marketing, consumer behavior, service marketing, and cross-cultural comparative studies.

Mohan Wang

Mohan Wang ([email protected]) is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems at School of Business and Management, Key Laboratory of Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Shanghai International Studies University, China. She received her Ph.D. in Information Systems at the Harbin Institute of Technology. Dr. Wang’s research focuses on electronic word of mouth, consumer behavior, and online marketing strategy.

Yujie Zheng

Yujie Zheng ([email protected]) is a Ph.D. candidate at Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research interests include information management, e-commerce, and online user behavior.

Jia Jin

Jia Jin ([email protected]) is an Associate Professor of Marketing at School of Business and Management, Key Laboratory of Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Shanghai International Studies University, China. She received her Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering at Zhejiang University. Dr. Jin’s research focuses on online consumer behavior, and cross-disciplinary research applying cognitive neuroscience in marketing.

Yu Pan

Yu Pan ([email protected]; corresponding author) is a Professor of Management at School of Business and Management, Key Laboratory of Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Shanghai International Studies University, China. He received his Ph.D. in Management at University of Rennes 1, France. Dr. Pan’s interests include information management, e-commerce, consumer behavior, and cross-disciplinary research applying cognitive neuroscience in management science.