Creating the right customer experience online: The influence of culture

Abstract

The effective role of experiential marketing in the differentiation of brands has been documented in both traditional and online services. The digital context of e-retailing makes it both a suitable platform for experiential consumption and an easily accessible shopping method across cultures. In spite of this, investigation of the impacts of cultural differences on the desire for experiential benefits has been very limited in the e-retailing literature. Using Hofstede's (2001) cultural dimensions, this article studies how two student samples of North American and Chinese customers react differently to the experiential values offered on the websites of e-retailing services. The findings support our hypotheses and suggest that offering experiential values on a company's website is more influential for North American than for Chinese customers. More specifically, the influences of experiential values on site involvement and customers' patronage intentions are stronger for North Americans than for Chinese visitors. On the other hand, the impacts of site involvement on site attitudes and the influence of site attitudes on patronage intentions are stronger for Chinese compared with North American customers.

Keywords::

• experiential values
• culture
• e-retailer
• site involvement
• site attitude
• patronage intentions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^1. Email: [email protected].

^2. Email: [email protected].

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Saeed Shobeiri

Saeed Shobeiri (University of Sherbrooke), Ph.D. (Concordia University), has published in journals such as the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, the Service Industries Journal, and the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. He has several proceedings and presentations at AMA, and ASAC conferences. His research interests cover e-retailing and experiential marketing.

Ebrahim Mazaheri

Ebrahim Mazaheri (Laurentian University), Ph.D. (Concordia University), Fellow of the American Marketing Association and Administrative Sciences Association of Canada. He published in journals such as the Journal of Business Research, the Journal of Services Marketing, and the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice. He has several proceedings and presentations at AMA, ACR, and ASAC conferences.

Michel Laroche

Michel Laroche (Concordia University), Ph.D. (Columbia), D.Sc. hc (Guelph), Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, American Psychological Association, Society for Marketing Advances and Academy of Marketing Science, 2000 Concordia University Research Fellow, 2000 Jacques-Rousseau Medal, published over 150 journal articles in the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Retailing and Journal of Advertising Research; 150 proceedings, 26 textbooks and several book chapters. He is Managing Editor of the Journal of Business Research, and a Governor of the Academy of Marketing Science.