Research On Online Consumer's Stickiness

With the development of web economy, more and more companies have established web channels and taken the websites as their marketing mediums. At the same time, competitions in the network marketplace become increasingly fierce when they are exploring the e-markets. The focus of researches has transformed from consumers' adoption and use of online purchase to including consumers' continuance behavior. The objectives of running websites are not only to absorb consumers but also to reserve consumers and develop long-term relationships with consumers. So how the websites behave to make potential consumers absorbed and become repeat consumers has become focus problems in the theory and practice, which is the content of this paper.Most of previous literatures researched potential consumers' adoption online purchase or use of websites. But seldom probed into online repeat consumers' continuance behavior and seldom related the use and continuance of websites together. From online consumers' perception and psychology, consumers' stickiness is considered as a centre factor associating strategies of absorbing with reserving consumers. The forming mechanisms of short-term and long-term stickiness will be analyzed, online consumers' psychology and behavior with the first time experience and multiple experiences will be discussed in order to provide references for e-tailors to absorb and reserve consumers.The research develops mainly around three aspects. The first is to analyze the meaning and classification of online consumers' stickiness. The second aspect is to discuss the forming mechanism of consumers' short-term stickiness and its influence factors. The last aspect is to study the forming mechanism of online consumers' long-term stickiness and its influence factors.At the beginning, through literatures review, based on the given definition of stickiness, By means of review and comparable analysis of every conception, the meaning of the online consumers' stickiness is made clear based on this study context. Referring to the relationships between trade exchange and relationship exchange, and the relationship between customer acquisition and customer reservation, online consumers' stickiness are classified to short-term and long-term stickiness. The short-term stickiness represents customer acquisition based on transaction viewpoint and the long-term stickiness represents reservation based on relationship viewpoint. The scales of measuring online consumers' short-term and long-term stickiness are made consequently.Second, according to the online consumers' experience process of online consuming, two periods of the first time experience and multiple experiences are discriminated and they are linked with online consumers' short-term and long-term stickiness are discussed separately. An integrate analysis framework is developed to discuss the forming mechanism of the short-term stickiness and the long-term stickiness.Finally, based on literature review, factors influencing online consumers' behavior are summed up, involving factors about the reception or adoption and continuance. From the reception or adoption of online transaction, absorbing consumers' visit to form short-term stickiness is the important objectives in this period. It is during the first time experience period when consumers form the first impression. The forming mechanism on online consumers' short-term stickiness is analyzed. Based on relationships among belief-attitude-intention, the model about short-term stickiness' formation is developed. Looking from consumers' continuance behavior, that is, continuing and repeating online transactions, the websites not only want to hold these consumers but also hope to develop long-term relationships. During the period of multiple experiences on transactions, consumers show their stickiness' characteristics. So the paper analyzes the factors influencing long-term stickiness from the relationship viewpoint and according to the framework of information system continuance, develops a model of online consumers' long-term stickiness.The research methods include literature study, normative study and empirical study. Among these, the analysis of the online consumers' stickiness' definition, classification and experiencing process is based on literature review; the discussion of influence factors and development of models use normative research method; the examinations of the two models adopt empirical research. The statistics software used are SPSS 15.0 and LISREL 8.70 including reliability analysis, confirmation factor analysis, covariance analysis, SEM examination and hierarchy regression analysis.Through theory analysis and empirical examination, the research inclusions derived are as follows:First, the common factors influencing short-term stickiness and long-term stickiness work differently. Perceived reputation doesn't have significant total effects upon the short-term stickiness; perceived flow doesn't have significant total effects on the long-term stickiness. In the formation of the short-term stickiness, initial trust is the factor that has the greatest influencing degree. While ongoing trust is the greatest influencing factor in forming long-term stickiness. So improving trust to absorb and hold consumers online for companies is an indispensable and important strategy.Second, in the model of short-term stickiness formation, perceived ease of use has a positive effect on perceived usefulness; the relation between perceived usefulness and perceived risk is positive related; Perceived information quality positively and significantly affect perceived usefulness; Perceived system quality has a significant effect on perceived ease of use. Perceived reputation' influence is not significant; Initial trust' formation relies on perceived information quality and perceived flow not perceived system quality; Flow experience comes from perceived system quality not perceived information quality. Perceived flow has significant total effects on initial trust, attitude and short-term stickiness intention. The direct factors influencing attitude include perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and initial trust; attitude is the factor affecting short-term stickiness intention most greatly. The demographic characteristics don't have the significant effect on the short-term stickiness intention. The online consumers with different education degrees have strikingly different initial trust levels and perceived risk levels. Third, in the model of long-term stickiness formation, perceived system quality and perceived service quality both help to produce flow feelings; But perceived flow doesn't increase online consumers' ongoing trust and long-term stickiness intention; perceived information quality, perceived system quality and perceived service quality all have an significant effect on overall satisfaction. Websites' system quality is more important than service quality. Perceived reputation, perceived system quality, perceived service quality and overall satisfaction all contribute to increase ongoing trust, which affects commitment strongly. Habit has striking effects on perceived switching cost and long-term stickiness. Habit and perceived switching cost don't have moderating role. Habit, ongoing trust and overall satisfaction influence long-term stickiness intention directly, among them, overall satisfaction is the most important influence factor. The intention affects factual behavior directly. Some of the demographic characteristics do have significant effects such as the education degree, website shopping experience and log-on net frequency. And the website shopping experience influences the habits, flow and factual transaction behavior significantly. But the sex doesn't have outstanding influence on the habit.Fourth, the nature of online transactions develops from the nature of technology and transaction towards the ones of technology, transaction and society.The contribution of this paper includes:First, online consumers' stickiness is classified into short-term stickiness and long-term stickiness. They are examined with empirical methods in the web context in our country. Taking the link of customer acquisition and customer reservation, relationship's development into consideration, the online consumers' stickiness is classified into short-term and long-term stickiness. In accordance with related literature, the dimensions of both kinds of online consumers' stickiness are developed. And this overcomes the one-sidedness of purely researching customer acquisition or reservation by previous literatures.Second, an integrated analysis framework is designed systematically about the formation of online consumers' stickiness. Through reviewing the online consumers' experience processes, a model about online transaction is developed based on experience, which relates the first-time experience process and the multiple experiences process to the short-term and the long-term stickiness respectively. Combined with influence factors, an integrated analysis framework is designed. The forming mechanisms of short-term stickiness and long-term stickiness are analyzed.Third, the conception model of the short-term stickiness formation is developed and tested. The short-term stickiness is formed during the first time experience process. Referring to online consumers' behavior characteristics, based on the TAM, TPB, the theory of cognitive dissonance et al., covering factors about perception, emotion, belief, attitude and intention, the short-term online consumers' stickiness conception model is developed and tested. The short-term stickiness measures the online consumer's revisit and purchase and focuses on the development of exchange relationship. The relationships are deeply investigated among perceived website quality, perceived reputation, perceived risk, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, flow, initial trust, attitude and short-term stickiness intentions.Fourth, the conception model of the long-term stickiness formation is developed and tested. The long-term stickiness is formed during the multiple experiences process. Referring to the synthesis model of information system continuance research, introducing commitment-trust theory, according to belief-attitude-intention logic relationship, the long-term online consumers' stickiness model is developed and tested. The long-term stickiness measures the intention of continuance transaction and focuses on the development and maintenance of relationship between the website and its consumers. The relationships are analyzed and tested in detail among perceived website quality, perceived service quality, perceived reputation, perceived switching cost, flow, habit, ongoing trust, overall satisfaction, commitment, factual transaction behavior and long-term stickiness intention. The previous literatures about the technology use have given attention to the interactions of human and computer. Through study, the model analyzes whether the relationship is existed. The study extends to the larger scope of relationship context, between the consumers and e-tailors.By means of the paper's study, the deficiency of existing stickiness research is made up for. The contents of the paper help to understand online consumers' behavior. Through investigating online consumers' short-term stickiness, the roles of different influence factors are ascertained. They offer the theory basis and practice values to take suitable measures to absorb online consumes. Through the study of online consumers' long-term stickiness, it shows the factors influencing online consumers' forming the long-term relationship with the website. They can also provide theory basis and practical value to the website managers to hold consumers by means of relationship management based on absorbing these consumers. Website managers can assign different resources in line with every influence factor' role, segment different markets and make different marketing tactics to realize website operation's objectives.