The Impact Of Online Shopping Information Context On Consumer’s Product Eyaluation

Online shopping information context provide consumers with different kinds of product external cues, while also enhance the extent of consumer information load. As consumers are assumed to be bounded rational and lack of cognitive resources, more and more previous research attempted to understand consumer’s processing mechanism upon multiple external cues.This study implemented a2(brand familiarity:low, high)×2(presence:low, high)×2(online peer:bad, good)×2(task importance:low, high) multi-factor experimental design, manipulating16experimental conditions according to B2C websites. Combing consumer bounded rationality and dual-processing model as theoretical basis, this study analyzes the relationship between brand familiarity, presence, online peer and product evaluation and the theoretical mechanism of consumer information processing. Some conclusions are drawn as follows:1. Online shopping information context has a significant impact upon consumers product evaluation. Brand familiarity, presence and online peer are three common context cues, which are used by consumers to form online product evaluations.2. Task importance and the consistency of heuristic cues has a significant impact upon the relationship between context cues and consumer product evaluations. Task importance enhances the motivation of consumer information processing. The consistency of heuristic cues influences consumer’s subjective confidence.3. The consumer information processing mechanism follows the basic assumptions of the dual-process theory. Consumer bounded rational, cognitive effort minimization principle influence consumer information processing. Only if the low cost heuristic processing approach cannot meet consumers information processing needs, will consumers implement high cost systematic information processing.