An Analysis Of The Impacts Of The Three Parties Information On Consumers’ Intention And Behavior To Choose The Online Store

The 35 th China Internet Network Development State Statistic Report in 2015 shows that by of the end of 2014,the amount of Chinese online shoppers has reached 0.361 billion, which is 19.7% higher than it was in 2013.The proportion of online operations of enterprises has reached 24.7%.The continuous expansion of the scale between the buyers and sellers is promoting the prosperity of the online shopping market. The concept of “ Internet +” will bring more and more real economy into virtual business and the competition will also be intense. The design of mobile shopping APPs is a tool to snatch the market shares. The categories of products in online shopping market are enriched, so do the shops of the same trade and business. The vast number of consumers need to rely on the information disclosed by the online stores to make right decisions among alternative offers. The effects of store image, product attributes, and Internet word-of-mouth on consumers’ purchase intention and behavior have been discussed in many scholars’ reports. However, seldom scholars, who are based on signaling theory and consider the signal disclosure of online shops, have studied the effects on consumers’ intention and activities to choose a network store. According to the sources and reflection levels,the information revealed by the network shops is divided into three aspects: store information, product information and consumers’ evaluation information. This paper discusses the influences of those three parties information on the intention and behavior of choices. The moderating effects of asymmetry and credibility of information are also considered in this paper.The categories and levels of signals disclosed by the online stores are various. In each party, information comes from multi-signals. The different combinations of signal levels differ the consumers’ perception. A conjoint analysis method is used in the study 1 to determine the contribution rate of single signal to consumers’ choice preference and the utility estimates of different signal levels, and to select several representative signals to set the levels of the three parties information. Then study 2 explores the impacts of the three parties information on the consumers’ intention and behavior to choose the online store.Study 1 shows that the proportion of positive reviews, monthly sales and sellers’ reputation of store information contribute most to consumers’ preference.Price and band in product information contribute most to consumers’ preference. The direction and type of reviews are most important in choosing shop. Study 2 shows that the three parties information have significantly positive influences on consumers’ intention and behavior of choices. In the meanwhile, the comprehensive effect of the three parties information is greater than the common effect of the shop information and evaluation information, which is also greater than the influence of the consumers’ reviews. The asymmetry and credibility of information have significant moderating effects on the relationship between the three parties information and the choice intention. The asymmetry of Information only has mediated moderating effects on the relationship between store information, product information and choice behavior. The credibility of Information only has a mediated moderating effect on the relationship between the evaluation information and the choice behavior.The conclusions of this research shows that the information disclosed by the online shops is significant to the consumers’ choice. Online sellers should pay attention to the disclosure of information, especially to that with great reference values when consumers make decisions. However, the signals always work together. To improve the levels of signals, online sellers should care about the changes of the influences of the signals’ combinations. Consumers’ information about online stores and products is limited, so they always rely on the information unveiled by the network stores to make decisions. The reliability of information is the key to decide the adoptions of relevant information. Hence the information disclosed by the online stores must be detailed and reliable. The last part of this paper discusses the limitations and future research directions.