The Effect Of Online Payment Methods On Consumers’ Purchase Intention

As the start point of financial services,payment methods provide an important supporting role for consuming.In recent years,there has been an increasing trend of mobilization and offline-to-online shift of payment methods in China.This trend is driving the digital transformation of retail stores while facilitating the expansion of consumer spending.At the same time,the integration of payment technology with consumer finance scenarios has made payment methods no longer limited to providing payment and financial management functions,but also providing different subjects in the payment system such as convenience and pleasant value perception.This change means that it is necessary for both the supply and demand sides of payment services to gain a deeper understanding of individuals’ attitudes,perceptions and behaviors when using different payment methods,so that the marketing value offered by payment methods can be more fully utilized.Through the review of the literature,the author found that few studies on payment methods have focused on the impact of online payment methods on consumer behavior,and the mechanism by which payment methods affect consumers’ purchase intentions is still controversial in existing studies.At the same time,based on the observation of online shopping background in China,the authors identified the lack of retail-store perspective in related studies.Therefore,this study chooses retail stores as study object,and uses purchase decision theory,mental account theory,and adaption level theory as the theoretical basis to explore the differences in consumers’ purchase intention when using different online payment methods and mechanisms of action.This study first develops a model framework of "online payment method(credit payment method vs.non-credit payment method)-perception-purchase intention".Then the author proposes the hypothesis of the mediating role of overall store price image and the hypothesis of the moderating role of payment sensitivity by combining theories for logical derivation.After pre-experiment to determine the merchandise materials in the formal experiments,hypotheses were tested by Experiment 1(N=140)and Experiment 2(N=149).Specifically,Experiment 1 verified the effect of different online payment methods on consumers’ purchase intention.Experiment 2 verified the mediating role of store price image perception and the moderating role of payment sensitivity.As a result,this paper draws the following three conclusions:(1)between online payment methods,credit payment method leads to higher purchase intention compared to non-credit payment method.(2)overall store price image mediates the influence of online payment methods on consumers’ purchase intention.(3)payment sensitivity plays a moderating role in the influence of online payment methods on overall store price image and purchase intention.Specifically,for individuals with low payment sensitivity,credit payment method leads to lower overall store price image and higher purchase intention compared to non-credit payment method.In summary,this study explores the mechanism of the role of payment methods on consumers’ purchase intentions in online retailing contexts.It enriches the relevant findings and fills the gaps in existing research.In practice,this study provides multiple references for subjects who provide and use payment services to better understand the process of the influence of online payment methods on consumers’ purchase intention: It provides marketing suggestions for retail stores according to payment methods.It also shows a new way for shopping platforms to segment consumer by payment methods and payment sensitivity.At last,consumers are reminded to use online credit payment method more reasonably to make it play a greater role in financial allocation.