Persuasive colours in e-commerce: A cross-cultural perspective

Colours influence the way we feel, think and behave. In a web shop, the online atmospheric cues, such as colours, provide information about the online retailer and influence the affective and cognitive internal states that influence the purchase behaviour of the online shopper. This presentation explores cultural differences and similarities of online consumers.
First, both web shop variables and consumer variables are identified that might affect the behavioral intention of online consumers. With respect to the web shop, a distinction is made between source variables on the one hand (online store image, safety, convenience, hedonic pleasure), and message variables on the other (content of the communication, modality, recommendations). With regard to the consumers, a distinction is made between socio-demographic variables (cultural background, gender) and processing variables (motivation, ability and opportunity).
In order to explore the effects of these variables in more depth, several cross-sectional studies were conducted in which culturally diverse groups of online consumers from Europe and Asia participated. They were invited to buy electronic equipment, fashion clothes, or books in simulated online web shops. Analyses indicated differences in online behavioral intentions that can only partly be traced back to cultural differences between their societies. Repeatedly, the assumed cultural effect on the perceived store image is overruled by source-related characteristics such as trust, emotion and self-disclosure. This cross-cultural comparison of online consumer behavior not only enables us to establish the diverse preferences as such, but also to explain the dynamic changes through the underlying causal factors.