Website avatars boost sales but are not as effective for utilitarian products

Researchers have found that avatars or virtual online characters that imitate human behaviours might boost a shoppers delight leading to increased sales but are not as effective for familiar, low cost, utilitarian products.

Washington, June 14 : Researchers have found that avatars or virtual online characters that imitate human behaviours might boost a shopper's delight leading to increased sales but are not as effective for familiar, low cost, utilitarian products.

The study titled 'Can a Retail Website Be Social?' was based on two researches which were conducted by a team of researchers including Dr. Baker, Dr. Liz C. Wang, Dr. Judy Wagner and Dr. Kirk Wakefield to examine consumer reactions to website avatars serving as shopping guides to help users navigate the sites.

As part of the first study, researchers examined 250 participants and looked at whether an avatar could increase their awareness about the site being social and if it does, those perceptions lead to heightened pleasure and interest, resulting in enhanced 'flow', enjoyment value, utilitarian value, and intent to purchase.

Flow is a state reached when users become absorbed in an activity.

The research found that both flow and pleasure have positive influences on the enjoyment value called 'hedonic value' of the website and its utilitarian value as a tool toward achieving a goal. Both hedonic and utilitarian values were found to strongly influence intent to buy.

As part of the second research, the 250 participants were divided into three age groups 21-35, 36-50, and 50+ to verify and broaden the results of the first study, by using a real website for buying utilitarian item.

The investigation largely supported the results of the first and revealed that pleasure was increased only for those with an actual interest in the product.

Women enjoyed themselves more than did men. While utilitarian value led to patronage for all age groups, older participants found less utilitarian value in the site and were less likely to buy.

"We found strong and consistent evidence throughout the two studies that social cues provided by website avatars produce user perceptions that the Websites are more 'social,' and that those perceptions have a significant positive influence. Those are key findings, and it didn't matter if the avatar was a graphic character or a video of a real person," Baker said.

The findings of the study will be published in the July issue of the Journal of Marketing.

ANI