The Influence of Online Atmosphere on Perceived Quality, Satisfaction and Purchase Intention

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of online store atmosphere elements on consumer responses in terms of perceived product quality, information quality and satisfaction. More specific, an experimental design of online shopping website was established. The experiment was a 3 (website design: text/text plus product picture /text plus human picture) x 2 (website appeal: product describe/storytelling) between-subjects factorial design. The results indicated that (1) participants exposed to different website designs revealed significant different responses on perceived information quality, product and satisfaction. Among three conditions, text plus product picture resulted in more favorable responses than text only design, (2) website appeal did not result in significant responses, (3) text plus product picture with storytelling appeal resulted in the highest level of responses, followed by text plus human picture with storytelling appeal. Results from current study could offer possible direction for the website designer to build an ideal online shopping website with appropriate atmosphere factor.