by: Monique Peeters
Consumers’ information needs on e-commerce websites
E-commerce is booming business. Growing globalization and upcoming new markets have made companies aware of the necessity to operate as effectively as possible on the internet in an international environment. This raises the question: will an e-commerce website that is successful in one country, automatically guarantee success in other countries? Can a website simply be copied and translated, or do cultural differences between users demand for local adaption of the website?
The International Usability Testing Partnership (IUTP) conducted a study that gives insight into this question. IUTP is an international network, established in 2008, in which approximately 70 usability companies and educational institutions collaborate. The study was executed from November 2009 till January 2010, under the authority of Concept7, a Dutch usability company and IUTP member.
What was investigated?
Specifically, what has been investigated is if there is a difference between consumers from different cultures in their information needs when choosing products on e-commerce websites. Two sub-questions were asked:
- Is there a difference between consumers from different cultures in the attention that they pay to different kinds of information when choosing products on e-commerce websites?
- Is there a difference between consumers from different cultures in how important they find different kinds of information when choosing products on e-commerce websites?
The first question was answered by using eye tracking technology, the second by a survey.
Sample
Subject to the study were consumers in six different countries and cultures:
- Colombia
- France
- Germany
- The Netherlands
- South Africa
- United Kingdom
In every country, 30 consumers participated, 180 all together. They were all born in the respecting country just as both of his/her parents, in the age of 20 – 31, highly educated (university or similar) and had some experience with online shopping. Participants in each country were more of less equally divided between men and women.
Data collection
Object of study was the e-commerce website Booking.com, Europe’s leading online hotel reservations website. All participants were asked to view the information (in their own language) about a certain hotel on the website. After that, they had to make a judgement on how attractive they found that hotel to book for their holiday trip to Paris.
On the website, six different kinds of product-related information were defined, based on the Consumer Information Processing Model (Liao, Proctor & Salvendy, 2008):
- product description (hotel description)
- product specifications (overview facilities, hotel policies and location)
- product images (hotel pictures)
- price and promotions
- expert information about quality (number of stars that the hotel has)
- customer reviews
When participants viewed the hotel information, it was measured how much attention they paid to each kind of information. That is, how long participants looked at each defined kind of information (length of fixation in seconds). This was measured by eye tracking.
After that, it was investigated how important participants had found each kind of information in order to make a judgement on the hotel. This was done by a survey, with 5 point scale questions ranging from ‘very unimportant’ to ‘very important’, for all six information categories.
All tests were run in by IUTP members in their usability labs in their own countries: Bunnyfoot (United Kingdom), Concept7 (The Netherlands), Miratech (France), SirValUse Consulting GmbH (Germany), Stuttgart Media University (Germany), UNISA School of Computing (South Africa) and YanHaas S.A. (Colombia).
Results and conclusion
Results show that there is a difference between consumers from different cultures in their information needs when choosing products on e-commerce websites:
There is a difference between cultures in the attention that they pay to different kinds of information on e-commerce websites. Significant differences between cultures were found for each of the six kinds of information categories investigated (product description, product specifications, product images, price and promotions, expert information about quality, and customer reviews). However, these differences largely disappear when looking at relative attention that is paid. For example, South Africans paid much more attention to product specifications (absolute) than other countries, but they spent only about 12% of their time looking at this information (relative), which is hardly more than other countries. Nevertheless, in an absolute way, differences exist.
There is a difference between cultures in how important they find different kinds of information when choosing products on e-commerce websites.
Significant differences between cultures were found for three out of six kinds of information: product description, product specifications and expert information about quality.
It can be assumed that the more important consumers find certain information, the more attention they pay to that information on the website. A positive correlation for each of the six kinds of information categories was found between the importance attributed to certain information and the attention paid to that information on the website. In other words, the more important consumers find certain information, the more attention they give to that information. However, the correlation was weak and only significant in the case of product specifications.
Differences between cultures in information needs on e-commerce websites
Based on the results, it can be concluded that there are differences between consumers from different cultures in their information needs when choosing products on e-commerce websites. So what are these differences?
- In South Africa they pay much more attention to product specifications than in any other country investigated, ranging from almost twice as much as in the United Kingdom to more than three times as much as in The Netherlands (The Netherlands scored also significantly lower than Germany, number two in the ranking).
Besides, South Africans find this information most important of all countries (97% of the South Africans found this (very)important) and significantly more important than France and The Netherlands. Also, they find this more important than any other kind of information.
South Africa has higher information needs for product specifications than Colombia, France, Germany, The Netherlands and United Kingdom, and finds this information more important than any other information.
- In South Africa they pay much more attention to prices and promotions than all other countries except Germany. However, they don’t consider this information more important than other countries do and they even find it less important than all other information.
South Africa has higher information needs for price and promotions than Colombia, France, The Netherlands and United Kingdom, but still these information needs are lower than the needs for other information. - In the United Kingdom they pay less attention to product descriptions than in any other country investigated. On the other hand, they do find this information important (93% found it (very) important). Countries that find this information most important are Colombia and South Africa. Product descriptions are found least important in The Netherlands (only 57% found it (very) important and 20% (very) unimportant).
The United Kingdom and The Netherlands have lower information needs for product descriptions than France, Germany, and especially South Africa and Colombia. However, in the United Kingdom it’s still the second highest valued information compared to other information. - In the United Kingdom they pay less attention to product images than in South Africa and Colombia. However, they don’t find this less important. On the contrary, they find this information more important than any other information.
The United Kingdom has lower information needs for product images than South Africa and Colombia, but still finds this information the most important information. - In the United Kingdom they pay more attention to expert information about quality than in Colombia and France. This information was considered most important by South Africans (87% found this information (very) important), and least by the French and Germans; respectively 33% and 43% found this information (very) important.
South Africa and the United Kingdom have higher information needs for expert information about quality than Colombia, Germany and especially France. - Most striking in the results is South Africa. This country shows higher information needs for product descriptions, product specifications, product images, price and promotions and expert information about quality than (some) other countries.
- Overall, product images formed the highest valued information. Expert information about quality was generally considered least important.
No clear relationship was found between the cultural differences in information needs found in this study and Hofstede’s (1991) and Hall’s (1976) theories on culture classifications. However, results give some indications that high-context cultures (Hall’s classification) may have more needs of product descriptions and product images than low-context cultures and that masculine cultures (Hofstede’s classification) may have more needs of product specifications and expert information about quality than feminine cultures.
Recommendations
Based on the results, it is recommended to take cultural differences into account when designing e-commerce websites for international audiences. Designers should keep in mind that some cultures, such as the South African, have higher information needs in general than other cultures. Also, some cultures give more value to certain kinds of information than other cultures. E-commerce web designs should reflect these differences by drawing more or less attention to these kinds of information.
Download the Cross-Cultural Eyetracking Study
| Consumers’ Information Needs on E-Commerce Websites | 9.9Mb |
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