Identifying On-Line Shopping Experiences from the Perspective of Shopping Motives

INTRODUCTIONRecently, online shopping has rapidly increased as an important market channel. In the 2008 SERI (Samsung Economic Research Institute) report, while in 2006 the online shopping channel was ranked third after Large Supermarket and Department Stores, it took over 20% of the market share, competing with department stores for second place. Also the characteristics of customers who are shopping online have changed. Shoppers trust the product information provided by other customers more than they do the information given by the company, and this has led to more active production and distribution of information by customers. Historically, customers have been reluctant to buy service products and clothes online, but the contribution of those sales are increasing. Also, various informational experiences are becoming active through proactive exchange of feedback in the online community of customers (SERI 2008). As the standard of living improves, and the needs and values of life diversify, shopping has evolved as a profound activity that requires experience from various motivations. Kim et al. (2007) stated that the value of shopping that customers seek is not limited to buying a product, meaning that through these various shopping environments, customers are not only just buying, but are shopping in various aspects. It can be inferred from the previous contents that the value customers seek from shopping happens online as well as off-line. In other words, shopping activities that happen online are changing to activities with experiences from various motivations.However, studies of online shopping experiences have not yet suggested integrated and easily applicable shopping experience factors. Vazques et al. (2001) claimed that shopping experience factors can show differently, depending on the industry and circumstances. But these experience factors need to be defined in a highly generalized format. Brakus, Schmitt and Zarantonello (2009) defined the experience factors that can be highly generalized according to the brand experience, and also revealed the performance of these experience factors.By analyzing shopping activities according to customer experience, the core of shopping activities can be understood as integrated factors, and through this, the implication of shopping can be found (Sehumitt 2003). Therefore, this study will give new definitions of shopping experience factors in the online shopping environment.When we define shopping experience factors, we intend to study the preceding factor of shopping, i.e. shopping motivation. Also, this study will reveal the effectiveness of these shopping experience factors to shopping site attractiveness.Shopping experience factors are categorized as primary experience and procedural experience in this study. Primary experience is defined as Sensory, Affective, Intellectual, Behavioral, and Relational experience. Procedural experience is defined as Decision convenience, Access convenience and Benefit convenience. The experience factors listed above impact the attractiveness of shopping sites.THEORETICAL BACKGROUNDStudies on the shopping motivesFor a comprehensive analysis of customer experience factors in online shopping environments, we need to study the preceding variables for the customer experience, their shopping motives. This study re-defines and systemizes the shopping experience from the perspective of shopping value, and tries to derive in-depth studies of the online shopping experience, as well as highly applicable shopping experience factors.What kinds of purpose and motivations do customers bring to shopping? First, to answer this question, Batra and Ahtola define shopping as task-related rational activities (1991). Studies have defined shopping from various shopping utilitarian points of view, such as in terms of orientation and product usage (Darden and Reynolds 1971), store preference and shopping behavior (Stephenson and Willett 1969), and AIO in relation to shopping (Mosehis 1976). …