The Effects of Website Designs, Self-Congruity, and Flow on Behavioral Intention

IntroductionWith the remarkable growth of Internet users in the past two decades, the Internet has transformed the manner in which individuals identify, communicate, and make purchase decisions. The significance of this phenomenon is underscored by several reports on online retail sales. According to a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey, 52% of Americans reported making online purchases, compared to only 22% in 2000 (Jensen, 2010). Furthermore, e-commerce revenues substantially increased from $7.4 billion in 2000 to $155.2 billion in 2009, and are projected to reach $250 billion by 2014 (Schonfeld, 2010). Not only has the number of consumers shopping online increased, but the number of online retail stores has exploded. Particularly given its relatively low setup cost, online retailing has been an attractive option to both large and small retailers as a way to expand their markets beyond their regional bases.As much as this hefty market growth is encouraging for online retailers, it also signifies increasing competition among the retailers as consumers can now quickly and easily shop from a seemingly infinite number of online stores. In this competitive landscape, the success of online retailing hinges on ensuring that consumers not only visit a retail site but also spend considerable time exploring and navigating a retailer's virtual marketplace. To accomplish this goal, web designers and design managers must understand the ways in which consumers: choose a particular website among many identified through searches; interact with and evaluate the site's interface design; and make a purchase from it. The current study explores this issue in the context of initial patronage behavior (i.e., buying intention from a site from which they have never made a purchase) by incorporating the concepts of initial self-congruity and flow.Self-congruity refers to the degree of agreement between a consumer's personality and his or her perceived personality of a product or service (Kressmann et al., 2006). A consumer often perceives a product or a service as having a human-like personality; a consumer tends to evaluate a product or a service positively when the product or the service is seen to have similar characteristics to his or her own personality (Sirgy & Samli, 1985). In fact, positive self-congruity is found to be a significant predictor of a consumer's patronage behavior toward a brand and a store (Sirgy, Grewal, & Mangleburg, 2000; Sirgy, Lee, Johar, & Tidwell, 2008). In the extant literature, however, self-congruity is considered to be the judgment made after consumers walk into a store and explore its retail offerings and designs. Not much attention has been paid to understanding the initial congruity judgment formed almost immediately after visiting a website and the extent to which it might affect a consumer's evaluation of the way the site is designed. Just like the first impression of an individual's personality can influence the subsequent judgment of the individual's other qualities, the initial judgment of congruity between the website and the consumer can bias the way the consumer evaluates specific elements of website design. This study will delve into this important aspect of consumer-website interaction.The success of a retail website is also determined by the extent to which its design enables consumers to have a positive experience and accomplish their consumption goals (Wakefield, Stocks, & Wilder, 2004). Extant literature indicates that four design dimensions significantly influence website success: web aesthetics (visuals), informational content, navigation, and transactional design (Kang, Hong, & Lee, 2009; Lavie & Tractinsky, 2004; Liu & Arnett, 2000; Ranganathan & Ganapathy, 2002). Websites that correctly execute these critical design elements are more likely to attain customer satisfaction, positive purchase intentions, customer loyalty, and ongoing patronage (Bauer, Falk, & Hammerschmidt, 2006; Bhattacherjee, 2002; Kim & Lennon, 2008; Lavie & Tractinsky, 2004). …