Do Not Interfere, Just Support Me, Avatar!
(A2023-114379)

AUTHORS

Mayuko Nishii, Chiba University of Commerce

ABSTRACT

Studies reveal that the presence of avatars enhances consumers’ purchasing intentions and attitudes toward products in online environments, such as online shopping sites. However, it is unclear whether avatars positively affect any stage of the customer journey. Furthermore, research reveals that the presence of avatars brings about a sense of interference from others. Depending on the context and personal characteristics of consumers, the presence of avatars may have adverse effects. We conducted two studies with a simulated customer journey on a mock website, and the results show that there are situations where an avatar’s presence is desirable and undesirable. In addition, our findings show consumer loneliness moderates the effect of the avatar’s appearance frequency on their satisfaction with the shopping experience on e-commerce sites. These findings could be beneficial for designing customer journeys with high experience satisfaction on e-commerce sites.