A study of preferences in a simulated online shopping experiment

The current study seeks to expand understanding of how brand loyalty develops by arranging environmental contingencies in online stores. A simulated online shopping experiment was prepared where participants purchase products (116 in all) from two different online stores. A concurrent reinforcement schedule was arranged for two groups of 20 participants. Free shipment was presumed to reinforce purchase behaviour. For the first group, the concurrent schedule was a VR4/VR8 arrangement for choices between two online stores. The researchers wanted to replicate this with different VR values and the second group was exposed to a VR4/VR16 arrangement for choice between two online stores. The results showed that the preference of 13 out of the 40 participants was not under the control of the experimenter-defined contingencies. For the remaining 27 participants, it was found that 18 showed preferences according to the experimenter-defined contingencies. In the first phase of the experiment, there was more variability, switching between the alternatives, than in the maintenance phase. In addition, average choice time decreased as a function of number of trials.