The Effect of Age and Color on E-Commerce : Implications for Baby Boomers and Visually Impaired Persons

Although it is often believed that online shopping is characteristic of younger consumers, actually in the US about 25% of online purchasing is by seniors, equal to their population share (Business Insider 2018). In Europe, 54% of retirees purchase online although Western Europeans are more active than those in Eastern European countries (Eurostat 2018). High internet usage and higher levels of internet purchasing by the middle age demographic suggests that older consumers will buy increasingly large amounts through e-commerce. However, visual impairment affects the ability to use online purchasing and various types of impairments often accompany aging (Fisk and Rogers 1997). It is estimated that 95% of e-commerce websites are inaccessible to persons with impaired vision (Gignac 2000). Some seniors, therefore, may opt out of e-commerce as the navigation process may be too arduous or a promotional offer may be too difficult to view (Ladwein and Mimoun 2006) . Such difficulties may also affect those who try to purchase but exit an e-commerce site before a transaction is completed. Following the reasoning set forth by Pelet (2010) and Pelet & Papadopoulou (2012), we posit that the use of color may also benefit product sales online. The use of color may prove critical to e-commerce expansion if its strategic placement can improve the customer interface for persons with visual challenges. Visual differentiation, such as adhering to color norms, has been shown to be beneficial for certain product categories (Labrecque 2013) in assisting those with visual challenges. It has also been suggested that color may affect memory. Thus, the research reported in this paper had two objectives: 1) to determine how consumers with declining or limited vision can access e-commerce product information in a manner that increases information retention; 2) to determine if age moderates the effect of font color on information retention while using an e-commerce website