The Role of Extrinsic Cues in Consumer Decision Process in Online Shopping Environments

Online merchants must learn how to compensate for the absence of a physical environment by using distinct cues in the form of site features, functionalities, and utilities to enhance online purchase intentions in the minds of consumers. Drawing on the cue-utilization research in marketing, the author extends the notion of extrinsic cues to online consumer decisions. In this research, the author explores the existence, relative importance, and salience of extrinsic cues in online consumer decision processes. Using a sample of 205 online shoppers, the author finds that web interface cues, transaction cues, and vendor image cues are important predictors of online purchase intentions. This paper also examines the individual effects of specific cues to assess the relative importance of these cues. The findings indicate that security-related cues have relatively higher positive association compared with other cues. Though nice site layout and design emerge as significant cues, information content and vendor image have greater positive association with online purchase intentions.