This document summarizes a study that examined the impact of online store personality on customer trust and purchase intention. The study investigated how the personality dimensions of enthusiasm, sophistication, genuineness and unpleasantness relate to customer trust and purchase intention, and whether website quality mediates these relationships. 327 participants evaluated 3 online stores and completed surveys on store personality, customer trust, purchase intention and website quality. Results showed that genuineness most strongly predicted customer trust, while genuineness also most strongly predicted purchase intention. Website quality was found to mediate the relationships between store personality and both customer trust and purchase intention.

1. The impact of Online store personality on
Customer Trust and Purchase Intention

2. AGENDA
 Introduction
 Literature Review
 Methodology
 Results
 Implication
 Limitation
1

3. INTRODUCTION
In 2012, the volume of Chinese online shopping
market size reached 1304 billion, increased
68.6% than 2011.
The Sum of C2C transactions on Taobao
= 90% of Chinese C2C market
= 63.3% of Chinese online shopping market
= 825.3 billion
(Statistics resource: iResearch) 2

4. INTRODUCTION
By December 2012, the number of C2C online
stores was 13.65 million, decreased 15.7%
year on year. On average, 10 thousands C2C
stores shut down per day.
Competition for online vendors is much fiercer.
In order to survive, winning customer trust and
arousing purchase intention become the keys to
success of online stores.
(Statistics recourse:《2012年度中國網絡零售市場數據監測報告》) 3

5. Previous researches revealed that store
personality plays a critical role in customer behaviors.
In the network age, the concept and measurement
of store personality needs to be adapted into the
new context (Amit Poddar, Naveen Donthu and Yujie Wei, 2009).
Actually, few research has adapted store
personality into the new context and examined direct
following relationships:
Online store
personality
Customer Trust
Purchase
Intention
Website Quality
This study will fill the gap.
INTRODUCTION
4

6. STAGE 1
STAGE 2
Website Quality as a MEDIATOR (path analysis)
Enthusiasm
Sophistication
Genuineness
Unpleasantness
Customer
Trust
Purchase
Intention
Online Store
Personality
IV1
IV2
IV3
IV4
DV1
DV2
RESEARCH FRAMEWORK DESIGN
5

7. DEFINITION: How customers attribute human
characteristics to an online store.
Personality of a website is built through its interactions with
users (Breakenrige, 2001)
Online store personality Store personality Brand personality
(D'Astous and Levesque,2003) (Aakar,1997)
Enthusiasm Sophistication
Genuineness Solidity Unpleasantness
(Amit Poddar, Naveen Donthu and Yujie Wei, 2009)
Enthusiasm Sophistication
Genuineness Unpleasantness
LITERATURE REVIEWOnline store Personality (IVs)
6

8. DEFINITION: Willingness to rely on the seller and take
action in circumstances where such action makes the
consumer vulnerable to the seller (Jarvenpaa et al, 1999).
Trust is essential in forming transactional relationships (Reichheld,
1994).
Without directly observing the product and face-to-face talking
with the shop owner (Grazioli and Jarvenpaa, 2000), online customers are
exposed to more uncertainties and risks.
Website characteristics
Online shopping
experience
Entertainment (Bart, Shankar, Sultan, and Urban, 2005)
Online Store Personality
LITERATURE REVIEWCustomer Trust (DV)
Customer Trust
(Chiu et al,2008)
7

9. HYPOTHESIS (a) & RQ1
H1a: There will be a positive relationship between enthusiasm
and customer trust.
H2a: There will be a positive relationship between sophistication
and customer trust.
H3a: There will be a positive relationship between genuineness
and customer trust.
H4a: There will be a negative relationship between
unpleasantness and customer trust.
RQ1:Which dimension predicts customer trust most?
8

10. LITERATURE REVIEW
DEFINITION: the willingness or possibility of a
customer to become involved in online transactions (Pavlou,
2003).
Information Success Model: Intention to use Actual use
Intention to use (Purchase Intention) is affected by quality of
system, information and service(DeLone and McLean, 2003), which at the
same time lead to the establishment of online store personality.
Purchase Intention (DV)
9

11. HYPOTHESIS (b) & RQ2
H1b: There will be a positive relationship between enthusiasm
and purchase intention.
H2b: There will be a positive relationship between sophistication
and purchase intention.
H3b: There will be a positive relationship between genuineness
and purchase intention.
H4b: There will be a negative relationship between
unpleasantness and purchase.
RQ2: Which dimension predicts purchase intention most?
10

12. WEBSITE QUALITYWebsite Quality (Mediator)
11
DEFINITION: Website quality is the perceived
overall quality of a Website according to the customer‘s
viewpoint. (Poddar, Donthu and Wei ,2009).
 Website characteristics are determinants of customer
trust. (Chao-Min Chiu, Chen-Chi Chang, Hsiang-Lan Cheng, and Yu-Hui Fang, 2008)
 Site information quality and a good interface design
enhance the consumer trust. (Fung and Lee ,1999)
Website Personality Website Quality
Customer Trust

13. 12
H5:The impact of Website personality on
Customer Trust is mediated by Website
quality.
HYPOTHESIS 5

14. WEBSITE QUALITYWebsite Quality (Mediator)
13
 Website Quality acts as a mediator between Website
personality and purchase intention. (Poddar, Donthu and Wei, 2009)
 Website quality is related to 12 core dimensions(Poddar, Donthu and Wei ,2009)
informational fit-to-task; tailored communications; trust; response time; ease
of understanding; intuitive operations; visual appeal; innovativeness;
emotional appeal; consistent image; on-line completeness; and relative
advantage.
informational fit-to-task; tailored communications; trust; response time; ease
of understanding; intuitive operations; visual appeal; innovativeness;
emotional appeal; consistent image; on-line completeness; and relative
advantage.

15. 14
H6:The impact of Website personality on
Purchase Intention is mediated by Website
quality.
HYPOTHESIS 6

16. 1.Each respondent was asked to experience one
of three stores, 100+ respondents for each store.
2.Answer questions
METHODOLOGYProcedure
15
sojump
Creative products
*3

17. METHODOLOGY
Convenience + Snowball sampling
Sampling
16
327
valid respondents
200 female
127 male

18. METHODOLOGYIV
17
IV
Questions
α Mean SD
Enthusiasm 4 .75 2.88 0.58
Sophistication 4 .85 2.77 0.64
Genuineness 4 .87 2.97 0.52
Unpleasantness 4 .86 1.88 0.60
i.e.: This store is considered to be friendly.
congenial enthusiasticlively (1=strongly
disagree, 4=strongly agree)
i.e.: This store is considered to be annoying.
irritating outmodedsuperficial
i.e.: This store is considered to be conscientious.
genuine reliablesincere
i.e.: This store is considered to be elegant.
high classstylishchic

19. METHODOLOGYDV
18
DV Questions α Mean SD
Customer Trust 3 .76 2.88 0.56
Purchase Intention 1 N/A 2.99 0.72
Product Risk(Forsythe and Shi, 2003)
i.e.: I believe the product information on the website
is true.(1=strongly disagree,4=strongly agree)
i.e.: If the price factor is ruled out: I am willing to
purchase in this store (once I need the product).(1-4)

20. METHODOLOGYMediator
19
Mediator
Questions
α Mean SD
Website Quality 11 .91 2.88 0.53
i.e.: I think the website provides accurate, updated and
appropriate information.(1=strongly disagree, 4=strongly agree)
Information Quality Ease of use and understanding
Innovativeness Visual Appeal Emotional Appeal
(Poddar, Donthu and Wei, 2009)

21. 20
RESULTS
89.6%
Purchased creative
products
73
Young, educated
18-24(87%)
Master(40%)
Bachelor(56%)
41
E-Shop 2~3times a month
187 131

22. Customer Trust α
Model Beta Sig.
Enthusiasm 0.16** .001
Sophistication 0.26*** .000
Genuiness 0.43*** .000
Unpleasantness -0.08# .058
Gender 0.07 .070
Age 0.01 .688
Education -0.04 .222
adjusted R Square .578
RESULTSStage1：Linear Regression
21
H1a supported
H2a supported
H3a supported
H4a partially supported
RQ1:Genuiness predicts customer trust most.
*p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001, #p<0.06

23. Purchase Intention α
Model Beta Sig. Conclusion
Enthusiasm 0.16** .006
Sophistication 0.34*** .000
Genuiness 0.25*** .000
Unpleasantness -0.55 .226
Gender 0.13** .002
Age -0.30 .473
Education -0.44 .292
adjusted R Square .430
RESULTSStage1：Linear Regression
22
H1b supported
H2b supported
H3b supported
H4b rejected
RQ2:Genuiness predicts customer trust most.
*p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001, #p<0.06

24. Stage2：Path Analysis(Pearson Correlation) RESULTS
23
Mediator
Mediator

25. Stage2：Path Analysis(Pearson Correlation) RESULTS
24
Mediator
Mediator

26. IMPLICATION
DV1 Customer Trust and DV2 Purchase
Intention is significantly related.
Website Quality is the mediator between each set
of IV and DV.
To improve customer trust, enthusiasm
character of an E-shop requires most attention.
To boost purchase intention, genuineness
character of an E-shop requires most attention.
25

27. LIMITATION
26
Sampling size:327
Nonprobability sampling
Limited Websites: 3 stores
Only for creative products
Translation Accuracy
Interaction Effect
Website Quality is the mediator between each
set of IV and DV

28. 27
HU Qingxin Zhang Shurong TSANG Lai Ka
Jiang An Wu Tianyi Li Jun