Shaping e-retailer's website personality: The importance of experiential marketing

This research investigates how offering experiential values by an online retailer affects the personality of the e-retailers website in consumers minds. It empirically studies the impacts of four experiential value types aesthetics, playfulness, customer return on investment (CROI), and service excellence on each of the five website personality dimensions of enthusiasm, genuineness, solidity, sophistication, and pleasantness. The findings confirm the overall model and the majority of the hypothesized relationships are significant. The findings show that e-retailers should use appropriate combinations of experiential values to portray their desired website personalities. (C) 2012 ElsevierLtd. All rights reserved.