Effects of design factors on store image and expectation of merchandise quality in web-based stores

This study investigates two design factors of store atmosphere in relation to store image and consumers' expectations of merchandise quality for web-based stores. We address this purpose through the use of the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model on which five hypotheses were drawn based on research conducted with brick-and-mortar and web-based stores. In order to test the hypotheses, four treatment combination stimuli were developed by two types of storefront designs (thematic/non-thematic) and two types of information display (picture-based/text-based). A total of 307 college student questionnaires were analyzed. The findings provide a better understanding of consumer's behavior toward web-based stores. Experiment results suggest that, consumers reacted more positively to web-based stores using a thematic and picture-based store design than web-based stores using a non-thematic and text-based store design. The methods of information display (picture-based/text-based) were positively related to a convenient store image and consumers' expectation of merchandise quality. In addition, there was a mediating effect of store image between store atmosphere and consumers' expectations of merchandise quality. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.