Resnick Montania 2003 Perceptions of Customer Service Information Privacy and Product Quality From...

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Perceptions of Customer Service, Information

Privacy, and Product Quality From Semiotic Design

Features in an Online Web Store

Marc L. ResnickRaquel Montania

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Florida International University

The rise of the World Wide Web for electronic commerce has led to a proliferation ofcompanies selling products online. The global nature of the Internet allows customersto browse the products of companies with which they are wholly unfamiliar. How-ever, concerns about customer service, information privacy, and product quality dis-courage purchasing from unknown companies. In this article, the effects of semioticWeb design features on expectations of these performance criteria in a purchase situa-tion are investigated. Specifically, the presence and prominence of links to customerservice and a site privacy policy, and the existence of product ratings and customer

testimonials, were tested to measure their effects on customer perceptions and expec-tations. Results indicate that some design features have a strong semiotic effect on cus-tomer expectations. Prominent links to customer service and a site privacy policy sig-nificantly increased expectations of customer service and privacy protection. Thepresence of product ratings increased perceptions of product quality. All 3 design fea-tures led to increased likelihood of purchase. Furthermore, participants were notaware of these effects and reported not considering product ratings in their decisions.Implications of these results on Web sitedesignandconsumer behavior arediscussed.

1. INTRODUCTION

Internet retail sales jumped from a mere $700 million annually in 1996 to over $53billion in the United States in 2001. Forrester Research (2000) originally predictedthat this total would rise to $380 billion by 2003. However, these predictions havebeen considerably reduced. Even before the 2001 slowdown in the U.S. economy,E-marketer (1999) predicted that growth would be half what is was in 2000. Sur-veys have suggested that pessimistic predictions about electronic commerce

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMANCOMPUTER INTERACTION, 16(2), 211234

Copyright 2003, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Requests for reprints should be sent to Marc L. Resnick, Industrial andSystems Engineering, FloridaInternational University, Miami, FL 33199. E-mail: [email protected]


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(e-commerce) sales can be avoided if Web sites find a way to overcome consumersgeneral lack of trust in Internet vendors (Pastore, 2000a).

Reported reasons that many Internet users are not buying online is that they be-lieve that companies on the Web have poor, slow, or nonexistent customer service

options and that they are afraid or reluctant to disclose personal information(E-marketer, 1999). Indeed, difficulty of use and lack of trust with respect to onlinepayment, privacy, and customer service have been found to constitute a real psy-chological barrier to e-commerce (Egger, 2000). Whereas trust develops over time,communicating trustworthiness must occur as soon as interaction with a site be-gins (Cheskin Research, 1999). A 1999 survey by Servicesoft Technologies (E-mar-keter, 1999) revealed that 87% of online shoppers who spent $2,000 or more on theweb during a 6-month period would abandon a merchants Web site and click to acompetitors site if they experienced poor customer service. Conversely, 79% saidthey have increased their patronage and spending at a Web site when customer ser-

vice was favorable (E-marketer, 1999). Thus, the improvement of these aspects ofan e-commerce Web sites design can have a significant effect on customer loyaltyand purchase behavior.

1.1. Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols that convey semantic and syntactic con-tent and their use as a communicative tool (Karvonen & Parkkinen, 2001).Orliaguet (2001) described the use of semiotics in design as a mediation linking twoexperiences. The design feature provides an immediate experience that recalls a

more complex experience from the users history. The users interpretation of thedesign feature must be identified and is the focus of the discipline of semiotics. If apopulation of users interprets the design feature similarly, it can be used effectivelyin a system. This mediation process allows designers to provide a simple link thatrepresents a much richer set of experiences that would be difficult to represent di-rectly in the design.

Inuserinterfacedesign,semioticscanbeusedtoconveyparticularaspectsofade-sign to a user without requiring explicit labels or instructions. This is similar to theconcept of affordances described by Norman (1988) as the perceived properties of athing that determine how it can be used. As with affordances, semiotic impressions

can be conveyed subtly or even accidentally by design features of a system. Lytie(2001) presented a semiotic model of software in which a metaphor affects theinter-pretation of semiotic features. The metaphor provides structural characteristics ofthe user interface that trigger specific user cognitions and facilitate comprehension.In thecase of retaile-commerce, semiotic cues include thedesigncharacteristics thatlead users to develop expectations for company behavior in areas such as privacyprotection,security,andcustomerservice.Previousresearchhasestablishedthatex-pectations for customer service (E-marketer, 1999), trust (Cheskin Research, 1999;Egger, 2000), and privacy protection (Palmer, Bailey, & Fraj, 2000) affect willingnessto use and purchase from an e-commerce site. However, no research has identifiedthe semiotic relation between interface design features and these expectations.

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1.2. Trust

Trust is a set of beliefs that other people will fulfill their expected favorable commit-ments. From the perspective of the customervendor relationship, trust is the belief

or expectation that the word or promise by the merchant can be relied on and theseller will not take advantage of the customers vulnerability (Geyskens,Steenkamp, Scheer, & Kumar, 1996). Recent business research has taken a compara-ble stand, defining trust as the expectation that other individuals or companies willbehave ethically and dependably and will fulfill their expected commitments un-der conditions of vulnerability and interdependence (Gefen, 2000).

In the case of retail e-commerce, trust is particularly important. Customers can-not see the merchant, only the merchants Web site; they are unable to touch themerchandise, they can only see a representation; they cannot wander a store andspeak with employees, they can only browse HTML pages, read FAQs, and send

e-mail to customer service mailboxes. A customer at an online commerce site lacksconcrete cues to comfortably assess the trustworthiness of the site and thereforemust rely on new kinds of cues. The interpretation of these semiotic cues drives thedevelopment of customer expectations of the trustworthiness of the vendor.

Customer service. Customer service is an essential ingredient of commercialtransactions. In the broadest sense, it involves a companys response to customerquestions and problems. Customers often need to contact a company because ofconcerns about the fulfillment process or to identify the status of a service or an ac-count. This customer interaction is the focus of Internet customer service. Virtually

every area of customer service can be handled via the Internet. Customers can askquestions via e-mail, search support databases for similar problems or questions,and request a live chat session with a customer service or sales representative. TheInternet cannot replace good customer interaction between vendors and their cli-ents, but it can be used to strengthen those ties (Grant, 1998).

However, customers may not be able to experience the online customer serviceof a company prior to making a purchase decision. To use service quality as part oftheir decision of where to make a purchase, customers need to interpret thesemiotic cues about customer service on the Web site. However, the characteristicsof a Web stores design that lead to perceptions of good customer service are not

known.

Reputation management. According to a user survey (Graphic, Visualiza-tion & Usability Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology, 1999), access toopinions of other customers and reviews and recommendations from expertsare among the main reasons for using the Web for electronic commerce. However,the effectiveness of ratings and testimonials depends on their reliability and believ-ability. Reputation managers are systems that collect ratings data and present themto prospective customers. The design of the reputation management system willdetermine its credibility and thus its effectiveness (Nielsen, 1999a). There are many

Online Web Store Design Features 213


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channels of reputation management that can be provided on retail e-commercesites. Ratings can be provided based on either customer, company, or outside ex-pert opinions. Testimonials from previous customers can also be provided. A keydesign issue is that customers never know whether they can trust reviews that are

posted as part of a site that profits from selling the product (Nielsen, 1999a). Inter-pretation of the implications of reputation management interfaces is necessary.

Privacy. From the perspective of Internet retailers, the collection of custom-ers information is crucial to strategically plan their business. They can collect thisinformation either actively (customer declared data) or passively (behavioral andpurchasing data). Through this data, the retailer can learn about its customersunique preferences and behaviors and then use this data to specifically target ad-vertising and promotions. Internet retailers collect three types of data: (a) basic,

personal information provided on registration or via self-completion question-naires; (b) purchasing habits; and (c) clickstreams (the sequence of mouse clicksused to navigate the web site during a particular visit). By combining this informa-tion, the Internet retailer creates a more detailed picture of each customer (Walsh &Godfrey, 2000).

The primary challenge is that the customer does not know who is gathering in-formation and what is being done with the data. Most people are not aware thatthis information, like some public records, could be available online to whomeveris interested (Lieb, 1997). A survey by Culnan (1999) found that compliance bye-commerce companies with their privacy policies is generally low but noted thatmore popular sites had higher levels of compliance.

Posting the sites privacy policy is considered good business practice and allowsconsumers to make informed decisions about using the site and disclosing their in-formation (Culnan, 1999). Customers personal information has to be collected bythe vendor to build a long-term relationship with its customers. Thus, if people areassured that the company complies with a privacy policy acceptable to them, itmight contribute to overcome customers concerns about the handling of the datathey provide (Palmer et al., 2000). However, few people actually read the privacypolicy. A 2002 report by Jupiter Media Metrix (CyberAtlas, 2002) found that only40% of Web users read the privacy policies of sites on which they plan to make apurchase. Kim and Moon (1998) reported that visual design factors of the customer

interface can affect perceptions of privacy. The factors Kim and Moon studied in-cluded the design of the title, menu, and graphics. Customers interpret general fea-tures such as the professionalism of the privacy policy and links to it as a predictorof the degree of privacy protection provided. Fogg et al. (2001) found that percep-tual elements such as amateurism can reduce perceptions of credibility.

1.3. The Semiotics of Trust

Because of the considerable importance of trust in retail e-commerce, the interfaceof e-commerce systems must be designed to induce trustworthyfeelings within the



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customer, which in turn will influence thedecision to use the system (Kim & Moon,1998). For instance, in a study of online banking by Laberge and Caird (2000), usersfears and concerns due to interface design factors predicted user confidence.Whether the casual browser will become a loyal customer of a particular e-com-

merce venue may depend on the first impression of the interface. Therefore, theemotions aroused by the interface of e-commerce systems must be systematicallyconsidered in the design of customer interfaces (Kim & Moon, 1997). Many inter-face factors predict user confidence and interface trust (Laberge & Caird, 2000).Karvonen and Parkkinen (2001) found several semiotic aspects of a Web site to in-crease trust, such as the use of white space and well-organized content. In contrast,sites with cartoonish designs that are dominated by images or have unclearlybordered sections are trusted less.

It takes time for customers to learn the true trustworthiness of an Internet re-tailer (Nielsen, 1999b). When a potential customer visits a site for the first time, his

or her initial perceptions of that company are based on features that are visible onthecompanys main pages. These initial impressions drive the development of thatcustomers relationship with the company. A potentially critical factor is the visibil-ity of reliable customer support. Without the assurance of quality customer service,consumers may not develop sufficient trust. However, the ability of a company topromote perceptions of customer support through the design of its site is un-known. Ratings and testimonials seem to affect customers indirectly by suggestingthat other customers have successfully interacted with the company. The presenceof this information may lead to increased perceptions of trust and reliability.Knowledge of what kinds of personal information a company collects and how it isused is generally contained in a privacy policy. The visibility of this policy may in-

dicate the willingness of the company to have its customers read the policy andsuggest to customers how much confidence they can have in its coverage.

2. PILOT STUDY

2.1. Objectives

When consumers select a Web site from which to purchase a product, there aremany factors that contribute to this decision. Previous research (Gshwandtner,

2001) has shown that product quality, service quality, brand image, and other fac-torscontribute to the product selection decision. Marketing research (Hipkin, 2002)has shown that previous experience with the product, brand, and company play astrong role in the development of assumptions about how these factors will be sat-isfied in futurepurchases. However, the Internet increases the likelihood that shop-pers will encounter the retail Web sites of companies with which they are unfamil-iar. In this case, the only information available for consumers to develop theseassumptions is the semiotic factors inherent in the design of the site. It is essentialfor companies who do not have a strong market presence or who are migrating tonew markets to design their sites to promote impressions of product and servicequality independent of previous consumer experience. In this pilot study, we in-



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vestigated several site design parameters to determine how they affect develop-ment of these impressions as well as the resulting decision of which site consumerswould purchase a product from when the available companies are unfamiliar. Theobjectives were to validate the method, insuring that design parameters could be

controlled and manipulated, and to identify trust-related semiotic features that ledto differences in purchase intentions.

2.2. Hypotheses

Based on the findings of Egger (2000), Palmer et al. (2000), and Cheskin Research(1999), expectations of service quality, product quality, and privacy protection wereexpected to be the most critical in determining perceptions of company behaviorwhen factors such as navigation and price were controlled. Typical e-commerce

Web sites promote service quality and privacy protection with links to customerservice channels and a privacy policy. Product quality is promoted using reputa-tion management. Hypotheses for the semiotic interpretations of these links weretherefore based on these direct relations. Links to various channels of customer ser-vice and the companys privacy policy were expected to increase expectations ofcustomer service. Promotion of these links by a company was expected to elicit per-ceptions from consumers that the company is confident of its service quality andthus is willing to interact with customers through these channels. It was expectedthat the prominence of links to customer service and a privacy policy would be anindication that the company provides good service quality and this would lead to

higher expectations of service quality in consumers. This would result in a higherlikelihood to purchase from this company.Reputation management data, such as presenting data about product quality

based on customer and company ratings and through customer testimonials, wereexpected to increase consumer perceptions of product quality. It is unlikely that acompany would allow customers to rate products or provide testimonials for re-view by the general public if the company were not confident that the productswould receive high ratings. Thus, it was expected that the presence of reputationmanagement data would be an indication that the company provides good prod-ucts and this would lead to higher expectations of product quality. This would re-sult in a higher likelihood to purchase from this company.

3. METHODS

3.1. Participants

Twentyundergraduatestudents(13menand7women)wererecruitedforthisstudy.Their participation was part of therequirements for an undergraduate Human Fac-tors Engineering course in the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department atFloridaInternationalUniversity.Participantsmeanagewas23( SD=1.7)andranged



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from18to26yearsold.Pastore(2000b)citedaHarrisInteractivestudythatfoundus-ersinthe18to26agegroupspendfourtimesasmuchtimeonlineasotheradults.

Participants were heavy Internet users100% reported using the Internet sev-eral times a week. In addition, all of them had made at least one purchase through

the Internet in the previous 6 months. Furthermore, 63% reported between threeand five purchases in the previous 6 months. Consequently, this sample representsthe current experienced Internet shopper and in light of the increasing use of theInternet for consumer product purchases, will soon represent a more broad crosssection of the population. In fact, an April, 2002, NUA survey (NUA, 2002) foundthat 60% of U.S. adults are currently online and this figure continues to grow.

3.2. Materials

Eighty Internet retail pages were created. The pages represented different versionsof the Get Well products of four unknown Internet retailers that sell flowers andrelated gifts with same-day delivery. The only material differences among the sitescorresponded to the presence and prominence of links to various channels of cus-tomer service, ratings attributed either to customers or to the company, customertestimonials, and a privacy policy. Superficial differences in appearance, such ascolor scheme and company name, were created to insure that the pages were per-ceived as representing different Internet retailers. However, key information suchas price levels and the number and variety of products available were consistentlymaintained.

The guidelines for the development of the sites were as follows.

Homogeneity. Participants must not perceive any significant difference be-tween the prototypes except for the variables studied; all other design elementswere homogenized. For instance, the names, the layout, and text font were stan-dardized. All of the fictitious companies had female names with five letters: Betsy,Donna, Emily, and Helen. A background color was assigned to each company to re-inforce the perception that the pages were indeed different companies. All colorschemes had the same brightness and color contrast. The color/name combina-tions were rotated for each participant so that the effects on the results could be

controlled.

Products. Each company offered nine products that included the following:

Two bouquets of roses.

One basket of miscellaneous flowers.

Two bouquets of miscellaneous flowers in vases (made of crystal or pottery).

One bouquet of miscellaneous flowers.

One exotic bouquet.

One basket of fruits.



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One plant.

There were no significant differences in the available products from one com-pany to the next. Products were selected to represent a range of standard bouquets.

This was to minimize the possibility that a user would choose a particular site be-cause he or she preferred a special type of flower. Products were arranged in foursets. A number and a price identified each product. No names or titles were as-signed to products. Prices were similar across prototypes. The product set com-bined with each company was rotated for each participant so that the effects on theresults could be controlled.

Page design. All sites were designed using strong color contrasts to maxi-mize the legibility of the text. The contrast was the same for all site color schemes.

The pages were all divided into three frames corresponding to a top navigation barlinking to general company functions, a left navigation bar linking to the com-panys products, and a central frame containing the actual products for purchase.

Test administrator tools. Four questionnaires were used to collect informa-tion about the task. All questionnaires asked participants to rate their perceptionsusing 5-point Likert scales with verbal anchors at all positions. Verbal anchors werebipolar, ranging from an extremely negative opinion at a rating of 1 to an extremelypositive opinion at a rating of 5, with a neutral opinion at a rating of 3. The firstquestionnaire was administered to obtain information about the site selected and it

was given to the participants as soon as they made their purchase decision. Partici-pants were asked to rate the selected site on perceptions of expected customer ser-vice, product quality, and privacy protection. The second questionnaire, adminis-tered after the participant completed rating his or her preferred site, was used toobtain this same information about the participants perceptions of the other threesites. The third questionnaire collected the participants perceptions of customerservice features, rating/testimonials, and privacy policies in general. Finally, thefourth questionnaire collected background information about the participants de-mographics and general Internet experience.

3.3. Scenario

A scenario was described to each participant in which he or she had just heard thata friend was in the hospital. The task was to purchase a floral gift bouquet to be de-livered to the hospital that day. For this task, immediate customer service is criticalbecause a delay of just a few hoursprevents same-day delivery from occurring. Theparticipant was informed that an Internet search for local flower delivery compa-nies that offered same-day delivery had retrieved four sites. The Get Well pages ofeach site were opened but minimized and visible only through the toolbar at thebottom of the Windows interface. The order from right to left in which the company



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icons were displayed on the toolbar was randomized for each participant. Partici-pants were instructed to view each of the company Get Well pages in any order foras long as they wanted. Their task was to select the company from which theywould purchase the gift bouquet.

3.4. Independent Variables

Thedesignelementfeaturesthatweremanipulatedfromsitetositewerethefollowing.Links to a privacy policy statement and to customer service channels through

e-mail, telephone, and instant message were either presented in high or low promi-nence. The high-prominence condition displayed the links in the top navigation barin 14-point font. The low-prominencecondition displayed the link in thebottom nav-igation bar, in 8-point font, and required scrolling to view.

Customer testimonials, customer ratings, andcompany ratings were either pres-ent or absent. In the present condition, five stars were presented below each prod-uct. Between one and five stars were highlighted for each one. These ratings wereattributed to customers in 50% of the present trials and attributed to the companyin 50% of the present trials. In all present trials, a link to customer testimonials waspresented in the top navigation bar. In the absent condition, neither the ratings northe testimonials were presented on the page. Figure 1 shows three examples ofpages used in the study. Figure 1a shows a high-prominence, ratings-absent page;Figure 1b shows a high-prominence, ratings-present page; and Figure 1c shows alow-prominence, ratings-present page.

3.5. Experimental Design

It was necessary to develop 80 sites to have each of the 20 participants interactingwith a different combination of factors. Color, company name, set of products, andmodel were combined using Latin squares to control the emergence of each designspecification for each page. All participants interacted with four pages. Each pagerepresented a different combination of company name, color scheme, and productlist. The two independent variables were factorially combined in a 2 2 experimen-tal designallowing each participant to interact with all four possible combinations.

3.6. Dependent Variables

Preference: Participants were asked from which site they chose to make theirpurchase.

Perceptions of customer service: Participants were asked to rate the servicequality they expected from each site.

Perception of quality of the products: Participants were asked to rate the qual-ity of the products offered by each site.



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FIGURE 1 Screen shots of pages used in Pilot Study: (a) high-prominence, rat-ings-absent page; (b) high-prominence, ratings-present page; (c) low-prominence, rat-ings-present page.


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Perception of privacy protection: Participants were asked to rate the degree towhich they expected each company to protect the privacy of their personal in-formation.

3.7. Procedures

On arrival, participants were informed that the performance of new Web sites wasbeing tested to determine whether they met the needs of users such as themselves.They were told that their personal abilities were not under study. Participants wereinformed of the approximate duration of the tasks and that their interaction wouldbe recorded. They were asked to sign a consent form. Participants then were givenintroductory instructions. Raquel Montania prepared the computer before eachtask and provided instructions. Participants were told that no external assistance

would be provided during the test.After participants viewed all of the available sites, they selected the company

from which they would purchase the bouquet. Then they responded to the ques-tionnaires described previously. The entire task required approximately 15 min tocomplete.

4. RESULTS

4.1. Differences Among the Models

To verify that none of the superficial design details significantly affected the partic-ipants responses, the effects of site name, color scheme, and product list were mea-sured using a chi-square goodness-of-fit test. None of these had a significant effecton the participants site selection (all ps > .05).

4.2. Service Quality

A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to evaluate the effects of links

to customer service channels and the privacy policy on expectations of servicequalityas indicatedthrough participants ratings on a 5-point Likert scale. Expecta-tions of customer service were significantly influenced by the presence of theselinks, F(3, 76) = 7.75, p < .05. The mean values are shown in Figure 2. The sites thathad prominent links to customer service channels and the privacy policy receivedthe highest ratings.

A chi-square goodness-of-fit test was used to determine if this difference led toan increased likelihood that participants would purchase from the sites withgreater expectations of customer service quality. The difference was not significant,2(3, N=80)=2.66,p > .05; however, a trend was identified. Sixty-five percent of theusers chose a site that they rated with the highest expectations of help from cus-



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tomer service, and 35% chose a site that they did not perceive among the best cus-tomer service providers.

Results from a one-way ANOVA indicated that there was no significant differ-ence in the expectations of privacy protection when service quality links wereprominent, F(3, 76) = 1.55, p > .05 (see Figure 3). A chi-square goodness-of-fit testwas used to see if differences in expectations of privacy protection led to an in-creased likelihood of site selection. The difference was not significant. Fifty percentof the users selected a site that they perceived as best protecting their personal in-

formation, and 50% selected a site that they did not perceive as thebest personal in-formation protection provider.


FIGURE 2 The effects of the prominence of links to customer service and privacy

policy and the presence of product ratings on expectations of service quality in the pi-lot study.

FIGURE 3 The effects of the prominence of links to customer service and privacypolicy and the presence of product ratings on expectations of privacy protection in thepilot study.


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4.3. Product Quality

Similar analyses were used to evaluate the effects of reputation management infor-mation on expectations of product quality. Results from a one-way ANOVA indi-

cated that there was no significant difference in expectations of product quality be-tween site designs, F(3, 76) = 0.56, p > .10 (see Figure 4). However, 65% of the usersselected a site that included product ratings compared to only 35% who selected asite that did not have them (see Figure 5).


FIGURE4 Theeffects of theprominence of links to customer service andprivacy pol-icy and the presence of product ratings on expectations of product quality in the pilotstudy.

FIGURE 5 The effects of the prominence of links to customer service and privacypolicyandthe presenceof product ratings on likelihood of purchase in the pilot study.


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4.4. Customer Strategies

To determine whether the criteria used by participants to select a site was con-sciously manifest, participants were asked to report whether they considered these

factors in deciding from which site to purchase. Sixty percent of users reported thatthey took customer service into consideration when deciding from which site topurchase the bouquet. Sixty-five percent of users reported that they took into con-sideration the presence of a privacy policy statement to make a decision. Only 40%of users reported that they considered the presence of ratings/testimonials whenmaking this decision.

4.5. Perceptions of Ratings and Testimonials Features

A one-way ANOVA was used to measure the differences in trust participants hadof the three types of reputation management information. Results showed thatthere was not a significant difference between the ratings they gave to those threefeatures. Pairwise analysis indicated that the users trusted significantly more incustomer testimonials than in company ratings ( = 0.65, p < .05; see Figure 6).

5. STUDY

5.1. Objectives

The pilot study results indicate that links to customer service channels and a pri-vacy policy increased expectations of customer service but not expectations of pri-


FIGURE 6 Ratings of trust in three types of reputation management information inthe pilot study.


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vacy protection. However, links to customer service and to a privacy policy werenot evaluated as separate parameters; therefore, the individual contributions ofthese links could not be evaluated. In this follow-up study, we separated these twolinks into two separately manipulated variables to resolve the differential effects of

each one on expectations of service quality and likelihood of purchase.The pilot study results also indicate that consumers may have given different

levels of credibility to each form of reputation management. Customer ratings andtestimonials were considered more trustworthy than company ratings. In this fol-low-up study, we removed the consideration of company ratings and focused juston the presence of customer ratings and testimonials. This was expected to providea better measure of theeffects of effective reputation management data on consum-ers perceptions of product quality and likelihood of purchase.

6. METHODS

6.1. Participants

A total of 64 participants, 27 women and 37 men, were recruited for this study. Par-ticipants mean age was 27 (SD = 7.3) and ranged from 18 to 53 years. All partici-pants were volunteers who were recruited from the MiamiDade metropolitanarea. They were provided with a small gift at theconclusion of the study. They wereassured that they would receive the gift regardless of their performance or whetherthey completed the study.

All participants were required to have some experience using the Internet, butno prior history of purchasing on the Internet was required. However, 83% of theparticipants were heavy Internet users and 78% percent reported some onlineshopping experience.

6.2. Materials

A total of 128 different Web sites were developed. Company name, color, and prod-uct list were controlled as in Pilot Study. To separate the effects of customer servicecontact features and the privacy policy statement, all eight possible combinations

were included as follows. Customer service had two levels: high-prominence andlow-prominence. Privacy policy had two levels: high-prominence and low-promi-nence. Ratings and testimonials had two levels: present and absent. No companyratings were included because the results of Pilot Study suggest that company rat-ings were trusted less than other types of reputation management.

6.3. Scenario

The scenario used in the Pilot Study was again used for Study 2.



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6.4. Experimental Design

A factorial combination of the three independent variables was used to create eightpossible combinations. Latin squares were used to combine all experimental fac-

tors to have each participant interact with four different sites. All dependent vari-ables from Pilot Study were included in Study 2. The same four questionnaireswere used to collect preference, perceptions, and demographic information. In ad-dition, a question asking the participant to rate his or her perception of the sitescolor schemes was added to Questionnaires 1 and 2.

7. RESULTS

7.1. Differences Among the Models

To verify that none of the superficial design details significantly affected the partic-ipants responses, the effects of color schemes and product lists were measured us-ing a chi-square goodness-of-fit test. None of these had a significant effect on theparticipants site selection: color scheme 2(3, N= 256) = 6.63, p = .085; product set2(3, N= 256) = 1.41, p = .703. However, because 64% of participants reported thatcolor affected their site selections, color was included as an independent variable inall ANOVA calculations to test the effects of the service and product quality param-eters. However, in no case was the effect of color significant nor were there any in-teractions between color and any of the service or product quality parameters (allps > .05).

Three-way ANOVAs were used to measure the effects of the product and servicequality design parameters on expectations of customer service, privacy protection,and product quality. A binomial test was used to measure the effects of these pa-rameters on site selection. Table 1 presents a summary of the results of these statisti-cal tests.


Table 1: Statistical Summary of Three-Way ANOVAs and Binomial Tests

Evaluating the Effects of Design Parameters on Expectations of Service

Quality, Product Quality, Information Protection and Likelihood of Purchase.

Dependent Variable

Main Effects

Customer Service Ratings/Testimonials Privacy Policy

Preference F(1, 224) = 7.845p < .05

F(1, 224) = 21.497p < .05

F(1, 224) = 5.215p < .05

Perception of customer service F(1, 224) = 28.511p < .05

Not significant Not significant

Perception of the quality of the products Not significant F(1, 224) = 45.019p < .05

Not significant

Perception of the privacy protection Not significant F(1, 224) = 5.126p < .05

F(1, 224) = 16.143p < .05


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7.2. Service Quality

Prominent links to customer service had a significant effect on site preference, F(1,224) = 7.85, p = .006, and on expectations of customer service, F(1, 224) = 28.51, p =

.000 (see Figures 7 and 8). These links did not have a significant effect on expecta-tions of privacy protection or product quality. A binomial test was used to measurethe influence of expectations of customer service on site purchase selection. Sev-enty-eight percent of participants selected the site that they rated as having thehighest expected customer service (p = .000).


FIGURE 7 Number of participants selecting each site in the follow-up study.

FIGURE 8 The effects of the prominence of links to customer service and privacypolicy and the presence of product ratings on expectations of service quality in the fol-low-up study. Bars show 1 SD.


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7.3. Privacy Protection

Prominent links to the privacy policy had a significant effect on site preference, F(1,224) = 5.22,p = .023, and on expectations of privacy protection, F(1, 224) = 16.14,p =

.000 (see Figure 9). These links did not have a significant effect on expectations ofcustomer service or product quality. A binomial test was used to measure the influ-ence of expectations of customer service on site purchase selection. Seventy-twopercent of participants selected the site that they rated as having the highest ex-pected privacy protection (p = .001).

7.4. Product Quality

The presence of customer ratings and testimonials had a significant effect on site

preference, F(1, 224) = 21.50, p = .000, and on expectations of product quality F(1,224) = 45.02, p = .000 (see Figure 10). Furthermore, the presence of this data had asignificant effect on expectations of privacy protection, F(1, 224) = 5.13, p = .025. Abinomial test was used to measure the influence of expectations of customer ser-vice on site purchase selection. Eight-nine percent of participants selected the sitethat they rated as having the highest expected customer service (p = .000). Therewas also an interaction between the presence of customer ratings and testimonialsand the prominence of customer service links, F(1, 224) = 4.48, p = .035. When cus-tomer ratings and testimonials were present, prominent links to customer servicealso led to higher perceptions of product quality.


FIGURE 9 The effects of the prominence of links to customer service and privacypolicy and the presence of product ratings on expectations of privacy protection in thefollow-up study. Bars show 1 SD.


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7.5. Regression

To explain site preference in terms of perception of customer service, quality ofproducts, and privacy protection, a multiple regression analysis was used. Pearson

correlation first was used to check the independence of the predictors. Perceptionof color was not included as a possible predictor because the color effect was foundnot to be significant.

Thelinearregression wassignificant,F(3, 252)= 71.28,p


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line behavior. The lack of any significance regarding color schemes and productlists indicated that the effects of the targeted design parameters were isolated. Be-cause the selection of an online retailer can be a complicated process, the ability torun controlled studies that isolate particular design parameters is critical.

The pilot study established that rotating design parameters that are not understudyin this case site color scheme, name, andproduct listcanbeused to controlthe effects of theseparametersonusersiteselection.Thiscontrol was alsoseeninthebroadermainstudy.Thiscapabilitymaybegeneralizabletootherdesignparametersthat futureresearcherswishtocontrol;however,additional testingis requiredto ver-ifythisassertion.Theresultsofthepilotstudyalsosuggestthatsmallsamplepopula-tionscanbeusedtoidentifysemioticfeaturessuchasincludedlinksthatarepromis-ing avenues for additional research. Although pilot studies often are used in thisregard, they have not been used previously to evaluate semiotic aspects of trust,which tend to elicit highly variable behavior. Yet again, additional study is required

to validate the generalizability of this finding to other design parameters.The three trust-focused semiotic design parameters that were evaluated in thefollow-up study each had a significant effect on the preferences participants hadfor the sites and on their expectations of customer service, privacy protection, andproduct quality. The presence or prominence of all three design parameters werepositively associated with users perceptions of each site and from which site theychose to make their purchase.

Prominent customer service links increased the perception that the companywould provide better customer service. Despite the fact that link prominence doesnot provide explicit information regarding the amount of service that would beprovided, the prominence of these links increased user expectations nonetheless.

This suggests a strong semiotic effect of these links. Participants likely interpretedlink prominence to indicate real information about the retailers practices. The sce-nario was developed to insure that customer service was a relevant consideration;therefore, the greater magnitude of thiseffect compared to the others wasexpected.

Because the product lists were rotated from model to model and there was nosignificant effect of product list on preference or perceptions, all differences in theperceptions of product quality stemmed from the presence of product ratings. Thisinformation is somewhat more explicit than prominent customer service links andhad a similar effect on preference.

The prominence of privacy policy links also had a significant effect on prefer-

ence. As with customer service links, these links provided no explicit informationon how privacy was protected. However, the prominence of these links enhancedthe perception that privacy protection would be superior on these sites. There alsoappears to be a semiotic effect of these links on company practices. The regressionshowed that the magnitude of this effect was smaller than that of the other two pa-rameters, either because the strength of the interpretation was weaker or becauseprivacy was a less important criterion in general for selecting a retailer from whichto make a purchase.

The presence of product ratings also had an effect on perceptions of privacy pro-tection. This was not hypothesized because product quality and privacy protectionare different aspects of company performance. This effect may be due to a percep-



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tion that other customers were happy with the companys performance in generaland this generalized to include privacy protection perceptions.

The results of the follow-up study had comparatively higher percentages thanthe pilot study, suggesting that the three parametersexpectations of customer

service, product quality, and privacy protectionwere more important in the lat-ter study. However, this may be due to the larger sample size used in the secondstudy. The only other noteworthy difference between the studies was the slightlyolder population recruited for the follow-up study. This indicated that there maybe an age effect as well. Perhaps older consumers are more sensitive to these is-sues. It also may be possible that the older population had other demographicdifferences such as annual income. Additional investigation is necessary to verifythese speculations.

Even though participants reported that color scheme affected their choice, colorscheme did not have a significant effect on any of the measured variables. This sug-

gests both that the study successfully eliminated the effects of color and that thefactors that participants used to select a site were not consciously available. Thecontribution of unconscious factors has been reported in the past in other domainssuch as situation assessment (Endsley, 1997), perception (Posner, 1973), problemsolving (Posner, 1973), and decision making (Mosier, 1997). The implications fortesting indicate that survey studies that simply ask prospective customers for theiropinions regarding design are not sufficient for predicting actual consumer behav-ior. A critical implication of this phenomenon is that comprehensive user testingneeds to be conducted on any e-commerce site. It is not sufficient to simply ask po-tential customers what they like or dislike. This observation is also supported bythe fact that participants conscious estimates of the importance of customer ser-

vice, reputation management, and privacy policy features did not predict behavior.The presence and prominence of links to those features were better predictors ofusers preferences.

The results of this study suggest tangible guidelines for e-commerce site design-ers. Including prominent links to features that customers value can enhance per-ceptions of the site and lead to greater likelihood that customers will make pur-chases. This adds to the competitiveness of the site for very little cost. Of course,this effect likely will be short-term if the expectations are not met, for example, ifthe company does not provide good customer service or protect customer privacy.However, it is useful to note that potential customers may interpret these aspects of

site design to predict actual company behavior.

8.1. Recommendations for Future Work

Additional research is necessary to fully investigate the semiotics of trust, customerservice, privacy, and other variables on e-commerce behavior. This study includeda pilot study with a limited size and scope. The follow-up study was larger and hada broader population. However, additional research is still necessary to establishmore specific guidelines about these design parameters or to establish quantitativerecommendations on the importance of each one.



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Other semiotic features may also affect customer perceptions and site choice.This study focused on the three features of which two have been described in theliterature to account for e-commerce trust, privacy (Kim & Moon, 1998; Morgan &Barrett, 2000), and customer service (Aberg & Shahmehri, 2000). However, trust is

not the only factor that affects customer choice. Studies that manipulate economicfactors such as price or delivery fees, usability factors such as ease of navigation orsearch, and branding factors such as company and brand image also need to beconducted.

The scenario used in this study required participants to select a site because thetask was time critical and other channels were not available. In other shopping en-vironments customers have the option to abandon buying anything at all. Futurestudies that include this option may provide additional insight. Scenarios compar-ing the Web, catalog, and store-based shopping channels would provide additionalinsight into consumer behavior.

8.2. Conclusion

This study evaluated the effects of three semiotic design features, two of which thathave been shown to affect e-commerce trust, on the perceptions and site selectionchoices of e-commerce consumers. The results suggest that semiotic features, al-though providing little real information about a companys actual behavior, can in-fluence both perceptions and site selection. Though more research is required tofully elucidate the effects of semiotics on e-commerce, this study provides a

method and starting point for understanding the effects of semiotics on consumerbehavior in the e-commerce arena. One limitation of this study focused on anInternet-experienced and slightly younger than average population. However, thegrowing penetration of the Internet into society suggests that this may be more rep-resentative of the population at large in the future.

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