Purpose: The normalization of epidemic prevention and control triggered a fierce scuffle in the e-commerce of fresh food, as well as for aquatic products online shopping. The main difficulty for consumers to buy fresh food online has always been information asymmetry. Previous study reported that the image is still the primary information source to address information asymmetry. Yet, few studies have focused on the image presentation of aquatic products in e-commerce. The current study aims to probe the effect of perceived movement of e-commerce pictures on purchase intention of aquatic products. Further, we examine how consumers’ cognitive conflict and emotion occur when purchasing specific aquatic products with different image dynamism.
Methods: Twenty-eight subjects participated in an experiment with a 2-level product category (fresh vs frozen) × 2-level image dynamism (static vs dynamic) design. During the experiment, participants were asked to rate their purchase intention after they browse the experimental stimulus. We recorded subjects’ electroencephalograms (EEGs) throughout the experiment.
Results: Behaviorally, participants’ purchase intention for the dynamic image was significantly greater than that for the static image, regardless of aquatic product categories. At the neural level, we found that dynamic image produced less cognitive conflict and aroused consumers’ positive feelings, which were reflected in decreased N2 amplitudes and latency as well as increased LPP (late positive potential) amplitude, respectively. This effect was enhanced for fresh aquatic products.
Conclusion: Although picture dynamism only increases perceived movement, it can still induce positive emotions toward the product and lead to a greater purchase intention. The current study emphasized the value of the neuroscience method in revealing consumer cognition and emotion duration product evaluation.
Keywords: image dynamism, ERPs, N2, LPP, aquatic product, purchase intention