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et al.
2004, Yeh
et al.
2012b). In support of this notion, Yen et
al. (2013) have found that the difficulty in inspecting products is positively associated with
online bidders’ perception of uncertainties of online auctions. The more concerns about the
uncertainties with respect to product quality, the more time and effort consumers would
invest in evaluating and searching, the higher the TCs they would bear and the less likely
they would buy from online stores. To this end, this study postulates a positive relationship
between product quality concern and consumer TCs.
H2a: A customer’s concern over the product quality in an online store is positively related to
his/her perceived TCs associated with purchasing from the online store.
Site design
Site design reflects visual appeal, ease of use, navigation, access speed, information
sufficiency, information accuracy, information timeliness and overall transactional efficiency
(Kim
et al.
2004). It represents one of the major uncertainties consumers may encounter
during online shopping. Site design is an element quite crucial in shaping online experience
and influencing buying decision-making (Yoon 2002, Ranganathan 2012). Like shoppers in
traditional shops, for first-time web site visitors, this element is particularly important. But
unlike traditional shoppers, online consumers spend much less time in online shops they visit.
Given the very limited time the average consumers spend on browsed pages when searching
for information or products online, the site design must attract consumers’ attention and
capture their interest in a very short time (Kuo and Chen 2012).
Previous studies indicate that site design has great implications in customers’ perceived ease
of use (Chen and Tan 2004, Chen and Teng 2013b). A poor interface design makes the use of
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an online transaction website difficult and has an increased impact on the consumers’
learning cost, search cost and adaptation cost of online purchase, thereby increasing TCs.
Yang et al. (2003) highlight that customers are more likely to purchase from an online store
when they find easy to use navigation and search functions, otherwise they will feel confused
and find it complicated to use, resulting in adaptation problem and leading online consumers
to reject purchasing from the online store (Kim
et al.
2011, Kim
et al.
2013b). Consumers
who perceive that the online store has a good interface design are prone to believe that the
online store is dependable and favourable for making purchases (Lee and Chung 2009,
Ganguly
et al.
2010, Eid 2011). However, if the online store has poor interface design,
consumers would feel that the online vendor lacks ability and integrity necessary to offer
quality services, thus they would perceive high levels of risk and uncertainty (Lee and Chung
2009, Ganguly
et al.
2010, Kim
et al.
2013b). When faced with the need to adapt to high
levels of risk and uncertainty in an online store, consumers would seek to minimize their TCs
through purchasing at another online store or a conventional, offline store. Any changes
occurring in online interface design would increase the difficulty in searching for products
online (Roy
et al.
2001). For example, any changes made to an online store’s web navigation
of product guide could cause difficulties to consumers searching for products to buy, which
in turn increase the costs of search and adaptation. Usually online stores attract more online
consumers by updating their visual interface design. However, they might also lose
consumers by doing so, especially for those who have few online shopping experiences,
because consumers have to invest additional time and effort to get familiar with the new
interface design, purchasing environment and process. In this case, consumer would
encounter more communication, negotiation, and coordination costs due to the
unpredictability and changeability of the site design.
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Consumers’ evaluation of site design may also derive from their perception of information
quality (Ganguly
et al.
2010). The information presented in a web site is a fundamental
reason that attracts and brings consumers to a site (Ranganathan 2012). Information quality is
an important measure of effectiveness of site design, which can be achieved through
providing consumers with sufficient, accurate and up-to-date information. Several researchers
have highlighted the importance of information quality in building relationships with online
consumers (Ganguly
et al.
2010). Lohse and Spiller (1999) point to the importance of
providing of complete information about the company, its products/services, and providing
ways to interact with the company in improving the web site traffic as well as sales generated
through the web site. Robbins and Stylianou (2003) note that providing consumers with
options to evaluate and compare multiple products or services can improve consumer
perception of information quality and facilitate decision making process. Consumers expect
to adopt online shopping to acquire product information and purchase products at anytime
from anywhere with an Internet access. If the information is limited, inaccurate or out-of-
date, consumers may doubt online vendors’ ability and integrity to present quality services
(Ganguly
et al.
2010, Eid 2011). This may result in additional time and effort expended in
information searching and evaluating, leading to an increase in search cost and evaluation
cost, and finally increasing overall TCs.
Furthermore, cumbersome and lengthy processes required for online transaction are still one
of the most important sources of consumer TCs (Wang
et al.
2012b), as they increases
uncertainties, trouble, and psychological-type costs, such as inconvenience and annoyance.
Consumer may lose goodwill and may interrupt online transactions due to the lack of
effectiveness of overall transaction.
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In summary, a well-designed online store site is able to improve learnability, decrease mental
workload, guide consumers to complete transactions smoothly and is likely to lower
consumer TCs. In contrast, a bad site design would increase TCs and impede customers’
online purchasing as it increases the costs of learning, searching and adaptation (Eid 2011).
Therefore, the effect of site design on consumer TCs is expected to be negative and
significant, which forms the basis of the following hypothesis:
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