產品受歡迎資訊對消費者網路購物之影響

Abstract

當消費者面臨購買決策時，產品的受歡迎與否，往往是一個可以幫助消費者做決策的重要指標。這種資訊在網路上尤其普及，因為它可以不受限制的即時受到更新。最常見的兩種產品受歡迎資訊為: 1 ) 產品市場: 反映產品在市場上的需求量。可以是個擁有大市場的大眾產品 (例如: 劇情型電影)，或者可以是個針對特定市場的小眾產品 (例如: 紀錄片)。 2 ) 產品銷售量: 反映產品自身的銷售數量。總括來說，大眾產品的銷售量高於小眾產品的銷售量時，這表示銷售量與市場大小所傳達的訊息是處於一致的狀況。但是當小眾產品的銷售量相同或超過大眾產品的銷售量時，這表示銷售量與市場大小所傳達的訊息是處於不一致的狀況。以往的研究指出，當小眾產品的銷售量與大眾產品的銷售量相同時，大多消費者會把這種訊息解讀為產品品質的指標，認為小眾產品的品質較好。然而，同樣的資訊也可以被解讀為潮流的指標，會吸引消費者去跟其他消費者做比較，而且覺得自己應該要得到那些消費者所擁有的東西。這種比較的過程，就是所謂的社會比較。在這種狀況下，很多人會受到小眾產品高銷售量的影響，認為這是當下的購買潮流，因而決定跟著這群小眾客群的購買決策。但是這種購買力量，並不如當消費者把資訊解讀為產品品質時來得高。所以這篇研究假設，當產品的市場大小與銷售量是不一致時 (例如: 小眾產品的銷售量大過於大眾產品時)，購買小眾產品的機率會比當產品的市場大小與銷售量是一致的狀況下來得高，而其增加的量是以用產品品質為聯想的狀況高過於以社會比較為聯想的狀況。這個實驗是以實驗法，讓200位受試者在網路上進行實驗。最後的實證結果強烈支持我們的假設，而且對電子商務提供了許多實質的意涵。

Popularity information of products, frequently consulted by consumers for making purchase decisions, has become even more prevalant online, where such information is readily updated. Two kinds of popularity information can be identified: (1) market size, referring to a product’s potential demand in the market, can be either hit (e.g. drama movie) or niche (e.g. documentary movie) (2) sales volume, which refers to the actual purchase of products. Typically, sales volume is congruent with maket size where hit products have a higher sales than niche products; however, sales volume can be incongruent with market size where niche products have equal or higher sales than hit products. Past research has suggested that a niche product with an equally high sales volume as hit products signals a higher level of product quality. However, popularity information can also signal a social trend, which may induce consumers to compare themselves with other consumers and feel entitled to own what other consumers own. This process illustrates the phenomenon of social comparison. As such, a higher sales volume of a niche product may tempt some consumers to follow the trend of a limited number of people with special preferences, but the boost of purchases in this case might not be as high as that for the consumers who interpret sales volume as product quality. Therefore, it is hypothesized that when a product’s market size and sales volume are incongruent (i.e. a higher sales volume for niche products than for hit products), the probability of purchasing a niche product increases compared to the condition of congruence and that the magnitude of increase is higher for consumers with the inference of quality evaluation than with the inference of social comparison. The method of online experiment was adopted, with 200 participants, in this study. The empirical results strongly supported the proposed hypotheses and provided practical implications for e-commerce.