IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v28y2016icp17-27.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Complexity or simplicity? Designing product pictures for advertising in online marketplaces

Author

Listed:
  • Wu, Kewen
  • Vassileva, Julita
  • Zhao, Yuxiang
  • Noorian, Zeinab
  • Waldner, Wesley
  • Adaji, Ifeoma

Abstract

In online marketplaces, many sellers highlight product and service information directly within product pictures for advertising purposes. Such a strategy increases the visual complexity of the picture and provides more information to support buyers’ judgment. However, when other sellers adopt the same method, a given picture will not be conspicuous enough to be noticed. To address this issue, the concept of complexity contrast is introduced. No prior attention has been paid in literature to the interplay between visual complexity and complexity contrast. This research proposes a theoretical model to explain the influences of visual complexity and complexity contrast on buyers’ pleasantness in shopping, while perceptual and conceptual fluency act as mediators. Results from a lab experiment suggest an entangled effect of complexity contrast and visual complexity, indicating that buyers are influenced more by the conspicuousness of a product picture, rather than the information conveyed by a product picture when it is visually overwhelming.

Suggested Citation

  • Wu, Kewen & Vassileva, Julita & Zhao, Yuxiang & Noorian, Zeinab & Waldner, Wesley & Adaji, Ifeoma, 2016. "Complexity or simplicity? Designing product pictures for advertising in online marketplaces," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 17-27.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:28:y:2016:i:c:p:17-27
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2015.08.009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698915300291
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2015.08.009?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gao, Lingling & Bai, Xuesong, 2014. "Online consumer behaviour and its relationship to website atmospheric induced flow: Insights into online travel agencies in China," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 653-665.
    2. Gauzente, Claire, 2010. "The intention to click on sponsored ads—A study of the role of prior knowledge and of consumer profile," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 457-463.
    3. Mosteller, Jill & Donthu, Naveen & Eroglu, Sevgin, 2014. "The fluent online shopping experience," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(11), pages 2486-2493.
    4. Kallweit, Katrin & Spreer, Philipp & Toporowski, Waldemar, 2014. "Why do customers use self-service information technologies in retail? The mediating effect of perceived service quality," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 268-276.
    5. Kushwaha, Gyaneshwar Singh & Agrawal, Shiv Ratan, 2015. "An Indian customer surrounding 7P׳s of service marketing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 85-95.
    6. Tarnanidis, Theodore & Owusu-Frimpong, Nana & Nwankwo, Sonny & Omar, Maktoba, 2015. "Why we buy? Modeling consumer selection of referents," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 24-36.
    7. Mummalaneni, Venkatapparao, 2005. "An empirical investigation of Web site characteristics, consumer emotional states and on-line shopping behaviors," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 526-532, April.
    8. Matt, C. & Benlian, Alexander & Hess, Thomas & Weiß, Christian, 2014. "Escaping from the Filter Bubble? The Effects of Novelty and Serendipity on Users’ Evaluations of Online Recommendations," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 66193, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    9. Agrebi, Sinda & Jallais, Joël, 2015. "Explain the intention to use smartphones for mobile shopping," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 16-23.
    10. Rajdeep Grewal & Joseph A. Cote & Hans Baumgartner, 2004. "Multicollinearity and Measurement Error in Structural Equation Models: Implications for Theory Testing," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 519-529, June.
    11. Ben Mimoun, Mohammed Slim & Poncin, Ingrid, 2015. "A valued agent: How ECAs affect website customers' satisfaction and behaviors," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 70-82.
    12. Rezaei, Sajad, 2015. "Segmenting consumer decision-making styles (CDMS) toward marketing practice: A partial least squares (PLS) path modeling approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 1-15.
    13. Clement, Jesper & Aastrup, Jesper & Charlotte Forsberg, Signe, 2015. "Decisive visual saliency and consumers׳ in-store decisions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 187-194.
    14. Herrmann, Andreas & Zidansek, Manja & Sprott, David E. & Spangenberg, Eric R., 2013. "The Power of Simplicity: Processing Fluency and the Effects of Olfactory Cues on Retail Sales," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 30-43.
    15. Wu, Kewen & Vassileva, Julita & Noorian, Zeinab & Zhao, Yuxiang, 2015. "How do you feel when you see a list of prices? the interplay among price dispersion, perceived risk and initial trust in Chinese C2C market," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 36-46.
    16. Clemes, Michael D. & Gan, Christopher & Zhang, Junli, 2014. "An empirical analysis of online shopping adoption in Beijing, China," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 364-375.
    17. Mai, Robert & Hoffmann, Stefan & Schwarz, Uta & Niemand, Thomas & Seidel, Jana, 2014. "The Shifting Range of Optimal Web Site Complexity," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 101-116.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhao, Lu & Zhang, Mingli & Ming, Yaxin & Niu, Tao & Wang, Yu, 2023. "The effect of image richness on customer engagement: Evidence from Sina Weibo," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    2. Song, Danyang & Wang, Shichao & Ou, Carol & Chen, Xi & Liu, Ruitao & Tang, Haihong, 2021. "How do video features matter in visual advertising? An elaboration likelihood model perspective," Other publications TiSEM 37845995-5426-470a-8630-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    3. Jung Eun Lee & Songyee Hur & Brandi Watkins, 2018. "Visual communication of luxury fashion brands on social media: effects of visual complexity and brand familiarity," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(5), pages 449-462, September.
    4. Maier, Erik & Dost, Florian, 2018. "Fluent contextual image backgrounds enhance mental imagery and evaluations of experience products," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 207-220.
    5. Maier, Erik & Dost, Florian, 2018. "The positive effect of contextual image backgrounds on fluency and liking," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 109-116.
    6. Mengyue Wang & Xin Li & Patrick Y. K. Chau, 2021. "Leveraging Image-Processing Techniques for Empirical Research: Feasibility and Reliability in Online Shopping Context," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 607-626, June.
    7. Li, Menglin & Jin, Yufang & Zhang, Jurui & Liu, Raymond, 2022. "Does shape in backgrounds matter? Effects of Shape–Taste congruence on product evaluations," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    8. Kim, Minjeong, 2019. "Digital product presentation, information processing, need for cognition and behavioral intent in digital commerce," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 362-370.
    9. Eleanor Eytam & Oded Lowengart & Noam Tractinsky, 2021. "Effects of visual simplicity in product design and individual differences in preference of interactive products," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(5), pages 1347-1389, July.
    10. Cheng, Peiyao & Zhang, Chao, 2023. "Show me insides: Investigating the influences of product exploded view on consumers’ mental imagery, comprehension, attitude, and purchase intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    11. Mihai Țichindelean & Monica Teodora Țichindelean & Iuliana Cetină & Gheorghe Orzan, 2021. "A Comparative Eye Tracking Study of Usability—Towards Sustainable Web Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-31, September.
    12. Shan, Minghui & Zhu, Zhenzhong & Song, Chunlei & Chen, Haipeng (Allan), 2023. "The effectiveness of advertising appeals: A culturally-derived power perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    13. Baek, Eunsoo & Huang, Zhihong & Lee, Seojin Stacey, 2023. "Visual complexity = hedonic? Effects of visually complex packages on consumer perceptions and evaluations of products," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    14. Sohn, Stefanie, 2017. "Consumer processing of mobile online stores: Sources and effects of processing fluency," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 137-147.
    15. Jaud, David A. & Melnyk, Valentyna, 2020. "The effect of text-only versus text-and-image wine labels on liking, taste and purchase intentions. The mediating role of affective fluency," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    16. Kim, Molan & Lee, Seung Min & Choi, Sanghak & Kim, Sang Yong, 2021. "Impact of visual information on online consumer review behavior: Evidence from a hotel booking website," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    17. Wang, Qiuzhen & Ma, Da & Chen, Hanyue & Ye, Xuhong & Xu, Qing, 2020. "Effects of background complexity on consumer visual processing: An eye-tracking study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 270-280.
    18. Kim, Dongyoup & Hyun, Hyowon & Park, Jungkun, 2020. "The effect of interior color on customers’ aesthetic perception, emotion, and behavior in the luxury service," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    19. Michael Carolan, 2022. "Presences and absences in food systems depictions: a systematic visual content analysis," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(5), pages 1347-1358, October.
    20. Thomas Chambon & Ulysse Soulat & Jeanne Lallement & Jean-Loup Guillaume, 2023. "The effect of visual information complexity on urban mobility intention and behavior," Post-Print hal-04089291, HAL.
    21. Zhao, Lu & Zhang, Mingli & Tu, Jianbo & Li, Jialing & Zhang, Yan, 2023. "Can users embed their user experience in user-generated images? Evidence from JD.com," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sohn, Stefanie, 2017. "Consumer processing of mobile online stores: Sources and effects of processing fluency," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 137-147.
    2. Rayburn, Steven W. & Anderson, Sidney T. & Zank, Gail M. & McDonald, Imani, 2022. "M-atmospherics: From the physical to the digital," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    3. Canova, Luciano & Nicolini, Marcella, 2019. "Online price search across desktop and mobile devices: Evidence on cyberslacking and weather effects," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 32-39.
    4. Mittal, Divya & Agrawal, Shiv Ratan, 2016. "Price transparency reflects assurance and reliability," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 43-51.
    5. Zhani, Najlae & Mouri, Nacef & Ahmed, Tariq, 2022. "The role of mobile value and trust as drivers of purchase intentions in m-servicescape," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    6. Pappas, Nikolaos, 2016. "Marketing strategies, perceived risks, and consumer trust in online buying behaviour," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 92-103.
    7. Aboubaker Ettis, Saïd, 2017. "Examining the relationships between online store atmospheric color, flow experience and consumer behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 43-55.
    8. Pillai, Rajasshrie & Sivathanu, Brijesh & Dwivedi, Yogesh K., 2020. "Shopping intention at AI-powered automated retail stores (AIPARS)," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    9. (Daisy) Lyu, Jing & Krasonikolakis, Ioannis & Vrontis, Demetris, 2022. "A systematic literature review of store atmosphere in alternative retail commerce channels," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 412-427.
    10. Tong, Xinjia & Chen, Yuangao & Zhou, Shasha & Yang, Shuiqing, 2022. "How background visual complexity influences purchase intention in live streaming: The mediating role of emotion and the moderating role of gender," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    11. Iana A. Castro & Anuja Majmundar & Christine B. Williams & Barbara Baquero, 2018. "Customer Purchase Intentions and Choice in Food Retail Environments: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-19, November.
    12. Rana Muhammad Shahid Yaqub & Muhammad Salman Azhar & Fahad Javed Baig & Muhammad Talha Butt & Shanayyara Mahmood, 2021. "Assessing the impact of Perceived Risk, Sales Promotion, Time Pressure and Website quality on Online Impulse Buying Behavior During Covid-19 Pandemic: A Developing Country Perspective," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 10(1), pages 148-164, March.
    13. Chi, Ting, 2018. "Understanding Chinese consumer adoption of apparel mobile commerce: An extended TAM approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 274-284.
    14. Sanjeev Prashar & T. Sai Vijay & Chandan Parsad, 2017. "Effects of Online Shopping Values and Website Cues on Purchase Behaviour: A Study Using S–O–R Framework," Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, , vol. 42(1), pages 1-18, March.
    15. Maier, Erik & Dost, Florian, 2018. "The positive effect of contextual image backgrounds on fluency and liking," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 109-116.
    16. Farid Huseynov & Sevgi Özkan Yıldırım, 2019. "Online Consumer Typologies and Their Shopping Behaviors in B2C E-Commerce Platforms," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(2), pages 21582440198, May.
    17. Ben Mimoun, Mohamed Slim & Lancelot Miltgen, Caroline & Slama, Boulbeba, 2022. "Is the shopper always the king/queen? Study of omnichannel retail technology use and shopping orientations," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    18. Cho, Yun Kyung, 2015. "Creating customer repurchase intention in Internet retailing: The effects of multiple service events and product type," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 213-222.
    19. Silva, Ana Teresa & Moro, Sérgio & Rita, Paulo & Cortez, Paulo, 2018. "Unveiling the features of successful eBay smartphone sellers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 311-324.
    20. Lim, Xin-Jean & Cheah, Jun-Hwa & Ng, Siew Imm & Basha, Norazlyn Kamal & Soutar, Geoff, 2021. "The effects of anthropomorphism presence and the marketing mix have on retail app continuance use intention," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:28:y:2016:i:c:p:17-27. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.