The effects of different configurations of online recommendation agents on consumers’ buying decisions

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of different configurations of online recommendation agents on consumers’ buying decisions. 104 on line consumers of clothing participated in our study (66.3% female) answering to an online questionnaire displaying different configurations of recommendation agents. Against the assumption that a large number of choices would lead to information overload and demotivate consumers (Iyengar and Lepper, 2000; Scheibehenne et al., 2008), this article shows that participants are more motivated to search for a product and more willing to buy from a website with a recommendation agent displaying a larger number of products (16), compared with a smaller number (4),and are more motivated to search for a product and more willing to buy from a website displaying 16 products at once instead of four at a time. Based on the fuzzy-trace theory (Reyna, 2008), we argue that information overload do not play a role here because people tend to reason on the basis of simplified representations (gist) rather than on the literal information available (verbatim). Also, compared to the absence of brands, the presence of brands increases the motivation to search for a product and the willingness to buy. These results can be explained by the fact that brands, like stereotypes (Janiszewski and Osselaer, 2000; Keller, 2003), help people to form the gist of the information being displayed (Brainerd and Reyna, 2005).