A Study on Consumers’ regulatory focus as a determinant of perceived value of online shopping mall VMD

Sensitivity to online store stimuli (VMD attributes) and response (online store loyalty) may dependupon consumers' regulatory focus (emotional state). In other words, consumers' sensitivity to online storeatmosphere and consequent store loyalty can be influenced by the match between their regulatory focus(promotion focused vs. prevention focused) and the type of the online store VMD benefitsStudy 1 results indicate consumers have a different evaluation about online store atmosphere dependingon their regulatory focus. Promotion-focused consumers were significantly more sensitive to visual appealand entertainment attributes of online store atmospherics than prevention-focused consumers. Conversely,prevention-focused consumers were significantly more sensitive to security and privacy attributes ofonline store, than promotion-focused consumers. Study 2 results indicate for promotion-focused shoppers,hedonic value toward online store atmosphere was associated with greater online store loyalty. Incontrast, prevention-focused shoppers were influenced more by the utilitarian attributes on online storeloyalty than promotion-focused shoppers. The current findings indicate that shoppers with promotion-focused are more easily persuaded byvisual and entertainment-oriented online store cues. Conversely, shoppers with prevention-focus are moreeasily persuaded by safety and privacy-oriented online store cues.