A Study on the Factors Influencing Brand Loyalty Among Elderly Users Due to Age-friendly E-commerce App Design - Focusing on Elderly Users of Taobao Special Offer Edition -

As China's population rapidly ages, the number of elderly individuals using e-commerce apps is growing. The differences in cognitive abilities and usage habits between elderly and younger users mean that standard e-commerce app designs often fail to meet the specific needs of the elderly, impacting their user experience and brand loyalty. To address this, some e-commerce platforms have introduced suitable aging designs. Building upon affordance theory and self-determination theory, this study constructs a research model and conducts a survey of 400 elderly users of Taobao Special Offer Edition. Structural equation modeling is used to explore how various affordances of suitable aging design—information architecture, visual design, and social interaction— affect elderly users' value fulfillment (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and how this, in turn, enhances brand loyalty. The results indicate that information architecture affordance significantly enhances elderly users' autonomy and competence value fulfillment. Visual design affordance significantly enhances competence value fulfillment. Social interaction affordance significantly enhances relatedness value fulfillment. All three factors positively impact brand loyalty. However, the influence of social interaction affordance on autonomy value fulfillment is not significant. This study expands the research perspective on suitable aging design and user experience theories, providing new insights and empirical support for e-commerce platforms developing suitable aging design strategies for the elderly market. In the digital era, enabling the elderly to share in the digital dividend and achieve active aging is a shared societal responsibility. E-commerce enterprises should adopt suitable aging and inclusive design concepts, continuously improving products and services to meet the special needs of elderly users and promote the inclusive development of the digital economy.