The atmospheric factors of online storefront environment design: An empirical experiment in Taiwan

The purpose of our study was to identify the effect of atmospheric factors such as music and color on participants' emotional responses and subsequent shopping behavior in an online store setting. In this study, a laboratory experiment was conducted to test our hypotheses. The experiment was a 2 (music: fast/slow) x 2 (color: warm/cool) between-subjects factorial design with one control group. The results indicated that both music and color factors had a significant effect on participants' emotional response, which in turn influenced their intention to purchase. Specifically, participants felt more aroused and experienced greater pleasure when they were exposed to fast-tempo music and a warm color website than those people who experienced slow-tempo music and cool colors. In addition, both pleasure and arousal emotions were significant predictors of approach-avoidance intention. We expected that a well-designed website with adequate music and color attributes would create a desired environment and thus entice and retain target customers. Our findings should help in deciding on ambient factors in online website design. Although studies on atmospheric effects in traditional stores have been abundant, knowledge of their effect in the online retail context has been sparse. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.