Written by:
Salvatore G. Fiore
(contact@salvatorefiore.com)
Shaun Kelly
(s.m.kelly@wlv.ac.uk)
School of Computing and IT, University of Wolverhampton
Technology Centre (MI Building), Wulfruna St, Wolverhampton, WV1 1SB, UK.
Introduction
As much as a decade ago, commentators like Falk and Campbell (1997)
were discussing consumption as an experiential phenomenon, highlighting
the transformation of the shopping activity during the latter half of
the twentieth century into a central part of everyday life,
indistinguishable as solely work or leisure. Shields (1992) more
specifically has framed contemporary shopping experiences in terms of
entertainment and pleasure-seeking, wherein the completion of necessary
shopping tasks can be an addendum. The make up of shopping experiences
are elsewhere further argued to be directly affected by sensory stimuli
from products and the shopping environment among other factors (Pine
and Gilmore, 1999) to the extent that "where shoppers go, what they
see, and how they respond determines the very nature of the shopping
experience" (Underhill, 1999, p.44). Such straightforward assumptions
reflect the notion that experience emerges from the interaction of
person and environment and is about much more than simply either
getting a task done or being entertained.
What is more, bodily interaction and enjoyment affect the decisions
consumers make and experiences of the shopping activity online, just as
in conventional stores, rendering the purportedly non-sensory nature of
internet shopping a contentious theme within the literature
(Markham,1998).
The online store interface or other interface aimed at representing
products online is therefore the most direct tool designers and
retailers have to influence and shape potential shopper perceptions of
products, store and retailer (Lohse and Spiller, 2000). Research seems
to indicate that shopping experiences may be perceived as more intense
when the store interface is richer in terms of content and format
(Westland & Au, 1997). With regard to this, at the point within the
shopping activity when consumers would interact directly with and
evaluate products before buying, as well as interact with store
personnel and other shoppers, the interface becomes the only point of
contact with what is available to purchase and with other people.
Despite this, we intend to illustrate through this research why it is
unhelpful for designers to treat the interface of online stores as
somehow non-physical, as is so often the case with contemporary online
store interfaces.
There is much diversity in existing approaches to examining the
physicality of online stores. While commentators such as Vijayasarathy
and Jones (2001) respond to the lack of physical interaction possible
when buying products on-line by recommending that retailers address
other areas of marketing (such as promotions and increased variety)
others (Fiore, 2002) embrace the qualities of the interface as a tool
and means of interaction. The conceptual foundations for the two
approaches differ in many ways, but perhaps the most fundamental is the
emphasis in the latter on the online interaction as embodied. The
former in contrast relies on a strategy of replicating the qualities of
‘real world’ stores in what is essentially seen as a poor virtual
replica. The store is in this sense treated not as a point or means of
interaction in itself but is instead hidden and made symbolically
invisible by distractions of brand, service and technical gimmickry
that attempt to place access to product attributes second in line of
relevance for online shoppers. While we do not intend to question the
effectiveness of such methods in generating sales, our investigations
here centre on raising debate over the potential ramifications that the
two distinct conceptual approaches to designing online stores may have
for experiential and social aspects of online shopping.
The second focus of the study concerns the way sound forms an essential
part of communication and human interaction both during shopping and in
general. Verbal communication is a crucial part of forming experiences
around products through sharing, recommending and expressing
(dis)content. We in this way understand sound, in relation to
experiences of products and shopping, to take many representations;
from the sound a product makes, to noise and audio within an
environment, to a conversation or story.
Our study adopts an approach based on the basic supposition that, when
shopping online, people do not aspire to enter a virtual disembodied
world to play a shopper character and shop for virtually represented
products or converse with virtual characters. Instead, shopping
interfaces are tools providing access to qualities of products learnt
through experience. Although it has been argued that "...computer
mediated experiences reduce the body's representation to mouse actions,
keystrokes, or low bandwidth audio" (Heeter, 2000, p.10), we are less
concerned with the way people are represented within the computer
system and more interested in understanding how the interface or system
can give access to products, in a way that does not submit people to
disembodiment and social detachment. This means facing critically the
implications of producing interfaces that hide the actual qualities of
products behind staged representations and descriptions which may be
far from a person’s previous experience, or force them to look at the
product in the way the retailer or manufacturer would like, rather than
the way they would choose.
To understand this important distinction better, we can turn to the
work of De Kare-Silver (1998) who highlights issues surrounding the
attributes of products when offered for sale on line. De Kare-Silver
contends that all products are the carriers of a set of attributes
which appeal to one or more human senses and that these attributes play
an important role during the purchasing decision process, to the extent
that consumers want to be physically involved. Certain products are
suggested by him for this reason to be unsuitable for electronic
selling. Others have drawn the same conclusion that some products
simply cannot be sold effectively via the web (Phau & Poon, 2000;
Underhill, 1999). Karoulina et al (1999) for example, note that, if the
online shopping interface is compared directly to an actual retail
space, it can appear to have limited potential as a medium for engaging
the senses while shopping. Others (Kempiak and Fox, 2002) highlight the
shortcomings of the e-grocery business model, in restricting access to
sensory attributes of products. Such doubts are fundamentally based on
an assumption that the ‘true nature of products’ (Jarvenpaa & Todd,
1996) cannot be presented online. They appeal to the argument that
while items like music DVDs and computers are easier to sell online
because the presented product is very close to the actual one purchased
and technical specifications can be easily communicated in a textual
format, many others such as fresh foods and fabrics, bought largely
according to sensory qualities, present serious difficulties for online
retailers and shoppers alike. In efforts to counter such difficulties,
retailers appeal to branding ad marketing techniques and methods of
enhancing trust in consumers towards the services and provisions of
retailers, over and above the products themselves. In such efforts,
much weight is given to capitalising on the potential of the computer
interface to function effectively as a shopping tool, with less
interest paid to the importance of non-functional aspects of
interactions and the enjoyment of shopping and computer
use.
It is accordingly possible to adopt another view, in critical response
to the literature, on how to represent products to shoppers via the
online interface. The starting point for such an alternative view is in
the contention that product attributes, though physically discernible
in products, are relatively useless and meaningless until made sense of
by an individual with respect to their past experience and prior
interactions from everyday life. From this perspective, the
impossibility of touching or listening to particular products online
becomes less of a problem to be solved through replication or
distraction and more of an opportunity to explore other ways of
connecting with shoppers’ own experiences of products through
alternative modes of representation in light of what people need and
want to know about a product and, moreover, in light of how they might
enjoy their connection to it or their experience of it and how they may
want to share their stories about a product with others.
Given the prolific arguments that shoppers want to experience
merchandise before buying (Underhill, 1999), basing pre-purchase
decisions at least in part upon examination of the physical attributes
of products (Tauber, 1972; Compeau et al, 1998; Underhill, 1999) this
distinction may be critical in finding a way forward concerning the use
of media such as audio for online shopping interfaces. Just as
retailers are acutely aware of the importance of atmospherics and
physical environment on the way that people shop and the decisions they
make (Cox, & Brittain, 1996; Jones, 1999; Kotler, 1973), they must
understand the significance for consumers of being able to interact
with product attributes in their own way.
Despite this crucial issue and its centrality to any discussion on
experiences of products and services, there has been very little
exploration into the impact of sound on perceived risk and similar
issues or indeed regarding the contribution of sound to the possibility
of more fulfilling experiences of shopping online. Research has thus
far been confined to examining ways of reducing the perceived risk for
shoppers of products like fresh foods in addressing the way that they
are presented online (Fiore, 2002). We have been unable to identify any
literature at all concerned with the wider experiential and social
issues, beyond risk, relevant to the use of sound in online stores.
There appears in this sense to exist insufficient continuity and
sharing of values between research oriented, on the one hand by
psychological, social or other broadly experiential concerns and on the
other, by business incentives; at least when it comes to understanding
how to design sound into online stores in a way that contributes in a
worthwhile way to the shopping activity.
Sound and online shopping
The importance of sound in communicating product attributes
meaningfully applies equally when we walk through a populated shopping
area or sit in front of a computer screen. There has nonetheless been
relatively little consideration given to sound as an integral part of
online shopping interfaces, with most research concentrating upon the
more obvious visual aspects of online store design. Information
richness generally has been suggested to play a significant role in
consumers' decisions whilst purchasing from a virtual store (Chen et
al, 2004). Chen et al identify failed attempts at electronic commerce
resulting from the provision of insufficient product information. The
integration of audio features to increase information richness is one
means of reducing the void between peoples’ perceptions of products and
services and what the retailer is trying to achieve, by providing the
necessary support for purchase decision making.
Indeed, a question mark has been raised over why companies do not take
advantage of opportunities to employ features to enhance the sensory
appeal of their products online and increase market share (Lindstrom,
2002). While technical limitations may hinder the introduction of novel
technologies, particularly for smaller retailers, perhaps more
obstructive are uncertainties regarding the likely impact of such
features on user experiences of shopping online, as well as an
overarching requirement to bring a financial return on investment
through any innovations in commercial settings. As discomfort and
struggle are just as much part of some shopping experiences as pleasure
and entertainment where, for instance, the use of synthesised
background music can be received as stressful or annoying by some
shoppers and relaxing by others, any addition of sound in retail
environments tends to be approached with much caution. While retailers
would not be likely seek to encourage uncomfortable or difficult
purchase decisions for shoppers on purpose, this could happen if
increases in the complexity of the online store interface are not
managed properly and users‘ needs are not prioritised.
In efforts therefore to counter risks resulting from the integration of
sound into web-based stores, particularly amid suggestions that sound
could be more of an annoyance to web users if not designed-in
thoughtfully (Waters, 1997), some researchers encourage retailers and
designers to establish ways of providing some control to shoppers over
the sound content of sites (Nielsen, 1995; Waters, 1997).
Such control can centre on being better enabled to understand products
as opposed to submitting passively to stimuli. From here emerges the
distinction between, on one side, using audio to help shoppers to
better understand the products and situation and on the other, of
subjecting them to sensory stimuli for the purpose of encouraging
behaviours likely to lead to a purchase or attitude about the product
or service: a distinction made more clear when we consider sound used
to enrich product information and sound used to provide background
atmospherics. Coorough (2001) describes this difference as content
versus ambient sound. In this context, ambient music and sounds provide
background noises and special effects to set the mood, grab the
attention of the shopper and reinforce the idea of a naturalistic
environment (Jorgensen, 2004; Coorough, 2001), using the power of
sound to influence the way people feel and act (Sutcliffe, 2003). In
this sense, the emphasis is somewhat dubiously on transferring
attributes and techniques from offline stores to a virtual
representation online and trying to shape shoppers‘ experiences and
perceptions therein.
There are unavoidable consequences of this. First, in considering the
atmospheric properties and effects of sound, we must also take into
account other sensory, emotional and intellectual aspects of
experience, considering the various gestalt influences of touch, smell
and the other senses in constructing an idea of a place or space.
Second, transferring atmospherics online requires the
re-examination ofwhat we mean when discussing online store atmosphere.
In particular, we might question how an interface experienced
within the context of another environment (home, office, school, etc.)
can have an atmosphere and what are the implications of approaching
online store design in this way?
In short, if we fail to understand the significance of sound as an
environmental attribute specific to a place and time, we may confound
the meaningfulness of the auditory as a means of communication and
expression, with a questionable idea of sound as a useful tool for
enhancing a theatre style of retail, based on consumer passivity.
With this research we aim to contribute to the debate concerning how
and why sound may affect the way that people experience shopping
online. We begin our research examining current uses of sound at online
stores and discuss how sound may be developed as a part of the web
shopping interface with related consequences for shoppers.
Our focus throughout the research is founded on consideration of the
interface as a tool for shopping rather than as virtual environment,
emphasising the embodied and social aspects of experience in relation
to shopping events sited at the interface.
Methodology
A survey of retail and retail-related websites was conducted with a
view to investigating broadly the use of sound by online retailers and
retailers making use of the internet to market and provide an online
‘presence‘ to their products. The use of sound on the sites was
recorded along with a categorisation of how it was being used. Examples
included the use of sound to present product characteristics or provide
atmospherics to the store. Our initial objectives with this work,
reported elsewhere (Fiore & Kelly, 2006), centred on deriving
issues relevant to contemporary questions about the effectiveness of
sound as an element for enhancing enjoyment of the online shopping
process. However, from this initial grounding we have further explored
some of the potential social and experiential implications of audio
features within websites aimed at presenting products online. There
follows a general summary of the survey activity and findings forming
the basis for discussion.
Seventy mainly UK websites ranging from supermarkets and gadget stores
to car manufacturers and DVD rental websites, were surveyed. The
websites included manufacturers and representational only sites, as
well as online stores. In selecting a sample of websites, consideration
was given to the use of the interface to present product attributes. In
this sense, not all of those selected offered online purchase
facilities, although all were required to present products online. This
broadening of the sample beyond only websites offering direct selling
facilities, has been possible and fruitful due to the fact that we are
not in this research concerned with the direct impact of sound on
decisions to purchase or not, but rather with the theoretical and
practical implications of using sound to enhance product presentation
and the experiential issues for consumers. The review topics provided
via the www.reviewcentre.com website enabled the simple construction of
a varied sample of websites. The study did not seek a statistically
defined sample, as its purpose was exploratory. Similarly, we did not
seek to draw conclusions about trends or quantifiable patterns, so as
to maintain the exploratory nature of the study.
For each of the sites we recorded whether or not auditory features were
present and in what form. In doing so, the purpose was not to confirm
or disprove predetermined hypotheses, but instead provide a basis for
discussion around current trends in the use of sound by online
retailers and explore possible directions for the use of (auditory)
multimedia online.
Initial results
As summarised in Table 1, the findings of the survey indicated that of
the notably small proportion of websites actually using sound in some
way linked to selling and marketing products online, most were
employing audio features to enhance the display of products and within
multimedia features such as short demonstration videos. The limited
number of retail websites which were found to incorporate auditory
features were mainly those of larger corporations. This may be a result
of the relatively high levels of investment required to produce and
implement new audio features when compared to text-based interfaces. At
the same time, however, we also observed extremely limited and
inconsistent use of sound even within the websites of major retailers.
Certainly the use of sound was far from consistent for all products on
offer.
Table I. Retailers and manufacturers using sound online (out of 70 surveyed)
Product simulations and demonstrations
The type of product sold seemed to have some relation (though not
statistically measured) to whether or not and how sound was used at the
interface. Certain types of products, such as music, DVDs and mobile
phones, which obviously lend themselves more easily to auditory
demonstration of features than others such as clothes or fresh foods,
were predictably presented through auditory means much more frequently
than others. It was for such products that we could notice how sound
was being used as a way to actually sample at least some features
before buying.
Sound alternatively was present to enhance the display of product
features via short videos or audio clips. Three examples illustrate the
diversity in this approach. The first is the presentation of the Honda
S2000 at the www.Honda.co.uk website. Here the sound of the revving
engine is provided via an audio clip. While shoppers may be unlikely to
accept an audio clip delivered via low quality PC speakers on a low
bandwidth connection as an accurate replication of the engine sound,
this is perhaps not Honda’s objective. The provision of the audio is
quite possibly provided to communicate the idea that the engine is
something to be listened to and appreciated; a quality of the car
important to a potential S2000 owner. By providing the sound clip,
Honda make sure that interested consumers are encouraged to think about
the S2000 engine as something to be listened to and appreciated as a
characteristic, differentiating the product and store from others.
A second relevant example identified is the presentation of the Bodum
Electric Santos Coffee Machine, providing a descriptive mini video and
demonstration of the vacuum coffee machine in action. Bodum employ the
services of Vendaria (2004) to produce a short video of the coffee
machine in use, in order to demonstrate technical characteristics in a
richer format. The effect is a clear demonstration of features,
benefits and design of the product that is easily accessed with a
single click, without need for special software or a high bandwidth
connection. Compared to the static image and description of the coffee
machine, the effect of the demo video is striking and helps in giving
access to interpret the object’s attributes for oneself.
A third example is the incorporation of audio or multimedia files
submitted by users in the form of product reviews and accounts of their
experiences using products. While websites such as firebox.co.uk and
paramountzone.co.uk do not provide audio or multimedia demonstrations
of products in the predefined format used by Bodum, they do enable the
posting of audio and video files submitted by previous purchasers of
the products available. Instead therefore, of simply reading a review
of a product supplied by others (as present at stores such as
Amazon.co.uk and currys.co.uk), shoppers are treated to the possibility
of viewing and listening to the products in use by other people.
Atmospheric sound
Of only two websites found to be using atmospheric sounds, Perrier
water (www.perrier.com) presents an interesting example. As the user
navigates through the Perrier website, in addition to a series of
multimedia presentations, they can hear frequent fizzes and pops, the
sound of a bottle opening, sparkling water being drunk and the sigh of
a contented drinker. Sounds punctuate onscreen animations featuring
bubbles and watery images. An icon is always present enabling the user
to switch the sound off if they wish. Although the Perrier site is not
oriented towards direct selling, it is a useful example of sound being
used to carry a theme through the website and keep the user focused
upon the product features; in this case, the refreshing
effervescence. Because of the peculiar characteristic of the Perrier
water communicating through sound, visitors to the website are
repeatedly and passively reminded of the product through a very basic
auditory feature. In fact, the Perrier website represents an
interesting alternative conception of ambient sound relevant to the
online context. In bricks and mortar stores sound is used to set an
immersive atmosphere, affect the physical movements and moods of
shoppers to orient them towards buying and spending time in the store.
As discussed above, this practice is problematic to translate online
due to the fact that retailers and designers cannot determine the
qualities and atmosphere of the wider space in which the website will
be accessed and used. The approach of Perrier is interesting because it
employs atmospheric sounds in a subtle way that punctuates, suggests
and reminds of elements on the interface, as opposed to immersing
shoppers in a virtual representation of place.
Some new directions
Our exploratory research suggests that, while the uptake of sound
within online store interfaces is as yet very limited in extent and
range, there are some interesting developments evolving. As the
technologies for delivering high-quality audio features are constantly
developing and becoming more accessible, there is much scope for
development for online retailing. Although at this point in time, it is
difficult and somewhat redundant to attempt to draw accurate
predictions regarding future trends, we can appeal to the discussion
above to introduce some concerns emerging from observation of wider
developments. The research we have carried out has enabled us to
randomly explore how sound is being used online and, while some
predictable observations have emerged (e.g. the lesser use of auditory
features by smaller retailers and more sound used to present primarily
auditory products), other observations provide points of departure for
in-depth discussion on the social and experiential issues emerging from
a more noisy World Wide Web.
Potential social and experiential implications of multimedia-based online shopping interfaces
Despite suggestions within existing research literature that increasing
the richness of the shopping interface can have as significant impact
on how the shopping activity and products are perceived, apparently
very few retailers are as yet making use of sound to add to such
richness. Given that auditory features can now be delivered to end
users with comparative ease and consistency, delay in uptake of
auditory features is most likely due to investment required in relation
to expected returns. Beyond cost issues, however, for retailers of some
products for which trying out auditory features beforehand could be a
significant advantage (e.g. DVDs), the integration of audio is a more
obvious choice. For others, the decision is likely to rest on what
sound can do to enhance the way products are presented favourably or
comprehensively online or how the presentation of the storefront is
improved. Our survey has revealed some interesting examples of this in
practice, with companies such as Bodum dramatically increasing the
richness of information about certain products and others such as
Perrier using sound to support an image for both product and website.
It may then be fruitful to encourage the types of features discovered
in this survey, which have potentially more fulfilling social and
experiential outcomes. Of particular note are the audio and video
reviews and accounts of experiences with products, provided by other
shoppers at certain websites, which can contribute to constructing
communities of people willing and able to express their ideas and
communicate to others what a product is like to have and use and how,
consciously, they feel about it. Similar approaches have already proven
successful in textual format for companies such as Amazon.com, Inc.
whose customers and authors of books can post reviews and comments for
other users to see. Developing this into a multimedia format holds
great promise for consumers to use the features of the interface as a
tool to help them understand the products better before buying with all
the connotations for shopping experiences that entails. The
audio-visual format helps to bring people closer to the actual product
by making the experience more physically rich and incorporating the
expressiveness of spoken language. It gives people better possibility
to form their own subjective ideas about products rather than being
forced to rely on descriptions conceived from another’s perspective.
Conclusions
Moving beyond our initial intentions with this project, we have raised
some contentions, in light of broader ideas about experience and
interaction, with regard to relevant conceptual issues surrounding the
nature of products and how their attributes may be more helpfully
presented online in a richer format incorporating sound. Specifically
we have emphasised the lack of objective characteristics in products
and the importance of enabling consumers to form subjective ideas about
things offered for sale online. Despite this, our survey indicates that
shoppers are being forced to rely on limited sensory information during
online shopping and browsing.
We suggest the need for further critical research into the social and
experiential implications of multi-modal technologies for online
shopping, drawing particular attention to theoretical as well as
practical implications of such new ways of conceptualising interaction
for online shopping. In particular, such research would benefit by
learning from users of online shopping sites about their experiences.
The implications we have raised here provide a starting point to
highlight themes emerging from such conversations with
users.
This research has also identified immense scope for further exploration
of atmospheric sound as part of the online store interface. Such use of
sound has emerged to be virtually unexploited by online retailers
despite its proliferation in offline stores. The difficulty perhaps
lies in the way atmospherics are literally interpreted at the
interface. Designers and retailers may therefore need to look at
alternative conceptions to the ‘virtual store’ to overcome conceptual
issues for the integration of background sound online, when all
computer use already takes place within a wider physical environment
that is beyond the control of the online storefront designer. Deeper
exploration of the effects of atmospheric sounds on social and
experiential aspects of online shopping fall outside the scope of this
report and will be carried forward separately.
Arguably the most interesting aspect to emerge from this research,
however, is the use of auditory features to provide a means for users
to express their ideas and narratives about specific products. The
impact of seeing and hearing a fellow consumer demonstrate a product in
their own terms or show about it what is important for them, goes far
beyond written description. The richness and immediacy of the
audio-visual suggests much promise in terms of enhancing the social and
experiential qualities of buying online. It is in the use of audio (as
well as other media) for empowering consumers through the interface,
that we feel generates interesting challenges from this research.
Taking human experience rather than commerce as a starting point, sound
reveals to be essential (to hearing people) whereas from a commercial
perspective, it can be seen as a welcome luxury as long as
technological hurdles can be overcome. The lack of sound in so many
websites we surveyed is a failing which reveals the influence of
commercial interests in making the contemporary World Wide Web a very
quite place. Retailers need to do more than exploit techniques for
representing the hedonic aspects of products and should be looking at
ways of enriching websites with sound to represent products more
completely, yet in a way that does more than make purchase decisions
easier or more fun, by actually contributing to giving people a means
to express and experience for themselves what they think and feel about
a product.
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Published in:
IJRDM (Retail Insights) 35.7
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