Consumer Decision-Making Case Study

This case study analyzes Grace's decision-making process in purchasing a toaster, highlighting the shift from low-involvement (offline) to high-involvement (online) purchasing behavior. The study explores how readily available online information, including product reviews and price comparisons, significantly impacted Grace's evaluation criteria and final purchase decision. It emphasizes the role of the internet in facilitating information search, product evaluation, and the avoidance of sales pressure. The study also discusses the influence of online consumer reviews, differentiating between 'warning' and 'helping' motivations behind reviews and their impact on consumer choices. The analysis uses several academic references to support its claims about consumer behavior in the digital age.

Question 1.
The technology and its development has made it possible for the consumers to access everything
readily using the methods like media sources, internet, magazine etc. With an easier availability
of information, the consumers and their decision-making process has also influenced. This is
additionally enhanced by high accessibility of internet with fast and convenient use. In this case
study, a toaster became the prime priority for Grace. This eventually became a low-involvement
process for Grace. In the initial phase, she didn’t spend much effort and time and the only factor
in buying a toaster was price. But it has been seen that internet offers low as well as high
involvement consumers a tremendous wealth of information on shopping items easily which
motivated Grace in order to spend some considerable time in searching the toaster.
Initially, Grace was searching toasters online however with a wide range of choices, features,
price comparison and reviews. With the conduction of external information, she found that
buying anything online is not easy as there are a plethora of options with added features. She
even had an option of reading the reviews being given by other customers. She never liked
discussing about products with anyone else but for her these reviews were enjoyable.
With the help of internet her buying behavior has changed which has changed the practice of
buying toaster online from low-involvement to high-involvement. When Grace started spending
hours on her research, depicting the change in her online behavior as she was eager to attain
information on toasters. In terms of choosing a toaster in store, she is a low-involvement store
but in internet, she is not. Grace searched over 100 toasters with around 150 reviews prior to
finalizing her Dualit two-slice toaster. This was followed by evaluation of price comparison from
around five Epinions online store. Further, she again depicted high-involvement in her decision-
making process when she selected Amazon.com over Kitchen Etc.com despite of low price due
to Amazon’s free-shipping policy and her past online purchasing experience from Amazon.com.
In this case study, Grace came across Epinions and could easily have the option of comparing the
prices which was helpful for her as every information was listed in the form of categories.
All these factors have depicted that Grace was successful in establishing evaluative criteria as
she evaluated her toaster on the basis of pricing, features, convenience, etc. as per her needs.

Therefore, with high-involvement, not only price, but various other factors were considered
which became critical in her decision-making process.
Question 2.
Internet has made it easier for consumers to conduct an information search during the consumer
decision making process. The collection of a wide range of data and information is easier using
internet. It has been argued that internet has an enhanced role in personal and professional lives
of people and people end up turning to various resources in internet on the basis of product
categories and brands (Winer, 2009). With easily gathered information, the consumer can then
evaluate and compare the information so as to make the right decision. This stage is helping for
the consumer for analyzing each hand every aspect of the product through various searches and
can also consider alternative products as per his needs and wants. Additionally, the various
aspects of the product like quality, size, price and quality can also be easily evaluated. This is
difficult if the consumer decides to do this independently without internet usage. Although the
evaluation process is sometimes seen to be time-consuming and difficult putting pressure on the
consumer as it is difficult to decide upon the ideal product satisfying the needs of the customers
(Ha et al, 2010). For example, Grace evaluated not only the price, but also the various features
being offered by the toasters. This would have been a tiresome task if Grace visited offline stores
and compared the shortlisted toasters. Internet is plays a vital role as it makes the option of
shopping available for the customers around the clock as compared to the traditional stores as the
online shopping option is open for 24 hours a day, every day (Hofacker, 2001; Wang et al.,
2005). This helps the customers to pose their questions and get support anytime as per their
convenience (Hermes, 2000). Various researches have depicted that over 60 percent of people
are seen to prefer to shop online as they want to avoid wailing lines and crows and 58 percent of
people chose online shopping over traditional shopping as they can even shop after-hours when
the traditional stores are closed (The Tech Faq, 2008). Internet also makes it easier for the
consumers to avoid face-to-face interaction with the sales executive as the executives are seen to
control and manipulate the consumers (Goldsmith and Flynn, 2005; Parks, 2008). Thus, internet
allows people to make decision without any manipulation. Lastly, online shopping is easier as it
can be done anywhere and anytime and has made life easier for the consumers (Childers et al.,

2001). The internet makes it easier for the customers to find shops that offer then high
convenience in reducing the psychological costs (Prasad and Aryasri, 2009).
Question 3.
The online consumer reviews are highly accessible to a huge number of people therefore help in
acting like the electronic word of mouth affecting the performance of the product. The other
customers are then motivated after reading the consumer’s reviews (Hennig-Thurau and Walsh,
2003). Additionally, Winer (2009), has highlighted that online user reviews and forums are
helpful in encouraging the consumers so as to buy an ideal product. Thus it can be stated that the
online consumer reviews are likely to be trustworthy as their aim is to help other customers while
making their decision. The motivation usually comes so as to reduce the anxiety or lessen the
frustration while venting out negative feelings (Yap, Soetarto & Sweeney, 2013). When people
make recent purchase and usually are not satisfied with the products and services, they generate
written content. This is one of the major reasons for creating negative reviews regarding their
experience online and about the content. Secondly, people write with regards to their concerns
for other customers (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004). This instils the feeling or desire to help other
people in their decision making process and save them from the same kind of negative
experiences (Bronner, F., & de Hoog, R., 2010).. The person writing the reviews usually wants
to help consumer with no personal gain or assistance. These content can even be positive in case
the consumers are happy with the services and products. Yap, Soetarto and Sweeney (2013)
differentiated these generated content in ‘warning’ and ‘helping’ other consumers. A motivation
in case the user is happy with the product or services is to assist the company providing this
product. A satisfied consumer will feel the desire to help the company and post content so as to
‘help the company’.

References
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Ha, H., Janda. S. and Muthaly, S., (2010). “Development of brand equity: evaluation of four
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Hofacker, C.R., (2001), Internet Marketing, 3rd ed., Wiley, New York.
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The Tech Faq,(2008), “Top reasons why people shop online,” http://www.thetechfaq.
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Goldsmith, R.E. and Flynn, L.R., (2005), “Bricks, clicks, and pix: apparel buyers’ use of stores,
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Parks, S., (2008), “7 Reasons why people shop online,” http://www.articlesbase.com/ home-
business-articles/7-reasons-why-people-shop-online-554620.html, Articlebase.com
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