Analyzing Consumer Behavior in Online Toaster Purchase Case Study

This case study examines how the internet has reshaped consumer behavior, using the example of a toaster purchase. Initially, the consumer, Grace, demonstrated low involvement, primarily considering price. However, the accessibility of information online, including product reviews and comparisons, led to a shift towards high involvement. Grace spent considerable time researching various toasters, comparing features, prices, and reading customer reviews. This research included external information gathering and evaluation of multiple factors beyond price. The internet facilitated a comprehensive evaluation of different models, features, and vendor options, allowing Grace to make an informed decision. The case study highlights the importance of online reviews and the impact of factors like free shipping and past experiences. The study also emphasizes how the internet has made it easier for consumers to gather information, compare products, and make purchasing decisions, including the role of online reviews in influencing consumer choices and the shift from low-involvement to high-involvement decision-making processes.

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.
Additionally, the involvement and its degree poses a question on buyer experience, products
being purchased for the first times and if the buyer requires comparatively more involvement
than he usually does (Boyd et al., 2002).
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 never liked discussing about products with anyone else but for her these reviews
were enjoyable. She use to engage in routine response behavior and made automatic purchase
decisions on the basis of limited information or the information that she had in the past. She
never planned or had previous thought while purchasing the items and indulged in impulse
buying. She simply bought things because she wanted them without further thought. Therefore
her low involvement products are selected on the basis of her internal information search as she
never realized the importance of spending cost for collection of external information regarding
her product search. Then she started 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. 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. She stopped indulging in routine response and instead chose to engage herself in an
extended problem solving and ended up spending a considerable amount of time in comparing
various criteria and aspects on the basis of products, price, delivery etc. Therefore, a lot of time

is consumed in figuring out whether the product being ordered is superior to other competing
brands or not. Internet shopping has been one of the common source of information regarding the
products and offers product reviews written by the consumers. Whereas, Epinions.com offers a
consumer-generated review site.
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. She
indulged in all the processes of high-involvement namely search for product information,
product evaluation and product choice and purchase. During this process, she came across
various criteria of toasters, she was not aware of initially. With high-involvement, not only price,
but various other factors were considered which became critical in her decision-making process.
Therefore, her level of interest was depicted by her involvement in the whole procedure of
toaster buying.
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). Therefore, internet has been regarded as a valuable
research tool for the online shoppers and also provides critically important information while

making purchasing decisions. Various researches have stated that online information makes the
researching of product to be very efficient especially in the case of feature-rich product as the
consumer can get to about the various added features in the product. However, it is not the only
tool for gathering the information. Gathering of information is boosted using internet and it helps
in establishing the first step in the consumer decision-making. The need of gathering of
information then helps in winnowing down the options and their range adding to the demand of
more information.
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). The online purchases
and their frequency is seen to be highly affected by the characteristics of the perceived vendor on
the basis of the price competitiveness, quicker delivery or ease of cancelling the orders. 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). Therefore, internet
has made is easier for the customers to information search and according to Darian, the five
convenient dimensions being strengthened by online shopping for the consumers are:
1. Time saving;
2. Saving of personal efforts like transfer of product or visiting the mall;
3. Flexibility during the time of purchase and
4. Lesser inconvenience like difficulties with traffic and parking etc.
5. Spontaneous purchase.
Various researches have indicated that the prime motivator for the consumers to shop online is
the convenience in interacting with the online vendors who make the process to be quite easier.
This convenience not only ranging from an easier information gathering but also fast browsing of
information and easy online transaction.
Question 3.
With the help of internet a world of choice has been opened for the consumers. The consumers
can browse and buy a plethora of items and products in few seconds. The product choice for the
consumers have increased with increase information asymmetry and these, honest and
informative information of the product is required from the trusted peers (Malbon, 2013). The
online reviews help in filling up this information gap and represent the opinions of the
consumers on the product they purchased. These reviews are basically user-generated content
which are highly valuable for the online visitors, review websites and the companies. 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. In a study conducted on
the online cell-phone buying behavior of the customers, it was seen that out of 39% of the people
who use internet for information gathering on the cell phone purchase, 50% of them consulted
review on the cell phone blogs and website (Horrigan, J., 2008). According to a report, 61% of
the consumers have a tendency of reading the online reviews before the purchase decisions is
being made and 63% of the consumers are bound to make a purchase from the online site having
reviews on the products. According to Bazaarvoice, Conversation Index, Q2 (2011), the site

visitors who read the online reviews and the questions and answers being posed by the customers
are 105% have the tendency of purchasing the product. The same study has stated that these
consumers’ reviews are trusted 12 times higher than the description of the product being given
by the manufacturers and the sales persons in the mall. These online reviews are further seen to
produce an uplift of the product sales by 18%.
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’. Therefore, the consumers writing these reviews are
seen to follow a well-defined and fair path so as to help other people make better decisions and
fit perfectly into online community.

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