AMB200 Consumer Behavior: Strategies for Online Agreement Readership

This report addresses the problem of low readership of online terms and conditions agreements (CTAs) among consumers. It reviews existing literature that focuses on simplifying the language and presentation of these agreements, noting that these efforts have not fully resolved the issue. The report applies the theory of consumer decision-making, suggesting that presenting key terms and conditions during the information search and alternative evaluation stages can increase their visibility and relevance to consumers. Recommendations include generating interest in reading CTAs through awareness campaigns, strategically placing terms within the product information, making the reading of terms mandatory for high-risk services, simplifying the language of terms, and continuously researching consumer perceptions of terms and conditions. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of CTAs in protecting consumers and promoting fair practices.

Running head: CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Problem Context..............................................................................................................................2
Literature review..............................................................................................................................2
Theory and Framework....................................................................................................................4
Recommendations............................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................9
Appendix........................................................................................................................................11

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Problem Context
The report is concerning the formation and recommendation of effective strategies
focused towards increasing the readership of onlineterms and conditions agreements. The
problem that has been identified is in regards the lack of effective readership among consumers
of any documents containing terms or conditions. It is important to understand that readership of
CTA is an important criteria for understanding the important factors related to purchase of
various goods and services. Hence, it has been found that people tend to agree to the terms of any
agreement without properly reviewing its contents. The International Standardization
Organization (ISO) is responsible for the publishing and development of international standards.
They have noted that despite the majority of the present literatures focusing on making the terms
and conditions easier to comprehend through the utilization and simple language, text structure,
size and options for display the problems still persists after such factors have been utilized.
Literature review
As mentioned earlier most of the present literatures on the topic of readership of online
terms and conditions have focused on the textual messages that are provided to the readers.
According to Smith (2016) the challenges of consumer contracts have increased since the
development of the online transactions increasing with clickwrap and browsewrap contracts. The
authors opine that the Federal Trade Commission have to take essential measures towards
developing policies that make contracts more readable. According to Steinfeld (2016) it was
found that default privacy policies are read more carefully by the readers. However, users that
are not presented with such online policies hardly read them. Many even skip through the policy
pages. It was found that even participants that agreed to view policy documents proactively did

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not spend much time to read them. It can be said that online terms and conditions have lost much
of their readership over the past years. Easy access to services often make online consumers to
skip past the terms and conditions that often have very important information or clauses attached
with them. Elshout et al. (2016) have focused on the usage of quality cue or short T&C format to
increase the readability of online terms and conditions during any purchase. Quality cue refers to
a logo of an important regulatory body accompanied by the words, “the terms are fair”. Although
quality cue was found to be more popular among the online buyers interviewed on the basis of
their trust, there are still certain issues. The Quality cue cannot always be used to provide the
terms and conditions to the consumers. Especially in services that require much lengthier and
important CTAs that are of much more concern. Hence, the issue identified in the first two
studies is only marginally getting solved. The online agreements are important devices for online
buying and selling. According to Wilkinson-Ryan (2017) online contracts can be dangerous if
even all the contract details are mentioned. There are certain terms and conditions that require
online forms to be read and understood more carefully in many cases. However, while availing
even online services that can include severe financial risks people do not seem to care much. It is
important to note that online terms and conditions can be improved through better presentation
but there are certain instances when they have to be more effectively put forward. O'Shields
(2017) is of the opinion that in the era of blockchain, bitcoin and online contracts, readership of
contracts become very important. Hence, modern contracts involve much larger risks that can
more drastically affect the consumer that is not aware of the terms and conditions.
According to Bakos, Marotta-Wurgler, & Trossen (2014) opine that although there is a
word that the small number of buyers that remain conscious of the terms and conditions can keep
the sellers from unfair terms or practices, there are significant issues that might be present with

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this notion. The study went on to find that the growing number of contract unaware people can
actually make unfair contract terms, misuse of ignorance of the buyers and other similar acts
from the side of the sellers much easier. It is important to note that by close analysis of all the
previous literatures it is certain that the majority of the online buyers do not read contract terms.
However, in some cases this has been combated through the use of default contracts or visually
imposing but brief contract terms. However, it is quite certain that all the resolutions that have
been provided from the previous literatures would actually work in every case. Online forms are
actually not popular due to varied reasons. The most common reason being the time limitation of
the buyers. However, there are buyers that have enough time but still ignore terms and condition
of online contracts. Consumers are increasingly being unaware of the terms and conditions of the
services or products they are purchasing online (Fiesler Lampe & Bruckman, 2016, February).
Making the contract easier to read is not solving the problem as there is no general awareness
that is being created among the people in regards to the validity and relevance of online contract
terms. It becomes necessary that much better initiatives are taken to make online buyers
understand the significance of CTAs.
Theory and Framework
The theory of consumer decision making can be considered to enhance the chances for
better readability of online CTAs. According to this theory the decision making process of the
consumer goes through many stages to finally result in buying a commodity. This a theory model
or framework that can be used to change the consumer behavioral patterns that actually affect
people to make them ignore terms and conditions of online products and services. According to
the consumer decision making theory the consumer goes through some important stages before
making any decision regarding what to buy. The most important stages are problem recognition,

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information search, alternative evaluation, purchase and post purchase (Nguyen et al., 2017). The
terms and conditions come somewhere between the stages of information search, evaluation of
alternatives and purchase. Buyers tend to make decisions related to buying by closely evaluating
the alternatives that might be present. In the evaluation of alternatives stage the buyer tends to
contemplate about the necessity of buying. Customers tend to read the reviews of the products to
actually decide on the best one. The CTAs can be provided at this very stage when the customer
is focusing on whether or not to buy the item. This can help the customer to make the decision to
buy. This would be through giving the customer a view of the terms that are associated with a
product or service.
The important thing about this is that the customer will actually tend to view he terms in
regards to being an attribute of the product that is being evaluated. This will cause the terms to
be as important as the other attributes that are normally viewed before buying any given product.
In regards to the framework it hence becomes an important aspect to place the terms and
conditions between the stages of information search and evaluation of alternatives. The
consumer decision process takes into consideration the rational buying decision of the
consumers. Hence, there are stages that actually cumulate in the consumer making the choice of
the product that he or she wants to buy. As there are stages, there would also be the availability
of the scope for thinking. The consumer can get influenced to make a better rational choice if he
brief terms of agreement is provided to him at an early stage. Normally, the terms and condition
are shown during the buying of the product or service. Showing it at a time when it becomes
important for the consumer to make a decision based on the information displayed can positively
influence the decision making process of the consumer. The decision making stages are

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important for the consumer. Rather than being an aspect that can easily be skipped the CTAs can
be utilized in more productive ways.
Recommendations
At this stage it becomes important to make recommendations considering the entirety of
the different factors that have been considered throughout. The international organization for
standardization can consider some important initiatives for ensuring greater visibility of terms
and conditions among the various consumers.
Firstly, an important factor is generating interest. This is because generating enough
interest would actually help the consumer to understand the value of the terms of service or
product. The ISO would need to form strategies through which it can effectively promote the
value of reading terms and conditions. One of the more effective ways to promote would be to
focus on informing the consumer about the negative effects of not reading the terms and
conditions. As an example in online insurance service one can skip the terms and can face
significant issues during the time of utilizing the insurance. Similarly warranty terms are
important in cases of products that are bought online. This can be projected through online, print
and TV media. Special focus can be given towards reaching the smartphone users to reach a
larger audience. Better informed people can definitely lead to better readers of CTAs.
Secondly, readership can also be improved through the better strategic placement of the
terms agreements. As discussed previously, the buyer decision making process can be used in his
case. The terms of agreements can be divided into separate chunks of information. Some of the
more important terms can be mentioned along with the product specializations. This would cause
the audience to actually develop an interest of the terms and conditions. This increase the

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chances of actually viewing the entire terms and conditions. The important factor is to make the
CTAs an important aspect connected with the decision making process. According to Forbes less
than 1 in a 1000 people estimated to read terms and conditions seriously (Who Reads The Fine
Print Online? 2019). The same report stated that online services were able to breach customer
data as a result of the same. The CTA information can be provided along with the strategically
fragmented information of the terms on the product specifications.
Thirdly, for insurance, mutual funds and similar financial services, reading the Terms and
conditions can be made mandatory. The terms and conditions should be made hard to ‘skip’. At
the very beginning it should be displayed that not reading the terms and conditions could later
lead to the person facing significant amount of financial risks. There should be separate tactics to
help the consumer notice the T&C more based on the product or service that is being provided. It
is important that terms and conditions are considered as essential part of any contract. Hence, it
becomes further important actually make the CTAs available more often to view for the
customers. It is important that the CTAs are very importantly put forward to the customers. The
customer’s need to know and understand the terms and conditions should be given utmost
importance.
Fourthly, the terms and conditions should be made brief and simple for helping the
customers. It is important that the terms are made bold. There is also a need for promoting terms
of conditions that are more important over the terms that are lesser important for the customer. It
is important that all the terms are measured for understanding which of the terms are actually
better suited to be provided to the consumers. It is better to understand the value that the
customer associate with the product. It is important that proper research goes in to the terms and

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conditions of any product or service before providing the T&C to cover those aspects of
research.
Fifthly, it has been found that despite simpler words and more easy to understand
structures audiences are not interested in understanding projects. Hence, it is important that video
or animations are used to provide the terms and conditions to the audiences. This has to be done
when promoting the products and services. It is important to understand that the people want to
view the terms and conditions in ways that are very different to the normal ways. Hence, it
becomes important that the terms are provided in ways that are easier to understand for the
customers. Animated videos can provide better understandings of the terms and conditions. For
example- the customer would have to view an animated short video at the very start of evaluating
the alternatives. This video would be present to attract the attention of the consumer. The video
should be made short and simple and should be made “unskipable” hence making the customer
view it very importantly before proceeding with the purchase.
The implications point to the fact that newer modes and methods of reaching the
customers are important. In order to increase the readership of online terms and conditions, this
becomes an important aspect. Hence, it is needed that advertisers give much more importance to
making people aware of the importance of CTAs.

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References
Bakos, Y., Marotta-Wurgler, F., & Trossen, D. R. (2014). Does anyone read the fine print?
Consumer attention to standard-form contracts. The Journal of Legal Studies, 43(1), 1-35.
Elshout, M., Elsen, M., Leenheer, J., Loos, M., & Luzak, J. (2016). Study on consumers’
attitudes towards Terms and Conditions (T&Cs). Elshout, M., Elsen, M., Leenheer, J.,
Loos, M., & Luzak, J. (2016). Study on consumers’ attitudes towards Terms and
Conditions (T&Cs).
Fiesler, C., Lampe, C., & Bruckman, A. S. (2016, February). Reality and perception of copyright
terms of service for online content creation. In Proceedings of the 19th ACM conference
on computer-supported cooperative work & social computing(pp. 1450-1461). ACM.
Nguyen, L. T., Jamal, A., O’Brien, J., & Nawaz, I. Y. (2017). The effect of Click & Collect
service in the context of retail atmospherics on consumer buying behaviour in terms of
repurchase intention: An empirical study of Tesco UK. In 4th International Conference
on Innovation in Economics and Business (Vol. 87, pp. 43-51).
O'Shields, R. (2017). Smart contracts: Legal agreements for the Blockchain. NC Banking
Inst., 21, 177.
Plaut, V. C., & Bartlett III, R. P. (2012). Blind consent? A social psychological investigation of
non-readership of click-through agreements. Law and human behavior, 36(4), 293.
Rambarran, I., & Hunt, R. (2007). Are browse-wrap agreements all they are wrapped up to
be. Tul. J. Tech. & Intell. Prop., 9, 173.

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Smith, H. (2016). The Federal Trade Commission and Online Consumer Contracts. Colum. Bus.
L. Rev., 512.
Steinfeld, N. (2016). “I agree to the terms and conditions”:(How) do users read privacy policies
online? An eye-tracking experiment. Computers in human behavior, 55, 992-1000.
Who Reads The Fine Print Online? Less Than One Person In 1000. (2019). Retrieved from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/firewall/2010/04/08/who-reads-the-fine-print-online-less-
than-one-person-in-1000/#58edd4077017
Wilkinson-Ryan, T. (2017). The Perverse Consequences of Disclosing Standard Terms. Cornell
L. Rev., 103, 117.

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Appendix
Figure 1: Data on CTA readership
(Source- Plaut & Bartlett, 2012)