In recent years, the Internet has become a significant marketplace. E-commerce and online retailing have been growing rapidly and increasing in popularity. Nevertheless, numerous studies have revealed that more than 70% of online consumers are not satisfied with their online shopping experience. One of the main reasons for this is impersonalized online shopping.; The main objective of this dissertation is to propose and test a theoretical model of the personalization of online shopping based on the Virtual Personal Shopper (VPS) through a laboratory experiment with the use of a computer-simulated website. The model is based on a suggested conceptual framework in an attempt to increase the levels of customer satisfaction and intention to buy.; Due to the infant state of online personalization, this dissertation gives a historical background on personalization, discusses its importance in traditional and online retailing, reviews current trends and emerging problems among online shopping services, the first attempts toward online personalization, and the consequences of impersonalized online retailing.; This research is one of the first academic studies to generalize the existing knowledge base related to the field of online retailing personalization, to produce a new knowledge base, and to contribute to the knowledge base of the science of marketing, specifically Internet marketing and "one-to-one" marketing. In particular, it suggests a systemic approach to investigating personalization, analyzes and determines interrelations and interactions among various elements of both online retailing and personalization, suggests an interpretation of the online retailing process vs. traditional retailing, formulates and proposes a theoretical model of VPS Online Personalization, determines the relationship between personalization of online retailing and customer satisfaction and intention to buy.; Through the laboratory experiment and post-experiment investigations, the study tests and confirms the set of four hypotheses concerning the increase of customer satisfaction and intention to buy as a result of VPS-based personalization of online retailing, in particular, whether a VPS-based personalized online shopping website is more effective than a non-personalized one. Two independent stimulus variables are the VPS-based personalized online shopping website (with and without musical accompaniment) vs. the non-personalized online shopping website. The group of dependent variables consisted of customer satisfaction and intention to buy.; Eighty qualified MBA students, experienced in both the traditional and the online shopping channels at major department stores, including high-end stores, were selected for participation in the study.; All four proposed hypotheses of the dissertation have been accepted. The statistical analysis performed on the data collected from the post-experiment questionnaire proved that VPS's performance significantly increased customer satisfaction and intention to buy. Also, the statistical analysis supported the assumption that VPS accompanied by music further increases this group of dependent variables.; The dissertation shows that increased customer satisfaction and intention to buy leads to a much higher volume of sales and, as a result, plays a vital role in the online retailer's success. Therefore, the presence of the VPS in online retailing will serve as a gateway to the highest level of customer satisfaction and intention to buy.
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