High Involvement and Low Involvement in Searching for Product Information
High-Tech, Low-Involvement: Changing Consumers’ Search for Information
The internet has made it significantly easier for consumers to conduct an information search during the consumer decision-making process. Almost every household owns a computer and has access to the internet. This makes the internet highly accessible, hence information search is fast and convenient.
From the case study, Grace wanted to buy a toaster and it has became a priority for her. Buying a toaster used to be a low involvement process for Grace. Initially, she was not interested to spend much time and effort, and low price was the main factor in buying a toaster. However, internet offers both high and low involvement consumers a wealth of shopping information easily and it has motivated Grace to spend more time in searching a toaster online.
At first, she was just looking for a toaster online but the website provided her with a wide range of choices and comparison of prices, features and reviews. External information search is conducted when she found out that buying a toaster is not an easy process and began to read the reviews written by other consumers. Although she barely discuss with others on the product she plans to buy, she enjoyed reading consumers’ reviews online.
Internet has changed her buying behaviour thus purchasing a toaster online is no longer a low-involvement process for Grace. When Grace spent an hour doing research, this has shown that her online behaviour has changed as she is keen to search for more information on toasters. She might be a low-involvement consumer when choosing a toaster in stores but not in the internet.
The case study shows that Grace looked at over 100 toasters and 150 reviews before deciding to get a Dualit two-slice toaster from Amazon.com after evaluating the price comparison between 5 online stores by Epinions. It also pointed out that after a comparison, although Kitchen Etc.com offers cheaper price, she chose Amazon.com
The internet has made it significantly easier for consumers to conduct an information search during the consumer decision-making process. Almost every household owns a computer and has access to the internet. This makes the internet highly accessible, hence information search is fast and convenient.
From the case study, Grace wanted to buy a toaster and it has became a priority for her. Buying a toaster used to be a low involvement process for Grace. Initially, she was not interested to spend much time and effort, and low price was the main factor in buying a toaster. However, internet offers both high and low involvement consumers a wealth of shopping information easily and it has motivated Grace to spend more time in searching a toaster online.
At first, she was just looking for a toaster online but the website provided her with a wide range of choices and comparison of prices, features and reviews. External information search is conducted when she found out that buying a toaster is not an easy process and began to read the reviews written by other consumers. Although she barely discuss with others on the product she plans to buy, she enjoyed reading consumers’ reviews online.
Internet has changed her buying behaviour thus purchasing a toaster online is no longer a low-involvement process for Grace. When Grace spent an hour doing research, this has shown that her online behaviour has changed as she is keen to search for more information on toasters. She might be a low-involvement consumer when choosing a toaster in stores but not in the internet.
The case study shows that Grace looked at over 100 toasters and 150 reviews before deciding to get a Dualit two-slice toaster from Amazon.com after evaluating the price comparison between 5 online stores by Epinions. It also pointed out that after a comparison, although Kitchen Etc.com offers cheaper price, she chose Amazon.com