Perceived Enjoyment, Impulse Buying Tendency and Gamification Factors in E-Commerce Sites

Abstract

With the booming of online shoppers in Malaysia, more e-commerce players such as Shopee and Lazada, are taking a step further to improve their platforms in gaining more customers. As such, many initiatives have been taken into consideration to differentiate the e-commerce platforms from one another. In particular, this study posits that gamification can influence the consumers purchase intention which result in positive online purchase intention. Despite the increase in studies on gamification, most of the extent studies treat gamification as a uniform or unidimensional concept comprising of multiple elements. Hence, in this study, gamification will be classified as multidimensional and distinct factors i.e., reward as an economic-related gamification factor and level upgrading as the achievement-related gamification factor. Guided by the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SO-R) model, this study will attempt to investigate into digital environment as a stimulus. In specific, this research will expand the S-O-R model by introducing gamification elements as potential factors that could promote perceived enjoyment in consumers while they are using the e-commerce platform. Concurrently, this study will also uncover the moderating role of impulse buying tendency (IBT) that could further explain the nature of the relationship between perceived enjoyment and online purchase intention in ecommerce platform given the contexts of Lazada and Shopee. Data will be collected from at least 400 Malaysia online shoppers which have at least 3 months of experience in using Shopee or Lazada by using an online survey questionnaire. All measurement items used are adopted and adapted from prior established studies and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach will be utilized for data analysis of the IV, DV and moderator. Meanwhile, respondent demographic background will be analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20.0. Through the finding of this research, e-commerce players would be able to get an insight and a better understanding of the roles of gamification in influencing online purchase intention in e-commerce platforms. On top of that, by applying the gamification to the S-O-R model, this research could further support the empirical evidence from the existing research. In terms of academic contribution, the findings could be a source to help future research which are related to the field.