Abstract

Consumer on-line behaviors are more important than ever due to the high growth of on-line shopping. The main purposes of this study is to design placement methods for background music for shopping websites and examine the effects of these methods on on-line shoppers’ emotional and cognitive responses. Two placement methods of background music, that is, placement point and fade-in period for shopping websites were proposed and undertaken in a laboratory experiment.Participants’ emotional state, approach-avoidance behavior intention, recalling accuracy, action to adjust music volume and electroencephalogram (EEG); were collected. The results indicate that playing background music with placement point or fade-in period is beneficial for the on-line shopping atmosphere. It is inappropriate to place background music at the start of browsing on a shopping website; thus the marketer must be careful in manipulating the placement methodsof background music for a web store. The combination of EEG and subjectivemeasure for background music effect analysis used in this research is a novel approach and the EEG involved data that can provide physiological evidence rather than the traditional subjective measures. Though the relationships between the measures have not been examined clearly in the present study, it can be a good model for further studies.

Key words: Background music, shopping website, placement, fade-in, electroencephalogram (EEG).