Applying Appraisal Theory on Online Cart Abandonment: The Perspectives of Cognitive Appraisal, Emotion Elicitation, and Coping Strategy

This study adopted the cognitive appraisal process of appraisal theory to investigate the relationships among website design assessment, e-service quality, emotion elicitation, and the cart abandonment coping strategy. A total of 411 valid surveys were collected, all of whom had experience with abandoning online shopping carts. The analytical results of SEM show that navigation structure and information content are appropriate antecedents for the scales of e-service quality. Efficiency and fulfillment both negatively influence dissatisfaction, while dissatisfaction results in cart abandonment behavior. This research discovers that website design failure may lead consumers to have negative perceptions of the online retailer's service quality, which then generates dissatisfaction and can eventually result in online shopping cart abandonment. This study thus suggests that online vendors should improve their website design, especially in terms of the display of the information content and the use of a logical, hierarchical website structure. In summary, the navigation structure of webpage should be logical and easy to move around, as this would decrease the likelihood that consumers would abandon their shopping carts.