Should I Stay or Should I Go? A quantitative study on how shopping cart design affects spending behavior and customer satisfaction.

Sammanfattning: Due to the rapid expansion of e-commerce, online retailers increasingly rely on their websites in the creation of positive shopping experiences. Despite this, crucial website design elements are currently neglected in research. In this thesis, one such element is addressed - the shopping cart design. Shopping cart design refers to the cart icon in the top right-hand corner of the website and the information displayed in it. As of today, the majority of online retailers choose to either display the number of added items and the shopping cart financial total, or solely the number of added items. Yet, little is known about how the presence of shopping cart financial total influences customer satisfaction with online retailers, as well as how it influences outcomes of online retail shopping in terms of spending behavior. Through two experimental quantitative studies, this thesis shows that the presence of shopping cart financial total result in higher customer satisfaction. The mechanisms responsible for this increase in customer satisfaction include higher perceived control, higher levels of benevolence trust and higher perceived usefulness of the website. Furthermore, this thesis finds no evidence that the presence of shopping cart financial total affects total spending. The findings in this thesis provide actionable guidance for online retailers considering various shopping cart designs and also suggests opportunities for future research.