Utilitarian or hedonic: Event-related potential evidence of purchase intention bias during online shopping festivals

Online shopping festivals play a significant role in consumers' purchase decision and have been the focus of much research and many marketing practices. However, research has yet to explore which product categories can promote consumer purchase intention during online shopping festivals. This study carried out a neurophysiological experiment with event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the mechanism of participants' purchase intention for two classic product categories (utilitarian products (UP) and hedonic products (HP)) during online shopping festivals. The behavioral findings demonstrated that compared to HP, participants had a purchase intention bias towards UP. Neurocognitively, this purchase intention bias was reflected by a larger N2 component and a smaller LPC component for UP than for HP. N2 reflected attentional capture in the early cognitive stage, and LPC reflected the later stage of negative emotional perception. These findings provide a preliminary exploration of the mechanism of people's purchase decision of UP and HP during online shopping festivals, positively contributing marketing practices and future research.