Customer acceptance of shopping-assistant chatbots

Abstract

Due to the increased use of chat applications, it is expected that consumer buying behavior will change. Chatbots have been identified by companies as being an excellent opportunity to better exploit social networks and also get competitive differentiation through relationship marketing in the digital environment. This paper discusses through the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the adoption of chatbots as shopping assistants in e-commerce. A sample of 237 Portuguese respondents between 18 and 54 years old that answered a questionnaire evidenced that the dimensions that most influence their acceptance of chatbots were the compatibility and attitude towards mobile advertising. These results emphasize that there is a need to introduce better digital solutions to boost the results of companies. The investment in chatbots is thus an important factor of differentiation.