The Impact of Web Visual Aesthetics on Purchase Intention

The web design should not only deliver the basic merchandise trading, but also embellish the web site in order to enhance the purchase intention through the concept of visual aesthetics, color, pictures and films. Based on the theory Stimulus-Organism-Response(S-O-R), the model of aesthetic experiences, and two constructs of web visual aesthetics “aesthetic formality and aesthetic appeal”, this study establishes a reaction mode of web visual aesthetics perception. This study investigates the effect of user's "web visual aesthetics perception" through "positive emotions", "aesthetic experience value" and "satisfaction" on "purchase intention". The software AMOS 20 is used to conduct a structural equation modeling analysis of the 288 respondents collected from the website Forestmosa. The result of data analysis validates a theoretical model that "web visual aesthetics perception" positively affects "positive emotions", "satisfaction" and "aesthetic experience value". "Positive emotions" positively affects "aesthetic experience value" and "satisfaction". "Aesthetic experience value" positively affects "satisfaction", and "satisfaction" positively affects "purchase intention". Also, the results show that regardless of the frequency of online shopping, improving the visual aesthetic perception of web pages can positively affect the aesthetic experience value. Especially, the visual aesthetic design of the shopping website's webpage is obviously important for online shopping low-frequency users.