Intelligent Voice Agent: The Impact of Vocal Pitch on Customer Purchase Behavior in Voice Shopping

Although voice shopping has gradually become an effective e-commerce channel, research on how intelligent voice agent’s vocal pitch affects customer purchase behavior is still limited. This study explored how intelligent voice agent’s vocal pitch impacts customer purchase behavior by 2 (high-/low-pitched) × 2 (feminine/masculine intelligent voice agent) laboratory experiments analyses. Results indicate that vocal pitch significantly impacts customer purchase behavior, for feminine intelligent voice agent, but not for masculine. The underlying mechanisms reveal that feminine intelligent voice agent’s high-pitched voice increases customers’ pleasure and engagement, which not only offsets the decreased trust caused by the high vocal pitch, but promotes customer purchase behavior. Additionally, customers’ gender moderates the impact of vocal pitch on purchase behavior. Based on the findings, we provided useful insights for the understanding of the effectiveness of intelligent voice agent’s voice pitch and voice shopping.