Investigating the determinants of telepresence in the e-commerce setting

While a majority of the US population uses the Internet to seek product information for purchasing decisions, U.S. Census (2017) shows only a small portion of actual retail sales occur on the Internet. Previous research shows that consumers' anxiety on performance risk is one of the core causes for this small ratio of online sales, and can be addressed by enhanced telepresence. However, few studies investigated how telepresence can be enhanced. Drawing on theories of human information processing, we identify four drivers of telepresence. The four drivers identified are Standardization of Specification, Sensory Descriptiveness, Interactivity and Feedback Quality. Our study expands the nomological network of telepresence by presenting antecedents to telepresence. The proposed model is tested using 391 online consumers and results from the study are discussed.