A Study of the Relationship between Endorser Characteristics and Perceived Risk—Purchasing Experience as a Moderator

Consumer shopping patterns are being transformed amid the growing use of virtual sales services, and the number of TV shopping consumers in Taiwan exceeded 3 million in 2009. However, since virtual sales channels do not allow direct pre-sales access to the merchandise, the risks encountered by consumers are expected to be much higher than those seen with bricks-and-mortar retailers. A review of the literature suggests that research on TV shopping behaviors has received little attention from academics. Therefore, this study explored the influence of endorser characteristics on consumer perceived risk in the context of TV shopping consumer experiences. A survey was conducted among experienced and inexperienced TV shopping consumers, focusing on three endorsers with different types of characteristics for health food products, and 285 valid samples were collected. The results indicate that endorser characteristics have a negative influence on consumer perceived functional risk, and that the expertise of an endorser helps to reduce functional risk. Meanwhile, purchasing experience serves to moderate the relationship between endorser characteristics and consumer perceptions of financial, functional and physical risks, but fails to moderate the relationship between endorser characteristics and consumer perceptions of physical and social risks.