The Effect of Online Brand Experience on Brand Loyalty: A Web of Emotions

Abstract

The paper analyzes how online brand experience can be measured and determines its impact on brand loyalty. Similar to offline brand experience, online brand experience is broken down into sensory, affective, cognitive, behavioral and relational elements of brand experience. Although online brand experience lacks physical presence such as a store, it still has the possibility to create a virtual brand experience through visual, audible, gaming or community-based features, which in turn can lead to improved brand image and to behavioral and attitudinal brand loyalty. The present empirical research investigates the influence of the five different types of online brand experience — sensory, affective, cognitive, behavioral and relational — and the website usability on brand loyalty through an empirical study of the travel website qyer.com in China. The respondents (n = 69), i.e., users of the qyer.com website, confirm through a standardized online survey the positive impact of online brand experience on brand loyalty. Especially affective and behavioral brand experience impacts brand loyalty. Sensory, cognitive and relational brand experiences have a slightly lower but significant impact. Website usability shows the lowest impact. The study proves the significance of online brand experience to create brand loyalty and identifies the most important dimensions of brand experience.