Role-Taking: Enhancing the Online Experience

Technological advances are allowing more people to shop and interact online, so it is important for marketers to understand methods for enhancing computer-mediated experiences. The current study examines consumers' ability to experience empathy-based processing in a computer-mediated environment. The study demonstrates that consumers can experience enhanced role-taking online compared with traditional media and that online experiences facilitating role-taking benefit both consumers and marketers. Role-taking as a mediator in the process increases consumer involvement and elicits more positive attitudes toward online experiences. Marketing tactics enhancing consumer role-taking should help to bridge the gap between the relatively different experiences of online and off-line shopping.