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The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which customers evaluate inferior product presentations on a local shopping platform based on the retailer (small and medium-sized enterprise [SME] vs retail chain).

The authors conducted a between-subject online study (N = 728) with a 2 (SME vs retail chain) x 2 (high vs low-quality product presentation) between-subject experimental design. The authors conducted several analyses of variance to analyze the hypotheses and analyses of covariance for a mediating effect.

This study's results show that customers tend to overlook inaccuracies from a retail chain more often than they overlook inaccuracies from SME retailers. The authors show that the perceived competence of the retailer mediates the impact of the retailer's quality on customer purchasing intentions, not only for the presented product but also for the retailer itself.

Based on this study's results, the authors give implications for retailer cross-channel strategies and hint at the importance of emphasizing the retail size.

This paper provides important contributions to the literature on resource-advantage theory by explaining that consumers perceive quality differences within product presentations on online shopping platforms differently with regard to retail chains vs SME retailers. Moreover, the information processing theory helps to provide a theoretical foundation concerning differences in online store quality (via engineered low- vs high-quality product presentations in this study).

Smart devices like fully automated smart refrigerators can simplify customers' shopping processes. However, despite the advantages, such as saving time and effort, these devices are rarely used in private households. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the influence of various aspects on the usage intention of automated purchase processes and how these can be established in the long term.

For examining the given topic, an online experiment was conducted in which the experimental factors automation (not given vs given) and product type (utilitarian vs hedonic) were systematically manipulated.

The findings show a decreasing usage intention for automated shopping processes and no significant results for the utilitarian and hedonic product types. In addition, trust and behavioural control mediate the effect of automation on usage intention, and this effect is further moderated by inherent novelty seeking.

The study investigates the usage intention of automated buying processes in a business-to-consumer retail context and highlights the importance of trust and behavioural control. Retailers offering automated buying processes should further focus on customers that seek novelty. In general, this study offers new insights into establishing automated buying processes in the long term.