Purpose: Chatbots represent an undeniable player between online retailers and customers as they boost operational efficiency and bring cost savings to businesses while offering convenience for customers in terms of timing and immediacy. However, as chatbots represent a new-born online touchpoint in retailing, especially when it comes to online pre-purchase and purchase experience, this study examines whether and how effort expectation, facilitating condition, performance expectancy, social influence, trust, perceived risk and flow affect consumers' intention to use chatbots for online shopping. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.Design/methodology/approach: A total of 226 respondents participated in an online survey. Participants were asked to try a new online service and interact with a chatbot designed using Chatfuel, a platform within the Facebook Messenger setting. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed research model regarding the intention to use chatbots.Findings: This study discusses the importance of offering useful and trustworthy conversational agents for online shopping and argues and explains the insignificant paths amongst other studied factors and intention to use chatbots concluding with the need to explore more drivers for such contemporary technologies. Moreover, the findings indicate that trust turns out to be an important predictor of behavioural intention towards chatbots, in addition to its role in mitigating perceived risk and enhancing flow experience.Originality/value: Given the lack of empirical evidence related to chatbots applied for business purposes, this paper fills a gap in this research field and provides a deeper understanding of what leverages consumers' intention to use chatbots for online shopping.

Recently, firms started to gamify conversational artificial intelligence (AI) agents, such as chatbots, to improve purchase outcomes. This article explores strategies for incorporating gamification into AI systems by investigating the impact of utilitarian and hedonic motivations facilitated by gamified chatbots on various dimensions of customer engagement (cognitive, emotional, and behavioral), as well as the subsequent effects of these dimensions on customers' purchase behavior. By conducting one cross‐sectional and two experimental studies involving real interactions with gamified chatbots, this research identifies two crucial paths that warrant attention: an optimal path from hedonic motivation to behavioral engagement, resulting in enhanced purchase, and a detrimental path from utilitarian motivation to emotional engagement, which reduces purchase. Furthermore, the research compares the effects of two types of gamified chatbots and reveals that a game‐of‐chance‐based chatbot, as opposed to a knowledge‐sharing gamified chatbot, aligns with the optimal path, leading to higher purchasing while at the same time avoiding that customers feel obligated to play the game. Based on these findings, the article provides actionable insights for eliciting favorable psychological and behavioral responses through gamified AI interactions.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand the role played by emotional states in the relationship between entertainment and social interaction with salespeople and shopper satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach: The proposed model was tested using a survey-based study, with a sample size of 318 mall shoppers. Findings: The results indicate that pleasure and dominance are mediators in the relationship between entertainment and social interaction with salespeople and mall shopper satisfaction. Moreover, regarding the direct relations, entertainment directly influences satisfaction, while social interaction does not. Practical implications: The results have practical implications for mall managers and mall developers. Specifically, entertainment can be used to attract shoppers and to enhance their satisfaction with the overall shopping experience. Practical suggestions to this end are offered. Originality/value: This study’s contribution is twofold: first, this study adds to research by addressing the gap in research regarding shopper emotional states. Specifically, it addresses the mediating role played by emotional states of shoppers on the impact of entertainment and social interaction in satisfaction. Second, the study concentrates on the role of salespeople by focusing on the social aspects of the interaction.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a broader typology and inventory of recreational facilities and activities in shopping malls. The paper then investigates the relation between the proposed entertainment types and shopper behavior both directly and indirectly by considering the mediation of shopper emotional states.Design/methodology/approach: A survey-based study with a sample size of 484 mall shoppers is used to test the proposed model.Findings: The results indicate that permanent entertainment predicts shopper satisfaction directly and indirectly when considering the emotional state of pleasure as a mediator. Moreover, findings indicate that permanent entertainment indirectly influences the desire to stay at the mall through pleasure and arousal. In addition, pleasure mediates the relation of temporary and special event entertainment with satisfaction and the desire to stay at the mall.Practical implications: This study adds to a better understanding of the role of entertainment types in shopping malls. The study also reveals how each type of entertainment can enhance different emotions and behaviors. Practical suggestions to this end are offered.Originality/value: There is a lack of studies taking into consideration the different types of entertainment in shopping malls. This study is among the first to examine the effects of each entertainment type on specific behavioral responses. Moreover, the study addresses the mediating role played by shoppers’ emotional states on the impact of entertainment types in satisfaction and desire to stay at the mall.

This study applies a systematic categorization of general interior variables (GIV) to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the shopping sensory environment. A survey-based study focusing on the impact of the shopping mall GIV on shopper behavior while considering the mediating role of shoppers’ emotional states is reported. Results indicate a direct impact of positive attitudes towards color schemes, mall lighting, scent and temperature on shopper satisfaction and/or the desire to stay at the mall. Regarding the effect of emotional states, pleasure and arousal mediate the relation between several variables and the studied outcomes. Implications for theory and retailers are discussed.