Strengthening Consumers Loyalty to a Retail Web Site: An Attachment Theory Perspective

According to psychoanalyst John Bowlby, an attachment is an emotion-laden target-specific bond between a person and a specific object. The adoption of attachment construct in marketing literature is relatively recent. There have been some research efforts in the marketing literature that investigate whether and how individuals form attachments to possessions, goods and brands. However, the role of attachment in marketing relationships developed via Internet remains an unexplored area. In the Web site context, there has been evidence that the different type of relationships between a Web site and its visitors are analogous to the relationships between two individuals or consumer and a brand. In this study, we synthesize the existing psychological and marketing theories on attachment and e-loyalty research, propose to investigate the effects of consumerspsila attachment on Web site loyalty, the antecedents of Web site attachment and the moderating role of attachment anxiety i.e. personality traits in the attachment-loyalty link. This study aims to uncover the underlying role of emotion ties between consumers and Web sites in shaping e-loyalty.