The selling-oriented versus customer-oriented retail chatbot and effects on customer satisfaction

Chatbots in e-retailing settings have so far mainly been examined in their role as service providers, although there is a growing pressure on human service employees to engage in selling activities. The current study addresses this gap by examining an online retail chatbot with a selling orientation. Contrasted with a customer-oriented approach in two between-subjects experiments, the study shows that customer satisfaction was significantly reduced when the chatbot used a selling orientation. This effect was mediated by perceived chatbot warmth and competence as well as attributions of theory of mind to the chatbot. When agent identity (chatbot vs. human employee) was manipulated in the second experiment, the results remained invariant.