Online website in brand creation of online store

Online website is one of the basic tools in the process of brand creation. The presence in virtual environment determines the possibility to reach clients. More and more often do they treat Internet as the basic source of information. The aim of this article is to identify the most common elements used on websites in online stores. The study is exploratory. On the basis of empirical study, the authors identified the most important elements and their features in online stores, which can be important for clients.


Introduction
Thanks to the Internet, consumers are able to interact with brands in new ways.Internet technologies and related applications are more and more advanced.Increasingly more organizations are investing heavily in customer-directed online source technologies, which is related to higher costs.
Despite many authors examining different tools used in online stores or online websites, there is a lack of information about what kind of new elements are important for customers, and what kind of features they are looking for.Those elements are important in the context of technology acceptance.They can influence the dimensions of the technology acceptance model (TAM): perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, or other dimensions such as perceived risk.This can lead to higher purchase intention (Green, Pearson, 2011, p. 187).
The aim of this article is to identify the elements which are used in online stores and are important for customers, and show the difference between new and old elements.The authors conducted the empirical study: the online focus groups using the FOCUSSON software to examine those elements.
The results show that customers can identify the differences in new and old elements.The most important for them is to feel save during the online shopping, which can be provided by interaction between the store and the client (e.g. by chatting online or gathering opinions from different users).Moreover, they want to have personalized elements, which will make the process easy and quick.

Literature review and research questions
Many researchers try to identify and examine the role of different elements of an online store which can influence the consumers' behavior.According to Al-Qesi (Al-Qeisi, Dennis, Alamanos, Jayawardhena, 2014, p. 2284), those elements are: web design quality such as technical quality, general content quality, special content quality, and appearance quality.Hedonic features and utilitarian features can influence trust, flow, and e-loyalty (Bilgihan, Nusair, Okumus, Cobanoglu, 2015, p. 669).Hedonic features include: social interaction, positive surprises, fun experience, or imaginery, whereas utilitarian features include e.g.: product selection or product information.Chang (2013, p. 312) proved that interaction tools like human to computer and social interaction can enhance satisfaction and intention to use.Green and Pearson (2011, p. 187) suggest that download delay and interactivity have impact on the perceived usefulness and ease of use.Dou and Krishnamurthy (2007, p. 196) examined what kinds of elements are used on websites.They noticed such major categories as: text content (about company, product, store locator, career info, etc.), multimedia content (pictures, videos, and music), loyalist support, design, synergy with other communication vehicles, or interactivity.Singh (2002, pp. 437−439) proposed such website elements as: personalized Web pages, FAQs, chat room, e-mail and automated responses, help desk, and call centers.
On the basis of the previous research, the authors identified the following research questions (RQ): RQ1: What is important for consumers while shopping online?RQ2: What kind of elements do consumers identify in online stores?RQ3: Which elements do consumers perceive as new and old?RQ4: Which elements of online stores are important for consumers?

Method
To examine different elements used in online stores and their importance for customers, the online focus group study was conducted.The authors used the FOCUSSON (www.focusson.pl)software, which enables researchers to make research via Internet.5 groups of customers were examined to identify what kinds of elements used in online stores seem to be new and old for them, and which are the most important.
The groups consisted of customers of different ages.Group 1 -below 25 years of age, Group 2 -from 25 to 34, Group 3 -from 35 to 44, Group 4 -from 45 to 54, Group 5 -above 55.The study was conducted in March and April of 2016.The online focus groups were anonymous under nicknames, so the participants and authors could not identify the specific person.

Results
First, the participants were asked to tell what is the most important for them during online shopping.In all the groups, they focused on three elements.First of all, the ease of use of the website was taken into consideration.Customers want the online store to be simple and clear, so that they do not have to think what the next step in an online shopping path should be.Secondly, the usefulness of the website -customers are annoyed when they do not find the information or product they are looking for.Moreover, customers need to feel save while shopping online.They still have a little trust into online shoppers, so they need to see some elements which can enhance their sense of security.According to the technology development, they also want to receive a personalized offer.
In the second step, the participants were asked to identify what kind of elements are usually used in online stores.The most common answers were: shopping cart, forum, product page, opinions, photos and videos, text description, contact form, newsletter, social media connection, most popular products module, blog, browser, discount tools, log-in and registration, payment forms, delivery forms, ads, sorting, colors, and music.
They were also asked to group those elements into new and old.The differences are shown in Table 1.
Table 1 The elements of online store grouped into new and old in the perception of participants

Group
New elements Old elements below 25 virtual fitting room, video presentation, virtual assistant, Table 1 shows the differences in the perception of new and old elements of an online store.All of the participants agreed that the virtual fitting room is a new element and might be useful when shopping online, however, they rarely use it because not many stores have this element on their websites.Similarly, they perceive the video presentation as the new element which is very important for them.It enhances the sense of security during online shopping.Customers want to have the possibility to see the product in usage, when it moves.It is also possible by showing the product in 3D, which is also considered as a new element.The virtual assistant is not very common in online shopping, but can be useful for customers.They want to find the information quickly and easily.The online chat is also a very important element for customers, but some of them treat it as the old one (the group aged 25-34).Despite this fact, the online chat with the real person is perceived as one of the most important elements on the website.The social media integration is perceived as a new element for 3 groups, except for the group above 45 years