BIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF STRESS LEVELS OF DIGITAL NATIVES AND DIGITAL IMMIGRANTS WITHIN ONLINE SHOPPING PROCESSES

As a rapidly developing multidisciplinary research field, neuromarketing offers great advantage to researchers in understanding the irrational aspects of consumer behavior. Neuromarketing methods are used to complement the classical marketing research methods for the analysis of subconscious dimensions of consumers’ cognitive load which occurs in the procurement process. In communication age that we’re in now, there are many differences in online purchasing behavior of consumer groups whom defined as 'digital immigrants' and 'digital natives'. Literature shows that digital natives who met internet as soon as their birth are really familiar to online shopping technologies, but digital immigrants are still abstemious to online transactions. In this research, digital natives who are stay continuously online and digital immigrants who are still in the process of adaptation to online world were examined through 'stress levels'. In our study, both groups were manipulated by using "web site load speed", which is the one of the most important stress factors in online shopping and through this stimulus the changes in their purchasing behavior were investigated. Stress levels were analyzed via Galvanic Skin Conductance Response, as one of the biometric measurement techniques, and the difference between the two groups was determined by statistical methods. We assume that; the difference between two groups’ stress levels, should be considered as a clue to understand the effects of shopping sites’ technical infrastructures on consumer decision making processes and online shopping behaviour