Break the flow: the impact of interruptions on users’ decision efficiency in mobile shopping

Xue Yang (), Cheng Luo () and Mengyue Yan ()
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Xue Yang: Nanjing University
Cheng Luo: Tianjin University
Mengyue Yan: Nanjing University

Electronic Commerce Research, 2025, vol. 25, issue 3, No 25, 2155-2175

Abstract: Abstract The proliferation of mobile devices has made mobile shopping extremely popular among the digital natives. Due to the multitasking nature of mobile devices, users are often disturbed by various interruptions, such as incoming calls, SMSs and APP notifications. Prior studies suggest that interruptions likely affect users’ shopping experience and decision-making, but they find inconclusive results regarding how interruptions influence users’ behavior. Based on the flow theory and prior research on human–computer interaction, this study focuses on the interplay between the design of interruptions and human–computer interaction mode, and examines the effects of interruptions on users’ decision efficiency in a mobile shopping context. Three laboratory experiments were conducted to verify the research hypotheses. The results show that interruptions improve users’ decision efficiency and satisfaction when their content is irrelevant to users’ shopping task. When the content of interruptions is relevant to users’ shopping task, the interruptions reduce users’ decision efficiency. Furthermore, the interruptions reduce (improve) users’ decision efficiency when users browsed the mobile interface in a horizontal (vertical) manner. In general, this study makes one of the early attempts to investigate the effects of interruptions on users’ mobile shopping behavior and provides practical guidance for practitioners to design effective mobile marketing campaigns.

Keywords: Mobile shopping; Interruption; Flow; Decision efficiency; Mobile commerce (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10660-023-09800-7

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