Internet as a persuasive technology: A study on the dynamics of persuasion in e-commerce sites

Persuasive communication is an effort that people use in every aspect of life to influence each other to change their attitudes and behaviors. The persuasion as a term was first defined by philosophers' efforts to have an influence on people or to express opinions at senate meetings to gain supporters on own side but over the years it has expanded its use with advances in the information and technological world. Persuasion, which is growing in the definition field with technology, has added the concept of persuasion technologies to its content. Persuasion technologies are the name given to the general activities that are carried out by expanding the scope of influence by incorporating technological devices into the content to use for persuasion and applied to change the attitudes and behaviors of the individuals. At this point, especially the development of the Internet and its involvement in human life have changed not only persuasive communication but also the economic aspect. The development of the economy has accelerated the change in marketing activities. Developments in the marketing approach have accelerated with the transformation of consumers and as a result of that, the term online sales (e-commerce) have been added to traditional sales tactics. To get accepted of e-commerce by the individuals, the functionality of e-commerce sites have great importance. In this study, how B2C e-commerce sites which are active in Turkey are designed in the context of persuasion technologies and persuasion dynamics are presented. The persuasion dynamics of the sites are grouped into four steps: usability, visual design, security, and interaction. Under these main four steps, also elements of each dynamic of persuasion are presented.