Laugh away the awkwardness: how chatbot humor can relieve embarrassment in sensitive retail interactions

Purpose While humor has been studied extensively in marketing, its effectiveness may vary based on the situation. One critical understudied purchase scenario is how to use humor in customer interactions for embarrassing products to achieve optimal retail outcomes. Hence, our research aims to explore how chatbot humor interactions affect consumer responses in such retail scenarios. Design/methodology/approach Four experimental studies (n = 1,295) were conducted to test the hypotheses empirically and examine consumer responses to using humorous messages by chatbots in interactions on embarrassing products. Data were collected via Credamo. Findings Consumers prefer a chat agent using a humor message when inquiring about customer preferences for embarrassing products to a chat agent using a no-humor message. This occurs because humor messages relieve consumers' feelings of embarrassment. Specifically, consumers exposed to humor messages expressed significantly more favorable attitudes towards embarrassing products with hedonic advertising, while humor is less effective for non-embarrassing products and utilitarian advertising. Originality/value Few studies have explored the role of humorous artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots in facilitating the online sale of embarrassing products. This research highlights the importance of incorporating humor into consumer–chatbot interactions to market sensitive products effectively in online retailing. In addition, this research also identifies boundary conditions of chatbot humor interaction.