Alexa … how user gratifications shape continuance intention to use voice commerce? Testing a moderated mediation model

Voice commerce, driven by the voice assistants, is transforming the way consumers interact with e-commerce platforms. Although adoption of voice commerce is growing rapidly, sustaining long term engagement and continued use remains a key challenge. Grounded in uses and gratification theory (UGT), this study examines how various gratification dimensions influence consumers’ continuance intention to use voice commerce and also, explores the mediating role of user satisfaction in these relationships. Additionally, it examines how generation and gender moderate the indirect effects of user gratifications on the continuance intention to use voice commerce. The data was collected from 565 Indian users with prior experience of online shopping via voice assistants through purposive sampling. The results indicated that out of all the gratifications, only parasocial interaction and information quality have a direct effect on continuance intention, whereas ease of use, intelligence, enjoyment, animacy, social presence, and usefulness did not have significant direct effects. User satisfaction, however, mediates the relationship between all gratifications and continuance intention, indicating its significance in transforming different gratifications into continued use. Moreover, gender and generation have a strong moderating influence on indirect effects in the model, suggesting that there are demographic variations in the translations of gratifications into satisfaction and continued use. These findings extend the theoretical application of UGT in voice commerce and offer insights to the platform developers who are interested in increasing long-term user engagement.