۱- Introduction

۲- Literature review

۳- Method

۴- Discriminant analysis and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis

۵- Discussion and conclusions

References

Abstract

This study examines how different motivations determine three types of webrooming: traditional webrooming, webrooming extended to include mobile devices, and multidevice webrooming. The examination uses information-processing and uncertainty-reduction theories and fsQCA and discriminant analysis methods. The data derived from a convenience sample obtained through personal and online surveys. The results from the discriminant analysis indicate a significantly positive effect of information attainment on explaining all behaviors, and price comparison orientation and empowerment for mobile-related behaviors. The fsQCA findings show various motivational configurations for each webrooming behavior. In almost all, both information-processing and uncertainty-reduction motivations exist that support the importance of the underlying theories in explaining webrooming. Furthermore, empowerment is more relevant in behaviors where mobile device usage is always present. This study enriches the theoretical body of the webrooming construct, and the results can guide marketing and multichannel managers in developing differentiated strategies that address consumers’ webrooming-specific needs.

Introduction

The proliferation of mobile channel formats in retailing has extended channel choices beyond traditional catalogue, store, and online channels, which make consumer multichannel behaviors more complex. Multichannel consumers are those that use multiple channels during the purchase process (Frasquet, Mollá, & Ruiz, 2015). Taking advantage of channel-specific attributes (Verhoef, Neslin, & Vroomen, 2007), consumers switch and combine recent and traditional channels during their purchase processes to better satisfy their shopping needs and to obtain a seamless and interchangeable shopping experience (Verhoef, Kannan, & Inman, 2015). This switching poses challenges to retailers as cross-channel behaviors by multichannel consumers can lead to cross-channel free-riding (i.e., researching products through the channel of Firm A and purchasing through another channel of Firm B) (Chou, Shen, Chiu, & Chou, 2016). To develop effective multichannel customer management strategies that cater to consumer-specific needs and retain them throughout their decision-making, understanding consumers and what determines their channel choice is the crucial first phase (Neslin et al., 2006). Showrooming consists of searching for product information offline and purchasing online (Verhoef et al., 2015). Due to its popularity, several studies have started developing a systematic understanding of the construct and its specific underlying drivers (e.g., Gensler, Neslin, & Verhoef, 2017; Rapp, Baker, Bachrach, Ogilvie, & Beitelspacher, 2015). However, webrooming, which consists of searching for product information online and purchasing offline (Flavián, Gurrea, & Orús, 2016), is the most prevalent cross-channel behavior. For electronic product purchases (e.g., laptops/mobile phones/televisions), 44% of European consumers confirm the practice of webrooming against 9% of showroomers (Google Consumer Barometer, 2015). Also, European consumers that purchase in-store because of Internet information tend to spend four times more than those purchasing online for retail products in general, with sales through this cross-channel behavior expected to continue to dominate by 2020 (Forrester, 2015). Despite being the most important cross-channel behavior, webrooming lacks a theoretically structured treatment in the multichannel literature. Previous studies have focused on identifying various multichannel behaviors and characterizing them with the same set of channel usage motivations (e.g., Schröder & Zaharia, 2008).