Webrooming or showrooming? The moderating effect of product attributes
Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing
ISSN: 2040-7122
Article publication date: 1 November 2021
Issue publication date: 6 December 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines consumers' channel attitudes and choices leading to webrooming and showrooming, and how product attributes (informational vs experiential and perceived risk) moderate the effects of channel attitudes.
Design/methodology/approach
A research framework is built upon the heterogeneity of channel attitudes, the lack of intrachannel lock-in and interchannel synergy. A questionnaire-based survey yields 868 multi-channel consumer responses in China. Simultaneous equation modeling and STATA 12.0 are used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Consumers webroom when buying high-risk informational products (e.g. personal computers or mobile phones). They webroom as well as showroom for high-risk experiential products (e.g. clothing or cosmetics). Moreover, a single channel is preferred to webrooming or showrooming for purchasing low-risk informational (e.g. books or stationery) and low-risk experiential (e.g. snacks or toys) products. The results also show that webrooming is more frequently used than showrooming by consumers.
Research limitations/implications
This study extends current understanding on multi-channel and omnichannel shopping behavior and highlights the role of product attributes in customer journey mapping.
Practical implications
This study offers retailers and other downstream firms a fresh perspective on multi-channel customer experience management and channel design.
Originality/value
This study offers a clear explanation on the commonalities and differences between webrooming and showrooming.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Yan Guo: Conceptualization, methodology, data collection and analysis, writing and original draft preparation, Min Zhang: Reviewing and editing, Valerie Lynette Wang: Reshaping the paper, improving the English writing, reviewing and editing.
The paper is supported by the project of Jiangsu Social Science Fund of China (Grant NO. 19GLD005). Thanks for the financial support of the fund. The authors also greatly thank Professor WEE CHOW HOU and Teacher Sharon NG of College of Business (Nanyang Business School), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. They put forward many precious modification proposals and provide the corresponding author terrific research conditions. Without them, it is impossible for us to finish the original paper. The authors also show great respects to Professor Cheng Lu Wang, Pompea College of Business, University of New Haven, USA. He teaches us how to improve the paper and urges us to highlights the contributions. Without his help, we couldn't improve the paper to match the request of JRIM. At last, the authors thank the anonymous reviewers of the paper. Thanks a lot for their precious suggestions and can admit our contributions.
Citation
Guo, Y., Zhang, M. and Lynette Wang, V. (2022), "Webrooming or showrooming? The moderating effect of product attributes", Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 534-550. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIM-08-2020-0161
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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