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Abstract
Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine the consumer shopping channel extension focusing on attitude shift from offline to online store with a theoretical approach.
Design/methodology/approach - Two hundred and sixty two students in a large US midwestern university participated and provided usable survey responses. Structural equation modeling was employed to test hypotheses and the modified theory of planned behavior in the online retailing environment.
Findings - The results showed that attitude toward the offline store was a significant predictor of attitude toward the online store. In addition, search intention for product information via the online store was the strongest predictor of consumer's purchase intention via the online store as well as a mediating variable between predictor variables and purchase intention.
Research limitations/implications - The sample of this study was slightly biased by gender and age. Female college-aged consumers were the majority. This demographic group is, however, meaningful to investigate for apparel multichannel retailers due to the strong consumer demand and buying power.
Originality/value - This paper offered a theoretical framework to understand and predict the consumer shopping behavior in the multichannel retailing setting. In addition, the present paper contributed to the academia by expanding the theory of planned behavior and online prepurchase intentions model.
Keywords Attitudes, Internet, Shopping, Consumer behavior
Paper type Research paper
Multi-channel retailing has been recognized as a new key marketing program for retailers. The multi-channel retail format includes not only physical stores and catalogs, but also online stores, kiosks, and wireless channels. Clark (1997) classified two dominant multi-channel retailers in the current online market
(1) click-and-mortars who respond consumer demand through offline and online stores (e.g. BestBuy.com, Gap.com, Barnes and Noble.com, Macys.com); and
(2) catalog firms that present their print catalogs on the web (e.g. J.Crew.com, Landsend.com).
According to Gartner's (2002) research, approximately 75 percent of retailer respondents had a multi-channel retailing strategy (MRS) either in place or in plan to enhance the firm's overall performance. Multi-channel retailers who sold the products across online and traditional channels accounted for more than 67 percent of online retailing. More than 50 percent of multi-channel retailers reported positive operating margins for online business in 2001 (Shop.org, 2002). Forrester Research (2003a) reported that about half of online customers also...