Abstract

Consumers are increasingly expecting retailers to provide them with information, products and services through multiple retail channels ranging from physical stores, catalogue to Website. However, there is currently a lack of understanding in what multi-channel shopping attributes consumers really value. This poses a challenge to retailers who are attempting to integrate their retail channels. Drawing upon prior work in retail patronage behaviour and synthesizing research in traditional retailing and single-channel e-commerce, this paper identified six dimensions that can be used to classify consumers into a shopper typology based on their utilitarian values. Based on the pilot study’s preliminary results, we derived a typology comprising of three types of multi-channel shoppers that differed in terms of information and service expectations. The results offer useful insights to retailers when formulating multi-channel retail strategies. This exploratory study also laid the foundation for future research in the domain of multi-channel retailing.

Share

COinS