Abstract
The emergence of the Internet as a retail channel has made it cost-efficient for store-based retailers to offer 'order online pick up at store' (OOPS) service via their websites. This paper examines: (a) the role of purchase-occasion-specific goals and constraints on consumer decision to use OOPS relative to store and online delivery; (b) its impact on purchase deferral, purchase size, and repurchase intention. Proposed differences between OOPS and online/store-only users are examined through a quasi-experiment at a commercial multichannel retailer that offers OOPS at a limited number of stores. Multiple sources of data are used: (1) a web-based survey at the retailer website, (2) a paper-based survey at retailer's stores, and (3) purchase transaction data from consumers. Empirical analysis shows that purchase constraints like price-consciousness and time pressure are positively associated with OOPS usage but purchase goal of minimization of effort shows mixed results. Purchase size and repurchase intentions are higher for a retailer offering OOPS, which suggests that offering an OOPS service acts as a competitive differentiator enhancing a retailer's ability to respond to customers' service needs at each purchase occasion.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 431-448 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research |
Volume | 20 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 18 Aug 2010 |
Keywords
- channel switching
- cross-channel retailer
- multichannel retailer
- order online pick up in-store