Journal of Interactive Marketing

The multichannel marketing literature consistently shows that consumers who use multiple channels in their purchase journeys are more satisfied, loyal, and can be more profitable, than single-channel consumers. However, there is little research investigating how specific channel combinations affect the customer experience. Recognizing that webrooming (research products online, purchase offline) is the prevalent form of cross-channel shopping, this paper examines its influence on the consumer's search process satisfaction. The results of three studies combining qualitative, survey, and experimental methods show that webrooming leads to more satisfaction than showrooming behaviors. Furthermore, we find that webrooming makes consumers feel more confident and like “smart shoppers.” Both factors subsequently determine satisfaction. Perceptions of money savings also affect search process satisfaction. Importantly, saving time and/or effort during the purchase process (convenience) has no influence on satisfaction with cross-channel shopping. The results are robust across shopping motivations and product categories. Theoretical implications and proposals for effective channel integration are offered.

A key question for retailers who already offer a mobile website is, whether they should add an app as an additional purchase channel. We address this issue by exploring whether consumers’ app adoption stimulates additional purchases and how this change in purchase behavior differs across customers with different levels of spending share for different product categories and customer loyalty. By using transactional data from a Chinese online retailer, we show that app adopters have higher purchase incidence, buy more frequently, and spend more in each order than non-adopters. We also find that app adoption has a stronger positive effect on the order size of customers who have a lower spending share of high-price products and customers who are less loyal to the focal retailer. Hereby, we contribute to multichannel and mobile marketing literature by empirically examining the effects of adding a similar (mobile) purchase channel to an already established (mobile) purchase channel. Managerially, our results suggest that apps are worth investing in despite their similarity to mobile websites and can induce non-loyal customers to purchase more and thus potentially foster these customers’ loyalty.

This research examines price variations that are perceived to be unfair which then induce consumers to retaliate online. These phenomena are growing in online retailing given the data-based means for companies to set differential pricing, and the social media venues for consumer complaints. In this research, data from 997 respondents are used to test moderated mediation relationships integrating: (1) the influence of trust (i.e., competence and benevolence) on perceived price unfairness, and its mediating role on subsequent online revenge intentions; (2) the moderating role of (a) retailer reputation and (b) customer loyalty. We find that pricing practices seen as unfair can lead to a “dark side” or a “love becomes hate” effect for loyal customers of retailers with good reputations. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Drawing upon the extant literature, we examine the definition, conceptualization, and measurement of electronic service quality (e-SQ) and propose an alternative measurement approach. We posit that customers’ perceptions of overall e-SQ are influenced by six proximal antecedents: security/privacy, fulfillment/reliability, website design, customer service, informativeness, and customization. Using three independent samples of real customers of three hotel reservation sites, we assess the proposed measurement approach via appropriate scale development procedures. Findings indicate that a causal structure that considers e-SQ as a distinct construct that is influenced by six proximal antecedents should be preferred over a second-order reflective measurement model. We discuss theoretical implications of our proposed measurement method, make recommendations for service firms, and offer directions for future research.

In multichannel retailing, cross-channel integration, which is the integration of different channels, such as brick-and-mortar stores, e-commerce, and mobile retailers, has been a key strategy. However, the effectiveness of cross-channel integration for firm performance remains uncertain. This study examines the impact of cross-channel integration on firm performance–cost efficiency. It uses stochastic frontier analysis to estimate cost efficiency and employs a dynamic panel model to assess the relationship between cross-channel integration, firm-level characteristics, and cost efficiency. The results reveal that cross-channel integration is positively associated with cost efficiency and that the extent of a retailer's experience with e-commerce and level of face-to-face services reduce its effectiveness.

As mobile devices gain increasing popularity in consumers’ shopping journeys, geofencing mobile advertising is widely used by retailers to convert front traffic, i.e., consumers walking in front of a store, into sales. In the process, retailers face two critical questions, i.e., how to set the fence locations and how to improve the conversion effectiveness with consideration of the advertising costs. We aim to shed light on the issues by developing an analytical model that considers two competitive retailers’ mobile advertising strategies in a linear Hotelling city. We first present the equilibrium prices (or fence locations), advertising levels, and profits. In addition, by conducting a comparative static analysis, we ascertain the separate effects and joint effects of front traffic, showing how the traffic changes caused by consumer entry and consumer switching affect the equilibrium outcomes in different competitive environments. Counter-intuitively, we find that higher front traffic, which is usually regarded as being favorable to a retailer, can lead to lower prices, advertising levels, and profits under certain conditions. The results suggest that retailers should craft and adjust mobile advertising strategies in accordance with both consumers’ movement tendency and competition intensity. Besides, by comparing the competitive retailers, we provide guidance to retailers on how to make mobile advertising strategies according to traffic advantages or disadvantages.

This research explores characteristics that make consumers more likely to circulate ads. We focus on (a) the main transmitters of the viral content which we refer to as propagators, consumers who are more socially connected and active, and (b) two key ad characteristics: creativity and informativeness. Results from field data and two online studies show that propagators may wish to elevate their social status and therefore circulate ads that are both creative and informative. Since propagators spread ads to many people, ads that are both creative and informative are more likely to go viral compared with ads that are only creative or informative. These results extend previous research on the role and preferences of propagators and emphasize that, contrary to common beliefs, ad creativity alone may not be enough to drive a successful viral campaign.

Online-to-offline service platform (O2OSP) channels offer innovative means for customers to order local, daily services online (via apps) and have them delivered almost instantly offline. By comparing the business models underlying O2OSP, traditional online and offline, and platform-based e-commerce channels, this article aims to identify the short- and long-term impacts of adding an O2OSP channel on firms’ offline and total sales and profits. The analysis focuses primarily on a recent set of daily data gathered from a Chinese fast-food restaurant chain with 35 physical stores that also participates in four food delivery O2OSP channels. The panel data regressions with fixed effects reveal that adding O2OSP channels hurts offline and total profits in the short run but improves offline and total sales and profits in the long run. Specifically, offline and total sales increase by 23.28% and 33.94%, respectively. Thus, the O2OSP channel can serve as a complement to, rather than a substitute for, the offline channel. These results challenge previous research on the sales effects of adding (pure) online or offline channels and highlight the attractiveness of O2OSP channels for improving sales and profits. However, negative interaction effects among different O2OSP channels also signal that adding more O2OSP channels does not necessarily lead to profitable growth.

Research has recognized that in addition to consumer–brand relationships, consumers are engaged in social networks of consumer-to-consumer interactions, which increasingly take place online through virtual brand communities. However, little attention has been paid to how consumer-to-consumer influence within virtual brand communities plays a role when brands behave badly. This research examines the role of network embeddedness, specifically network centrality and network density, and psychological ownership in consumer responses to a brand transgression. Across three studies of virtual brand communities and one of offline brand communities, we document an inherent conflict for those who occupy a central position within a brand community. Central consumers are more likely to punish the brand for the transgression, but centrality also leads to greater psychological ownership of the brand community and the brand, which makes consumers less likely to punish the brand. Psychological ownership also leads to a higher likelihood of helping the brand recover from the transgression, creating an additional conflict for central consumers. Network density resolves these conflicts by strengthening the negative relationship between psychological ownership and likelihood to punish the brand, but only in online brand communities where punishing and helping behaviors are more visible and more likely to act as reputational signals for the central consumer. This suggests that firms should encourage the formation of dense virtual brand communities and cultivate psychological ownership among central community members in order to protect themselves from negative consequences in the wake of a transgression.

Does a timer—displayed during an in-stream commercial to show viewers how long they need to wait—help relieve the ad irritation that viewers experience when they have to wait for a video to play? Likewise, does the skip-ad button that allows viewers to skip an ad after several seconds help lessen their irritation with the commercial? This research theoretically and empirically examined whether reducing temporal uncertainty (i.e., using a timer to let viewers know the ad length) in skippable advertising actually helped relieve viewers’ ad irritation and reduce their likelihood of ad-skipping. Across two experimental studies, temporal certainty (e.g., the presence of the timer) during short commercials generally decreased ad irritation. In contrast, when a skip-ad button is displayed, temporal certainty during both short and long commercials increased ad irritation, which subsequently decreased advertising effectiveness. Also, the higher the ad irritation, the higher the ad-skipping rate. Theoretical and managerial implications of these results are discussed, and alternative solutions for reducing ad irritation are provided.

The growth of online transactions coupled with the worldwide expansion of Internet-based information exchange has triggered fear, distrust and risk among online consumers. Despite the well-proven benefits to retailers when they include assurance services (online trust signals) such as seals of approval, rating systems or assurance statements in their websites, there is no consensus as the most trustworthy type. To fill this research gap, the current study reverts to neuroscience (fMRI) to compare the underlying brain mechanisms linked to each type. Twenty-nine subjects participated in an experiment simulating a low-involvement online purchase. The functional neuroimaging analysis reveals that seals of approval are the most trustworthy as they elicit activation of brain areas linked to reward and expected values. Although assurance statements reveal lower scores of trust than seals of approval, they do not arouse negative brain areas. By contrast, products accompanied by rating systems elicit brain areas linked to ambiguity, negativity and risk. Interestingly, more positive trust and purchase intentions toward seals of approval were predicted by the activation of value-computation areas, whereas higher scores of risk associated with rating systems were predicted by negative-related activations. These results offer invaluable insight into the psychological origin of trust conveyed to different types of online trust signals.

The increasing importance of online distribution channels is paralleled by a rising interest in gaining insights into the customer journey to online purchases. In this paper we propose an easy-to-implement two-step procedure that enables online marketing managers to disentangle the complex interrelationships hidden behind observed Internet browsing behavior across websites. Utilizing the procedure allows managers to gain a better understanding why Internet users are visiting their website(s) and how these visits are related to purchases. In the first step, the procedure uncovers latent interests underlying online users’ browsing behavior. In the second step, we segment the online users based on their uncovered latent interests. This way, online marketers may understand how segment-specific combinations of latent interests are linked to purchase behavior. We apply the procedure to ComScore clickstream data across 472 websites. We show that there is considerable heterogeneity among online users both regarding online browsing habits, combinations of latent interests, and their conversion into online purchases. For example, some users are interested in apparel and travel service opposed to users who are interested in entertainment tickets. Our empirical analysis confirms that a relatively small fraction of online users realize 70% of online spending. In addition, we detect substantial segment-specific differences of shopping behavior across categories, the most important product categories being apparel as well as food & beverages. Our descriptive perspective comes up with surprising associations among the websites which can be interesting for online marketers.