THE MULTICHANNEL CUSTOMER JOURNEY

In multichannel retailing, the combination of different retail channels along the various customer touchpoints has become the predominant purchasing pattern for customers (Mahrdt et al., 2013; Neslin et al., 2006).

The so-called ‘research shopper phenomenon’ describes a common tendency amongst customers to use one channel to search and another to purchase (Verhoef et al., 2007). Shankar (2011) and Heinemann (2013) call the switch between different channels ‘ropo’, which stands for ‘Research online and purchase offline’. This term has two meanings. Firstly, under this scenario, users of the online environment carry out research online before making a purchase decision. They compare prices online, obtain information from the retailer’s webpage or read comments posted by consumers of the product in which they are interested. This trend is called ‘web-rooming’, a wordplay on ‘showrooming’. It describes a specific behaviour, which is that customers shop online but visit the store in order to physically interact with the product (Verhoef et al., 2015). This purchase pattern has an important impact on the overall purchase process. In the past, customers would first decide upon a particular retailer and then enquire with this retailer about a particular product. Then, the customer would visit the store to obtain information about different products offered by this retailer. Most probably, they would also consult other retailers in order to compare the offer. Afterwards they would make a purchase decision.

Nowadays, the customer primarily knows what product they want before choosing a retailer. Thus, when customers – after the initial phase of research – frequent a retail store, they have already contemplated a great deal of information, such as product features, prices, online availability and opinions from other users (Verhoef

et al., 2007). The ‘point of decision’ is, nowadays, often relocated to the online environment, while the store is only perceived as the ‘point of sale’ (Heinemann, 2013; Shankar, 2011). Customers increasingly trust the opinions of other product users more than the recommendations of in-store sales people or advertisements. When customers enter a retail store, they already possess detailed knowledge about products and features. Hence, customers have high expectations regarding product availability, immediate accessibility to information and service delivery.

Secondly, customers can also ‘research offline and purchase online’, reversing the terms of ‘ropo’. In this context, the store can be seen as a ‘showroom’, where customers can physically touch products, interact with sales people, gather information and enjoy the shopping experience (Verhoef et al., 2015). A survey revealed that over 50 per cent of non-food online customers use stores as pre- purchase channels. Customers try products in-store, especially when high ‘mis- purchase risks’ are associated with buying the product (Heinemann, 2013).

Verhoef et al. (2007) explained that there are three reasons for this phenomenon. First, customers prefer the channel that offers them the most advantages in each part of the purchase process, and they switch among channels during the purchase process if another channel offers more advantages. This phenomenon is called ‘attribute-based decision-making’. Second, it is seen as unlikely that customers generally purchase via the channel with the most research advantages and this is referred to as ‘lack of channel lock-in’. Third, customers carry out research shopping when a channel switch increases their overall shopping experience. This is referred to as ‘cross-channel synergy’.

Another study focused on retention and free-riding behaviour. Customers search for a product at one channel from a certain retailer, and then buy from a different

channel, but through the same retailer. This is called ‘cross-channel retention’. Alternatively, customers might search for a product through one retailer channel, but then switch channels and retailers when purchasing. This is referred to as ‘cross-channel free-riding’ (Heitz-Spahn, 2013). Chiu et al. (2011) identified two major reasons for cross-channel free-riding. First, customers who have a high level of self-efficacy tend to switch channels and retailers during the purchasing process. Second, customers buy from the retailer who offers the best perceived quality with the least risk. Furthermore they suggested that within-firm lock-in decreases cross-channel free-riding. This means that retailers can install switching barriers, which reduce customer intentions to switch channels. Heitz- Spahn (2013) explored shopping convenience, flexibility and price comparisons as the three major cross-channel free-riding motives. The extent to which these motives transcend industry contexts has been debated. Heitz-Spahn (2013) argued that for products that customers buy infrequently but which have a high financial value, cross-channel free-riding behaviour is more likely than for other product categories. Kushwaha and Shankar (2013) also found that customer behaviour varies across different product categories. They clustered these different product categories into hedonic and utilitarian ones.

The concept of ‘hedonic consumption’ was introduced by Hirschman and Holbrook (1982) ‘as those facets of consumer behaviour that relate to the multisensory, fantasy and emotive aspects of product usage experience’ (Hirschman & Holbrook, 1982, p. 92). Hedonic value is linked to playfulness and fun and thus can be considered as a highly subjective and personal experience (Babin, Darden, & Griffin, 1994).

In their study, Hirschman and Holbrook (1982) opposed ‘hedonic consumption’ to the traditional economic perspective in which products are seen as ‘objects for which the consumer desires to maximise utility, where utility typically is measured as some function of the product’s tangible attributes’ (Hirschman & Holbrook, 1982, p. 94). Further, utilitarian shopping behaviour has been defined as ‘ergic, task related, and rational (Babin et al., 1994, p. 646). In the utilitarian view, consumers are concerned with purchasing products in an efficient and timely manner to satisfy their individual needs with a minimum of effort.

Thus, utilitarian motivated consumers primarily conduct a purchase ‘to get something’, whereas hedonic motivated consumers do it because ‘they love it’ (Triandis, 1977, as cited in(Babin et al., 1994, p. 645).

The distinction of products and consumer behaviour based on hedonism and utility is widely agreed upon in the retail literature (Childers, Carr, Peck, & Carson, 2001; Ha & Stoel, 2012; Westbrook & Black, 1985).

Kushwaha and Shankar suggested that consumers of hedonic products, such as apparel, tend more towards impulse purchase and variety-seeking behaviour and switch channels more often than consumers of utilitarian products (Kushwaha & Shankar, 2013). In addition to varied purchasing behaviour across product categories, the degree of maturity plays an important role in multichannel purchasing behaviour. Melis et al. (2015) conducted research in the UK grocery multichannel market. They found that customers tend to choose the retailer they prefer when purchasing offline for their first online purchase. When they become more used to purchasing online, they start switching retailers (Melis, 2015).