Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify major themes and potential research opportunities in online and offline consumer search. Design/methodology/approach A systematic review was conducted based on 118 articles identified from prevalent journal databases. Keywords frequency analysis was carried out to identify the major themes. An inductive thematic analysis was carried out to verify the generated themes. Findings Results show that uncertainty, knowledge, perceived risk, price, experience and involvement are the major themes associated with consumer information search. Uncertainty, one of the major themes of offline search, has not been studied in the online search context. Similarly, the previous experience needs to be explored in the context of the offline search. Finally, potential research opportunities for future research has been summarized based on the retrieved themes. Research limitations/implications The systematic review provides an in-depth understanding on the current research on information search literature with future research directions. Practical implications This study helps retailers to understand the key elements that motivate consumers to perform external information searches from online and offline sources and to curate targeted information provision strategies to influence purchase decisions. Social implications Consumers with limited internet availability may access channels prior to decision-making. The themes identified in this study can aid policymakers to design affordable access to these channels. Originality/value This study adds to the sparse literature on systematic reviews on consumer search for online and offline channels.
Highlights
Information search is an important activity as consumers try to reduce uncertainty and perceived risk before an actual purchase
Online information sources have become a popular alternative to traditional offline sources as they provide easy access to functional and price details (Sands, Ferraro, & Luxton, 2010)
Journals and books of other streams were removed from the data set. We considered only those articles with full text in English for the systematic review
Summary
Information search is an important activity as consumers try to reduce uncertainty and perceived risk before an actual purchase. They use multiple channels (online and offline) to gather information before making purchase decisions (Degeratu, Rangaswamy, & Wu, 2000; Jang, Prasad, & Ratchford, 2017). Offline search can be performed either out-of-store or in-store. Pamphlets, magazine, newspaper articles, visiting different retail outlets and seeking the opinion of friends or relatives are some of the major sources for out-of-store information search whereas catalogues are popular in-store options (Singh, Ratchford, & Prasad, 2014; Tagashira & Minami, 2016; Westbrook & Fornell, 1979). Past research has identified online advertisements, manufacturers’ web sources, dealer/vendor/retailer/ company websites and social media as some of the influential online sources (Singh & Swait, 2017)
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