Consumer Decision Process Model in Multi-channel Retail Banking

Abstract

With financial deregulation and application of information technology, consumers are now accessing more financial services from banks. At the same time, electronic distribution channels come into the world endlessly in banking. Under such circumstances, understanding how consumers make their transaction decisions is a major focus of marketing and strategic problem for banks. To effectively utilize various distribution channels and better serve consumers, banks not only need to innovate new financial products, but also focus on consumers' behaviour intention when they choose alternative service channels. On the other hand, consumers' decision process is impacted by some new factors, which mainly originate from information technology. From the perspectives of distribution channels, consumer characteristics, financial products and banks' forces, this paper analyses these new factors that will affect consumer decision process. Based on comprehensive and all-purpose models of consumer decision process, this paper also puts forward a dynamic and specialized model that describes technology-related factors how to affect consumer decision process in specific ways.