How Does Online Engagement Drive Consumers' Webrooming Intention?

Amit Shankar,Rambalak Yadav,Charles Jebarajakirthy,Manish Gupta

doi:10.4018/jgim.20211101.oa19

Abstract

Based on the cognitive-motivational-relational (CMR) theory, this study empirically investigates the mechanisms through which consumers' online engagement impacts their channel switching intention. The present study examines the mediating effects of perceived value and the ways in which these mediating effects are moderated by online risk perception. Data were collected from 428 online Indian consumers using systematic random sampling. The results of the structural and process macro analyses indicated that consumer online engagement has a significant impact on consumer online search benefits which in turn leads to webrooming intention. Also, perceived value mediated the effects of online search benefits and offline purchase benefits on webrooming intention. The results advance the theory of CMR by explaining consumer channel switching behaviour and are expected to help multi-channel retailers to identify the key drivers that help engage consumers online.

Highlights

Due to widespread access to the internet, increasing mobile phone penetration, and developed information systems, channel switching behaviour has become a common phenomenon (Arora & Sahney, 2018; Verhoef et al, 2007)
The results of the structural and process macro analyses indicated that consumer online engagement has a significant impact on consumer online search benefits which in turn leads to webrooming intention
As responses for both the dependent and independent constructs were collected from the same respondent, Harman one-factor test was done to test for any possibility of common method bias (CMB) as prescribed by Podsakoff et al, (2003)

Summary

Introduction

Due to widespread access to the internet, increasing mobile phone penetration, and developed information systems, channel switching behaviour has become a common phenomenon (Arora & Sahney, 2018; Verhoef et al, 2007). Webrooming has emerged as a frequent consumer behaviour relating to channel selection where consumers search information over online platforms before making a final purchase from offline stores (Frasquet et al, 2015; Flavián et al, 2016; Fernández et al, 2018; Wong et al, 2018; Aw, 2019; Flavián et al, 2020; Shankar & Jain, 2020). According to a Price waterhouse Coopers’ (PwC) recent report, a large number of consumers visit a company’s website to collect information before purchasing a product or availing of services from the company’s offline store (PwC, 2015). According to the Deloitte (2017) report, more than 69% of consumers search for products and services online before purchasing them offline.

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