The Intention to Cart Abandonment in the Context of Multi-Channel Pricing

Abstract

Theoretical background: Shopping cart abandonment is defined as a situation when the customer chooses products but does not complete the financial transaction. The vast majority of research articles on purchase abandonment concerns the online or mobile environment. The presented research model refers to the customer intention to resign from purchasing both in physical store and via mobile app caused by a multi-channel pricing strategy. By analogy to many definitions of online cart abandonment, the author defines cart abandonment in a multichannel environment as a decision about postponing purchase at all, both in a physical store and in a purchase mobile app. One of the possibilities of consumer behaviour as a reaction to the multi-channel pricing may be purchase abandonment. The impact of price differentiation across channels on purchase abandonment still deserves research attention due to the lack of the unequivocal confirmation. Purpose of the article: Setting prices in a multichannel environment creates a vital challenge for multichannel retailers. This article attempts to explain one of the undesirable consequences of the channel based price differentiation, which is the purchase abandonment. The purpose of this paper is to identify factors influencing the customer intention to abandon the purchase under channel-based price differentiation conditions (physical store and mobile purchase app). Research methods: This study is a quantitative one employing a scenario-based approach to obtain responses from 500 participants. This research used the structural equation modelling to test its hypotheses. Main findings: Findings reveal positive impact of perceived limited self-determination and perceived price unfairness on intention to cart abandonment, whereas consumer trust in a mobile app can reduce the intention to resign from purchase. Furthermore, the author finds the indirect impact of the mobile app familiarity as well as the retailer brand awareness. Research results can help managers to reduce the likelihood of losing customers in the multi-channel pricing environment.