Showrooming: an Exploratory Empirical Investigation of Students’ Attitudes and Behavior

ABSTRACT

Showrooming, or the activity of shopping in bricks-and-mortar stores and partaking in their services without payment, but making the purchase from a lower priced online retailer, can be detrimental to the survival of bricks-and-mortar stores. To gain insight into this phenomenon, this study examines how young-adult consumers with differing shopping orientations view showrooming. The results support the contention that consumers’ shopping orientations affect their propensities to engage in showrooming activity.

KEYWORDS:

• showrooming
• consumer free-riding
• bricks-and-mortar retailer
• internet shopping
• online shopping

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David J. Burns

Dr. David J. Burns is chair and professor of Marketing and Professional Sales in the Michael J. Coles College of Business, Kennesaw State University in Georgia, USA. He has coauthored several books, published over 100 journal articles and book chapters, and presented over 200 papers. His research interests include retail location and atmospherics, ethics, and consumer culture. His teaching interests include retailing and other consumer-based areas, including Marketing and the Consumer Culture and Neuromarketing.

Pola B. Gupta

Dr. Pola Gupta is Robert J. Kegerreis Distinguished Professor of Teaching at Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio. Gupta has won the 2017 Robert J. Kegerreis Distinguished Professor of Teaching Award, eight Outstanding Marketing Professor of the Year Awards and one Outstanding Research Award. He has published numerous articles in the areas of product placement, showrooming, software piracy, internet marketing and information search, and efficiency of consumer choices of new automobiles. His research interests include product placement, showrooming, internet marketing, software and music piracy, international marketing, and public policy issues.

Hanna C. Bihn

Hanna C. Bihn is marketing associate at Totally Promotional. She received an Undergraduate Summer Research Scholarship from Wright State University.

Jennifer Hutchins

Dr. Jennifer Hutchins is an assistant professor in the Department of Marketing and Professional Sales in the Michael J. Coles College of Business, Kennesaw State University in Georgia, USA. She teaches advertising and promotion, focusing on building relationships with local and regional business owners while developing an actual promotional campaign. She has published articles involving consumer attitudes in a number of contexts and overarching theoretical issues in green marketing.