E‐Shopping and its Relationship with In‐store Shopping: Empirical Evidence from the Netherlands and the USA

Abstract

Despite considerable examination of the impact of telecommunications on travel, little empirical evidence sheds light on the impact of e‐shopping on travel—a recent and increasingly popular form of telecommunications. This paper analyses determinants of online buying and their relationship with in‐store shopping, using empirical data obtained from Minneapolis, USA, and Utrecht, the Netherlands. Based on chi‐square tests and logistic and ordinary least‐squares regressions, the results indicate that online buying is affected by sociodemographics and spatial characteristics of people, their Internet experience, and their attitudes towards in‐store shopping. US respondents who prefer to see products in person are less likely to buy online. Dutch respondents are more likely to buy online as travel times to shops are shorter. At first sight, this counterintuitive result might be related to an urban, innovative lifestyle that supports e‐shopping. A more detailed analysis of Dutch online buyers reveals that they make more shopping trips than non‐online buyers and have a shorter shopping duration. The results indicate that the relationship between online buying and in‐store shopping is not one of substitution but of complementarity.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Professor P. L. Mokhtarian and Dr T. Schwanen for insightful comments on the paper and useful suggestions on the analysis of the data. The authors also appreciated greatly the stimulating and constructive comments of the reviewers. Yi Li assisted with data analysis portions for the US sample; the US survey was administered by the State and Local Policy Program (University of Minnesota) in cooperation with Frank Douma, Kim Wells and Tom Horan. Students of Human Geography, Utrecht University, are acknowledged for their efforts in the Dutch data collection. Finally, the authors are thankful for the support provided by the STELLA programme, without which such collaboration would not have been initiated.