How does convenience impact showrooming intention? Omnichannel retail strategies to manage global retail apocalypse

ABSTRACT

This study, based mainly on the stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) model, investigates the role of offline search convenience (decision convenience, attentiveness convenience, and evaluation convenience) and online purchase convenience (transaction convenience, possession convenience, and post-purchase convenience) in motivating consumers’ showrooming behaviour. Additionally, it examines the intervening roles of consumers’ perceived values and product involvement in the said relationship. Data were collected from 303 Indian consumers through an online survey. The results from structure equation modelling and PROCESS Macro indicate that attentiveness convenience, evaluation convenience, possession convenience, and post-purchase convenience play a significant role in forming consumers’ showrooming intention. The perceived values significantly mediate the relationship between convenience and showrooming intention and these effects varied depending on the level of consumers’ product involvement. The results contribute to the S-O-R model by not only identifying the S-O-R specific factors in the present context but also provide the evidence for the ways in which the global retail disaster can be managed in the omnichannel retailing industry. The findings of the present study encourage retailers to enhance their service convenience to manage consumers’ channel switching behaviour.

KEYWORDS:

• Convenience
• showrooming intention
• perceived values
• product involvement
• omnichannel retailing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).