Showrooming, Webrooming, and User-Generated Content Creation in the Omnichannel Era

ABSTRACT

Omnichannel retailing characterizes a seamless and integrated approach of diverse retail channels. Showrooming and webrooming are prominent shopping trends among consumers in omnichannel retail. The purpose of this study was to examine (1) whether omnichannel consumers’ psychographic characteristics (i.e., information attainment, price comparison, social interaction, assortment seeking, and convenience seeking) had an influence on showrooming and webrooming, which then had an influence on omnichannel consumers’ user-generated content creation intention on social media and (2) whether the social-local-mobile (SoLoMo) experience moderated the links between omnichannel consumers’ showrooming/webrooming and user-generated content creation intention. An online survey was administered to a total of 680 omnichannel consumers with showrooming and webrooming experience from a U.S. consumer panel. This study found that omnichannel consumers’ showrooming and webrooming positively affected user-generated content creation intention on social media. Omnichannel consumers’ information attainment, price comparison, and social interaction positively affected showrooming. Information attainment, social interaction, and assortment seeking positively affected webrooming. The SoLoMo experience moderated the link between webrooming and user-generated content creation intention on social media. Managerial implications were discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Omnichannel
• showrooming
• user-generated content
• webrooming

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ju-Young M. Kang

Ju-Young M. Kang is an associate professor in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She received her doctorate from the University of Minnesota. Her current research interests include consumer behavior in electronic commerce, social commerce, and mobile commerce.