The Marginal Effects Of Consumer Characteristics On Internet Channel Choice

Abstract

Multiple retail channels (e.g., retail stores and catalogs) have been available to consumers for more than a century, while consumer decision making and academic research focused on channel choice with regard to the Internet is limited.  This research integrates and adapts relevant literatures to develop a model of channel choice based on demographics and for the first time explicitly measures consumer switching propensities between channels.   The findings suggest that consumers with Internet access tend to switch from traditional direct response retailing to the Internet and that time pressured consumers tend to switch from physical retail stores to the Internet and vice versa for older consumers.  Strategic implications are also provided.