Study On Consumer Channel Choice And Usage Intention In Multichannel Shopping

With the development of network technology and e-commerce, tremendouschanges have been taken for enterprise sales channels. Many enterprises operate theirchannels from single sales channel to multi-channel, consumers will purchase throughsingle to multiple-channels. Many scholars focused on study of consumers’ channelchoice behavior overseas, but research on this topic is few in China. Study on channelbehavior mostly based on single-channel, especially on online channel. The paperextends this study from single channel to multi-channel, the theoretical value isobvious.Multi-channel marketing strategy brings new opportunities and challenges forenterprise. On the one hand, multi-channel marketing strategy brings new growth forthe company; on the other hand, the company needs to respond to competition fromvarious channels. Therefore, the research of multi-channel consumer behavior providean effective basis for making the multi-channel marketing strategy, enhance theeffectiveness of marketing decision, reduce arbitrary and blindness ofdecision-making, promote the potential benefits of business growth, provideimportant managerial implications for companies of implementing multi-channelmarketing strategy.According to the previous literatures, many foreign scholars have used the theoryof reasoned action, theory of planned behavior and technology acceptance model tohave the online channel empirical research. In contrast, the research of channel choiceis relatively fewer. In China, scholars locate the point of view of channel choice in theperspective of the manufacturer or business decision-makers, or focus on themulti-channel conflicts and management, the research based on consumermulti-channel choice is relatively fewer. This study is based on consumer researchperspective, run the consumer’s perception of behavior through the multi-channelconsumer choice behavior. Different from the previous research on factors affectingchannel choice, the majority of scholars located the factors influencing channel choiceon consumers factors and situational factors, but this study will use the consumersperceive the channel properties as factors affect the channel choice.Based on the the Zeithaml’s (1988) model, this article proposes the hypotheses andconceptual model of the consumers’ channel choice and use intention is influenced byconsumers’ perceived channel quality-price-risk-value, it designs the questionnaire through studying the relevant scale overseas, and uses of SPSS16.0statisticalsoftware for analysis of small sample data to revise the scale; then carries on the largesample survey. Through SPSS16.0software to have statistical analysis the sampledata to test the assumptions of theoretical models, then draws conclusions and makesrecommendations. Through empirical studies, we have drawn the followingconclusions:(1) In a multi-channel environment, there have a positive impact for customerperceived of channel quality and perceived of channel value to the consumer channelchoice and use intention;(2) In a multi-channel environment, there have a negative impact for customerperceived of channel price and perceived of channel risk to the consumer channelchoice and use intention;(3)Between the factors, there have a positive impact for customer perceived ofchannel quality to perceived of channel value, and have a negative impact forperceived of channel risk; there have a negative impact for customer perceived ofchannel price to perceived of channel value, and have a negative impact for customerperceived of channel price to perceived of channel quality; there have a negativeimpact for customer perceived of channel risk to perceived of channel value;(4) The influents of customer perceived channel risk to consumer channel choiceand use intention effect significantly affected by the product category differences; theinfluents of customer perceived channel risk to consumer channel choice and useintention and customer perceived channel price to consumer channel choice and useintention effect significantly affected by the consumer characteristics (such as gender,income level).Finally, according to the conclusions of this paper, it provides the managementsproposals for the enterprise of implementing the multi-channel marketing strategies,and proposes the vision for the future studies.