Online Retailer vs. Click and Mortar Retailer: Who Performs Better?

Retail business is characterized by different business models: pure-play model and dual channel approach, which uses both physical and online channels to reach customers. There is conflicting evidence regarding the relative value of these business models to the consumers. We take a market valuation approach to evaluate the relative merits of both business models. We consider a panel of publicly traded US retailers and evaluate how their sales performance impacts their Tobin’s q. We find that the dual channel retailers receive a market premium for their sales revenue as compared to the pure-play retailers. This higher valuation can be associated with higher customer satisfaction with dual channel firms leading to a higher intangible value as compared to the pure-play firms. Our results have important implications for retailers as we demonstrate the value of different channels. Our work also contributes to the existing literature on online consumer retailing and multichannel research.