Examining the Showrooming Intention of Mobile-Assisted Shoppers in a multichannel Retailing Environment

A typical shopping scenario nowadays is that shoppers browse and try the products offline and then buy them online from a competing retailer. This phenomenon commonly described as “showrooming” occurs because of the ubiquity of mobile devices and the ease of switching between multiple retail channels. The presence of these mobile-assisted shoppers in a multichannel retailing environment is a serious challenge confronting all retailers. This study first identifies these cross-channel shoppers’ reasons for and against showrooming and then uses the behavioral reasoning theory (BRT) to predict their showrooming intention. Next, we identify two factors, namely online-offline price difference and employee knowledge competency that can further impact showrooming intention and subsequently develop a 3x2 scenario-based experiment to examine the effectiveness of these two measures to influence showrooming. We provide theoretical and managerial implications arising from our research.