Customers' preference of online store visit strategies: an investigation of demographic variables

Received: 7 January 2009 Revised: 30 June 2009 2nd Revision: 1 October 2009 3rd Revision: 7 February 2010 4th Revision: 23 February 2010 5th Revision: 29 March 2010 6th Revision: 26 April 2010 Accepted: 26 April 2010 Abstract There is significant interest among marketers and academics to understand how to segment online consumers to better fulfill their needs. Previous literature on brick-and-mortar shopping has advocated demographic variables as simple yet valuable indicators to understand consumers and segment them accordingly. However, research in the online shopping context has produced mixed findings about the effects of demographics, which limit their utility to online merchants. As an attempt to address the ambiguity, the study proposes a more comprehensive approach to investigate the effects of demographic variables in the online shopping context. This is done by considering the demographic variables in combinations and using clickstream data to more accurately derive online shoppers’ surfing behaviour for segmentation purposes. Following this approach, our study investigates the effects of the demographic variables of gender, age, income, and education, based on the theories of media naturalness and consumer trait and involvement. The results reveal various effects of age, income, and education on online consumers’ needs being reflected in their store visit strategies. Implications are suggested for e-commerce research and practice. European Journal of Information Systems (2010) 19, 344–358. doi:10.1057/ejis.2010.32