Effects of Multi-Channel Consumers' Perceived Retail Attributes on Purchase Intentions of Clothing Products

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Consumers are increasingly shopping through multiple channels, providing opportunities to retailers who can increase profits by crossselling products through multi-channels. The objective of the study was to examine the effects of multi-channel consumers' perceived retail attributes on purchase intentions for (a) brick-and-mortar stores, (b) catalogs, and (c) the Internet. Following a pre-testing, a Computer-Assisted Telephonic Interview (CATI) was utilized for data collection with 500 multi-channel consumers. Structural equation modeling revealed that multi-channel consumers perceive important retail attributes differently across the three channels (i.e., brick-and-mortar stores, catalogs, and the Internet). Consumers perceived risks in personal security or buying private merchandise while shopping in stores. Consumers shopped clothing items via the Internet due to access to a variety of items and convenience-related attributes. Additionally, consumers who perceived higher level of cost tended to purchase clothing products through catalogs and the Internet. Managerial implications are provided for multi-channel retailers.