Relationship between Online Shopping and Store Shopping in the Shopping Process: Empirical Study for Search Goods and Experience Goods in Nanjing, China

As online shopping proliferates, many studies have investigated its impact on travel. Most studies, however, treat online shopping as a transaction channel and overlook its interaction with physical shopping at various stages of the shopping process. Using adult internet users in Nanjing, China, this study explores the interactions between online shopping and traditional shopping for search goods (books) and experience goods (clothing) during the shopping process. The results show that experience goods have a stronger stickiness combination between pre-purchase channels and transaction channels than search goods. As a pre-purchase channel for experience goods, stores are more likely to promote cross-channel than internet shopping; the relationship is the opposite for search goods.