The effects of multichannel shopping on customer spending, customer visit frequency, and customer profitability

Multichannel strategy—in which firms offer their products or services using multiple outlets—gives firms an opportunity to tap into their broader customer base while also enhancing their shopping convenience. In this study, we investigate the antecedents of multichannel shoppers using both actual and stated behavioral data. Furthermore, we quantify the consequences of multichannel shopping along three dimensions: Customer spending, customer visit frequency, and customer profitability. Our results suggest that customer-intrinsic factors have a significant effect  on multichannel shoppers with customers’ technical expertise and internet service adoption having a positive impact, and deal sensitivity and shopping experience having a negative impact on multichannel adoption. Furthermore, multichannel shopping has significant positive effects on customer spending, customer visit frequency, and customer profitability. Our results provide a better understanding of customers’ multichannel shopping behavior along the stated dimensions that can be used for effective multichannel decision making by firms.