초록
정보통신기술의 발전과 모바일 기기 사용의 생활화로 인해 최근 많은 소비자들이 멀티채널 쇼핑(multi-channel shopping)이라는 새로운 쇼핑 행태를 보이고 있다. 온라인 쇼핑이 등장한 이후, 온라인 매장에서 상품을 구매하기 전 오프라인 매장에서 상품을 먼저 확인하는 쇼루밍(showrooming) 형태의 멀티채널 쇼핑이 한 때 대세를 이루었으나, 최근에는 스마트폰, 태블릿 PC, 스마트워치 등 스마트 기기 사용의 폭발적 증가와 옴니채널(omni-channel) 전략으로 대표되는 오프라인 채널의 대대적 반격으로 인해 오프라인 매장에서 상품을 구매하기 전 온라인(혹은 모바일)으로 정보를 먼저 확인하는 웹루밍(webrooming) 현상이 도드라지게 나타나 온라인 소매업자를 위협하고 있다. 이러한 상황에서 소비자의 온라인 쇼핑에서 웹루밍으로의 쇼핑전환 의도에 영향을 미치는 요인을 분석하는 것이 의미가 있음에도 불구하고, 기존 대부분의 선행연구는 싱글채널(single-channel) 혹은 멀티채널 쇼핑 자체에만 초점을 맞추고 있다. 이에, 본 연구에서는 밀고-당기기-이주이론(push-pull-mooring theory)을 바탕으로 소비자의 온라인 채널 쇼핑이 웹루밍 형태의 쇼핑으로 전환되는 과정을 상품정보 탐색과 구매행위로 각각 구분하여 그 영향을 실증하였다. 연구모형을 검증하기 위하여, 웹루밍 경험이 있는 수도권 소재 대학생을 대상으로 280개의 설문 표본을 수집하였다. 본 연구의 결과는 현업 마케팅 종사자에게 멀티채널 소비자들을 관리하는 데 있어 실무적인 시사점을 제공함과 동시에, 향후 다양한 형태의 멀티채널 쇼핑전환 연구로의 확장에 기여할 수 있을 것으로 기대한다.
Recently, the proliferation of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet personal computers and the development of information communication technologies (ICT) have led to a big trend of a shift from single-channel shopping to multi-channel shopping. With the emergence of a "smart" group of consumers who want to shop in more reasonable and convenient ways, the boundaries apparently dividing online and offline shopping have collapsed and blurred more than ever before. Thus, there is now fierce competition between online and offline channels. Ever since the emergence of online shopping, a major type of multi-channel shopping has been "showrooming," where consumers visit offline stores to examine products before buying them online. However, because of the growing use of smart devices and the counterattack of offline retailers represented by omni-channel marketing strategies, one of the latest huge trends of shopping is "webrooming," where consumers visit online stores to examine products before buying them offline. This has become a threat to online retailers. In this situation, although it is very important to examine the influencing factors for switching from online shopping to webrooming, most prior studies have mainly focused on a single- or multi-channel shopping pattern. Therefore, this study thoroughly investigated the influencing factors on customers switching from online shopping to webrooming in terms of both the "search" and "purchase" processes through the application of a push-pull-mooring (PPM) framework. In order to test the research model, 280 individual samples were gathered from undergraduate and graduate students who had actual experience with webrooming. The results of the structural equation model (SEM) test revealed that the "pull" effect is strongest on the webrooming intention rather than the "push" or "mooring" effects. This proves a significant relationship between "attractiveness of webrooming" and "webrooming intention." In addition, the results showed that both the "perceived risk of online search" and "perceived risk of online purchase" significantly affect "distrust of online shopping." Similarly, both "perceived benefit of multi-channel search" and "perceived benefit of offline purchase" were found to have significant effects on "attractiveness of webrooming" were also found. Furthermore, the results indicated that "online purchase habit" is the only influencing factor that leads to "online shopping lock-in." The theoretical implications of the study are as follows. First, by examining the multi-channel shopping phenomenon from the perspective of "shopping switching" from online shopping to webrooming, this study complements the limits of the "channel switching" perspective, represented by multi-channel freeriding studies that merely focused on customers' channel switching behaviors from one to another. While extant studies with a channel switching perspective have focused on only one type of multi-channel shopping, where consumers just move from one particular channel to different channels, a study with a shopping switching perspective has the advantage of comprehensively investigating how consumers choose and navigate among diverse types of single- or multi-channel shopping alternatives. In this study, only limited shopping switching behavior from online shopping to webrooming was examined; however, the results should explain various phenomena in a more comprehensive manner from the perspective of shopping switching. Second, this study extends the scope of application of the push-pull-mooring framework, which is quite commonly used in marketing research to explain consumers' product switching behaviors. Through the application of this framework, it is hoped that more diverse shopping switching behaviors can be examined in future research. This study can serve a stepping stone for future studies. One of the most important practical implications of the study is that it may help single- and multi-channel retailers develop more specific customer strategies by revealing the influencing factors of webrooming intention from online shopping. For example, online single-channel retailers can ease the distrust of online shopping to prevent consumers from churning by reducing the perceived risk in terms of online search and purchase. On the other hand, offline retailers can develop specific strategies to increase the attractiveness of webrooming by letting customers perceive the benefits of multi-channel search or offline purchase. Although this study focused only on customers switching from online shopping to webrooming, the results can be expanded to various types of shopping switching behaviors embedded in single- and multi-channel shopping environments, such as showrooming and mobile shopping.