This document summarizes a research study that examined how consumers' perceptions of the usefulness of various retail channels (e.g. internet, catalogues, television) influences their product search and purchase behaviors across those channels. The study analyzed survey responses from 176 students about their searches and purchases of apparel products through five retail channels. The results showed that consumers who perceived a retail channel as more useful for product searches searched and purchased more through that channel. Consumers also purchased more through channels they were satisfied with from previous purchases.

1. International Journal of Consumer Studies ISSN 1470-6423
Consumer product search and purchase behaviour
using various retail channels: the role of perceived
retail usefulness
Jihyun Kim1 and Hyun-Hwa Lee2
1Department of Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA
2School of Family and Consumer Sciences, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, USA
Keywords
Customer satisfaction, multi-channel retailing,
perceived retail usefulness, product search,
purchase behaviour.
Correspondence
Jihyun Kim, 111 Wallace Hall, Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University,
Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
E-mail: jkim@vt.edu
doi: 10.1111/j.1470-6431.2008.00689.x
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the influences of consumers’ perceptions of retail
usefulness for product information search and their previous purchase satisfaction on their
frequencies of product information search and product purchase behaviours for apparel
products. These relationships were investigated in five retail settings – Internet shopping,
catalogue shopping, television shopping, local retail shopping, and non-local retail shop-ping.
One hundred seventy-six students in a US Midwestern university provided usable
responses. The results of causal model analyses showed that the proposed model fits the
data well for all five retail channels. Consumers who perceived a certain retail channel
more useful for product information search searched for product information more fre-quently
via that retail channel, and purchased products more often via that retail channel.
Consumers who were more satisfied with apparel purchases from a retail channel pur-chased
the products more frequently via that retail channel. Theoretical and managerial
implications are discussed.
Introduction
The introduction of the Internet as a new type of non-store retail
channel expanded the horizon of the retailing environment in the
late 1990s. It is not only a great addition to the previously available
non-store retail channels such as catalogue and television shop-ping,
but also a very important addition to traditional ways of
promoting product information and attracting non-store-based
transactions by adopting multi-channel retail strategies. Multi-channel
retail strategies provide the company with a competitive
edge as the firm operates two or more retail channels to distribute
its products and/or services to the customers. In a multi-channel
retail context, choosing a more efficient retail channel for shop-ping
might be the greatest interest of the consumers. Multi-channel
retailers usually generate greater revenues than single
channel retail operators (DoubleClick, 2004). Retailers have rec-ognized
that operating various formats of retail channels allows
them to embrace a broader range of customers (Payne, 2004) as
well as to build more interactive consumer relationships through
offering information, products and customer supports via two or
more corresponding channels (Rangaswamy and Van Bruggen,
2005).
Today’s retail environment provides more options to consumers
in collecting information and purchasing the merchandise not only
from one company who operates multi-channels but also from the
various retail channels operated by different companies. This retail
context provides customers with convenience and freedom to
decide when, where and how to shop (Jensen et al., 2003; Gordon,
2005). Consumers utilize some combination of various retail chan-nels
(i.e. catalogues, the Internet and bricks-and-mortar stores) to
search for product information and make product purchases. These
shoppers are more involved with fashion, more fashion innovative
and Internet technology savvy (Goldsmith and Flynn, 2005). They
purchase more frequently and spend more money than single or
dual channel customers (Dholakia et al., 2005; Kumar and
Venkatesan, 2005; Rangaswamy and Van Bruggen, 2005; Shankar
and Winer, 2005). This fact is also confirmed by industry trade
findings (DoubleClick, 2004). Moreover, these multi-channel
shoppers tend to be more satisfied with the retailer and stay loyal
to the retailer in the long run (Freed, 2005).
As various retail channels are provided, consumers can choose
different retail formats compared with the single retail channel
context, and they can easily and frequently use different channels
at different stages of their shopping. Consumers can gather infor-mation
about products from non-store channels (the Internet, cata-logue
and/or television), and decide to purchase products from
either non-store or store-based retail channels. For instance, it may
be perceived that searching for product information on the Internet
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2. Role of perceived retail usefulness J. Kim and H.-H. Lee
is much easier and faster than doing so at bricks-and-mortar stores
(Balasubramanian et al., 2005; Van Baal and Dach, 2005). There-fore,
customers can collect product information, such as the price
and style of the product, using the Internet and then they may
make a purchase at bricks-and-mortar stores (Jensen et al.,
2003; Balasubramanian et al., 2005). In turn, they may return
the products in stores or mail it back to the retailer upon their
convenience.
The characteristics of both consumers and products play sig-nificant
roles in the consumers’ channel choices and usage of
certain channels or combinations of several channels (Dholakia
et al., 2005). Online shoppers are more inclined to shop across
the various channels (Kumar and Venkatesan, 2005), and multi-channel
consumers exhibited strong loyalty to the retailers by
making repeat purchases (Dholakia et al., 2005; Kumar and Ven-katesan,
2005). In addition, product characteristics are very criti-cal
when choosing a retail channel. Consumers assign more
value on store-based retailing for purchasing experiential prod-ucts
(i.e. clothing), where consumers would need to examine the
product in person before making purchases (Balasubramanian
et al., 2005). Moreover, consumers find that bricks-and-mortar
channels are more useful to acquire items they need right away
as bricks-and-mortar channels yield a greater ‘possession value’
and instant gratification of acquiring the product immediately
(Noble et al., 2005). Pookulangara et al. (2003) found that
shopping benefits (i.e. convenience/variety, value/service, secu-rity
and product assortment) and shopping costs significantly
influence the consumers’ channel choice behaviours and their
purchase intentions using multi-channel retailing. They (Pooku-langara
et al., 2003) also found that merchandise assortment is
the key to increase consumer product purchases using all three
retail channels including bricks-and-mortar, catalogues and the
Internet.
Researchers noted that multi-channel retailers need more infor-mation
on their target market profiles and shopping behaviours,
which will significantly impact their business performance
(Rangaswamy and Van Bruggen, 2005; Neslin et al., 2006).
Empirical research on multi-channel shoppers’ information search
and purchase behaviour using various retail channels is very
limited and there is much to be explained.
Although the benefits of the multi-channels have been acknowl-edged
by scholars and market researchers, the applications of its
marketing practice exist in various formats. It can be used by the
national brands to increase market penetration and can be adopted
by local retailers, with their distinctive characteristics compared
with the national retailers. However, there has been little research
about consumers’ cross-shopping behaviours in the various chan-nels
available in the current retail context. Further work is particu-larly
needed to examine consumers’ perceptions and usage of
various retail channels, which would be beneficial in the potential
multi-channel context in the future. The purpose of this study is to
explain the consumer information search and purchase behaviours
in using various retail channels. The roles were investigated of
perceived retail usefulness for product information search and
satisfaction with previous purchases of apparel products to explain
consumers’ actual product information search and actual purchase
behaviours in five different retail settings – Internet shopping,
catalogue shopping, television shopping, local retail shopping and
non-local retail shopping.
Literature review
Influences of perceived retail usefulness on
consumer behaviour
Perceived usefulness originates from the technology acceptance
model (TAM) (Davis et al., 1989). Perceived usefulness of tech-nology
and perceived ease of use of technology are two major
antecedents explaining the individual’s adoption of information
technology for job purposes (Davis et al., 1989). Perceived use-fulness
is defined as ‘the degree to which a person believes that
using a particular system would enhance his or her job perfor-mance’
in TAM (Davis et al., 1989, p. 320). As one of the con-structs
of TAM, it has been one of the critical antecedents of
predicting the consumers’ intentions to use the information tech-nology
field. Researchers have successfully applied this concept,
perceived usefulness, in a web site use setting (Teo et al., 1999;
Moon and Kim, 2001) and online shopping (Lin and Lu, 2000;
Childers et al., 2001; Chen et al., 2002b; Koufaris, 2002; O’Cass
and Fenech, 2003; Chen and Tan, 2004; Vijayasarathy, 2004; Lee
et al., 2006).
The Internet helps consumers to search for products/services
and product/retailer information easily, anywhere and any time
(Chen et al., 2002a). Perceived usefulness of a multi-channel
retailer would increase when an Internet retail site offers in-depth
information about product attributes (e.g. price, brand, quality,
materials) as well as customer services (Chen et al., 2002a;
Ratchford et al., 2003). The product and service information pro-vided
by the Internet retailer would affect consumers’ perceived
usefulness of the retailer, thereby making their browsing and shop-ping
experiences more enjoyable and convenient.
Researchers found that perceived usefulness has a significant
impact on consumers’ intentions to make purchases from the
online retailer as well (Gefen and Straub, 1997; Chen et al.,
2002a; Koufaris, 2002; O’Cass and Fenech, 2003; Chen and Tan,
2004; Vijayasarathy, 2004; Lee et al., 2006). The perceived
usefulness of the online retailer was the primary determinant of
consumers’ attitudes towards using the retailer and behaviour
intentions towards the retailer (Chen et al., 2002a; Koufaris,
2002; Lee et al., 2006). Vijayasarathy (2004) investigated adult
consumers’ intentions to use online shopping and found that per-ceived
usefulness positively influenced both attitudes towards
the online retailer and intentions to use the online retailer. Other
researchers also supported the significant effects of perceived
usefulness on attitudes and behavioural intentions towards online
shopping and discussed its usefulness in online shopping (Gefen
and Straub, 1997; Childers et al., 2001; O’Cass and Fenech,
2003; Lee et al., 2006). Likewise, using other non-store-based
retailers, consumers can explore a variety of brands and products,
which may not be available locally and/or regionally, and also
compare the product attributes (i.e. prices, styles, merchandise
assortment and/or trends) across retail channels in the multi-channel
retailing environment.
This perceived usefulness can also be applied to bricks-and-mortar
retail setting. Consumers could extend their information
search from the non-store-based retailers to the store-based
retailers by integrating the appropriate information from different
channels. At the local retail stores, consumers can physically
examine apparel products by touching and/or trying them on at
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3. J. Kim and H.-H. Lee Role of perceived retail usefulness
the retail stores. It may provide more opportunities for the con-sumer
to gather information limited to non-store-based retailers
about how a product fits and looks on the individual. Noble et al.
(2005) found that consumers perceive the bricks-and-mortar
retailers as more advantageous than catalogues and Internet
channels because consumers can purchase and possess the
product immediately at physical stores. When consumers per-ceive
a certain retail channel as useful for information search,
they are more likely to search for product information and, in
turn, purchase a product from that retail channel. Therefore, we
hypothesize:
H1: Perceived usefulness of a retail channel for information
search for apparel products will positively influence the fre-quency
of information search via the retail channel [(a) Inter-net;
(b) catalogues; (c) television; (d) local retail stores; and
(e) non-local retail stores].
H2: Perceived usefulness of a retail channel for information
search for apparel products will positively affect the fre-quency
of product purchase via the retail channel [(a) Inter-net;
(b) catalogues; (c) television; (d) local retail stores; and
(e) non-local retail stores].
Influence of product information search on
purchase behaviour
In the economics of information theory, Stigler (1961) argued that
the more information the consumer has, the better decision she/he
will make. However, the consumer does not search for the infor-mation
indefinitely because of the costs of searching for the
information. Therefore, when marginal benefits derived from
information search equal marginal costs derived from the infor-mation,
the consumer will stop searching for more information
(Stigler, 1961). Klein’s (1998) economics of information search
model addressed that consumer would choose the least costly way
for searching and purchasing the goods and services. Searching
and purchasing within one retail channel may be perceived as less
costly than searching and purchasing in the multiple channels
(Klein, 1998). If the retailer offers the product at the right price at
the time the consumer is searching for it, then the customer may
choose a single channel to reduce shopping cost rather than choose
to use multiple channels for gathering information and purchasing
products. The findings of Ratchford et al. (2003) are in line with
Klein’s proposition in the economics of information search model.
Ratchford et al. (2003) found that purchase intentions via the
Internet increased as a function of the amount of online search
intention for product information. Researchers provided more
empirical support on this positive relationship between the infor-mation
search behaviour and purchase behaviour using the Inter-net
(Lohse et al., 2000; Rowley, 2000; Swinyard and Smith,
2003). For example, Rowley (2000) suggested that frequent Inter-net
browsing for information search eventually lead to frequent
Internet purchases. Patwardhan and Yang (2003) found that con-sumers’
Internet dependency (i.e. frequent use of the Internet for
information search and communication purposes) was a signifi-cant
predictor of actual online purchasing. The positive relation-ship
between information search intention via the Internet and
purchase intention from online stores was also found for apparel
products (Shim et al., 2001; Watchravesringkan and Shim, 2003;
Kim and Park, 2005).
Research showed that there is a positive relationship between
the amount of exposure to the media/retailer and purchase inten-tion
via that media/retailer. In the television shopping context,
Grant et al. (1991) found that consumers who were exposed more
to television shopping programmes tended to purchase more items
than the ones who were exposed less to the programmes. Park and
Lennon (2004) also showed that consumers who watched televi-sion
shopping programmes more often and longer purchased more
often and impulsively spent more money on apparel products via
television shopping channels. In the bricks-and-mortar retail
setting, numerous studies found that length of browsing in the
pleasant retail environment was positively associated with shop-per’s
purchase intentions (Morris and Boone, 1998; Martin et al.,
2005), impulse purchases (Park et al., 1989; Morin and Chebat,
2005) and money spending (Chebat and Michon, 2003). Based on
the literature, it is reasonable to expect that people who frequently
search for product information via a certain retail channel (i.e.
Internet, catalogue, television, local or non-local retailer) are
likely to purchase more frequently via the retail channel, as com-pared
with people who less frequently search (or do not search) for
product information via the retail channel. Thus, we propose:
H3: The frequency of apparel product information search via
a retail channel will positively influence the frequency of
apparel purchase via the retail channel [(a) Internet; (b)
catalogues; (c) television; (d) local retail stores; and (e)
non-local retail stores].
Influence of satisfaction with previous
purchases on purchase frequency
The role of customer satisfaction in predicting loyalty intention
towards the retailer or product is well noted in the literature.
Consumers who are satisfied with the retailer make product pur-chases
more frequently and repeatedly from the same retailer
(Fornell, 1992; Anderson and Sullivan, 1993; Anderson et al.,
1994; Zeithaml et al., 1996; Miller et al., 1998). Repeated pur-chase
from the same retailer is one of the indicators of store loyalty
behaviour. When consumers are loyal to the retailer, they revisit
the retailer, repurchase products/services from the retailer and
recommend the product/retailer to their friends and/or family (Zei-thaml
et al., 1996; Bolton et al., 2000). This positive relationship
between customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions has been
confirmed in the traditional retail setting (Jones and Reynolds,
2006), Internet retailing (Srinivasan et al., 2002; Shankar et al.,
2003; Yen and Gwinner, 2003; Bansal et al., 2004; Balabanis
et al., 2006), catalogue shopping (Shim and Bickle, 1993) and
television shopping (Ray and Walker, 2004). Using a sample of
145 multi-channel firms including apparel retailers, Bansal et al.
(2004) found that overall satisfaction with an Internet retailer
enhanced customer behavioural intentions (e.g. likelihood of
repurchase) and actual browsing behaviours towards the retailer.
Balabanis et al. (2006) also found that e-store satisfaction is posi-tively
related to e-store loyalty regarding various products includ-ing
clothing, health and beauty products, books and music CDs.
This positive linkage between satisfaction and loyalty behaviour
was also found in a multi-channel retail environment (Wallace
et al., 2004). Therefore, we propose:
H4: The satisfaction with the apparel purchase from that
retail channel will positively influence the frequency of
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4. Role of perceived retail usefulness J. Kim and H.-H. Lee
apparel purchases via the retail channel [(a) Internet; (b)
catalogues; (c) television; (d) local retail stores; and (e) non-local
retail stores].
Based on the literature review and hypotheses, we developed a
conceptual model for this study (See Fig. 1).
Methods
Instrument development
A self-administered paper-based questionnaire was developed
based on the previous literature and study objectives. The ques-tionnaire
consisted of five separate sets of questions: (1) perceived
usefulness of various retail channels for apparel product informa-tion
search; (2) frequencies of apparel product information search
via the different retail channels; (3) frequencies of apparel product
purchase via the multiple retail channels; (4) satisfaction with the
previous purchase for apparel product via various retail channels;
and (5) demographics.
To tap the perceived usefulness of various retail channels for
apparel product information search, four facets of the product
information category were developed – price, promotion, style/
trends and merchandise availability – on a five-point Likert-type
scale ranging from Very Useless (1) to Very Useful (5). To create
the perceived usefulness of various retail channels for apparel
product information search variable, four items for each retail
channel were summated and averaged for further statistic analy-ses.
To measure the information search frequencies for apparel
products using multiple retail channels, researchers developed
questions asking how often participants use the retail shopping
channels for searching for apparel product information via five
channels – the Internet, catalogues, television, local retail store
and non-local retail store – on a five-point Likert-type scale: Once
a month (1), every other week (2), every week (3), twice a week (4)
and everyday (5).
Researchers also created five questions asking how often par-ticipants
use the five different retail channels for apparel product
purchases for their own use on a five-point Likert-type scale
ranging from Never (1) to Very Often (5). Satisfaction with previ-ous
apparel purchases via various retail channels was measured by
five items, which were developed by the researchers as well. The
items were measured using a five-point Likert-type scale ranging
Figure 1 A proposed model predicting con-sumer
search and purchase behaviours of
apparel products in a multi-channel retail
environment.
from Very Dissatisfied (1) to Very Satisfied (5). Finally, respon-dents
were asked about their age, gender and ethnicity.
Data collection procedure
The researchers contacted course instructors to ask their permis-sion
to recruit potential participants for the study. The students
were then informed of the study’s objectives and were asked to
volunteer for this study. Students who voluntarily participated in
this survey received extra credits for the course. Students who
decided not to participate in the present study had the alternatives
to receive extra credit from the course instructor.
Description of sample
Atotal of 176 college students from aMidwestern university in the
US provided usable responses to the survey. The average age of the
participants was 20.47 and most of them (96.1%) were between 18
and 24 years old. The majority of the respondents were female
(94.5%) and White or European Americans (86.6%). There were
few Asian Americans (6.1%) and Black or African Americans
(2.2%) among the participants. The sample of the study was
limited to college students; however, this demographic group is
appropriate to investigate their usage of various retail channels as
college students are one of the major purchasers of apparel prod-ucts
using multi-channels (Ray and Walker, 2004).
Results
Perceived retail usefulness and the frequency
of product information search
Hypotheses 1a through 1e proposed the positive relationship
between perceived retail usefulness of apparel product informa-tion
search and the frequency of product information search via
the retail channel. Simple regression analyses were used to assess
the relationship between perceived retail usefulness for apparel
product information search and frequency of product information
search via the retail channel among our sample for all five chan-nels
(H1a–e). As hypothesized, perceived retail usefulness for
searching for apparel product information had a significant and
positive impact on the frequencies of apparel product information
Perceived
usefulness of
product
information search
Frequency of
product
information search
Frequency of
product purchases
Satisfaction with
previous product
purchases
H1 H3
H2
H4
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5. J. Kim and H.-H. Lee Role of perceived retail usefulness
search via the Internet (H1a: F1177 = 56.68, P = 0.000,
beta = 0.493, t = 7.53), catalogues (H1b: F1177 = 34.65, P = 0.000,
beta = 0.405, t = 5.89), television (H1c: F1177 = 39.32, P =
0.000, beta = 0.426, t = 6.27), local stores (H1d: F1177 = 10.44,
P = 0.001, beta = 0.236, t = 3.23) and non-local stores (H1e:
F1177 = 13.72, P = 0.000, beta = 0.268, t = 3.71). Thus, college
consumers who perceived a retail channel as useful for apparel
information search were more likely to search for apparel product
information via that retail channel. Perceived retail usefulness for
apparel information search accounted for 5.6–24% of the variance
in the apparel information search frequency using the retail
channel (Internet = 24%; catalogue = 16.4%; television = 18.2%;
local stores = 5.6%; non-local stores = 7.2%). Therefore, hypo-theses
1a through 1e were statistically supported.
Perceived retail usefulness and the frequency
of product purchases
Hypotheses 2a through 2e proposed the positive influence of per-ceived
retail usefulness of product search on the frequency of
product purchases. Multiple regression analyses were used to test
hypotheses 2a through 2e. As hypothesized, consumers’ percep-tion
of retail usefulness of product information search had a sig-nificant
and positive impact on their frequency of apparel
purchases via the Internet (H2a: beta = 0.192, t = 2.88, P = 0.004),
catalogues (H2b: beta = 0.19, t = 2.81, P = 0.005), local stores
(H2d: beta = 0.20, t = 2.88) and non-local stores (H2e:
beta = 0.20, t = 3.10, P = 0.002). However, this positive relation-ship
between perceived retail usefulness of product search and
frequency of product purchases did not receive a statistical support
for television shopping context (H2c: beta = 0.06, t = 0.80,
P = 0.424). Thus, hypotheses 2 received statistical support for all
retail channels except television.
Frequencies of product information search and
product purchases
Hypotheses 3a through 3e examined the relationships between the
frequency of product information search and frequency of product
purchases via a retail channel. A significant and positive relation-ship
in all five retail channels was expected. Multiple regression
analysis results showed that this relationship was strongly positive
for the Internet (H3a: beta = 0.21, t = 3.78, P = 0.000), catalogues
(H3b: beta = 0.19, t = 2.97, P = 0.003), television (H3c:
beta = 0.20, t = 2.90, P = 0.004) and non-local stores (H3e:
beta = 0.18, t = 3.10, P = 0.002). However, the positive relation-ship
between frequency of product information search and fre-quency
of product purchase did not hold for local stores (H3d:
beta = 0.09, t = 1.48, P = 0.142). Therefore, hypothesis 3 was
partially supported.
Satisfaction with previous product purchases
and frequency of product purchases
Hypotheses 4a through 4e examined positive relationships
between consumer’s satisfaction with product purchase from a
retail channel and the frequency of product purchase from that
retail channel. Multiple regression analyses results revealed that
consumers’ satisfaction level with their product purchases had a
significant and positive impact on the frequency of apparel pur-chases
from the Internet (H4a: beta = 0.50, t = 7.64, P = 0.000),
catalogues (H4b: beta = 0.46, t = 7.11, P = 0.000), television
(H4c: beta = 0.44, t = 6.14, P = 0.000), local stores (H4d:
beta = 0.45, t = 6.41, P = 0.000) and non-local stores (H4e:
beta = 0.50, t = 7.97, P = 0.000). Therefore, hypothesis 4 was sup-ported
for all five retail channels.
Independent variables (perceived retail usefulness for apparel
product information search, the frequency of information search
via the retail channel and satisfaction with previous purchase via
the retail channel) explained moderate to substantial amount of
variance in the frequency of purchase via all five retail channels
(See Tables 1a–e). These three independent variables accounted
for 61% of variance in the frequency of purchase via the Internet,
45% of variance in the frequency of purchase via the catalogue,
33% of variance in the frequency of purchase via the television,
38% of variance in the frequency of purchase via the local stores
and 49% of variance in the frequency of purchase via the non-local
stores.
Discussion
The proposed model in the present study was supported in all five
various retail channels. The data illustrated that, for all five retail
channels (i.e. the Internet, catalogues, television, local retail stores
and non-local retail stores), a consumer’s perception of how useful
a retail channel is for product information search positively influ-enced
his/her apparel search behaviour using that retail channel
(H1). These findings parallel previous studies. It was found that
perceived usefulness of the online retailer was one of the most
important factors influencing consumers’ purchase intentions
Table 1 Multiple regression analysis results
for the Internet
Frequency of purchase via
the Internet beta t-value P-value F-value R2 Adjusted R2
Perceived Internet usefulness for
0.192 2.88 0.004 90.0 0.78 0.61
apparel product information
search
Frequency of the product
information search via the
Internet
0.211 3.78 0.000
Satisfaction with previous purchase
via the Internet
0.504 7.64 0.000
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6. Role of perceived retail usefulness J. Kim and H.-H. Lee
Frequency of purchase via
catalogues beta t-value P-value F-value R2 Adjusted R2
Perceived catalogue usefulness for
0.187 2.81 0.005 47.59 0.67 0.45
apparel product information
search
towards the retailer (e.g. Chen et al., 2002a; Koufaris, 2002). The
results of the present study especially show that non-store-based
retail channels (i.e. the internet, catalogues and television) have
stronger paths from perceived usefulness for the product search to
frequency of product search of that retail channel, as compared
with the brick-and-mortar stores (i.e. local and non-local retail
stores). In addition, variance of the frequency of product informa-tion
search indicated the strong explanation of the non-store-based
Table 2 Multiple regression analysis results for
catalogues
channels vs. store-based channels. This finding indicates that the
respondents of the study used all five different channels for their
apparel information search; however, college students perceived
the Internet, catalogues and television more useful retail channels
for information search. In turn, this led to their frequent search
behaviour for apparel products using non-store-based retail chan-nels
compared with store-based retail channels (local and non-local
stores).
Frequency of the product
information search via catalogues
0.186 2.97 0.003
Satisfaction with previous purchase
via catalogues
0.460 7.11 0.000
Table 3 Multiple regression analysis results for
television
Frequency of purchase via
television beta t-value P-value F-value R2 Adjusted R2
Perceived television usefulness for
0.059 0.80 0.424 29.15 0.58 0.33
apparel product information
search
Frequency of the product
information search via television
0.201 2.90 0.004
Satisfaction with previous purchase
via television
0.438 6.14 0.000
Table 4 Multiple regression analysis results for
local stores
Frequency of purchase via local
stores beta t-value P-value F-value R2 Adjusted R2
Perceived local stores usefulness
0.201 2.88 0.004 35.71 0.62 0.38
for apparel product information
search
Frequency of the product
information search via local
stores
0.092 1.48 0.142
Satisfaction with previous purchase
via local stores
0.453 6.41 0.000
Table 5 Multiple regression analysis results for
non-local stores
Frequency of purchase via
non-local stores beta t-value p-value F-value R2 Adjusted R2
Perceived non-local store
0.198 3.11 0.002 55.19 0.70 0.49
usefulness for apparel product
information search
Frequency of the product
information search via non-local
stores
0.176 2.90 0.000
Satisfaction with previous purchase
via non-local stores
0.504 6.14 0.000
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624

7. J. Kim and H.-H. Lee Role of perceived retail usefulness
The findings of this study illustrate that the consumers’ percep-tion
of retail usefulness for apparel product information search
have a significant and positive impact on their frequencies of
apparel product purchases via all retail channels, except television
(H2). According to previous research (Lennon et al., 2003; Park
and Lennon, 2004), television shoppers are generally middle-aged
consumers and females who have higher motivations for shopping
from television than younger consumers and males. Our respon-dents,
who were college students, might have looked for upcoming
style and trend information on television; however, they did not
purchase the apparel items from television shopping because they
spent more time browsing websites or stores for apparel products.
In addition, because mature females are the main target customers
of television shopping, the product assortment of television shop-ping
networks may be more geared towards that consumer
segment, rather than college-aged female consumers. This might
be another reason why the respondents of the present study did not
purchase much via television shopping for apparel products.
It was found that consumers’ frequencies of information search
for apparel products via a retail channel had a significant influence
on their frequencies of apparel product purchases via that retail
channel (H3) for all retail channels except local retail stores.
Possible explanations for this finding are: first, the geographical
location of our respondents. The present study was conducted in a
small Midwest town in the US. Because the participants in this
study reside in a rural area, what they look for in terms of styles,
design and even brands may not be found in the local apparel
retailers. This may explain why the consumers’ frequency of
product information search at the local retailer did not signifi-cantly
influence their frequency of apparel purchase at the local
retailers. Second, the characteristics and channel usage of our
sample may explain why they searched the local stores for apparel
product information but did not shop there. According to Lee and
Kim (2008), college-aged consumers are likely to be multi-channel
shoppers. The majority of their sample shopped via cata-logues
(84.0%) and the Internet (76.7%), while some shopped via
the television (38.6%) (Lee & Kim, 2008). Consumers in our
study are also college-aged consumers and they may use local
retail stores for product information search activities and trial of
the actual garments. Then, they may turn to non-store-based retail
channels (i.e. Internet, catalogues) for product purchases as these
non-store-based retailers offer wider assortments in terms of
styles, colours and sizes. For example, American Eagle, Old Navy
and Victoria’s Secret offer online exclusive items and wider size
ranges. Also, a number of pure e-tailers selling name brand clothes
such as ShopBop.com and eLuxury.com periodically offer free
shipping promotions to customers. These pure e-tailers also do not
collect tax on the purchases, which comes to customers as major
benefits of non-store-based shopping (Kim and Damhorst, submit-ted).
The findings of this present study illustrated that for all five
retail channels, consumers’ satisfaction level with previous
product purchases from a retail channel also significantly influ-enced
their apparel purchase behaviour using that retail channel
(H4). This finding extends the previous research of effects of
satisfaction on patronage behaviours for apparel products in tra-ditional
retail (i.e. Miller et al., 1998) and non-store-based retail
setting (i.e. Shim and Bickle, 1993; Kim and Damhorst, submit-ted)
into a multi-channel retail context. For all five retail channels
tested, consumers who are more satisfied with their previous
apparel purchases from a retail channel more frequently purchased
the products from that particular retailer. In addition, R2 of the
frequency of product purchase for all five retail channels indicated
that our proposed model provided strong explanations for both the
non-store-based channels and store-based channels. The findings
revealed that all three predictor variables, especially perceived
retail usefulness and satisfaction with previous purchases, clearly
explained consumer apparel purchase behaviour in five different
retail channels.
Conclusions and implications
This present study shows a holistic view of the multi-channel
context in terms of the information search and product purchase
behaviours for apparel products. To our knowledge, this has not
been done before with a same population of the consumer group.
The proposed model in this study worked in various different
channel environments; therefore, the present study empirically
revealed that college-aged consumers could be strong multi-channel
shoppers and this consumer segment would be appropri-ate
for the multi-channels retailers to target.
While there has been much research effort paid to consumer
search and purchase intentions using non-store-based retail chan-nels
(i.e. Johnson et al., 2003; Kim et al., 2003; Watchravesring-kan
and Shim, 2003; Kim and Damhorst, submitted), few studies
have examined consumer’s actual search behaviour or purchase
behaviour for apparel products in a multi-channel retailing context
with a focus on small communities and local stores in small
communities. The current study has provided understanding of
college-aged consumers’ search and purchase behaviours for
apparel products, which complements the previous findings based
on consumers residing in the US metropolitan cities (Watchraves-ringkan
and Shim, 2003).
The present study provides managerial implications for the
apparel industry.As the Internet matures as a retail channel, multi-channel
retailing becomes one of the major retailing strategies for
the apparel retailing industry. College students would be the sig-nificant
market segmentation for the multi-channels retailers. A
majority of college-aged consumers have multi-channel shopping
experiences; they choose a retail channel for product information
search and product purchases upon their shopping orientations and
benefits sought from the retail channel (Lee & Kim, 2008). The
proposed model in the present study works in all five different
channels, and the findings of this study suggest that consumers
utilize the various retail channels to search for product information
and, in turn, to make product purchases via the channel of their
choice. Therefore, the apparel retail industry needs to understand
this younger consumer market’s characteristics and its channel
usages to enhance their multi-channel retail strategies.
In this study, consumers satisfied with their previous apparel
purchases via a certain retail channel shopped more frequently
from the retail channel for apparel products. Customer satisfaction
with a purchase stems from three factors, such as consumer per-ceptions
of merchandise quality, customer service quality and
value attributes of a retailer (Lee and Kim, 2008). This suggests
that the apparel retailing industry needs to ensure all three aspects
of their product/service offerings to the customers in order to have
their customers satisfied. Especially, when it comes to multi-channel
retailers, they should provide cohesive and consistent
International Journal of Consumer Studies 32 (2008) 619–627 © The Authors
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625

8. Role of perceived retail usefulness J. Kim and H.-H. Lee
customer services throughout their various retail channels to
assure the consumer’s convenience of shopping. Consumer satis-faction
is the key to build and maintain customer loyalty to the
retailer (i.e. Anderson et al., 1994; Zeithaml et al., 1996). There-fore,
the apparel retailing industry should carefully examine its
capability of serving its customers using multi-channels and
implement the multi-channel strategy to keep its customers
delighted and loyal to the retailer.
There were some limitations of the present study. The data for
this study were limited to college-aged consumers. Hence, find-ings
of this study cannot be generalized to other consumer seg-ments.
Future studies focusing on multi-channel retailing may
collect more representative data with diverse demographic back-grounds
to draw conclusions applicable to general consumers.
This study focused on the apparel product category as it is one of
the most sold products over the Internet (US Department of Com-merce,
2003, 2005); however, future research may study other
product categories using this model. Consumers actively search
for gift information and buy gifts over the Internet because it saves
time and it is easy to ship the gift to the receiver (Hollenbeck et al.,
2006). It would be beneficial to investigate the consumer decision-making
mechanism regarding gift-searching and purchasing in a
multi-channel retailing context, as well as the synergetic impact of
multi-channel retailing on their channel choice behaviours for
gift-searching and buying.
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