Purpose - The purpose of this thesis is to first describe and secondly to create a deeper understanding of what purpose a store has in omnichannel retailing. It is important to clarify that the study is to be of use for companies as to help them understand their customers' perspective. And how to adapt their omnichannel strategy when one of their channels gets affected. This is to see if a new model is viable in a post pandemic world. Methodology - The study applied a qualitative method where semi-structured interviews was held with employees and with consumers. Findings - The stores’ main purpose during the pandemic has been to act as a hybrid warehouse where you can view the product before fully purchasing it or to utilise BOPIS. The store has also had to change and adapt accordingly. Ultimately the store has proven to stand firm and showed that it still has a place in the market. Practical Implications - The current pandemic has made it more important for retailers to identify when showrooming or reverse showrooming is used. Therefore, a more in-depth analysis on the different approaches to minimise the usage of showrooming and reverse showrooming is necessary. As our findings from data and literature both cases suggest that price and product evaluation are the main reasons why consumers are showrooming. We can draw the conclusion that showrooming, and reverse showrooming is used mainly because of the price and evaluation of the product. Retailers should therefore introduce sales strategies to gain customers in the competitive market and minimise the risk for customers to use showrooming or reverse showrooming. Contribution - This study contributes to the young research area by assessing the effects that showrooming and reverse showrooming may have on retailers. And how to adapt their omnichannel strategy when one of their channels gets affected.

Cette thèse se compose de trois chapitres indépendants abordant différentes questions de l’économie de l’information. Le premier chapitre étudie des stratégies optimales des entreprises qui sont présentes sur les marchés en ligne et hors ligne. Nous étudions des stratégies de prix optimales des détaillants en présence de showrooming et leurs décisions sur des canaux de distribution. Le showrooming est une situation où les consommateurs essayent des produits dans des magasins classiques avant de les acheter en ligne à un prix inférieur. Une manière d’empêcher le showrooming est d’utiliser des prix identiques dans le magasin physique et en ligne. Nous montrons que dans l’optique de recherche de prix bas, le choix de prix identiques est, en effet, un choix optimal. Cependant concernant des prix plus élevés, les prix identiques sont suboptimals, et les achats en ligne et en magasins classiques coexistent avec le showrooming. Une entreprise qui fait face à la concurrence en ligne d’un détaillant multicanaux étranger a une incitation au geo-blocking, c.-à-d. qu’elle refuse de servir les clients étrangers, bien que cela amène à une diminution de la demande. Le geo-blocking modère la concurrence en ligne et mène à des prix plus élevés aussi bien en ligne que dans les magasins physiques. L’exigence juridique des prix identiques, aide à éliminer les incitations au geo-blocking et reconstitue ainsi la concurrence en ligne. Le deuxième chapitre analyse la diffusion de l’information dans les réseaux de la communication où les interactions sociales sont coûteuses. Nous proposons un modèle dynamique avec les agents stratégiques qui décident combien d’effort mettre dans la stratégie publicitaire d’un produit pour une période donnée. Nous montrons que le niveau d’équilibre de l’effort individuel de la communication est convexe avec la proportion des agents avertis, et inférieur le niveau socialement optimal au cause de l’effet substantiel de free-riding. Nous prouvons que pour des coûts de recommandation suffisamment élevées c’est socialement optimal que les agents symétriques exercent le même effort de communication tandis que pour des coûts de recommandation basses ceci n’est pas vrai. Dans le cadre de notre modèle nous analysons la stratégie de la publicité de l’entreprise lançant un nouveau produit avec des extériorités de réseau positives pour des consommateurs. Les expositions d’analyse montrent que les résultats de la publicité diminuent rapidement en proportion de consommateurs avertis de l’effet de free-riding. Ainsi, de façon optimale l’entreprise doit ajuster et réduire le niveau de la publicité par intermittence. Le troisième chapitre est un papier co-écrit avec Maarten Janssen et Alexei Parakhonyak. Dans cet article nous proposons un nouveau concept d’équilibre “Non-reservation price equilibria” (Non-RPE). “Reservation price equilibria” (RPE) n’évaluent pas exactement la puissance du marché dans les marchés de recherche du consommateur. Sur la plupart des marchés de recherche, les consommateurs ne connaissent pas les éléments importants de l’environnement dans lequel ils font des recherches (comme, pour exemple, le coût pour les entreprises). Nous discutons que RPE souffrent de questions théoriques, telles que la non-existence et la dépendance critique des croyances spécifiques hors-de-équilibre, quand les consommateurs apprennent en faisant des recherches. Nous définissons équilibrée, la situation où les consommateurs choisissent rationnellement des stratégies de recherche qui ne sont pas caractérisées par un prix de réservation. Non-RPE existent toujours et ne dépendent pas des croyances spécifiques hors-deéquilibre. Non-RPE ont pour objectif la recherche active du consommateur et sont compatibles avec les résultats empiriques récents. / This thesis consists of three independent chapters addressing different questions of information economics. The first chapter studies optimal strategies of firms which are present in both offline and online markets. We study optimal pricing strategies of retailers in presence of showrooming and their decisions on distribution channels. Showrooming is a situation where consumers try products at brick-and-mortar stores before purchasing them online at a lower price. One way to prevent showrooming is to use a price matching policy, whereby price is the same in both the physical store and the online channel. We show that for small search costs, a price matching policy is indeed optimal. However for higher search costs price matching is suboptimal, and online and offline purchases coexist with showrooming. A firm which faces online competition from a foreign multichannel retailer has an incentive to geo-block, i.e. refuse to serve foreign customers, even though it leads to a decrease in potential demand. Geo-blocking relaxes online competition and leads to higher prices both online and in brick-and-mortar stores. A legal price parity requirement helps to eliminate incentives to geo-block and thus restores online competition. The second chapter analyzes information diffusion process in communication networks where social interactions are costly. We provide a dynamic model with strategic agents who decide how much effort to put into the propagation of information about a product in each period. We show that the equilibrium level of the individual communication effort is convex in the proportion of informed agents, and lower than the socially optimal level due to the substantial free-riding effect. We show that for sufficiently high recommendation cost it is socially optimal that symmetric agents exert the same communication effort while for low recommendation cost this is not true. In the context of our model we analyze the advertising strategy of the firm launching a new product with positive network externalities for consumers. The analysis shows that the outcome of advertisement is decreasing fast with the proportion of informed consumers due to the free-riding effect. Thus, optimally the firm has to adjust and reduce the level of advertising in each period. The third chapter is a co-authored paper with Maarten Janssen and Alexei Parakhonyak. In this paper we propose a new equilibrium concept of Non-reservation price equilibria (Non-RPE). Reservation price equilibria (RPE) do not accurately assess market power in consumer search markets. In most search markets, consumers do not know important elements of the environment in which they search (such as, for example, firms’ cost). We argue that when consumers learn when searching, RPE suffer from theoretical issues, such as non-existence and critical dependence on specific out-of-equilibrium beliefs. We characterize equilibria where consumers rationally choose search strategies that are not characterized by a reservation price. Non-RPE always exist and do not depend on specific out-of-equilibrium beliefs. Non-RPE have active consumer search and are consistent with recent empirical findings.

No description available.

Purpose - The purpose of this study was to deepen the understanding of how showrooming affect the exploited brick-and-mortar businesses. This was done by investigating an industry characterized by high levels of employee knowledge where the expertise of the personnel create showrooming incentives. Methodology - The study applied a qualitative case study where semi-structured interviews was held with employees of a firm representing the case of an exploited firm. Findings - The empirical findings suggest that showrooming may affect the exploited firm in the areas; profits, offerings, channels, and personnel. Profit-losses due to showrooming may force the exploited firm to reduce number of personnel and working hours, decrease store areas and close of unprofitable stores, change the product and services offered, change how products are displayed, and in what channels the products are available. Further it may give rise to internal channel conflicts, and affect personnel motivation and sales performance. Practical Implications - A perceived showroomer should be treated as a paying customer to avoid misjudgment of character and a loss in service level. Private labels and exclusive selling rights allow for higher profits while reducing showrooming opportunities. In addition to this, rewards for cross-channel retention, synchronized channel information, and price consistency across channels may reduce internal conflicts. Contribution - This study contributes to the young research area of showrooming by assessing the effects an exploited firm may encounter when faced with showroomers.

Background: In the last 20 years, the retail industry has experienced a drastic transformation and the rise of e-commerce has resulted in a change in the retail business models. Thus, there has been a shift from the traditional single-channel format to a multi-channel format. A critical challenge that retailers face with the multichannel format is the concept of showrooming, where consumers visit the brick-and-mortar retailer to explore the assortment and thus utilise the services offered, but finally purchases the product online.     Problem: Brick-and-mortar retailers often consider showrooming as a threat regarding the act of free-riding which might lead to a loss of potential customers. However, opinions on how to conquer this undesirable behaviour vary. Previous research shares the underlying assumption that price is the critical driver for the consumers’ decision to perform showrooming. Although, there is no clear consensus on how to hinder this behaviour.   Purpose: The purpose of this study is to make sense of how customers’ in-store experiences affect showrooming in the clothing and footwear industry. The findings of this study are expected to contribute to beneficial theoretical retail knowledge as it investigates the underexplored research phenomenon of showrooming in a broad customer in-store experience context.   Method: To perform this research, a qualitative research design was applied and 15 semi-structured interviews with self-proclaimed showroomers were conducted.         Results: The findings declare that for a positive in-store experience to occur, it must be permeated by trust. When trust is achieved, the second critical factor of in-store experience in the context of showrooming concerns the availability. If these two factors of in-store experience are successfully managed, the desire to engage in showrooming decreases. These findings are visually demonstrated in a developed framework on page 49.

That a consumer is going through multiple trade channels during a single purchase are being more normal than ever. A Danish bridal store has been in media saying that the owner will start to charge the consumers when they try on the dresses in the store. This since the consumer nowadays tries the fit of the dress in a physical store to later go home and order the exact same dress to a lower price online. This consumer behavior is called showrooming, it is when the actual store ends up to be just a showroom for the consumer. This possibility is since there is an endless amount of trade channels for consumer to go through. The opposite behavior when a consumer collects information about the product online to finalize the purchase in a physical store is called webrooming. Researchers have studied the behavior in a quantitative way and this study will be focusing on a qualitative research. The study will see how consumers interact between multiple trade channels in their process of purchasing products. The study was conducted with six students on a post-secondary education level with three student who study informatics and three students within textile. The conclusion of the study is that consumers are showrooming in different ways. A difference was shown out from the product and the education. And also if the students where focused on price or quality. Student discount and low prices where two aspects that where important for the students in informatics which is more likely for showrooming. While the majority of the textile students where more welcoming for using the internet to collect information about different products and finalizing the purchase in a physical store. Their choice was more motived since they did not trust the security online and they liked the fact to bring the product home immediately. The result of the study is important since the data that the behavior exists but there is also an importance to understand the behavior. This report is written in Swedish. / Att konsumenter går igenom flera handelskanaler vid ett och samma köp är något om blir allt vanligare idag. En brudklänningsåterförsäljare i Danmark gick nyligen ut i media om att butiksägaren kommer ta ut en avgift för att konsumenter ska få prova plaggen i dennes butik. Den underliggande faktorn var att konsumenter idag går in i fysiska butiker och provar för att senare köpa produkten online till ett lägre pris. Detta konsumentbeteende kan kallas för showrooming där butiken används som ett utställningsrum. Det är ett möjligt beteende för konsumenterna på grund av den oändligheten av handelskanaler som finns att tillgå idag. Det existerar en motpol till showrooming som benämns webrooming, där konsumenten använder internet för att samla information för att senare genomföra köpet i fysisk butik. Flera forskare har tidigare undersökt hur beteendet genomförs genom kvantitativ forskning. Denna studie utgår istället från att se hur konsumenter interagerar mellan multipla handelskanaler i sin köpprocess på individuell nivå utifrån showrooming fenomenet. Studien genomfördes med sex studenter på eftergymnasial nivå med tre respondenter inom informatik samt tre respondenter inom textil. Slutsatsen av studien var dels att konsumenterna utförde showrooming beteendet i olika utsträckningar men en skillnad uppstod beroende på produktkategori och utbildningsområde. En reflektion över pristillgänglighet och kvalitet skiljde studenter inom informatik gentemot studenter inom textil. Informatikstudenterna visade större belägenhet till showrooming beteendet där fysisk kontakt med produkten behövdes men köpet ändå slutade hos en konkurrerande digital återförsäljare. Detta grundades på studentrabatter och ett lägre pris. Majoriteten av textilstudenterna informationssökte hellre via digitala medel för att sedan köpa produkten i fysisk butik. Deras val motiverades på säkerheten med att beställa online samt möjligheten att ta hem produkten direkt. Resultatet i studien är viktigt för att visa på att även om siffrorna visar på att showrooming och webrooming är beteenden som konsumenter innehar så är det även viktigt att förstå varför beteendet existerar.

Den tekniska utvecklingen har bidragit till ett ökat antal kanaler mellan företag och konsumenter. Detta möjliggör för konsumenter att fritt röra sig mellan dessa kanaler för att skapa och forma dess köpupplevelse efter önskat behov. Utvecklingen har bidragit till att konsumenter kan använda både digitala och fysiska kanaler i sin köpbeslutsprocess. Detta har utvecklat omnikanaler, där showrooming är en framväxande konsumtionstrend. Showrooming syftar till situationen då en konsument söker information via en fysisk kanal och sedan genomför köpet genom en digital kanal.  Syftet med denna studie är att förklara hur kundvärdet påverkar kanalvalen i den förlängda köpbeslutsprocessen till att konsumenten utövar showrooming eller aktivt väljer bort showrooming. Kundvärdet definieras i denna studie som en avvägning mellan behovsuppfyllnad och uppstådda kostnader. Showrooming undersöks mestadels utifrån företagens perspektiv, och således bidrar denna studie till ökad kunskap utifrån konsumentens perspektiv. Att förstå detaljhandelsfenomenet utifrån detta perspektiv är av betydelse för företag, eftersom de då ges möjligheten att utforma värdeerbjudanden som medför att konsumenten fortsätter välja deras kanaler.  Studien är genomförd utifrån en kvalitativ design där intervjuer har använts för att få en nyanserad förklaring från konsumenternas perspektiv. Därav gjordes valet att inkludera respondenter med olika erfarenheter, för att erhålla flera perspektiv. Totalt genomfördes 14 intervjuer med respondenter som besatt olika erfarenheter av fenomenet, där tio av dessa vid något tillfälle valt att utöva showrooming. Det var av betydelse att respondenterna skilde sig åt och hade blandade erfarenheter för att belysa det presenterade syftet. Studien identifierade att personliga preferenser är avgörande för de kanalval som tas i köpbeslutsprocessen. Det var tydligt att kundvärde är drivande för respondenternas beslut, där detta avgörs av personliga preferenser. Stegen där konsumenterna väljer kanal är avgörande för eventuellt utövande av showrooming. / The development of technology has led to an increased amount of channels between companies and customers. This enables consumers to move freely across these channels to create and design their purchase experience after desired need. This development has contributed to customers using both digital and physical channels during their purchase decision-making process. This has developed omnichannels, where showrooming is a growing consumption trend. Showrooming refers to the situation where a consumer seeks information through a physical channel, and then completes the purchase through a digital channel. The purpose of this study is to explain how customer value affects the channel choice in the extended purchase decision-making process if the customer decides to practice showrooming or actively deselect it. Customer value is defined as a value trade-off between need fulfillment and emerged costs in this study. Showrooming is mostly investigated from a business perspective, and thus this study contributes with increased knowledge from a consumer perspective. To understand this retail phenomenon from this perspective is of importance for businesses, since they are given the opportunity to create value propositions which entails that the consumer stays within their channels. The study is accomplished through a qualitative design, where interviews have been used to get a nuanced explanation from the consumer perspective. Thereby, the choice was made to include diverse respondents to obtain different perspectives. A total number of 14 interviews were conducted with respondents with different experience of the phenomenon, where ten of these had chosen to perform showrooming at some point. It was of importance that the respondents differed and possessed different experience to receive a nuanced understanding from the presented purpose. The study identified that personal preferences are crucial for the channel choices through the purchase decision-making process. It was clear that customer value was of importance for the respondent’s decisions, where this was determined by personal preferences. The stages where consumers choose a channel is crucial for if showrooming will be practiced or not.

Problemställning: Konsumentbeteendet showrooming är ett hot mot den fysiska butikens kundlojalitet. För att företag med fysiska butiker ska kunna bemöta detta beteende i deras lojalitetsarbete behöver de veta vad som får konsumenter att engagera sig i detta beteende och varför. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att bidra till förståelsen för showrooming genom att undersöka hur olika kanalattribut och produkttyper driver ett urval svenska konsumenter till att engagera sig i showrooming. Forskningsfråga: Vilka olika kanalattribut och produkttyper leder till att urvalet av konsumenterengagerar sig i showrooming? Vilka kanalattribut respektive produkttyper har störst påverkan på deras engagemang i showrooming? Resultat: Urvalet engagerade sig i showrooming och deras beteende påverkades av kanalattribut och produktkategorier men på olika sätt. Vidare visade det sig att vissa av attributen och produktkategorierna inte alls ledde till att urvalet engagerade sig i showrooming. Kunskapsbidrag: Denna studie har bidragit med kunskap om friåkningsbeteendet showrooming genom att bidra med kunskap om vilka kanalattribut och produktkategorier som får konsumenter att engagera sig i detta shoppingbeteende och varför / Problems: The consumer behaviour called showrooming is a threat towards the customer loyalty of the physical store. In order for these companies to great this behaviour in their loyalty work they need to know what leads to consumers engaging in this behaviour and why Purpose: The purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of showrooming through an investigation about how different channel attributes and product types leads a selection of Swedish consumers to engage in showrooming. Research question: Which different channel attributes and product types leads to the selection of Swedish consumers engaging in showrooming? Which channel attributes and product types have the biggest impact on the consumers engagement in showrooming? Result: The selection engaged in showrooming and their behaviour was affected by channel attributes and product categories, however, differently. Furthermore, it became visible that some channel attributes and product categories did not lead towards consumers engaging in showrooming. Knowledge contribution: This study has contributed with knowledge about the phenomena showrooming through contribution of what channel attributes and product categories leads towards consumers engaging in this consumer behaviour.

Uppsatsen berör den uppmärksammade trenden showrooming, att informationssöka produkter i fysisk butik men sedan genomföra köpet via en konkurrent online – en typ av friåkande från offline- till onlinekanalen. Syftet är att förklara hur showroomingsker vid köp av produkter som potentiellt lämpar sig för detta, bl.a. genom att identifiera vilka faktorer som driver fenomenet. Produkter som särskilt påverkas av detta fenomen är upplevelsevaror som inhandlas med låg frekvens till hög kostnad. Med hjälp av teori om hur konsumtion sker då fler säljkanaler finns tillgängliga, samt teori om hur lojalitet påverkar konsumtionsbeteende, formuleras sex hypoteser rörande hur konsumentbeteende påverkar benägenheten till showrooming. Produktkategorin löparskor uppfyller till stor del de kriterier som lämpar dem för showrooming, och en frågeundersökning genomförs därför med konsumenter av löparskor. Resultatet av undersökningen analyseras statistiskt m.h.a. Pearsonskorrelation och binär logistisk regression. Analys sker även av kvalitativ data som respondenterna bidrar med. Hypotesprövningen visar på signifikativa negativa samband mellan variablerna risk, positiv tidsdiskontering, rutiner och showrooming, samt signifikanta positiva samband mellan variablerna sparsamhet, expertis och showrooming. Dessutom identifieras ett svagt negativt samband mellan ålder och showrooming. Vidare formuleras begreppet returköpsshowrooming, där konsumenterna vänder sig till konkurrenter online vid upprepade köp av en produkt som tidigare informationssökt och köpts offline. Med utgångspunkt i marknadsföringsmixen diskuteras implikationerna av showrooming-fenomenet för marknadsförare i fysisk handel respektive e-handel.

Problem: Showrooming phenomenon refers to the customer behavior of physically experiencing the product in a physical store before purchasing it from online stores. It is becoming increasingly prevalent today and has attracted the interest of academia. However, the majority of the existing studies explored this phenomenon from the perspective of retailers. The concern for different retailers’ gain and loss in showrooming process caused debate on how to define and interpret this phenomenon. Moreover, there are few existing studies that investigating this behavior from the consumers’ lens.  There seems to be a need for research focused on the customers’ showrooming experience and understand this phenomenon from their lens.   Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore what is showrooming phenomenon from customer’s perspective through investigating customers' personal showrooming experience in order to shed more light on the positive side of showrooming.   Method: Based on a social constructionism philosophy, this qualitative study utilizes a grounded theory strategy. In order to gather data through grounded theory method, in-depth interviews and a grounded analysis have been conducted. The analysis is conducted in three steps. First, in initial coding, codes and concepts are identified. Second, in axial coding, concepts are grouped into categories. Finally, in selective coding, categories are connected and grouped based on the intrinsic relationship between different categories. Also, the paradigm is built in these final step.   Conclusions: This study builds the paradigm model of showrooming phenomenon through exploring the experiences of showroomers. In the paradigm, the different conditions in the process are identified, including the core phenomenon, causal condition, contextual condition, intervening condition, action, consequences. Through building the model, this study explores the incentives and consequences of showroomers, the different influential factors during showrooming process, and the interpretations and perceptions from customer’s perspective.