Managerial Implications

the high trust levels at their websites. In this way, marketers The results offer several actionable managerial implica-

can help such customers reduce their risk perceptions and tions. First, managers can use the finding about the direct

buy more from the web channel. For example, the staff at a effect of channel preference on monetary value to make

Best Buy store could provide reassurance to prevention- channel-specific investments. Our finding reveals that in

focused store customers by demonstrating the ease and general, multichannel customers who buy in multiple cate-

trustworthiness of ordering online through computers at the gories are most valuable, so retail firms that sell multiple

store and by enabling them to purchase online. Customers product categories (e.g., mass merchandisers such as Target

who become accustomed to the online channel might shop

82 / Journal of Marketing, July 2013 82 / Journal of Marketing, July 2013

vide a deeper understanding of the role of discounts in cre- Seventh, retailers could use the insights from our

ating differences in monetary values by channel preference. research to make more effective targeting decisions. Our

Fourth, if longitudinal customer purchase data on a findings imply that retailers of hedonic product categories

broad array of categories across firms are available, a (e.g., J.C. Penney, Pottery Barn, Pier 1 Imports) should tar-

deeper analysis of channel switching across product cate- get multichannel customers. The results also suggest that

gories could be undertaken to obtain greater insights into retailers of low-risk/utilitarian products (e.g., Office Depot,

multichannel shopping. Such an analysis would offer a Tractor Supply Co., PetSmart) should target customers who

nuanced understanding of changes in monetary values due prefer traditional channels. Similarly, retailers of high-

to channel switching.

risk/utilitarian products (e.g., Best Buy, Wolf Camera, Fifth, although our conceptual arguments are rooted in Crutchfield) should target competitors’ web-only customers

individual motivation, we use behavioral outcome data for switching and offer incentives to their own web-only

(spending)—not data at the decision process level. Supple- customers to enhance retention.

menting our study with behavioral experiments at the individual level would bolster the validity of the findings.

Limitations, Further Research, and Finally, with the surge in the sales of mobile devices,

such as smartphones and tablets, customer use of the mobile

channel is growing rapidly. As data on mobile channel This study has limitations that further research could

Conclusion

become available, it would be useful to extend our study to address. First, we examined observed purchase behavior.

the mobile channel.

We do not have data on how customers use the channels for In conclusion, contrary to conventional wisdom that all information search. Although such data are difficult to col-

multichannel customers are valuable, our results show that lect, analyzing them together with transaction data could

multichannel customers are the most valuable segment only shed additional light on single- versus multiple-channel

for hedonic product categories; single-channel customers of shopping, extending the work of Verhoef, Neslin, and

utilitarian categories and traditional channel customers of Vroomen (2007).

low-risk categories provide higher monetary value than Second, if data on customer referrals are available, our

other customers. The results reveal that for utilitarian prod- model of customer value could be expanded to include

uct categories involving high (low) risk, electronic (tradi- referral value, extending Kumar, Petersen, and Leone’s

tional) channel shoppers constitute the most valuable seg- (2010) study to the multichannel context. Such an analysis

ment. Our findings offer managers guidelines for targeting could provide a richer understanding of customer value.

and migrating different types of customers for different Third, if data on price promotions are available, an

product categories through different channels. They also investigation of the differences in the effectiveness of price

serve as an impetus for further research on the growing phe- promotions across different channel shoppers would be a

nomenon of multichannel marketing.

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