Transportation (2017) 44:885–904

DOI 10.1007/s11116-016-9683-9

The interactions between e-shopping and store shopping

in the shopping process for search goods and experience
goods

Qing Zhai1 • Xinyu Cao2 • Patricia L. Mokhtarian3 •

Feng Zhen4

Published online: 18 February 2016

Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016

Abstract When exploring the interactions between e-shopping and store-shopping, most
empirical studies regarded shopping as a transaction, but did not consider internet use in
other stages of the shopping process, which has transportation implications. Few studies
have conducted comparative analyses between different types of products. Using 952
internet users in two cities in Northern California, this study explores the interactions in the
shopping process for two types of products: search goods and experience goods. We find
that for internet buyers, clothing is more likely than books to be associated with store
visiting for both information search and product trial. Online pre-purchase behaviors were
more likely to facilitate cross-channel shopping than those at a store. A comparison with an
earlier study shows more similarities than differences between the two studies, suggesting
a certain amount of spatio-temporal generalizability of relationships.

Keywords Information and communication technology  Online shopping 

Cross-channel shopping  Marketing  Product type  Travel

Introduction

As e-shopping has proliferated, transportation planners and transport geographers have

explored its impacts on shopping travel as well as other travel. This is not surprising given
that shopping is a major out-of-home activity. According to the 2009US National

& Xinyu Cao

cao@umn.edu
1
School of Geography and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
2
Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA
3
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA
4
Department of Urban Planning and Design, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

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886 Transportation (2017) 44:885–904

Household Transportation Survey (NHTS), 14.0 % of annual person-distance traveled and

20.9 % of annual person-trips per household were for shopping activities (USDOT 2015,
Figs. 2, 3). If e-shopping could substantially replace bricks-and-mortar store shopping as it
more deeply penetrates in the future, it has the potential to reduce shopping-related travel
and mitigate the growth in traffic congestion.
Previous studies have empirically shed light on the travel impacts of e-shopping. Some
concluded that individuals have saved trips to stores because of their online purchases (Sim
and Koi 2002; Tonn and Hemrick 2004; Weltevreden and Rietbergen 2007). However,
previous studies often ignored the interactions between e-shopping and store shopping in
pre-purchase stages (such as information search and product trial) of a shopping process
(Cao et al. 2010; Ding and Lu 2015; Zhou and Wang 2014), and their transportation
implications. For example, an individual may become aware of a product through the
internet, travel to a store to experience it, and then purchase it online at home. Although
this is an online purchase, the hybrid shopping process involving two channels does not
substitute for a shopping trip at all—and indeed, to the extent that the internet promoted
greater awareness of the product in the first place, it may be said to have generated a
shopping trip. Cao (2012) pioneered the empirical deconstruction of the shopping process
of search goods from a transportation perspective, as guided by the conceptual framework
of Mokhtarian (2004) and survey design of Mokhtarian and Tang (2013). However, few
studies have compared the shopping process for different types of products. This com-
parison is important because the travel impacts of online purchasing may differ by product
type. For a product bought via the internet, experience goods may be more likely to be
associated with a hybrid shopping process and hence produce more physical trips than
digital products.
Using 952 internet users in two cities in Northern California, this study explores the
interactions between e-shopping and store shopping in the shopping process for two types
of products: search goods (books) and experience goods (clothing). We deconstruct the
shopping process into four stages: first awareness of the product, information search,
product trial, and transaction. This study will address the following research questions: (1)
To what extent are internet purchases associated with physical trips to stores for the pre-
purchase activities? And conversely, to what degree are store purchases related to online
pre-purchase activities? (2) How do the associations differ by product type? (3) Can the
findings of this study be generalized to other geographic areas? To address the last
question, we compare and contrast this study with Cao (2012).
Overall, this study contributes to the literature in three respects. First, it is the first study
that examines the association between pre-purchase behavior and the purchase behavior for
clothing (one type of experience good) and how these activities are associated with travel
to stores. Second, it empirically compares the shopping process for search goods and
experience goods and explicitly discusses the differences for transportation implications.
Third, it tests the external validity of the relationships between e-shopping and store
shopping in the shopping process by comparing two case studies. External validity is a
major concern for unrepresentative samples such as those comprising most e-shopping data
analyzed in the literature (Crano et al. 2015). This paper is organized as follows. The next
section reviews the literature. The third section introduces the research design, data and
variables. The fourth section presents the empirical results. The last section recapitulates
the key findings and discusses their implications for transportation.

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Literature review

There are four main types of conceptual relationships between transportation and infor-
mation and communication technologies (ICTs): substitution, complementarity, modifi-
cation, and neutrality (Mokhtarian and Salomon 2002). Empirically, e-shopping can
replace physical travel to stores to varying degrees (Sim and Koi 2002; Tonn and Hemrick
2004; Weltevreden and Rietbergen 2007). On the other hand, using 539 adult internet users
in the Minneapolis-St. Paul (Twin Cities) metropolitan area, (Cao 2012; Cao et al. 2010)
showed that online shopping tends to complement store shopping. Using the same dataset
as the present study, except modeling overall shopping frequency by channel, rather than
the transaction channel for a single purchase, Circella and Mokhtarian (2010) found ‘‘a hint
of complementarity of online shopping with store shopping for both product categories’’
(books and clothing), and ‘‘only a limited substitution effect among a specific subgroup of
consumers’’. Calderwood and Freathy (2014) found that although complementary and
substitution effects coexist, e-shopping does not have a substantial impact on the shopping
travel of most residents in the Scottish Isles. Employing a structural equation model on the
2009 NHTS data, Zhou and Wang (2014) found asymmetric bidirectional relationships
between e-shopping and shopping trips: the former encourages the latter while the latter
suppresses the former. In summary, the impact of e-shopping on shopping-related travel is
complicated (Rotem-Mindali and Weltevreden 2013).
Most empirical studies consider shopping behavior to be represented by the transaction
channel but ignore other stages of the shopping process. However, e-shopping and store
shopping may influence each other at many shopping stages and hence e-shopping has
transportation implications at all stages (Mokhtarian 2004).The activity-fragmentation
paradigm indicates that many activities are being fractured into pieces because of ICTs
(Couclelis 1998, 2000).With their widespread adoption, ICTs have relaxed spatio-temporal
constraints on a number of activities (Hjorthol and Gripsrud 2009; Kellerman 2010),
resulting in their performance on the multi-channel virtual/physical networks of ICTs and
transportation. Shopping is easily fragmented because the holistic process can involve
multiple stages including desire, awareness, information search, product trial, evaluation,
selection, transaction, distribution, use, and return (Schiffman and Kanuk 1999). The
multi-stage shopping process enables individuals to shop (not limited to purchase) through
different channels. Based on the channels they use, shoppers can be classified into three
categories: traditional shoppers, ‘‘switch’’ shoppers, and online shoppers (Kau et al. 2003).
Traditional shoppers and online shoppers use a single channel for their entire shopping
process whereas switch shoppers change channels. By definition, switch shoppers who buy
online are associated with trips to the store for pre-purchase activities.
Furthermore, for switch shoppers, internet use in different stages of the shopping pro-
cess tends to be associated with travel to traditional stores. Ewing et al. (2012) stated that
about two-thirds of their respondents in Australia had searched for information online
before making transactions at local stores. Wilson et al. (2007) showed that 56 % of their
respondents from several cities in the US had generated new trips because of information
obtained online. Cao et al. (2010) found that 49 % of their respondents in the Twin Cities
had made a special trip to the store because of something they had seen online. They also
concluded that online product information search is positively associated with store
shopping frequency. Farag et al. (2007) reached the same conclusion. By deconstructing
the shopping process for a recent purchase of search goods by 540 internet users in the
Twin Cities, Cao (2012) found that 17 % of store buyers use the internet for information

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search and/or product trial, and 10 % of internet buyers make trips to the store to acquire
information and/or experience the product. He further modeled the choice of purchase
channel as a function of channels used at pre-purchase stages. He concluded that the
channels used for product awareness, information search, and product trial are important
predictors of the transaction channel. Using the same data as the present study, Mokhtarian
and Tang (2013) found that for a recent purchase of clothing, ‘‘sticky’’ combinations (i.e.,
those in which the same channel used to make the purchase was also used for pre-purchase
activities) were more prevalent than a cross-channel shopping process. They also con-
firmed the dependency between pre-purchase and purchase channel choices after devel-
oping trivariate probit models. Taken together, these studies suggest that cross-channel
shopping is common, but that conducting pre-purchase activities via one channel increases
the likelihood of purchasing via the same channel.
In general, products can be categorized into two groups: search goods and experience
goods (Chiang and Dholakia 2003; Klein 1998; Peterson et al. 1997). Search goods (e.g.,
books and CDs) often maintain uniform quality and pricing, and consumers can easily
acquire full information before purchasing through the internet as well as traditional stores.
In contrast, experience goods (such as clothing) are best directly experienced before
buying. Couclelis (2004) suggested that the former are better suited to e-shopping than the
latter. Li et al. (1999) stated that non-digital products such as clothing are less likely to be
advertised, paid for, and distributed only through the internet than are digital products.
Rotem-Mindali and Weltevreden (2013) also pointed out that it would not be surprising to
find a sizable substitution of online shopping for store shopping if the product is books. In
2011, Borders, an international book and music retailer, went into bankruptcy because of
its difficult competition with Amazon and other online booksellers. In view of different
products’ attributes, consumers’ preferences for online and offline channel choices at
different shopping stages may vary across product types, eliciting different interactions
between e-shopping and store shopping in the shopping process. Accordingly, the store
travel impacts of e-shopping for different product types are likely to vary. However, few
studies have conducted a comparative analysis. This study aims to address that gap.
Using the same dataset, this study analyzes pre-purchase and purchase choices as
Mokhtarian and Tang (2013) did, but it substantially differs from the latter. Mokhtarian
and Tang simplified the pre-purchase portion of the process by combining the multiple
stages and just noting whether store, internet, or both was/were used at any stage of the pre-
purchase process. This study compares the individual influences of the three pre-purchase
choices on the choice of transaction channel. Mokhtarian and Tang modeled pre-purchase
and purchase channel choices of clothing separately, but allowed them to be linked through
correlations of the unobserved characteristics influencing each. The present paper con-
ceptualizes the process as sequential, and therefore treats the pre-purchase channel choices
as antecedent to the purchase channel choice. It also compares outcomes for books and
clothing, in addition to the comparison to Cao (2012) with respect to books.

Empirical context

The data came from a 2006 internet survey of two university-based communities in
Northern California (see Ory and Mokhtarian 2007) for details; this section also draws
heavily from Mokhtarian and Tang 2013). The questionnaire was designed to explore the
impacts of e-shopping on store shopping and hence shopping-related travel. Thus, the

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survey design focused on achieving sufficient diversity on the dimensions of interest, rather
than on obtaining a strictly representative sample.
Santa Clara and Davis were selected as study sites because they are affluent and
computer-literate communities, which helped to maximize the computer literacy and
knowledge of e-shopping in the sample; they can be considered harbingers of later
adoption patterns in a more general population. Furthermore, both a recent book/CD/DVD/
videotape (called book for simplicity) purchase and a recent clothing/shoes (called
clothing) purchase were considered in the survey, although each respondent reported
information on only one or the other.
In the two cities, about 8000 recruitment letters were sent to randomly-selected
households, whose addresses were provided by Martin Worldwide. The survey response
rate was 16 %. Eliminating surveys with incomplete responses on important questions and
filling small amounts of missing data with category-specific means produced a working
sample of 952 cases. Among them, 462 respondents made a recent book purchase, and 490
respondents made a recent clothing purchase.
Table 1 presents several characteristics of the sample. It is relatively balanced in terms
of gender. Higher incomes are overrepresented compared to Census data for the popula-
tions of the sampled areas, which is common for self-administered surveys in general and
almost inevitable for one administered online.
The variables used in this study are related to general shopping attitudes, purchase
process, usage of ICTs, and socio-demographics.

General shopping attitudes

The survey included 42 attitudinal statements related to shopping, with response categories
ordered on a five-point Likert-type scale. Common factor analysis was used to extract 13
(obliquely-rotated) factors: general shopping enjoyment, store enjoyment, price con-
sciousness, time consciousness, impulse buying, materialism, trust, caution, trendsetting,
and opinions with respect to credit card usage, technology, exercise, and the environment
(Table 2). Three variables of random numbers, the eigenvalue-one rule, and the scree plot
were used to evaluate the number of factors to retain, with the ultimate selection guided by
conceptual considerations as well as empirical ones (see Mokhtarian et al. 2009) for
details).

Purchase process

The survey asked respondents to report the decision-making process for a recent key
purchase (of either books or clothing): how they first learned of the product, how they
gathered information about the product, how they tested the product, and how the purchase
was made. The present study focuses on two channels: over the internet and in a store. The
former implies virtual activities in cyber environment whereas the latter implies physical
travel to and from the store. Some respondents were switch shoppers, using multiple
channels during the process.

Internet usage

The survey asked: ‘‘How long have you been using the internet?’’ and ‘‘On average, how
much time do you spend on the internet?’’ The latter variable was measured on an ordinal

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Table 1 Socio-demographic characteristics of the sample

Characteristics Category Total Book Clothing
number (%) subsample (%) subsample (%)

Locationa Davis 679 (71.3) 332 (71.9) 347 (70.8)

Santa Clara 270 (28.4) 128 (27.7) 142 (29.0)
Genderb Female 517 (54.7) 220 (48.1) 297 (60.7)
Male 429 (45.3) 237 (51.9) 192 (39.3)
Age categoryc Less than 20 7 (0.8) 3 (0.7) 4 (0.8)
20–29 134 (14.4) 73 (16.1) 61 (12.9)
30–39 200 (21.6) 103 (22.8) 97 (20.4)
40–49 170 (18.3) 85 (18.8) 85 (17.9)
50–59 216 (23.3) 104 (23.0) 112 (23.6)
60–69 113 (12.2) 50 (11.1) 63 (13.2)
70 and older 87 (9.4) 34 (7.5) 53 (11.2)
Employment statusd Work full-time 563 (61.2) 280 (63.2) 283 (59.3)
Work part-time 153 (16.6) 83 (18.7) 70 (14.7)
Retired 134 (14.6) 54 (12.2) 80 (16.8)
Annual household \$15,000 44 (4.9) 23 (5.2) 21 (4.6)
incomee $15,000–29,999 63 (7.0) 30 (6.7) 33 (7.2)
$30,000–49,999 123 (13.6) 65 (14.6) 58 (12.6)
$50,000–74,999 200 (22.1) 101 (22.7) 99 (21.5)
$75,000–124,999 285 (31.5) 131 (29.4) 154 (33.5)
C$125,000 190 (21.0) 95 (21.3) 95 (20.7)
Educational High school diploma or less 38 (4.0) 13 (2.8) 25 (5.1)
backgroundf Some college or Associate’s 153 (16.1) 58 (12.5) 95 (19.4)
degree
Four year college/Tech. 232 (24.4) 106 (22.9) 126 (25.7)
school degree
Some graduate school or 529 (55.6) 285 (61.7) 244 (49.8)
degree(s)
Home internet Dial-up 171 (18.0) 83 (18.0) 88 (18.0)
accessg, h Wired 636 (66.9) 318 (68.8) 318 (65.0)
Wireless 283 (29.8) 148 (32.0) 135 (27.6)

Because of missing values, the sizes of the total, book, and clothing samples differ for different
characteristics
a
N = 952, 462, 490 (total, book, clothing)
b
N = 946, 457, 489
c
N = 927, 452,475
d
N = 920, 443,477
e
N = 905, 445, 460
f
N = 952, 462, 490
g
N = 951, 462, 489
h
Categories not mutually exclusive

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 Table 2 Pattern matrix of shopping attitudes
Survey statement Factor loading

Store Cau- Pro- Im- Pro- Price Trend- Pro- Shop. Trust Time Pro- Materialism
enjoy. tion tech. pulse enviro. consc. setting credit enjoy. consc. exer.
buying

Credit cards encourage unnecessary –a – – – – – – -0.573 – – – – –

spending
I prefer to pay for things by cash rather – – – – – – – -0.514 – – – – –
than credit card
Transportation (2017) 44:885–904

We should raise the price of gasoline to – – – – 0.605 – – – – – – – –

reduce congestion and air pollution
To improve air quality, I am willing to – – – – 0.556 – – – – – – – –
pay a little more to use a hybrid or
other clean-fuel vehicle
Shopping travel creates only a – – – – -0.447 – – – – – – – –
negligible amount of pollution
A lot of product packaging is wasteful – – – – 0.388 – – – – – – – –
Whenever possible, I prefer to walk or – – – – 0.354 – – – – – – 0.540 –
bike rather than drive
I follow a regular physical exercise – – – – – – – – – – – 0.562 –
routine
When it comes to buying things, I’m – – – 0.565 – – – – – – – – –
pretty spontaneous
I generally stick to my shopping lists – – – -0.586 – – – – – – – – –
I am generally cautious about accepting – 0.316 – – – – – – – – – – –
new ideas
I prefer to see other people using new – 0.265 – – – – – – – – – – –
products before I consider getting
them myself
I would/do enjoy having a lot of – – – – – – – – – – – – 0.495
expensive things
891

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 Table 2 continued
892

Survey statement Factor loading

Store Cau- Pro- Im- Pro- Price Trend- Pro- Shop. Trust Time Pro- Materialism

123
enjoy. tion tech. pulse enviro. consc. setting credit enjoy. consc. exer.
buying

My lifestyle is relatively simple, in – – – – – – – – -0.309 – – – -0.302

terms of material goods
It’s too much trouble to find or take – – – – – -0.648 – – – – – – –
advantage of sales and special offers
It’s important to me to get the lowest – – – – – 0.604 – – – – – – –
prices when I buy things
Taking risks fits my personality – -0.509 – – – – – – – – – – –
‘‘Better safe than sorry’’ describes my – 0.634 – – – – – – – – – – –
decision-making style
Shopping is usually a chore for me -0.389 – – – – – – – -0.408 – – – –
I enjoy the social interactions shopping – – – – – – – – – 0.343 – – –
provides
Shopping helps me relax 0.586 – – – – – – – – – – – –
Shopping is fun 0.529 – – – – – – – – – – – –
If I got a lot of money unexpectedly, I – – – 0.273 – – – – – – – – –
would probably spend more of it than
I saved
Buying things cheers me up 0.293 – – – – – – – – – – – 0.363
I often introduce new trends to my – – – – – – 0.604 – – – – – –
friends
For me, a lot of the fun of having – – – – – – – – – – – – 0.604
something nice is showing it off
The internet makes my life more – – 0.582 – – – – – – – – – –
interesting
Computers are more frustrating than – – -0.735 – – – – – – – – – –
Transportation (2017) 44:885–904

they are fun

 Table 2 continued

Survey statement Factor loading

Store Cau- Pro- Im- Pro- Price Trend- Pro- Shop. Trust Time Pro- Materialism
enjoy. tion tech. pulse enviro. consc. setting credit enjoy. consc. exer.
buying

I like to track the development of new – – 0.478 – – – 0.392 – – – – – –

technology
Technology brings at least as many – – -0.444 – – – – – – – – – –
problems as it does solutions
Transportation (2017) 44:885–904

I’m often in a hurry to be somewhere – – – – – – – – – – 0.580 – –

else when I’m shopping
I’m too busy to shop as often or as long – – – – – – – – – – 0.425 – –
as I’d like
I am generally doing productive or – – – – – – – – – – – – –
enjoyable things, such as making
phone calls or listening to the radio,
while traveling
The only good thing about traveling is – – – – – – – – – – – – –
getting to the destination
Even if I don’t end up buying anything, 0.769 – – – – – – – – – – – –
I still enjoy going to stores and
browsing
Shopping is too physically tiring to be -0.285 – – – – – – – -0.440 – – – –
enjoyable
I like to stroll through shopping areas 0.752 – – – – – – – – – – – –
For me, shopping is sometimes an 0.427 – – – – – – – – – – – –
excuse to get out of the house or
workplace
People are generally trustworthy – – – – – – – – – 0.469 – – –
I tend to be cautious with strangers – – – – – – – – – -0.408 – – –
I like a routine – 0.319 – -0.289 – – – – – – – – –
893

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 Table 2 continued
894

Survey statement Factor loading

Store Cau- Pro- Im- Pro- Price Trend- Pro- Shop. Trust Time Pro- Materialism

123
enjoy. tion tech. pulse enviro. consc. setting credit enjoy. consc. exer.
buying

‘‘Variety is the spice of life’’ – – – – – – – – -0.267 – – – –

Source Mokhtarian et al. (2009), based on 966 cases

a
Loadings below 0.25 in magnitude are suppressed to facilitate interpretation
Transportation (2017) 44:885–904
Transportation (2017) 44:885–904 895

scale: ‘‘less than an hour a month’’ (1), ‘‘one or a few hours a month’’ (2), ‘‘one or a few
hours a week’’ (3), ‘‘one or a few hours a day’’ (4), and ‘‘several hours a day’’ (5). The
answers help explain the propensity to choose the online shopping channel.

Socio-demographic characteristics

The survey also measured a set of socio-demographic variables that may be pertinent to the
choice of transaction channels. The variables included gender, age, employment status,
educational background, household income, household size, number of clothing and book
stores near home and work, and so on.

Results

This study deconstructs the shopping process for a product into three pre-purchase stages
(first awareness of the product being purchased, information search, and product trial) and
the transaction stage. It assumes switch shoppers, who use both the internet and store, to be
associated with at least one trip. Implicitly, Wi Fi and mobile data while shopping at
traditional stores are assumed to be unavailable (a reasonable assumption for the time at
which the data were collected).
For a given shopping demand (whether derived from household needs or an impulse
stimulated while browsing the internet or in stores), Fig. 1 illustrates some possible
shopping processes (neglecting, for simplicity of presentation, to distinguish the source of
product awareness). Those who choose path (a) are shoppers using only the internet and
those who choose path (h) are shoppers relying on only stores. The latter shoppers travel to
physical stores one or more times, depending on whether their pre-purchase activities and

Product
demand
Information search Information search
by the internet at stores

Product trial Product trial Product trial Product trial

by the internet at stores by the internet at stores
Internet transaction

Internet transaction

Internet transaction

Internet transaction

Store transaction
Store transaction

Store transaction

Store transaction

a b c d e f g h

Fig. 1 Possible shopping processes involving the internet and store

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transaction are spatially and/or temporally separated. The former shoppers do not make any
trips to traditional stores at all. Individuals who choose all other paths are switch shoppers.
If internet service is not available while shopping, a switch in the shopping channels
between internet and stores indicates a change in locations, which is associated with
physical travel. For example, for paths (c), (e), and (g), although the transaction is con-
ducted online, information search and/or product trial are through traditional stores.
Therefore, although the transaction is through the internet, the purchase is associated with a
physical trip. However, we are uncertain whether the trip is made particularly for infor-
mation search and/or product trial, or combined with other shopping activities.

Descriptive analyses

In this section, we compare search goods and experience goods in the channel adoption of
the shopping process, and then discuss their differences in trip-making to traditional stores.
Table 3 cross-tabulates the channels of the three pre-purchase stages against transaction
channels. Although several channels were presented to respondents when they were asked
about the pre-purchase stages (such as other people, other electronic channel, catalog, other
non-electronic channel, and so on), for ease of exposition we integrated these channels into
‘‘others’’, and our discussion focuses only on internet and store. Overall, there were dif-
ferences between search goods and experience goods with respect to the pre-purchase
process.

Table 3 The shares of channel use for pre-purchase stages

Transaction Column percentage (N) Row percentage
channels
Book Clothing Book Clothing

Internet Store Internet Store Internet Store Internet Store

(%) (%) (%) (%)

Number of 231 231 101 389

shoppers
First awareness channelsa
Store 3 % (6)c 12 % (27) 7 % (7) 52 % (201) 18d 82 3 97
Internet 16 % (36) 12 % (28) 21 % (21) 2 % (7) 56 44 75 25
Others 55 % (128) 47 % (109) 57 % (58) 25 % (96) 54 46 38 62
Information search channelb
Store 6 % (15) 46 % (106) 18 % (18) 79 % (309) 12 88 6 94
Internet 73 % (168) 30 % (70) 76 % (77) 12 % (45) 71 29 63 37
Others 42 % (96) 46 % (106) 42 % (42) 26 % (103) 48 52 29 71
Product trial channelb
Store 6 % (15) 25 % (57) 17 % (17) 62 % (243) 21 79 6 94
Internet 29 % (68) 16 % (37) 33 % (33) 3 % (12) 65 35 73 27
Others 78 % (181) 75 % (173) 67 % (68) 48 % (185) 51 49 27 73
a
Because of missing values, the summation of column percentages is smaller than 100 %
b
Because multiple answers are possible, the summation of column percentages may exceed 100 %
c
3 % ¼ 6=231  100 %. Similar computations apply to other cells in the columns labeled column
Percentage
d
18 % ¼ 6=ð6 þ 27Þ  100 %. Similar computations apply to other cells in the columns labeled row
Percentage

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Transportation (2017) 44:885–904 897

For first awareness, a substantial difference existed for store buyers. For that group,
traditional stores were the single most important awareness channel for clothing, but not
for books. Specifically, among those who bought clothing at a store, 52 % became aware of
the clothing at a store (see column percentage of Table 3). In contrast, only 12 % of
respondents who bought books at a store became aware of the books at a store. An
independent-samples t-test indicates that the two shares significantly differ at the 0.01
level. For internet buyers, however, the proportions who (respectively) became aware of
books and clothing online were not statistically different (16 vs. 21 %).
For information search, a difference also existed for store buyers. When people bought
clothing at a store, 79 % relied on stores for information search (see column percentage of
Table 3). For books, stores were just one important channel for information search (46 %).
The two proportions are statistically different at the 0.01 level. This is not surprising
because the characteristics of search goods can be identified through other channels more
easily than those of experience goods. It was worth noting that respondents were asked to
indicate whether no other sources were used for information search in the survey. The two
proportions above include those who chose ‘‘no other sources used’’, on the assumption
that they used (only) the transaction channel for information search. For internet buyers,
the internet was the dominant information search channel for both books (73 %) and
clothing (76 %) and the two shares do not differ. However, internet buyers of clothing were
more likely to use stores to gather information than those buying books online (18 vs. 6 %,
with a P-value \0.01). Accordingly, online purchase of clothing is more likely to be
associated with trips to stores for information search than is online buying of books.
For product trial, 62 % of store buyers of clothing tried it at a store whereas only 25 %
of store buyers of books experienced them at a store (see column percentage of Table 3).
The proportions are statistically different. The shares of internet buyers of books who
experienced them online were similar to those buying clothing online (29 vs. 33 %).
However, internet purchasers of clothing were more likely to experience the product in a
store (thereby involving a trip) than online buyers of books were (17 vs. 6 %, with a
P-value \0.01). Similar to information search, online purchases of clothing have a higher
tendency to be correlated to travel to stores for product trial than do online book purchases.
Turning to the row percentages in Table 3, if a respondent became aware of a product at
a store, regardless of product type, the purchase was more likely to be made at stores. If a
respondent became aware of clothing online, she was more likely to purchase online. One-
sample t-tests show that the differences are significant at the 0.05 level. On the other hand,
although 56 % of respondents who became aware of books through the internet ended up
buying online, the percentage is not different from 50 % at the 0.05 level.
For both books and clothing, pre-purchase activities through the internet tend to be
associated with trips for purchases. Online pre-purchase activities are more likely to be
associated with cross-channel purchases than are activities through traditional stores. In
particular, if first awareness was through the internet, 44 % of book buyers ended up
purchasing at a store (see row percentage of Table 3). In contrast, if the awareness channel
is a store, 18 % of book buyers made the purchase online. The two proportions are
different at the 0.05 level. For clothing, the two proportions are 25 and 3 %, respectively.
Information search and product trial show a pattern similar to that for first awareness. On
average, for purchases made in this sample, about one-third of online pre-purchase
activities (including first awareness, information search, and product trial) ended with trips
to stores for the final transaction.

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Multivariate analyses

It is desirable to investigate the geographic stability of the relationships of interest to this

study. The administration of a survey in the Twin Cities area (Cao 2012) having some
similarities to the survey used in the present study offers an opportunity to compare results
across two different regions of the United States—Minneapolis/Saint Paul in the upper
midwest, and northern California on the west coast (the former having a colder climate and
lower ethnic diversity than the latter, among other differences, but both regions sharing
high levels of computer literacy). The similarities in the two data collections include the
following: first, the survey instrument in the Twin Cities was adapted from the one in
Northern California. Second, both surveys target people living in selected neighborhoods.
In Northern California, college-oriented communities in the Silicon Valley (Santa Clara)
and Sacramento (state capitol) region (Davis) were selected, distinguishing between more-
traditional and more-suburban neighborhoods in each community; in the Twin Cities,
traditional, suburban, and exurban neighborhoods were chosen. Third, the participants for
the two surveys were both recruited by an invitation letter and two reminder post cards sent
to a random sample of addresses in the selected neighborhoods. Since the participants were
asked to complete the surveys online, the study populations in both cases are the over-age
18 internet users of each community. Fourth, in terms of sample composition, both samples
over represent affluent and highly-educated people, and the shares of women and
employment status are also similar. Given the similarities in data collection, it is appro-
priate to compare the relationships in the two samples.
Accordingly, in this section we develop binary logit models to enable two different sets
of comparisons. First, we develop a model for books (Table 4) and compare with the book
model in Cao (2012). The dependent variable is the dummy indicating whether books were
purchased through the internet versus store. To maximize the comparability to Cao (2012),
the explanatory variables comprise use of ICTs, socio-demographic characteristics, and
dummy variables indicating channel choices during the pre-purchase stages. Although we
tested all of these variables, we kept only variables significant at the 0.10 level to obtain
parsimonious models.
Second, to investigate the differences between books and clothing regarding the impact
of pre-purchase channel choices on the choice of transaction channels, we further include
shopping accessibility and attitudes as explanatory variables and develop binary logit
models for books and clothing, respectively (Table 5), for the Northern California data
only. The goodness of fit measures (McFadden’s R2s) for the two models are within the
mainstream of the literature. The book model (which turned out to be the same in both
comparisons, as discussed below) has a much smaller McFadden’s R2 than the clothing
model (0.124 vs. 0.579), indicating that at least given the variables tested, it is easier to
predict the channel chosen for clothing purchases than that chosen for book purchases. This
is true even after taking into account the fact that the market shares for clothing purchases
are much more unbalanced (about 80 % store) than those for book purchases (about 50–50)
(See Table 3). Specifically, McFadden’s R2 of the constant-only model for clothing is
0.263, indicating that the incremental contribution of the true explanatory variables in the
final model for clothing in Table 5 (0.579–0.263 = 0.316) is still greater than that of all
variables in the book model.
Seven variables were significant for the book model (Table 4). After controlling for
socio-demographics and ICT use, the coefficients of online information search and trial
were much smaller in magnitude (and opposite in sign, as expected) than those of

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Table 4 Binary logit models for internet purchasing of books in Northern California verusus the Twin
Cities area
Book (Northern Calif.) Book (Twin Cities)a

Beta P-value Beta P-value

Constant -2.437 0.000 -2.016 0.048

Broadband – – 0.514 0.227
Time on internet for personal use 0.312 0.024 0.128 0.433
Years using internet 0.075 0.001 0.025 0.888
Female 0.657 0.002 -0.216 0.363
Education – – 0.151 0.049
Prior experience of teleshopping – – 0.881 0.001
Aware in store -1.154 0.019 -2.556 0.000
Aware on internet – – 1.967 0.000
Trial in store -1.297 0.000 -1.914 0.000
Trial on internet 0.608 0.023 1.379 0.000
Information search on internet 0.430 0.061 0.953 0.001
N 457 529
Log-likelihood at 0 -316.8 -366.7
Log-likelihood at convergence -277.5 -233.3
McFadden’s R2 0.124 0.364
The reference category is store purchasing
a
Source Cao (2012)

Table 5 Binary logit models for internet purchasing of books and clothing in Northern California
Book Clothing

Beta P-value Beta P-value

Constant -2.437 0.000 0.250 0.550

Store enjoyment – – -0.478 0.006
Shopping enjoyment – – 0.595 0.002
Time on internet for personal use 0.312 0.024 – –
Years using internet 0.075 0.001 – –
Female 0.657 0.002 – –
Number of stores within a 10 min walk from home – – -0.598 0.021
Aware in store -1.154 0.019 -2.443 0.000
Aware on internet – – 1.255 0.022
Trial in store -1.297 0.000 -2.078 0.000
Trial on internet 0.608 0.023 1.329 0.007
Information search on internet 0.430 0.061 1.464 0.000
N 457 486
Log-likelihood at 0 -316.8 -336.9
Log-likelihood at convergence -277.5 -141.7
McFadden’s R2 0.124 0.579

The reference category is store purchasing

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awareness and trial in store (which were negative, as expected). Because the four variables
are all dummy variables (and thus the magnitudes of their coefficients are comparable), this
suggests that, all else equal, the share of book buyers who conducted information search or
product trial online, and then purchased at stores, is larger than the share of those who
became aware of books in a store, or experienced them in a store, and then purchased them
online. Put another way: keeping in mind that the linear function with the coefficients
under discussion represents the difference in observed utilities between purchasing online
versus in a store, this result means that (all else equal) those who conducted an information
search or product trial online gained less utility for buying online than those who became
aware of books in a store or experienced them in a store gained for buying in a store.
Accordingly, the probability of buying in the store for the first group decreased less than
the probability of buying online decreased for the second group. And among those who
experienced books both online and in a store, the net change in utility favored buying in a
store. The implication is that pre-purchase behaviors conducted through the internet were
more likely to facilitate cross-channel shopping than those conducted at a store. It also
suggests that online pre-purchase activities are associated with trips to a store for the final
transaction. This pattern is consistent with that seen in the raw data of Table 3 (in other
words, it persists even after controlling for socioeconomic traits and ICT use), and is
similar to Cao (2012).
This study also differs slightly from Cao (2012), in terms of cross-channel interactions.
First awareness on the internet was significant in Cao (2012). However, it was insignificant
in this study, which is not surprising given the similar numbers of internet buyers and store
buyers whose first awareness came through the internet (36 and 28 in Table 3). Further, the
survey in Cao (2012) was administered in 2008–2009, 2 years later than this study.
Individuals’ internet proficiency might have been enhanced to some extent, and hence first
awareness on the internet had a greater positive correlation with the adoption of internet
purchasing than before.
Table 5 presents the models for books and clothing. It is worth noting that Mokhtarian
and Tang (2013) included an additional set of explanatory variables in their clothing
purchase model, namely channel-specific scores on eight factors representing perceptions
of channel traits such as convenience, product risk, and cost saving. However, these
perceptions were collected with respect to a future purchase similar to the recent one being
reported by the respondent. The arguments for including them in a model of ‘‘current’’
channel choice are that (1) in most cases, post-purchase perceptions will be highly cor-
related with pre-purchase perceptions, and (2) the omission of such channel attributes
could result in omitted variables bias. The argument for excluding them is that, strictly
speaking, they are outcomes of the recent purchase rather than causes of it, and thus that
including them could result in endogeneity bias. To be conservative, and so as not to erode
the explanatory power of the pre-purchase channel variables themselves (a key focus of our
study), with which the channel-specific attributes are correlated, we chose to exclude them.
With respect to the general attitudinal variables, shopping enjoyment is positively
associated with internet purchase of clothing whereas store enjoyment has a positive
association with store purchase. Both are consistent with Mokhtarian and Tang (2013). The
book model in Table 5 is the same as the book model in Table 4 because none of the
attitudinal variables are significant in the book model. Therefore, their impacts, if any, are
fully captured by the other variables in the model, including the choice of pre-purchase
channels.
Six additional variables were significant in the model for clothing. Neither ICT use
variables nor demographics were significant in the model. The number of clothing stores

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within a 10-min walk from home is negatively associated with online buying (Farag et al.
2007; Forman and Goldfarb 2007; Ren and Kwan 2009). This is consistent with the
efficiency hypothesis of e-shopping: e-shopping removes location barriers of traditional
shopping and people with low shopping accessibility tend to purchase online whereas those
with high shopping accessibility tend to travel to stores to buy (Anderson 2003). Because
the number of book stores is insignificant in the book model, the impacts of shopping
accessibility on e-shopping differs by product type.
Similar to the book model, the probability of conducting a clothing purchase on the
internet is higher for those engaging in online trial or information search, and lower for
those whose first awareness or trial was in a store. In contrast to the book model, first
awareness on internet was positively associated with the adoption of internet purchasing
for clothing. The pre-purchase stages through the internet tended to have similar (in size)
impacts on internet purchasing of clothing. This is similar to the book model. For both
books and clothing, pre-purchase stages occurring in a store had more important impacts
on the choice of transaction channel than those stages occurring through the internet.
Therefore, no matter whether a product is a search good or an experience good, experi-
ences at a store were more likely to generate a shopping process through only one channel
than were online experiences. In other words, online information was more likely to be
associated with physical trips to stores than store information was to lead people online
(Cao 2012). All in all, for both experience goods and search goods, online pre-purchase
activities are associated with a sizable share of trips to stores for the final transaction,
which appears to be larger than the share of trips saved because of online transactions (here
it is assumed that the final transaction does not occur at the same time as the pre-purchase
activities).

Conclusions

Analyzing a sample of internet users in Northern California, this study deconstructs the
shopping process into four stages: first awareness of the products, information search,
product trial, and transaction. We focus on the interactions between two channels: tradi-
tional store and internet, and compare two types of products: search goods (book/CD/
DVD/videotape) and experience goods (clothing), and then discuss their implications for
individuals’ travel to traditional stores.
Descriptive analyses reveal that for store buyers, books are more likely than clothing to
be shopped for through multiple channels. For internet buyers, the uses of the internet for
product awareness, information search, and product trial are similar for books and clothing.
However, clothing is more likely than books to be associated with travel to stores for both
information search and product trial. The differences are at 12 (=18–6) percentage points
for information search and 11 (=17–6) percentage points for product trial (see internet
buyers in Table 3). On the other hand, the physical travel associated with information
search and product trial at stores may not be directly induced by internet purchases. For
example, an individual may encounter a product when she is visiting a store for another
reason, and then buy it online after going home. This internet purchase does not produce
additional trips. Future studies should acquire more detailed information on the shopping
process to determine the extent of travel induced because of online purchases.
Descriptive analyses also show that pre-purchase choices through one channel increase
the probability of purchasing through the same channel. Binary logit models further

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demonstrate that for both search goods and experience goods, pre-purchase stages per-
formed in a store had more important impacts on the choice of transaction channels
(favoring store as the transaction channel) than those conducted through the internet (fa-
voring internet as the transaction channel). Because the same-channel ‘‘stickiness’’ is
stronger with store than with internet, pre-purchase behaviors through the internet were
more likely to facilitate cross-channel shopping than those at a store. This is also consistent
with the descriptive analysis. Generally speaking, for online purchases, experience goods
are more likely than search goods to be associated with physical travel to traditional stores
for information search and product trial.
Although online buying may replace some personal trips to traditional stores, about one
third of internet buyers also visit stores for product information search and trial in this
sample. However, this study assumes that online information search and product trial
cannot be performed while shopping at stores. This assumption makes more sense for
2006, when the data were collected, than for the present. Now many store retailers provide
free WiFi service and 4G is also widely available. Accordingly, information search and
product trial through the internet may or may not generate new trips because store buyers
may go online to obtain information while already at a store. This could still help trip
reduction because shoppers can complete their cross-channel shopping process with a
single trip to the store. Future studies should attempt to determine the exact amount of
induced travel under the condition of almost ubiquitous internet service, and examine the
differences between different periods.
This study and Cao (2012) share some patterns with respect to the shopping process for
books. People are more likely to complete their purchases through the channels by which
they become aware of the goods. Pre-purchase experiences at a store are more important in
explaining the choice of transaction channels than the experiences through the internet.
Information search at a store is insignificant in both of the studies. On the other hand, first
awareness through the internet is significant in Cao (2012), but insignificant here. Overall,
the two studies show many more similarities than differences, suggesting a fair amount of
geographic transferability of the influences on the shopping process and the impacts of
e-shopping on store-related travel.

Acknowledgments Data collection was funded by the University of California Transportation Center,
with additional analysis subsequently funded by the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) Sustainable
Transportation Center. We are grateful for the helpful input provided by Susan Handy on the survey design
and administration, and to the numerous UC Davis students and associates who pretested the survey and
offered valuable feedback. In addition to previous collaborators cited in the text, we also acknowledge with
appreciation the able assistance of Tara Puzin in collecting and organizing census statistics on the study
areas. This study was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (#41571146).

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Qing Zhai is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Geography and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing
University, China. Her major is urban and regional planning. She is interested in the effects of ICT on travel
behavior, particularly travel impacts of e-shopping.

Xinyu Cao is an Associate Professor at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota,
Twin Cities. He specializes in transportation policy and planning. His research interests include land use and
travel behavior, the effects of ICT on travel behavior, and transit oriented development. He received his
degrees from University of California, Davis, and Tsinghua University, Beijing. He is currently the Chair of
the International Association for China Planning (IACP).

Patricia L. Mokhtarian is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of
Technology. She has specialized in the study of travel behavior for more than 35 years, with particular
interests in the relationships between ICT and transportation, attitudes toward travel itself, and the role of
self-selection in modeling travel-related choices. She is currently the Chair of the International Association
for Travel Behaviour Research (IATBR).

Feng Zhen is a Professor at the Department of Urban Planning and Design, Nanjing University, China. He
received his Ph.D. degree from Nanjing University, China. His current research interests include smart city,
urban and regional economics, and information city. He is the author or co-author of more than 100
scientific publications.

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