Pricing strategy & practice
Effects of gender and price knowledge on offer
evaluation and channel transition in retail and
e-tail environments
Rajesh Chandrashekaran
Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, New Jersey, USA, and
Rajneesh Suri
Department of Marketing, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how consumers evaluate identical price offers in retail versus e-tail environments. Within that
context, it seeks to examine the likelihood of shoppers to continue searching for a better price within the same channel and their intentions to transitto
another channel.
Design/methodology/approach – In total, 120 subjects provided information on gender and price knowledge and evaluated an advertised offer for a
camera in one of two settings (retail or e-tail). The offers in the two settings were identical in all respects. Then, subjects indicated the likelihoodof
finding a better price within the medium versus if they made a transition to a different medium.
Findings – Analysis reveals that consumers’ evaluations and search behaviors are influenced by characteristics of the medium (retail versus e-tail), but
this effect is moderated by both gender and price knowledge. Females prefer a brick and mortar environment and are likely to seek information at such
retailers, even when similar products are available online. However, males evaluate online offers better than identical store offers, and are less inclined
to engage in channel transition. Finally, evaluations of online offers are positively related to price knowledge, whereas a reverse pattern of results is
obtained for retail offers.
Originality/value – The findings shed light on how consumers evaluate identical online versus retail price offers, and their associated search
intentions. These findings have practical implications for merchants who adopt a dual presence.
Keywords Consumer behaviour, Prices, Gender, Internet, Electronic commerce, Channel transition, Retail versus e-tail, Gender differences,
Price knowledge
Paper type Research paper
For reasons that range from convenience to perceptions of
savings, consumers are increasingly migrating away from
traditional retail stores and are embracing the internet as their
preferred channel for shopping. Indeed, the last decade has
seen a tremendous increase in the volume of online
commerce. The total e-commerce sales have steadily
increased over the past decade from $32.6 billion in 2001
to $145 billion in 2009 and, by some estimates, is expected to
exceed $218 billion in 2012 (emarketer.com, 2008). However
internet sales form only a small proportion (4 percent) of total
retail sales. Hence, it is not surprising that though several
retailers still rely on sales in their traditional channels they
have evolved into multi-channel operators using both “brick
and click” operations and are adopting the internet as a
facilitating technology (Yan, 2010; Venkatesan et al., 2007).
Indeed, more than 80 percent of a broad cross-section of
US retailers indicated that they sell merchandise through
multiple channels (Zhang et al., 2010). In a recent benchmark
study see (Kilcourse and Rowen, 2008), 94 percent of the
retailers with the best financial performance were
multichannel operators. Barsh et al. (2000) (Venkatesan
et al., 2007;) argue that multi-channel operators are able to
deliver customer value and significant return on investment
by leveraging their traditional marketing mix to online
environments. Others have concluded that a multi-channel
retail strategy is also likely to enhance a company’s
relationship development efforts as it can offer multiple
points of contact for customers and increase its interactions
with them and enhance customer loyalty (Neslin and
Shankar, 2009). However, to accrue such benefits requires
an understanding of customer preferences and behaviors in
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
21/3 (2012) 215–225
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/10610421211228838]
The authors thank Sandipa Dublish for assisting with the survey and data
collection.
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