Websites as Information Hubs : How Informational Channel Integration and Shopping Benefit Density Interact in Steering Customers to the Physical Store

Multichannel retailers aim at steering customers to physical stores to increase cross-selling, benefit from higher margins, and offer multisensory experiences. The question is how retailers can steer customers to strategically important channels. We propose that retailers may induce customers to switch to physical stores by communicating information about channel integration on their websites but that this explicit communication of channel integration is additionally influenced by the implicit communication of shopping benefits, which customers and retailers may not be aware of. Using a multilevel and multisource approach with field data of 1,479 customers from 104 firms, we find that informational online-to-physical channel integration on a retailer’s website influences customers’ online-to-physical store switching and that the density of shopping benefits concurrently communicated moderates this effect. Our results extend literature on channel choice and provide implications for retailers on how to design their websites as information hubs to steer customers to physical stores.