Unravelling Webrooming Intentions: An Integrated Model for Analysing Key Drivers in Retail Transformation

Using an integrated model, the current study intends to investigate ‘why online visitors intend to switch to traditional stores for final purchase’. To accomplish this purpose, this article empirically evaluates the following: (a) How consumer-related push–pull variables and channel-related variables affect North-Indian consumers’ WI? (b) How does perceived risk affect the relationship between consumer-related push–pull variables, channel-related variables and WI? Convenience sampling was employed to get data from 472 customers in Northern India via an offline survey using an adapted questionnaire. SmartPLS-SEM and SPPS v. 26 were used for data analysis. The findings revealed that the need for touch (NFT), online shopping dissatisfaction, perceived ease of use of online research (PEOUOR) and perceived usefulness of online research have a significant impact on consumers’ intentions to webroom. However, the need for interaction does not influence webrooming intentions (WI). Perceived risk weakened the favourable association between NFT and WI, whereas it strengthened the positive association between PEOUOR and WI. This study will assist retailers in designing effective strategies to combat webrooming behaviour and cater to the unique needs of webroomers in Northern India. The present research was carried out in Northern India utilizing data from cross-sectional surveys. The hypothesized model might be repeated in varying locations with longitudinal data to generalize the results.