Environmental awareness and showrooming: price and moral moderating effects

Purpose This study aims to identify the role that awareness of the environmental impact of home delivery can play in the showroomer’s decision to purchase in-store, and the moderating effects of price issues (online price advantage, price consciousness) and moral factors (environmental concern, bad conscience). Design/methodology/approach This study follows a survey-based experimental approach. An initial 2×1 experimental study forms the basis of a more complete 2×2 experiment, involving 368 showroomers. Binary logistic regression is used to test the hypotheses. Findings The results reveal that if showroomers are aware of the environmental impact of home delivery, they tend to purchase in-store. Our findings also reveal that price consciousness, environmental concern and bad conscience during showrooming moderate this relationship. Practical implications The results point to new ways of managing showrooming that do not affect store profitability, using environmental and ethical arguments to persuade potential showroomers to buy in-store. Social implications Our findings suggest that companies and policy makers can influence consumers to adopt more sustainable behaviours that reduce the impact of last-mile logistics. Originality/value Previous studies have demonstrated that consumers are willing to make pro-environmental decisions; however, they have not explored how environmental factors influence channel choices in the omnichannel context.