Why Do Customers Use Smartphones for Shopping in Omnichannel Environments? Proposition and Testing the Factor Structure of Items for Customer–Smartphone Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM)

• Published in: Journal of Emerging Trends in Marketing and Management 2017-10, Vol.I (1), p.22-29
• Main Author: Hübner, Philipp
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: bricks-and-mortar retail; customer behaviour; smartphones
• ISSN: 2537-5865

The usage of smartphones is influencing more and more customers' behaviours and shopping processes. Customers use smartphones, for instance, to buy directly (so-called mobile shopping) or to prepare their shopping within bricks-and-mortar retail. They may search for product information, special offers or nearby retail stores. For these reasons, smartphones are also called shopping assistants or shopping companions. The smartphone becomes, in some ways, a technical but intimate partner and more than just a simple and passive device. It becomes an active partner: social networks can be consulted; mobile coupons can stimulate buying desire; and tracked individual physiological data can be the basis for purchase decisions. Numerous papers and studies focus on customers’ acceptance of – and willingness to use – smartphones. But, why do some customers use their smartphones more often and more intensively while shopping within bricks-and-mortar retail than other customers? The purpose of this paper is to propose and test the factor structure of items for a structural equation model (PLS-SEM) including five constructs: (1) the intensity of smartphone usage; (2) the smartphone-extended self; (3) the smartphone-extended mind; (4) the smartphone as a supporter for the digital doppelgänger; and (5) the smartphone as shopping companion. To test the proposed factor structure and items, a small empirical study has been organised as pre-test. The study surveyed mainly students, who represent a highly relevant group of smartphone users.