Multichannel shopping has changed the way that consumers shop by offering them more choice and convenience. The growing competitive apparel market forces retailers to assess their current marketing strategies and their implementation. It is fundamental that multichannel retailers constantly provide high levels of hedonic shopping value through multichannel shopping in order to stimulate purchase. The purpose of this chapter is to emphasize the importance of hedonic shopping value in the context of multichannel shopping (in store, website, catalogue, mobile, and social media). The benefits of this chapter are evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of each channel from the perception of the five channels for apparel shopping based on 18 hedonic shoppers in central London by using semi-structured interviews. The result shows that store and website gain the highest in the level of hedonic shopping value for apparel shopping and those are the most likely channels in which hedonic shoppers intend to shop for apparel in the future, while shopping via catalogue shows the lowest score of both hedonic shopping value and purchase intention. This chapter suggests that exploring the hedonic shopping value that consumers derive across five channels can enhance the understanding of hedonic shopping value in the context of the multichannel shopping environment.
Top
Babin et al. (1994) defined shopping value as the outcome of a shopping experience. They proposed two fundamental dimensions of shopping values, which are the hedonic and utilitarian benefits of a shopping trip. Shopping is normally characterised by both values but with different weight depending on the shoppers, products, shopping condition and their interaction (Chung, 2015). Moreover, consumers can perceive both hedonic and utilitarian shopping value at the same time in one shopping experience (Babin et al., 1994). Consumers perceive utilitarian value from purchasing what they need while simultaneously perceiving hedonic shopping value from the enjoyment of the shopping experience itself.
Babin et al. (1994) defined hedonic shopping value as the potential entertainment and emotional worth of the shopping experience. Overby and Lee (2006) describe hedonic shopping value as an overall assessment of experiential benefits such as pleasure and entertainment. Hedonic shopping value is more subjective and personal than utilitarian shopping value (Babin et al., 1994). Hedonic shopping value is derived from exploration and entertainment (Davis, 2013). Consumers regularly seek pleasure rather than task completion from a shopping experience. Increased arousal, fun, fantasy fulfilment, entertainment, freedom and escapism all indicate a hedonically valuable shopping experience (Babin et al., 1994). Moreover, shopping activity can provide hedonic shopping value with or without purchase (Chang, 2001; Irani and Hanzaee, 2011).
On the contrary, utilitarian shopping value reflects a shopping trip as task-specific, rational and goal-fulfilling (Batra and Ahtola, 1991). Overby and Lee (2006) defined utilitarian shopping value as an overall assessment of functional benefits and economic value. Utilitarian shopping value is seen as work or missions to be accomplished (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982). Utilitarian shopping value is derived from cost-effectiveness and convenience (Davis, 2013). The hedonic shopping value aims to measure whether consumers enjoyed apparel shopping, hence for the purpose of this chapter, hedonic shopping value therefore refers to the degree to which consumers derived hedonic value from shopping activity in a particular channel (store, website, catalogue, mobile and social media).