Do online shopping styles affect preferred site attributes? An empirical investigation and retailing implications

Traditional retailing scholars have long recognized that consumers exhibit different shopping styles and that each style responds to different retailer attributes. Several studies of online retailing have identified different shopping styles as well. Whether online shopping styles influence preferences for site attributes, however, is a research question yet to be investigated. We empirically investigate this question in this research using data collected from a survey of online shoppers regarding their shopping styles and site attributes that they view as important. Our results suggest that each of the six shopping styles that we include in our survey considers different sets of retailer attributes as important. We present these findings and also discuss their implications for the competitive and targeting strategies of online retailers.