In-home shopping

Abstract

A search for published empirical research on in‐home shopping found only 27 studies. The bulk of this research compared in‐home shopping behavior or intentions with those of non‐in‐home shoppers, and then tested for significant differences of certain predictor variables. These studies offered a plethora of different treatments of in‐home shopping as a criterion variable. In many instances, the distinction between the type of in‐home shopping mode (i.e., catalog, television, door‐to‐door salesperson) and the type of response (mail, telephone, or electronic transmission) was not clearly specified. While researchers have yet to present evidence that in‐home shopping behavior varies between methods of ordering (response), there is limited intermodal research which indicates that in‐home shopping behavior varies between in‐home shopping modes. Even when examining a single mode in isolation, such as catalog shopping, nonsignificant and conflicting results abound. These intramodal differences are ascribed in hypothesis to the differences in the sources sending the direct response messages, and the differences in the products studied or purchased. In an attempt to offer generalizations, the authors conclude that very little is yet known about the in‐home shopper. Until consumer researchers begin to treat in‐home shopping as a multicomponent criterion variable, consisting of a source, a mode, and a response, advancement of the discipline is limited.

Frequency of purchase and the prediction of buying behavior in direct mail

“…The focus of these investigations was the characterization of the consumers who buy frequently through the various in-home retailing methods (i.e., frequency was treated as dependent variable), and by now much information about this issue is available (for a summary, see 10). The present article is different from this research in three respects.…”

TV viewer characteristics and “Results beyond response”

“…Finally, much of the academic research involving in-home, telephone, and catalog shopping has found correlations between consumer characteristics and direct marketing shopping and purchasing habits (22). As Cox and Rich first proposed over 25 years ago, there may be identifiable demographic, psychographic, and attitudinal differences between people who shop from home and those who do not (1 1).…”

“…Although neither industry practice nor academic research sheds light on whether viewer characteristics are related to their subsequent responses to JOURNAL OF DIRECT MARKETING VOLUME b NUMBER 2 SPRING 1992 21 direct response TV ads, the studies outlined above, along with findings involving direct mail purchasing (6), suggest: 1) because direct response TV commercials represent a product-distribution channel as well as a communication stimulus, some consumers (i.e., viewers) may be more inclined or favorably disposed than others to obtaining merchandise via that mode (17); and 2 ) some consumer characteristics may be correlated with viewer responses to direct marketing appeals (5,15,22).…”

“…Trade literatures and industry segmentation practices (26. 46, 50) Findings from studies involving catalog, mail, and telephone shoppers ( 1 1, Practitioners' use of "recency, frequency, and monetary value" (50) McCorkle, Planchon, and James' review of in-home shopping studies (22) .…”

Schematic Information Processing of Country of Origin Cues in Catalogs

“…McCorkle, Planchon, and James (1987) defined the three elements of direct marketing as &dquo;source&dquo; (the one sending the message), &dquo;mode&dquo; (the media used to send the message), and &dquo;response&dquo; (the media available to respond to the message). Akhter (1989) suggested consumers possess schemas for all three of these elements and interactions occur between source, mode, and response schema.…”