Consumers, channels and communication: Online and offline communication in service consumption

This paper reports on a study that investigated consumer use of e-services in a multi-channel context. Many HCI studies on the use of e-services focus on the use of the online channel in relative isolation. This study attempts to develop a deeper understanding of what makes consumers decide to use the online channel in examining consumer channel-choice beyond the instances of internet use. The consumption behaviour of its participants was investigated across channels in an in-depth qualitative study. The analysis of the rich data produced specifically focused on the investigation of voluntary consumer movements between online and offline channels during the course of a consumption process. The results indicate that participants often use multiple channels in parallel and frequently switch between channels. Literature from marketing and consumer research was used as the perspective to explore the rationale for the complex and dynamic reported consumer behaviour. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.