An investigation of retail outcomes comparing two types of browsers

Despite the prevalence of browsing and the importance of browsers to retailers, browsing has received relatively little recent research attention. The current research extends knowledge of browsers by investigating two groups of browsers: browsers who make a purchase and browsers who do not make a purchase. The hypotheses are tested using a sample of actual shoppers at a retail store. The results indicate that browsers who make a purchase report significantly higher outcome variables such as satisfaction, repatronage intentions, and positive WOM intentions. The results also support differential influences of hedonic and utilitarian shopping value on satisfaction across the two groups of browsers. Implications for theory and practice are offered.