Analyzing Drivers of Customers’ Channel Choice

More than a decade ago platform businesses have entered our lives and revealed many positive and negative consequences. On the one hand, they provide additional channels to the traditional business companies and play a growing role in the economy. On the other hand, companies are facing many challenges such as losing connection with their customers, paying high commissions to these platforms and becoming dependent on them. We conducted two experimental scenario studies to find out the drivers of this trend across different product and service settings. The results of our studies revealed that functionality and information quality are the two important drivers of the customers’ channel choice as well as the customization/standardization perceptions of customers on the products and services. The implications of this paper might help companies to gain customers back to their websites in the face of a platform dominated world.

Eda joined the KLU as a PhD candidate in September 2019 under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Jan Becker and Prof. Dr. Christian Barrot. Prior to joining KLU, she completed her Master´s degree in Production Management and Marketing at Marmara University in 2018, and her Bachelor´s degree in Transportation and Logistics at Instanbul University in 2016. In her Master´s thesis, she studied the relationship between owned and earned media activities of firms, trust and consumer loyalty constructs. Starting with her Master´s degree, she worked as a research assistant at Istanbul Gelişim University, Department of Logistics for three years.