Title
Is paid search overrated? When bricks-and-mortar-only retailers should not use paid search.
Abstract
While bricks-and-mortar-only retailers do not offer online purchasing, they often take advantage of multi-channel management strategies to reach consumers in a pre-purchase phase. We investigate whether paid search can increase the sales of brick-and-mortar retailers who promote their offers via an informational website. Although a sizeable one third of all retailers still trade without an online-shop, previous work has been silent about the effects of paid search for them. We make use of a randomized field experiment and an end-to-end tracking mechanism to investigate the cross-channel behavior of individual consumers. Our empirical results suggest that, whilst paid search increases the number of potential customers through enhancing the reach of marketing initiatives, store sales are not increased. We conclude that customers who search online to buy offline primarily use paid search as a navigational shortcut to the retailer’s website. Consequently, bricks-and-mortar-only retailers seeking to increase store purchases should approach paid search with caution.
Year
DOI
Venue
2018
10.1007/s12525-018-0287-4
Electronic Markets
Keywords
Field
DocType
Paid search, Consumer behavior across channels, Substitution effects, Field experiment, Bricks-and-mortar-only, M37, L81, L86
Economics,Purchasing,Brick,Marketing
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
28
4
1019-6781
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.38
12
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Darius Schlangenotto111.06
Dennis Kundisch218942.82
Nancy Wünderlich321.43