A typology of online shoppers based on shopping motivations Andrew J. Rohm a, * , Vanitha Swaminathan b,1 a Department of Marketing, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA b Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA Abstract This paper develops a typology based upon motivations for shopping online. An analysis of these motives, including online convenience, physical store orientation (e.g., immediate possession and social contact), information use in planning and shopping, and variety seeking in the online shopping context, suggests the existence of four shopping types. These four types are labeled convenience shoppers, variety seekers, balanced buyers, and store-oriented shoppers. The convenience shopper is more motivated by convenience. The variety seeker is substantially more motivated by variety seeking across retail alternatives and product types and brands than any other shopping type. Balanced buyers are moderately motivated by convenience and variety seeking. The store-oriented shoppers are more motivated by physical store orientation (e.g., the desire for immediate possession of goods and social interaction). Shopping types are profiled in terms of background variables and the propensity to shop online. The results are contrasted with a matched sample of off-line shoppers. Implications of this typology for theory and practice are discussed. D 2002 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Revenues from online retailing continue to grow. A recent Forrester Research report forecast that online retail sales will reach US$269 billion in 2005, from US$45 billion in 2000 (Dykema, 2000). The growth of online shopping has generated considerable interest among academic researchers. In particular, researchers have begun examining the impact of online shopping environments on consumer choice (Swaminathan et al., 1999), the role of Internet shopping as a channel of distribution (Alba et al., 1997), factors influencing shopping online (Swaminathan et al., 1999), and the impact of online shopping on price sensitiv- ity (Shankar et al., 1999). Given the significant growth in online retailing, the online retailer needs to understand the particular reasons why consumers choose to shop online. This need is par- ticularly relevant for the increasingly competitive online grocery retail market, in which numerous national and regional firms compete among themselves as well as bricks-and-mortar stores within a relatively static market. The objective of this research is to develop a typology of online shoppers based on shopping motives. While there is a rich tradition of shopping typologies developed for store or catalog settings (Stone, 1954; Stephenson and Willett, 1969; Darden and Ashton, 1975; Williams et al., 1978; Bellenger and Korgaonkar, 1980; Westbrook and Black, 1985; Gehrt and Shim, 1998), there is a paucity of research examining typologies in the online context. This research makes an important contribution to the current literature by extending our knowledge of consumer typologies to the online channel. From a managerial perspective, online shopping typolo- gies or classification schemes provide the basis for under- standing and targeting different groups of consumers. Given that online retailing has tremendous growth, a typology specific to this channel will enable us to identify distinct segments of consumers, thereby enabling retailers to effec- tively tailor their offerings to these customer types. The shopping typology developed here is based on the grocery-shopping context. The grocery-shopping context is an effective one in which to study consumers and their shopping motivations for various reasons. First, previous research (e.g., Darden and Ashton, 1975; Williams et al., 1978) examines shopping motivations in the grocery con- text. Therefore, this context allows us to contrast results obtained in this study with previous research findings. Second, the purchase cycle for groceries is frequent and a wide array of goods. Third, although numerous online 0148-2963/$ – see front matter D 2002 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0148-2963(02)00351-X * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-413-545-5665; fax: +1-413-545- 3858. E-mail addresses: a.rohm@neu.edu (A.J. Rohm), vanitha@katz.pitt.edu (V. Swaminathan). 1 Tel.: + 1-413-545-5665. Journal of Business Research 57 (2004) 748 – 757