Understanding the online channel extension of traditional retailers: Online-offline and online-prototypical congruence

Abstract

Many Chinese traditional retailers have turned to the multichannel forms by establishing their\rown online stores. When doing so, retail managers face a difficult choice between two online marketing\rorientations: “pursuit of ideal” (i.e. online-prototypical congruence orientation) and “retention of tradition” (i.e.\ronline-offline congruence orientation). To help managers make this choice, this study proposes a conceptual\rframework to illustrate how these two orientations affect retail store attitude when retail brand familiarity differs.\rThe results indicate that both orientations can improve consumers’ retail store attitudes. When retail brand\rfamiliarity is low, the online stores of traditional retailers should balance both orientations in product selections\rand adopt “pursuit of ideal” in prices. When retail brand familiarity is high, “retention of tradition” should be\rapplied in product selections and both orientations should be integrated in prices for gaining more positive\rchange in retail store attitude.