Heitz-Spahn, Sandrine <br/><br/>
The point of sale: Between showroom space and purchasing space 

 -  2018.<br/>							 
<br/><br/> 71 
<br/><br/> What could a retailer do in order to retain the consumer who is in the store but who can choose to leave it and buy the product elsewhere, especially on the internet? The aim of this study is to identify the factors influencing consumers’ purchasing choices when they are in-store. Liberman and Trope’s (1998) construal level theory shows that the way the consumer construes the purchasing situation influences the choice of purchase channel. The Person-Object-Situation paradigm (Punj and Stewart 1983) sheds an interesting light on the situational factors that may affect the choice of purchase channel. Results of an experimental study and a series of individual interviews demonstrate that the urgency of the purchase and the price difference between the internet and the store moderate the relationship between a consumer’s level of construal and their intention to leave the store or not. Avenues of research are suggested to retailers, based on the price and the perceived urgency of the purchase.