Abstract

Introduction
Social exclusion has a wide range of negative effects on individuals’ happiness, wellbeing, and health (Baumeister et al., 2005). Previous studies have linked social exclusion with mobility and disability (Stanley et al., 2011) and they have discussed the negative relationship between access to transportation and accessibility to several resources such as shopping outlets (Wrigley et al., 2002). Such negative relationships can have important effects on an individual’s wellbeing (Currie and Delbosc, 2010).
Shopping can elicit both cognitive and affective responses (Lang and Hooker, 2013) and can provide both utilitarian and hedonic value to consumers. Older people and those with disabilities are often excluded from the benefits of shopping and socializing due to mobility issues (Jones et al., 2009). Access to retail stores is a particularly acute issue for people with mobility difficulties. Online retailing has the potential to offset physical access difficulties, playing an important role in providing housebound shoppers with social benefits (Parsons, 2002). On the other hand, the characteristics of consumers have a significant effect on their behavior towards the use of technology (Dabholkar and Bagozzi, 2002) and ageing and disabilities may negatively impact on attitudes and technology efficacy. Previous literature has found that technology efficacy and level of experience (Yang, 2012; Yang et al., 2011) also influence the adoption of electronic shopping in general and mobile shopping in particular. Therefore, self-efficacy and experience with technology or the perceived behavioral control (Aijen, 1991) of using technology are still important factors when examining consumer attitudes and consumer behavior despite the fact that nowadays consumers are increasingly more competent at using technology (Olson et al., 2011). This particularly applies to older consumers (Teller et al., 2013) or those who live in rural areas (Schuetz et al., 2012) for whom online shopping can potentially address one the main problems faced, i.e. access to the shops.
The objective of this paper is to study how multiple shopping channels (namely mall, web-based retailing using a computer or a cell phone) may affect consumer behavior and subsequently how shopping behavior may affect consumers’ wellbeing by offsetting the negative impact of social exclusion.
Methodology
The project was carried out in the United States of America based on an online survey with 1368 consumers. The constructs related to shopping with a computer, a cell phone or at the mall were: Hedonic and utilitarian value (Babin et al., 1994), subjective norms for shopping using a channel, attitude towards shopping using a channel (Ajzen, 1991; Yang, 2012) perceived behavioral control when it came to each channel (Yang, 2012), the time spent shopping using a channel, the proportion of disposable income spent on a channel shopping online (Liu and Forsythe, 2011), social exclusion (Lim and Kim, 2011), and the contribution of shopping using a channel to an individual’s wellbeing (Hedhli et al., 2013). Respondents were grouped according to mobility/disability (Shepherd, 1999), age, and area of residence (US Census Bureau, 1995). Independent t-tests were used in order to examine the differences between the respondents in terms of these variables (Field, 2005). Structural Equation Modeling was employed to examine the influence of social exclusion, hours per week shopping in each shopping channel on shoppers’ connection with the community, happiness and wellbeing from a multi-channel vantage point.
Findings
Our findings suggest that the perceived hedonic value from shopping online using either a computer or a cell phone and the utilitarian value of shopping using a cell phone is significantly higher for consumers who suffer from mobility/disability problems. The effect of subjective norms for shopping online using either a computer or a cell phone, or for shopping at the mall is also stronger on the same consumer segment.
The results also suggest that the perceived hedonic value and the subjective norms for shopping online using a computer and a cell phone or shopping at the mall were greater for younger consumers. In addition, the perceived utilitarian value and the attitude towards either shopping online using a cell phone or shopping at the mall were also stronger amongst the younger consumers. In contrast, attitude and perceived behavioral control of shopping online using a computer was greater for older consumers.
The area of residence has a statistically significant effect on the variables associated with shopping. The perceived hedonic value and the subjective norms for online shopping either using a computer or a cell phone and shopping at the mall were stronger for consumers who live in urban areas. In addition, the attitude towards shopping online using a computer and a cell phone, the perceived utilitarian value of shopping online using a cell phone and shopping at the mall, and the perceived behavioral control of shopping online using a cell phone and of shopping at the mall were also stronger amongst the consumers who live in urban areas.
The results from SEM illustrate that people who report social exclusion tend to shop more by all three channels but significantly more by cell phone than in the mall or by computer. Time spent shopping in the mall and by cell phone both have a significant positive effect on connection with the community and happiness and wellbeing. Shopping by cell phone has the strongest effect on happiness and well-being, compared to shopping in the mall and shopping by computer.
Conclusions
Our findings contribute to theory by showing the importance of shopping to consumers’ wellbeing. The results also indicate a significant effect of online shopping on happiness and wellbeing, in particular for socially excluded consumers. The findings highlight the importance of online shopping and therefore provide evidence for retailers of the importance of the online shopping experience, which could enhance the wellbeing of socially excluded consumers.