{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T09:02:35Z","timestamp":1785402155633,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,11]],"date-time":"2026-06-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1781136000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["71972158"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["71972158"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["71972158"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["71972158"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01h0zpd94","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JTAER"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In a duopoly market comprising an e-tailer and a physical retailer, we develop analytical models to explore the e-tailer\u2019s strategy of introducing a virtual showroom to alleviate consumers\u2019 fit uncertainty. While a virtual showroom can increase online consumer traffic, consumers may instead purchase from physical stores (i.e., webrooming) or reduce offline browsing before buying online (i.e., showrooming). Our findings indicate that consumers with a moderate online hassle cost tend to showroom when offline travel cost is not high, whereas those with a high online hassle cost rely on the virtual showroom for webrooming. Therefore, we identify the conditions under which a virtual showroom should be introduced. Specifically, when the cost of travel to the store is relatively high, the e-tailer can profit from introducing a virtual showroom if its return-handling cost is not too low. Under moderate travel cost, the e-tailer can leverage a virtual showroom to weaken competition if the return-handling cost is not too high, enabling both retailers to benefit. Notably, the impact of product fit probability on virtual showroom strategy decisions reverses between high and moderate travel costs. Under specific conditions, the virtual showroom can achieve a \u201cwin-win-win\u201d situation for the e-tailer, the physical retailer, and consumers.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jtaer21060186","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,11]],"date-time":"2026-06-11T12:14:58Z","timestamp":1781180098000},"page":"186","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Virtual Showroom Strategies for E-Tailers Towards Cross-Channel Purchasing Behavior of Consumers"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-0788-4347","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zichao","family":"Jia","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 611130, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8566-7012","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Junfeng","family":"Tian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 611130, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chenyu","family":"Tian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"New York University Shanghai, Shanghai 200124, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yong","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 611130, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"469","DOI":"10.1287\/mksc.2018.1084","article-title":"Showrooming and Webrooming: Information Externalities between Online and Offline Sellers","volume":"37","author":"Jing","year":"2018","journal-title":"Mark. 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