Vicarious exploration and catalog shopping: a preliminary investigation

As catalog proliferation continues, understanding consumer characteristics and motivations that lead consumers to examine catalogs is becoming increasingly important. This research presents the results of a preliminary investigation that extends the traditional analysis of in‐home shoppers through an examination of vicarious exploration with a catalog. A previous vicarious exploration measure is adapted and initial results suggest that vicarious exploration with catalogs is multidimensional, including daydreaming, information seeking, and interpersonal communication dimensions. Individual consumer characteristics (i.e. curiosity, need for stimulation, and perceived novelty) associated with vicarious exploration are examined. The findings reveal the importance of creating novel catalogs to encourage vicarious exploration.