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The growth of mobile commerce (m-commerce) has been accelerated around the world. Why do eretailers have to put a great deal of effort for the distribution of their mobile apps? The literature has paid little attention to the influence of the introduction of an e-commerce app on shopping behaviors of consumers. By analyzing the dataset of 2,342 users in Korea, this study aims to broaden our understanding of mobile shopping app usage across competing e-retailers and different channels. We found that a user's prior usage of a specific e-commerce mobile app increases her subsequent usage of its website through a mobile web browser. Thus, mobile apps do not cannibalize the mobile web channel, and there could be a complementary relationship. We also found that a user's usage of competitors’ apps is positively associated with her subsequent usage of a specific e-commerce app. Because many consumers search products and compare prices across multiple e-retailers, having a mobile app helps an e-retailer be exposed to more potential consumers. This study is among the first to study the role of mobile apps in e-commerce by showing the dynamics of cross-channel and cross-vendor usage by a user.
