Given the variety of customer benefits that result from integration or specialization forces in a given industry, we might wonder what determines the customer’s final decision. The answer is cost. Consumers incur costs in every stage of the CVC. Costs include not just the item’s price but also such non-monetary costs as the effort required to identify and select items (search costs), the effort to order and receive items (purchase costs),*8 and the effort to use and dispose of items (usage costs).
