How to retain customers in omnichannel retailing: Considering the roles of brand experience and purchase behavior

The opportunities and challenges of omnichannel in retail industry have been widely discussed, yet despite these benefits, the key elements that constitute an effective omnichannel and how customers respond to omnichannel retailing strategies remain unclear. This research conducted online surveys to test the effects of omnichannel elements on various brand experiences and customer retention, considering the moderating role of purchase behavior. The results indicate that omnichannel elements (integration, individualization, and interaction) are generally helpful in retaining customers, through omnichannel elements influence brand experiences differently. In addition, these omnichannel elements have different influences on customer retention due to different purchase behaviors. The findings suggest that retailers can use different omnichannel strategies to attract customers’ purchases and provide insights for practitioners who want to use omnichannel strategies to deliver superior experiences for customers.     

Exploring customer experience during channel switching in omnichannel retailing context: A qualitative assessment

Customer channel switching behaviour in the digital revolution is becoming more complicated and difficult to comprehend. This study follows the interpretative approach to examine customer intention behind channel switching behaviour and the customer experience during the channel switching journey in the omnichannel context. To explore the phenomenon, we conducted twenty-three in-depth interviews and four focus group discussions with millennial customers of electronic goods omnichannel retailers. We found two new reasons for channel switching—the influence of social groups and perceived self-efficacy of the switching behaviour. Key factors affecting channel choices during switching are product attributes, trust/perceived uncertainty, social influence, customer characteristics, review culture, and time constraints. Customers expressed mixed emotions during the journey, which affected their choices during channel switching. We further proposed a framework to explain channel switching behaviour under the social cognitive theory. The study furthered the reasons for channel switching and the customer experience during switching. To the best of our knowledge, this study is pioneering, in examining the phenomenon in the omnichannel retailing context. Based on the findings, the study provides suggestions to enhance customer experience optimisation and retention strategies for omnichannel retailers.     

Quality of channel integration and customer loyalty in omnichannel retailing: The mediating role of customer engagement and relationship program receptiveness

The aim of this study was to understand how omnichannel integration quality affects customer loyalty through customer engagement and relationship program receptiveness and to verify the relationship between customer engagement and relationship program receptiveness in omnichannel retailing. Data was collected through a questionnaire with 378 available respondents. PLS-SEM was exerted to examine the model. The results disclosed the positive influence of omnichannel integration quality on customer engagement and relationship program receptiveness, which consequently impacted customer loyalty. Also, the positive influence of customer engagement on relationship program receptiveness was proved. Further, the role as mediators of customer engagement and relationship program receptiveness was explored. This study contributed to the omnichannel literature by confirming that psychological and behavioral customer engagement plays a vital role in omnichannel retailing. This study also helped omnichannel retailers understand that providing a seamless, consistent and reassuring environment can facilitate customer engagement and thereby gain customer loyalty.     

Change in technology-enabled omnichannel customer experiences in-store

This paper explores changes in technology-enabled omnichannel customer experiences in stores over a five-year period (2014–2019). It contributes to the omnichannel-experience-management literature through customer technology-enabled touchpoints within fashion retail. Adopting an exploratory qualitative approach, primary data were obtained using semi-structured interviews with millennial consumers. The findings demonstrate the growing importance of implementing and integrating in-store technologies to improve customer experience. From these, two models are developed: “technology-induced customer experience in-store”; and “technology-enabled customer shopping journey in-store”.     

The harmonious role of channel integration and logistics service in Omnichannel retailing: The case of IKEA

Grounded on the stimulus–organism–response framework, this study investigated the mechanism by which channel integration and logistics service influence satisfaction and repurchase intention from customers’ perspectives. An online survey was conducted to collect data and partial least squares structural equation modeling was employed for model assessment. The results disclosed that perceived logistics service quality is an antecedent of perceived channel integration quality and that the two variables harmoniously influence customer satisfaction (transaction-specific and cumulative) which subsequently generates repurchase intention. Particularly, the results demonstrated that the respective contributions of perceived channel integration quality and perceived logistics service quality in enhancing transaction-specific satisfaction differ through the distinct hybrid experiences. This study had theoretical implications for the literature on omnichannel retailing and practical implications for managers of omnichannel retailers.     

The omnichannel continuum: Integrating online and offline channels along the customer journey

This paper provides a framework for conceptualizing omnichannel integration as a continuum, identifies phenomena that determine how firms should position along that continuum, and summarizes empirical research regarding these phenomena. The framework combines the customer journey (search to purchase to aftersales) and channel choice (online vs. offline). This generates a range of omnichannel strategies, anchored by “Unconnected” on one extreme and “Complete” on the other. In between, “Vertical” strategies integrate channels over the customer journey, while “Horizontal” strategies integrate across channels at a given stage in the customer journey. We draw on more than 200 articles to identify 10 consumer and marketing phenomena (“determinants”) that influence where a firm should position along the continuum. This however raises challenges. For example, empirical research surprisingly finds many customers belong to an offline-focused segment. This suggests a Vertical strategy linking offline channels. However, today's turbulent retail environment questions whether the offline-focused segment will endure. Should the retailer cater to offline-focused customers or facilitate their progression to “multichannelism”? Another finding is that consumers strongly prefer consistency across channels. This suggests a Horizontal strategy. However, consistency might create channel cannibalization. How can the retailer avoid this? We discuss these and several other findings regarding the impact of the 10 determinants on omnichannel continuum strategy. We identify issues researchers need to research and managers need to consider when developing omnichannel continuum strategy.     

Service integration in omnichannel retailing and its impact on customer experience

Although omnichannel retailing has received considerable attention from scholars and practitioners in recent years, its impacts on customer experience and relationship outcomes remain unclear. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effects of two components of service integration in omnichannel retailing, namely service consistency and service transparency, on customer experience (i.e. flow and perceived privacy risk), and customer loyalty. Flow theory and hyperbolic discounting theory are employed to underpin these relationships. The data was collected using an online survey with 786 useable responses. Our findings indicate that service consistency has a direct and significant impact on flow and perceived risk while only the effect of service transparency on flow is significant. Moreover, both flow and perceived risk are related to customer loyalty to a retailer. Furthermore, it is found that showrooming behaviour and location-based service usage moderate the relationship between service consistency and privacy risk. The findings of the research provide important implications for a retailer regarding the development, implementation and management of omnichannel strategy.     

A conceptual framework of the antecedents of customer journey satisfaction in omnichannel retailing

In light of the complex customer behaviour and customer journeys in omnichannel retailing, this study aims to investigate customer co-creation behaviour, customer response and customer experiential values as critical aspects of the customer journey, and examine their impact on the level of customer journey satisfaction. The results confirmed the significance of all factors, except information seeking and arousal, in all phases and exploration in the post-purchase phase, on customer journey satisfaction. For a further examination, this study classified the participants into three different segments according to their journey pattern and scrutinised whether the impact of the three predictors of customer journey satisfaction varied across customer segments. The analysis showed that customer segments were fragmented. The impact of customer co-creation behaviour, customer response and customer experiential values on customer journey satisfaction varied across the three customer segments. A heatmap highlighted the most influential factors of each customer segment. The study yielded several theoretical contributions and insights into omnichannel customers for managers.     

Perceived Omnichannel Customer Experience (OCX): Concept,measurement, and impact

Efforts to measure customer experiences (CX) in multifaceted, omnichannel, retail contexts are crucial but lacking research guidance. Prior service quality literature has established methods for measuring CX in traditional, single-channel contexts but not adapted such measures to omnichannel contexts. With a mixed method research design and studies in eight phases, the authors propose a comprehensive measurement instrument that incorporates a schema- and categorization-based theoretical conceptualization of how customers assess omnichannel retail experiences; they also integrate means–end chain theory to explain perceived omnichannel customer experience (OCX) as a construct. This construct captures multiple omnichannel evaluation dimensions: social communications, value, personalization, customer service, consistency of both product availability and prices across channels, information safety, delivery, product returns, and loyalty programs. Multiple applications of the measurement model empirically confirm the suitability of this instrument in consumer goods omnichannel retail settings. Its 36 items reflect nine first-order quality dimensions that combine to form the overall, second-order OCX construct. The measurement instrument offers sound psychometric properties, as confirmed by several reliability and validity tests, and predicts customer behavior reliably across studies. Thus, the OCX measurement instrument offers utility for theory, management practice, and further research.     

Information effects of warehouse automation on sales in omnichannel retailing

The recent development of an omnichannel business environment provides a seamless shopping experience throughout the customer journey. Although previous studies have identified the importance of rapid product delivery, consumers cannot evaluate delivery quality until it has arrived. This study argued that warehouse automation and retail channel brand characteristics lead to informative signals and to firms' higher sales in the omnichannel context. By analyzing panel data from the Japanese retail market, we tested the effects of warehouse automation and the moderating effects of omnichannel, online, and offline brand offerings on the effectiveness of the warehouse automation signal. Results showed that warehouse automation signaling positively affects firms’ sales and has a positive interaction effect with omnichannel offerings.     

Empowering retailers: A bounded rationality perspective to enhancing omnichannel journey satisfaction

We draw on bounded rationality theory to examine the drivers of omnichannel journey satisfaction. By examining the omnichannel journey as a holistic experience (as opposed to a sequence of individual channel decisions), our research demonstrates that maximisation as a goal can increase shoppers' satisfaction with the omnichannel journey. Findings of three studies lend support to the notion that shopping mindsets should not be taken exclusively as an individual trait, but also as a mindset state which can be situationally activated within the omnichannel setup. We show that omnichannel shoppers should be encouraged to maximise their decision outcomes and to embrace the superior enjoyment and achievements that the omnichannel experience has to offer. In contrast to past research, we recommend that looking back into individuals' specific channel choices, channel use and shopping journey's configuration should be discouraged. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for researchers and retailers alike.     

Seamless experience in the context of omnichannel shopping： scale development and empirical validation

In recent years, delivering a superior seamless experience (SE) for customers has become one of the most crucial aspects of omnichannel marketing for omnichannel retailers. However, research lacks a common understanding of what the SE is and how customers evaluate the SE throughout their omnichannel shopping journeys, and the effects of the SE on important customer behaviors remain unexplored. Drawing on omnichannel customer experience research, following the scale development process, this research conceptualize and develop a scale to measure the SE construct. Building on the customer experience quality framework, this research further examines the effects of customers’ prior SE on repurchase intention, word of mouth (WOM), and customer influence behavior in the omnichannel shopping context. The SE scale is developed and validated by performing 15 semi-structured interviews, 62 open-ended questionnaires, and three online surveys with 884 useable respondents in total. The effects of SE are then validated via partial least squares modeling with 307 useable respondents. The findings confirm that the SE construct is a formative second-order construct composed of six reflective first-order dimensions. Our empirical findings indicate that the overall SE has a direct and significant impact on the foregoing three customer behaviors. Managers can use the SE scale as an effective omnichannel approach to design a seamless shopping journey and maintain long-term relationships with customers.     

How customer experience incongruence affects omnichannel customer retention: The moderating role of channel characteristics

Although a positive customer experience is known to be an important source of competitive advantage, it is unclear how customer experience can be effectively managed in an omnichannel setting. Drawing on goal theory, this study explores the effect of incongruity between online customer experience and offline customer experience on customer retention in an omnichannel context. It also examines the moderating effects of three channel characteristics: transparency, convenience, and seamlessness. Our hypotheses are tested with online survey data, and the results indicate that in an omnichannel context, customer experience incongruence has a negative effect on customer retention, but channel transparency, convenience, and seamlessness can effectively mitigate this negative effect. The findings have both theoretical implications for research related to omnichannel business and customer experience and practical implications for managers of omnichannel services.     

Loyalty Formation for Different Customer Journey Segments

The proliferation of new touchpoints empowers today’s customers to design their own journey from search to purchase. To address this new complexity, we segment customers by their use of specific touchpoints in the customer journey, investigate the association of several covariates with segment membership, consider the rise of mobile devices as potential “game changers” of existing segments, and explore how the relationships among product satisfaction, journey satisfaction, customer inspiration, and customer loyalty differ across segments. Based on anticipated utility theory and using latent class analyses on large-scale data from two samples of 2,443 and 2,649 journeys, we identify five time-consistent segments―store-focused shoppers, pragmatic online shoppers, extensive online shoppers, multiple touchpoint shoppers, and online-to-offline shoppers―that differ considerably in their touchpoint and mobile device usage, their segment-specific covariates, and their search and purchase patterns. The five segments remain unchanged in the two data sets even though the usage of mobile devices has increased substantially. Furthermore, we find that the relationships between various loyalty antecedents and customer loyalty differ between the segments. The insights from this paper help retailers develop segment-specific customer journey strategies.     

Mobile-assisted showroomers: Understanding their purchase journey and personalities

Over the last decade, the retail sector has undergone a dramatic transformation, driven by rapid advances in consumer and retail technologies, an evolution of omnichannel environments, and changing consumers who increasingly use their smartphones inside brick-and-mortar retail stores as personal shopping assistants. In this context, showrooming has become a common practice for omnichannel mobile consumers (Flavián et al., 2020). The present study investigates the under-researched phenomenon of mobile-assisted showrooming behavior. Adopting an exploratory qualitative research approach, 31 semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with consumers in a metropolitan city in Queensland, Australia. The authors propose a shopper journey framework that challenges the sequential consumer decision-making process. Influenced by showrooming predispositions, mobile-assisted showroomers pursue a hybrid product evaluation phase that encapsulates both physical and mobile activities during the brick-and-mortar retail visit. In addition, the research identifies four unique personas of mobile-assisted showroomers. The results contribute to extant literature on omnichannel and showrooming behavior by identifying predispositions, behaviors, and segments of mobile-assisted showroomers. The study provides retailers with new strategies to segment mobile-assisted shoppers more effectively and understand their needs and shopping motivations.     

Towards rebuilding the highstreet: Learning from customers’ town centre shopping journeys

Patronage in town centres has been fluctuating over the past few years, indicating that consumers are buying elsewhere in pursuit of better and more fulfilling shopping experiences. This is concerning as patronage is considered an indicator of high streets vitality and viability. To help understand the changing patterns of patronage, especially related to the growth in online retail spending, this study sheds light on key touchpoints that influence the town centre shopping experience. Using the customer journey framework and drawing insights from datasets of two central UK regions, we provide new contribution to town centre research by capturing significant and specific physical and digital touchpoints in the town centre shopping journey, thus developing our understanding of the determinants of the town centre shopping experience. Consequently, this work provides recommendations for town centre management to help improve town centre patronage by developing customers’ experience with shopping-specific touchpoints.     

Here Today,Gone Tomorrow? Mapping and modeling the pop-up retail customer journey

Pop-up retail and customer journey mapping are widely adopted in the retail industry, yet they have received modest coverage within academic literature to date. Through a qualitative field study of five marketplace-based pop-ups (MBPUs), this research defines and identifies differences and similarities between marketplace-based pop-ups (MBPUs) and brand-based pop-ups (BBPUs), seeks to understand how marketplace-based pop-ups fit within the customer journey and experience, and explores how touchpoint ownership and influence illuminates the understanding of the marketplace-based pop-up customer journey. Further, this research extends an existing conceptual customer journey framework to visually map and model the purchase stages, touchpoint categories and types of marketplace-based pop-up customer journeys. As a result, this research presents and discusses three emerging themes (here today gone tomorrow; high-touch low-tech; and ownership and influence) to further the understanding of MBPUs. Pop-ups are more than a single encounter; they are a complex customer journey process, whereby the customer travels through pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase stages, and across multiple touchpoints.     

“Alexafying” shoppers: The examination of Amazon's captive relationship strategy

The virtual assistants' market is drastically growing and is expected to reach $2.1 billion by 2020. Nonetheless, the quick expansion and high penetration of e-retailers’ AI ecosystem into the shopper's journey is still under-researched in the extant literature. Amazon's Alexa in particular has been fast proliferating into the customer's journey, favoring the development of captive audiences given this new ambient environment. Through a mixed methodology using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, this study examines Amazon's captive relationship strategy on shoppers, brands and competing retailers. The research findings show that Amazon's AI relationship strategy with its customers is based on forming a multi-faceted identity for the AI that would later on facilitate a captive situation that would lead to an addictive relationship. This study is amongst the first to examine the rapid development of e-retailers’ AI ecosystem into the shopper's journey. Taking the pioneering case of Amazon's Alexa powered devices, this research presents a working framework upon which scholars and practitioners alike could base their future studies and strategies on in the fast-growing field of interactive voice assistants and AI led conversations.     

Feel the VIBE: Examining value-in-the-brand-page-experience and its impact on satisfaction and customer engagement behaviours in mobile social media

A critical issue for marketing managers is how best to orchestrate branded social media consumption experiences via mobile applications. This is important because in a mobile first world, these experiences are perceived to be valuable to consumers which in turn facilitate positive consumer behaviour toward the brand. So far, marketing literature offering managerial guidance on this issue remains limited. To this end, this study investigates for the first-time consumer perceptions of ‘Value-In-The-Brand-Page-Experience’ (VIBE), a multidimensional construct, in an emerging market setting of China. China represents an appropriate contextual condition to study given its high mobile penetration and its integration within consumer's lifestyle. This study further examines the impact of VIBE on customer satisfaction and customer engagement behaviours toward the brand via a survey of 714 Chinese consumers. The results substantiate the VIBE framework which contributes to the sparse conceptual development of value perceptions in mobile social media. Furthermore, it confirms the existence of a value–satisfaction–customer engagement behaviour chain. The findings are managerially relevant and focus on leveraging the components of VIBE. These components act as key mechanisms for unlocking customer satisfaction and customer engagement behaviours for brands in the domain of mobile social media.     

Showrooming,Webrooming, and User-Generated Content Creation in the Omnichannel Era

Omnichannel retailing characterizes a seamless and integrated approach of diverse retail channels. Showrooming and webrooming are prominent shopping trends among consumers in omnichannel retail. The purpose of this study was to examine (1) whether omnichannel consumers’ psychographic characteristics (i.e., information attainment, price comparison, social interaction, assortment seeking, and convenience seeking) had an influence on showrooming and webrooming, which then had an influence on omnichannel consumers’ user-generated content creation intention on social media and (2) whether the social-local-mobile (SoLoMo) experience moderated the links between omnichannel consumers’ showrooming/webrooming and user-generated content creation intention. An online survey was administered to a total of 680 omnichannel consumers with showrooming and webrooming experience from a U.S. consumer panel. This study found that omnichannel consumers’ showrooming and webrooming positively affected user-generated content creation intention on social media. Omnichannel consumers’ information attainment, price comparison, and social interaction positively affected showrooming. Information attainment, social interaction, and assortment seeking positively affected webrooming. The SoLoMo experience moderated the link between webrooming and user-generated content creation intention on social media. Managerial implications were discussed.