The end of the world as we know it? The influence of online channels on the luxury customer experience

Luxury brands claim to offer consumers pleasure and prestige and deliver high profits to retailers. While the global demand for luxury goods is increasing, consumers expect that the purchasing process these goods will accommodate their preferences on how, where, and when they want to purchase them. The changing nature of luxury markets and customers' purchasing behavior makes it necessary to understand why customers would choose an online channel to purchase luxury offerings. What are the features that make so appealing, attracting consumers towards them? Our study explores customers' motivations, the benefits and the experiences they are expecting and perceiving from the Online Luxury Experience (OLX). We examine the OLX and establish three corresponding luxury customer segments using online channels to purchase their luxury goods and services: the purists, opportunists, and e-lux. We highlight the differences between the segment's customer journeys and the implications for theory and luxury customer experience management.     

Omnichannel-based promotions’ effects on purchase behavior and brand image

This paper examines the effects of utilizing consumers’ digital shopping traces when designing in-store promotions on purchase behavior and brand image. In two experimental studies with 526 and 550 espondents, the authors examine the effects of omnichannel-based promotions (e.g. using digital shopping trace to offer a promotion when the consumer enters the physical store) in two different product categories (utilitarian vs. hedonic), spontaneous/planned purchases and two different retail industries (durable good vs. travel). The results show that retailers benefit from using digital shopping traces as it increases purchases and enhances brand imagery. The effects are moderated by product category and type of purchase.     

Uncertainty and affluent teenagers’ luxury buying-decision: The role of avoidance-related indecisiveness

Global teen population constitutes a sizable market in the luxury brands industry. However, little is known about the mechanism through which teens form an attitude towards luxury brands, particularly in the context of emerging economies. Drawing insights from self-concept theory, self-discrepancy theory, and social consumption motivation, our study proposes a theoretical framework to explain how teenagers' self-related perception influence social consumption motives through avoidance-related indecisiveness, thereby determining teenagers' attitude towards luxury brands. Using a sample of 610 affluent private school students across five major cities of India, we empirically validate our theoretical framework through structural equation modelling. Our study contributes to the existing literature by demonstrating the impact of teenagers’ self-perception on the display of avoidance-related indecisiveness and resisting social consumption motives of luxury brand purchases.     

Whether to offer return-freight insurance or open a physical showroom: A strategic analysis of an online retailer’s decisions

Return-freight insurance (RI) and physical showroom (PS) can be a double-edged sword for retailers, as they can help consumers reduce product mismatch and information uncertainty but may lead to higher return rates and operating and construction costs. In this study, we examine four corresponding configurations regarding whether to provide RI (yes-R, no-N) and whether to open a PS (yes-S, no-N): NN, RN, NS, and RS. First, we find that offering RI or opening a PS does not necessarily expand market demand. Whether demand grows is closely related to the RI premium. When the RI premium is low, the RN strategy, which offers only RI, can expand the market, and the NS and RS strategies, where retailers open a PS, can shrink the market. In addition, retailers offering RI charge a higher sales price, while those opening a PS adopt a price reduction strategy. Second, the optimal strategy configuration for retailers depends on four factors: the RI premium, the proportion of consumers, the retailer’s cost of handling returns and the PS construction cost. Retailers consider opening a PS only when both the proportion of high-cost consumers and the PS construction cost are low. An interesting result is that when the RI premium is higher, offering RI still benefits the retailer. Third, we present an intuitive decision support matrix to help retailers recommend the optimal strategy configuration, using the RI premium as a proxy for the product online return rate and the proportion of high-cost consumers as a proxy for the degree of product standardization. Depending on whether products with high (low) return rates are highly personalized or standardized, retailers decide whether to use an NS (RS) or NN (RN) strategy.     

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.