Channel Integration and Loyalty in Omnichannel Retailing: The Role of Customer Experience

Resumo

Trilha acadêmica: 4. Estratégias e Gestão Varejista

Abstract

To provide a holistic customer experience, retailers are moving towards an omnichannel strategy that integrates online and offline channels. While omnichannel retailing research has explored the effects of channel integration on firm performance, customer response to an integrated experience has received less attention. To fulfill this gap, we investigate the influence of perceived channel integration on customer experience, trust, and loyalty. Our paper focuses on consumers that use more than one channel to access the retailer in a given shopping journey (e.g., physical store, website, mobile app, social media). Based on survey data from 340 multichannel consumers, we examine the positive influence of perceived channel integration on customer response, highlighting the role of customer experience as the multilevel reaction to channel integration that leads to consumer’s confidence in the retailer and willingness to continue the relationship. The findings have both theoretical and managerial implications, contributing to advance the field.

Keywords: channel integration; omnichannel retailing; customer experience.