Customer inspiration in retailing: The role of perceived novelty and customer loyalty across offline and online channels

Abstract

Inspiring customers allows retailers to increase purchase intention and customer loyalty. Customers employ multiple channels for shopping, and they can be inspired to buy products both online and offline throughout the customer journey. However, no studies have focused on the antecedents and consequences of customer inspiration in the omnichannel environment. This study was based on novelty categorization theory and affect transfer theory and employed a survey to investigate how customer inspiration develops across channels. Results showed that cross-channel effects exist between customer inspiration states and highlighted the role of channel perceived novelty and customer loyalty as, respectively, antecedents and consequences of inspiration.