Demonstrating the influencing factors and outcomes of customer experience in omnichannel retail

Abstract

As omnichannel retailing becomes a more prominent and pervasive shopping method, customers’ retail experiences are also changing. A key factor in developing customer loyalty is their level of satisfaction with the entire shopping experience provided by omnichannel retailers. Therefore, this study investigated the influencing factors of customer experience from the perspectives of objective omnichannel characteristics and subjective individual characteristics. The survey was conducted using a questionnaire from June 15 to July 15, 2022. Based on the data collected from 356 respondents, reliability, validity, path, structural equation model, and mediation analyses were verified using SPSS (27.0) and AMOS (27.0). The results demonstrated that among the omnichannel characteristics, only personalization positively affected the hedonic experience, while connectivity positively affected the utilitarian experience. Regarding individual characteristics, both personal innovativeness and self-efficacy had a positive impact on the hedonic experience, while only self-efficacy was shown to impact the utilitarian experience. Hedonic and utilitarian experiences both exhibited an influence on customer loyalty as components of customer experience. Furthermore, the mediation analysis revealed the mediating role of customer experience when omnichannel and individual characteristics affected customer loyalty. This study contributes to the research in the field of omnichannel customer experience and offers insightful implications for omnichannel retailers to provide optimal customer experience to improve customer loyalty.