Online to Offline (O2O)

Abstract

As we increasingly transition our lives onto the Internet, the line between the online and offline worlds is blurring. Activities that were originally done purely in person, such as education or gambling, are now transitioning online; perhaps the most prevalent example is shopping, which takes place in a hybrid of physical retail locations and retailer web sites. Nowadays, many direct-to-consumer (D2C) companies even sell exclusively online. O2O is an acronym used in digital marketing that simultaneously stands for “online to offline” and “offline to online,” describing how retail and e-commerce manage their customers both on the Internet and in the physical world. While the acronym has dual meanings, it is more commonly used to describe “online-to-offline” strategies that entice consumers in a digital environment to make purchases of goods/services from physical businesses. Though there are numerous variations of the O2O model, such as online ads that drive consumers to visit physical stores, or QR code marketing efforts, one of the most interesting O2O trends is the opening of brick-and-mortar stores by e-commerce companies.