Omnichannel Retailing Research Articles

Metaverse retailing and the customer experience journey: a case study approach

PurposeThis study adopts the customer journey framework to investigate the role of the metaverse in the customer purchase experience. It establishes the effect of the metaverse on the three stages of the customer purchase journey, namely pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase, in the context of the fashion industry, an early adopter of the metaverse.Design/methodology/approachThe research is a qualitative case study explored through consumer diaries and focus groups. The resultant data are analysed thematically.FindingsMetaverse usage is the most significant at the pre-purchase stage. However, technical problems and other sources of friction negatively impact the customer experience journey, providing insight into the reasons underlying the recent decline of metaverse marketplaces.Originality/valueThis study’s empirical findings have theoretical and practical implications related to metaverse retailing and the customer experience journey. The study benefits metaverse designers and customers and will influence retail strategy choice. Additionally, it contributes two conceptual frameworks to the underdeveloped metaverse retailing field and extends the customer experience journey framework to the metaverse context, thus contributing to the body of knowledge on omnichannel retailing.

A new era of technology-infused retailing

To understand the progression of retailing research, this article presents a topic modeling study of retailing-related research published in Journal of Business Research (JBR) over the past 50 years. We trace both where retailing has come from and where it is going. Building on 13 retailing-related research themes published in JBR, the authors identify five emerging themes growing in importance: Omnichannel retailing, Retail technologies (including point-of-sale (POS) systems, digital displays, robots and artificial intelligence (AI)), Experiential retailing, Online shopping behavior, and Social commerce. Seven themes, which remained stable in their importance over the last decades, are considered as core retailing topics: Retail atmospherics, Retail strategy & performance, Consumer perceptions, Sensory marketing, Retail store/brand image, Retail relationships & loyalty, and Organizational orientations. One theme, Shopping motives & patronage, is shown to have declined in JBR publications. Deeper dives into the five emerging topics showcase technology-infused retailing and help reveal avenues for continued research.

Fee or free? Re-think the role of service fees in omnichannel retailing after the pandemic

Many UK high-street retailers leverage their brick-and-mortar stores to implement omnichannel strategies. This strategy drives online traffic into stores by allowing online customers to collect in-store. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, retailers have endured soaring operational costs and plummeting store footfall, and customers have become more price-sensitive when the cost-of-living crisis bites. This situation leads to a trade-off: charging a collection fee may deter customers from purchasing, whilst offering free collections could cause a financial loss. This paper develops a stylised model to understand how omnichannel collections affect customer demand and retailer profitability after the pandemic. We consider three omnichannel collection scenarios based on observed practices: free, discounted, and fixed rate. Our results show that a collection fee can positively steer customer demand across channels and improve retailer profitability, and the optimal omnichannel policy exists. The collection fee should also be jointly determined with the existing home delivery fee.

A tale of stores and screens: Unveiling consumer behavior in omnichannel retailing through the lens of behavioural reasoning

A tale of stores and screens: Unveiling consumer behavior in omnichannel retailing through the lens of behavioural reasoning

The Double-Edged Sword of Consumer Showrooming: Redefining Product Assortment Strategies in Omnichannel Retail

The Double-Edged Sword of Consumer Showrooming: Redefining Product Assortment Strategies in Omnichannel Retail

From Clicks to Bricks: Exploring Market Entry Strategies of Online Food Retailers in Germany

The retail sector in Germany is currently undergoing a transformation. Department stores that were once successful are now closing their branches at prominent locations, while omni-channel retailers that originated from online commerce are expanding their position in brick-and-mortar retail. Previous research has focused on examining which Online Pure Players (OPP) in Germany pursue the Adding Bricks to Clicks (ABtC) expansion strategy and the form of market entry they choose. The investigation showed a clear preference for operating their own retail stores. However, the investigation did not sufficiently consider the food sector, despite the boost in online food retail due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The investigation involved triangulating, merging, and analyzing existing studies and data sources through secondary data analysis. This contribution presents a pilot study that investigates and compares the food omnichannel retailers Ankerkraut, KERNenergie, and mymuesli. These retailers were mentioned in the evaluation of 37 qualitative, guideline-supported expert interviews and originate from online commerce. The examined food retailers offer a curated range of specialty and delicatessen products in the higher price segment, adhering to specific product-price policies. They operate their own stores to strengthen their retail brand and provide a tactile product experience. However, they limit the number of these stores to a handful of flagship locations due to the high costs associated with such an expansion. More effectively, they expand their offline reach through collaborations with established retailers. These partnerships capitalize on the existing brand recognition and market presence of the partners, driving significant growth and serving as a model for best practices in the ABtC food sector.

Channel preferences: Unveiling omnichannel behavior in sports and leisure product purchases

Abstract Current customer segmentations in omnichannel retail are based on channel usage and tend to be rather descriptive. In comparison, this research focuses on the role of “need for touch” (NFT) and channel preferences (attractiveness, appropriateness, satisfactoriness) introduced as antecedents to channel choice. The aim of this research was to develop a predictive model of omnichannel purchase behaviour and use its results to identify customer segments in the so far under-researched sports and leisure category, where the key decision factor of NFT seems to dominate when considering information and purchase options. We have examined its role and incorporated it as an exogenous variable and channel preferences as mediating variables in a SEM model to predict omnichannel purchase behaviour. Using the latent scores of channel preferences, we performed a cluster analysis and introduced various segments. In the proposed structural model preferences towards the information channel and the purchase channel serve as key mediators. Webrooming behaviour is negatively related to offline search channel preference, but showrooming is positively related to it. Meanwhile, webrooming behaviour is positively related to offline shopping channel preference, but showrooming is negatively related to it. Competitive mediation results indicate cross-channel synergies and complementary mediation results point out lock-in effects. Six customer segments were identified, and we found significant differences in their shopping behaviour. Lock-in effect arises in the case of online information enthusiasts and online shopping enthusiasts. While in the case of the webrooming-oriented cluster, offline shopping was more appropriate and satisfactory, and positive cross-channel synergies appeared to be prevalent.

Optimal fulfillment and replenishment for omnichannel retailers with standard shipping contracts

Optimal fulfillment and replenishment for omnichannel retailers with standard shipping contracts

Understanding fashion omnichannel experience through mobile application customer reviews

ABSTRACT This research explored the human-machine user/consumer experience when customers use fashion retail mobile applications under the omnichannel context, aiming to identify key themes and varying customer values from customer reviews of different tiers of fashion mobile apps. 5,000 customer reviews about ten department store mobile apps were crawled from the iOS App Store in June 2021. Using text-mining methods, including Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling, sentiment classification, and word co-occurrence network, this research reveals predominant topics/themes in mobile app reviews that reflect consumer perceptions of human-machine experience and omnichannel shopping experience. These insights underscore the critical role of human-machine user experience in the success of omnichannel strategies and identified the four important instrumental qualities in fashion mobile app user experience, which are ease of use, usability, fluency, and personalization. The findings also shed light on customers’ expectations and perceived value concerning different types of fashion omnichannel retailers.

The free shipping endowment: exploring omnichannel fulfillment steering by nudging consumers toward alternative order fulfillment methods

PurposeThis research explores the concept of omnichannel fulfillment steering (OFS) and demonstrates how retailers can influence a consumer’s fulfillment decisions through commonly used financial incentives such as discounts, credits and the opportunity to avoid home delivery fees.Design/methodology/approachWe present insights from two theoretically grounded experiments to examine how different types of financial incentives can be used by omnichannel retailers to steer consumers from home delivery toward three alternative order fulfillment methods (AOFM) – buy-online-pickup-in-store, curbside-pickup and ship-to-locker.FindingsOur analysis suggests that an opportunity to avoid shipping fees (penalty-avoidance) is a more effective OFS nudge than offering discounts or store credits (rewards). No difference was observed between offering discounts or credits as steering mechanisms; further, no omnichannel steering benefits were observed among the tested AOFMs. Collectively, these findings provide possible justification for retailers’ prioritization of credits to foster customer in-store visits, thus encouraging greater customer engagement and facilitating cross-selling opportunities. Finally, we uncover a penalty-avoidance endowment effect for “free shipping” of purchases over the current industry-standard free shipping threshold.Practical implicationsRetailers might prioritize store credits over discounts as nudges to steer customers toward an AOFM, with buy-online-pickup-in-store offering the greatest benefits for most retailers. Furthermore, using penalty-avoidance OFS incentives over a typical free shipping threshold may increase AOFM selection rates but engender adverse customer reactions.Originality/valueAdvancing the concept of OFS, this study directly informs retailers’ omnichannel incentive programs to nudge customers back into the store. Countering intertemporal choice theory, we could not demonstrate that delayed incentives are less effective than immediate ones. Based on prospect theory, we identify a free shipping endowment effect at a specific reference point along a purchase amount continuum.

An Efficient Simulated Annealing Algorithm for the Vehicle Routing Problem in Omnichannel Distribution

A variant of the vehicle routing problem (VRP) known as the Vehicle Routing Problem in Omnichannel Retailing Distribution Systems (VRPO) has recently been introduced in the literature, driven by the increasing adoption of omnichannel logistics in practice. The VRPO scenario involves a large retailer managing several stores, a depot, and a homogenous fleet of vehicles to meet the demands of both stores and online customers. This variant falls within the class of VRPs that consider precedence constraints. Although the vehicle routing problem in omnichannel retailing distribution (VRPO) has been addressed using a few heuristic and metaheuristic approaches, the use of Simulated Annealing (SA) remains largely unexplored in the pickup and delivery problem (PDP) literature, both before and after the rise of omnichannel logistics. This article introduces the Efficient Simulated Annealing (ESA) algorithm, demonstrating its suitability in generating new benchmark solutions for the VRPO. In experiments with sixty large instances, ESA significantly outperformed two previous algorithms, discovering new best-known solutions (BKSs) in fifty-nine out of sixty cases. Additionally, ESA demonstrated superior efficiency in 68.3% of the test cases in terms of reduced computational times, showcasing its higher effectiveness in handling complex VRPO instances.

TEXTILE MERCHANDISING IN THE FAST FASHION ERA: ADAPTING TO RAPID CHANGE IN CONSUMER DEMANDS

Rapid changes in consumer preferences, technology breakthroughs, and mounting sustainability concerns have all had an impact on the fast fashion sector. This study investigates how textile merchandising is changing in this fast-paced world, with a particular emphasis on how companies are adjusting to meet customer expectations while maintaining speed and cost-effectiveness. By examining how these characteristics affect merchandising tactics, the study hopes to shed light on how fast fashion retailers can effectively negotiate the challenges of contemporary retail. The main goal of this study is to find out how fast fashion companies can handle sustainability issues and quickly adapt to changing consumer preferences by optimizing their merchandising strategies. The goal of the study is to comprehend how consumer behavior, sustainability, and technology interact to shape textile marketing techniques. To find new trends and best practices, this study uses a qualitative methodology to analyze secondary data from document analysis and scholarly literature. According to key results, technology is essential for enabling more individualized and flexible merchandising strategies, which enables firms to react swiftly to changing consumer expectations. Companies must manage this issue because the fast fashion model's emphasis on speed and inexpensive production frequently clashes with environmental objectives. Additionally, inventory management and coordination across many sales platforms are made more difficult by the omnichannel retail environment. The dependence on secondary data, which might not adequately reflect the subtleties of current customer behavior or the internal tactics of certain brands, is one of its limitations. Nonetheless, the results have important ramifications for theory and practice. The study theoretically advances our knowledge of how technology, sustainability, and consumer behavior interact in fast fashion merchandising. Practically speaking, it offers fast fashion companies’ useful information to improve their tactics, especially in the areas of inventory control, sustainability, and technological integration. Businesses can improve their competitiveness and long-term viability in a market that is changing quickly by implementing more adaptable, customer-centric strategies.

Emerging Trends in E-Commerce in Bangalore Urban District: Opportunities and Challenges for Local Businesses

The rapid growth of e-commerce in India has cemented Bangalore Urban District as a vital area for digital commerce, fueled by its advanced technological infrastructure and consumer base. This study investigates emerging trends such as mobile commerce, omnichannel retail, and social commerce, and examines their impact on local businesses. Through analyzing secondary data and industry insights, this paper identifies factors driving these trends, including high smartphone penetration, an expanding digital economy, and the unique tech ecosystem in Bangalore. The findings underscore the opportunities and challenges for businesses in Bangalore to navigate this competitive sector effectively, providing recommendations on leveraging digital innovations to foster growth.

Mnichannel Retailing Strategies and Customer Satisfaction of Food and Beverage Firms in Port Harcourt

This study investigated the relationship between omnichannel retailing strategies and customer satisfaction of food and beverage firms in Port Harcourt. Specifically, the objectives of the study were to determine how channel integration and customer experience relates with customer loyalty and repeat patronage of food and beverage firms in Port Harcourt. The chosen population for this study comprised thirty (30) registered food and beverage firms in Port Harcourt. The census approach was adopted to select our respondents for the study and the researcher purposively selected three hundred (300) respondents for the study, however only two hundred and forty (240) respondents provided information for the analysis of the data through a questionnaire. Kendall’ tab-u was used to test the four null hypotheses developed for the study. From results of the analysis it was revealed that channel integration and customer experience which are the proxies for omnichannel retailing strategies positively and significantly relate with customer loyalty and repeat patronage (measures of customer satisfaction) of food and beverage firms in Port Harcourt. Based on these findings, it was concluded that omnichannel retailing strategies and customer satisfaction of food and beverage firms in Port Harcourt reveals significant relationships between the dimensions of omnichannel strategies—channel integration and customer experience—and measures of customer satisfaction, specifically customer loyalty and repeat patronage. Therefore, the study recommended that food and beverage firms should focus on integrating their sales channels (physical stores, online platforms, mobile apps) to provide a seamless and consistent customer experience. This integration will likely improve both customer loyalty and repeat patronage.

Evaluating omni channel retailing in the emergence of industry 5.0: A perspective of South Asian generation Z

This study investigates the influence of Omnichannel-Retailing (OCR) on customer-retention (CR) for Generation Z (Gen Z) in the nascent Industry 5.0 era. Employing a survey with South Asian respondents, the research explores their experiences with retailer-provided omnichannel services. A novel model examines the relationships between OCR, customer-satisfaction (CS), CR, and customer-engagement (CE). Additionally, the model investigates the moderating role of Man-Machine-Collaboration (MMC) on the OCR-CR association. Process macro analysis is employed to assess mediation and moderation effects. The findings reveal positive associations between OCR and both CR and CE. Interestingly, CS does not mediate the OCR-CR relationship, suggesting a more nuanced effect of OCR on retention. However, CE emerges as a significant mediator. Furthermore, the moderating role of MMC is confirmed. This research holds novelty by examining the early stages of Industry 5.0 and its potential disruption of marketing practices, particularly for CR strategies targeting Gen Z in South Asia.

Physical stores versus physical showrooms: Channel structures of online retailers

To meet consumers’ expectations for experiential shopping, an increasing number of online retailers are expanding offline channels, with physical showrooms and physical showrooms emerging as the two most popular offline channel modes. Both channels can match consumers’ demand for on-site experiences. However, the two modes differ in terms of service cost, demand promotion efficiency, and channel differentiation generation. The article considers three channel structures: single online channel, online channel with physical store, and online channel with physical showroom, as well as two scenarios: non-competitive and competitive. This study examines whether online retailers should integrate offline channels and which offline channel mode they should use by comparing the profit changes of themselves and rivals when three channel structures are adopted in two scenarios. It is found that: (i) If there is a significant difference between the online and physical store channels, providing physical stores help online retailer raise profits. If the physical showroom is highly effective at promoting demand, omnichannel retailers will dominate the entire online market, and expanding physical showrooms is always profitable; (ii) Whether in a competitive or non-competitive environment, online retailers should weigh channel differentiation and the efficiency of the offline channel modes in promoting demand to select the best channel mode; (iii) Due to channel differentiation, online retailers’ creation of physical stores, as well as increasing competition among physical stores, will have no impact on rival retailers. However, providing physical showrooms will result in lower sales volume and revenue for rival retailers.

Due date-oriented picker routing, an efficient exact solution algorithm, and its application to pick-from-store omnichannel retailing

The advent of e-commerce and omnichannel retailing has sparked renewed interest in picker routing in warehouses. This paper presents two significant methodological advances in this well-established field. First, it is a well-known fact that the parallel-aisle layout of warehouses, as opposed to general graphs, allows for polynomial-time solutions of the Traveling Salesman Problem. We show that the parallel-aisle structure can also be exploited when pickers are tasked with visiting storage positions associated with specific due dates. We establish that picker routing in warehouses, subject to soft due date constraints, is a binary NP-hard problem. We also present an exact branch-and-bound algorithm with pseudo-polynomial time complexity. This algorithm effectively solves instances with up to 60 picking positions and five cross aisles within a few seconds while guaranteeing optimality. Second, for even larger pick lists, we demonstrate the successful integration of our algorithm into a real-time framework. This approach allows us to avoid extended solution times that would otherwise delay the picker’s departure, without compromising the quality of the solution. To illustrate the practical relevance of these two methodological innovations, we apply our routing algorithm to the context of pick-from-store omnichannel retailing. By assigning due dates to critical products, we significantly reduce stockout occurrences for online customers. These stockouts occur when the stock level, initially deemed sufficient to confirm an online order, is depleted by walk-in customers before the picker reaches the relevant shelf.

Revolutionizing Retail: An Empirical Study on the Impact of Generative AI in Omnichannel Strategies

This article examines the transformative impact of Generative AI (Gen AI) on omnichannel retail, exploring its role in enhancing customer experiences and streamlining operations across digital and physical platforms. Through a comprehensive analysis of current literature, industry case studies, and empirical data, the study investigates six key applications of Gen AI in retail: personalization and dynamic content creation, virtual shopping assistants, inventory and fulfillment optimization, marketing content generation, customer insights and sentiment analysis, and immersive AR/VR experiences. The findings reveal that Gen AI significantly improves personalization, operational efficiency, and cross-channel integration in retail. However, the research also identifies challenges in implementation, including data privacy concerns and the need for seamless technology integration. This article contributes to the growing body of knowledge on AI in retail and provides practical insights for retailers seeking to leverage Gen AI in their omnichannel strategies. The paper concludes by discussing future research directions and the potential long-term implications of Gen AI on consumer behavior and global retail practices.

The Transformation of Retail Through Digitalization: Analyzing the Impact of Online-Offline Integration and Augmented Reality on Consumer Shopping Experience

The retail industry has especially changed in the last three decades by the effect of the technological change. This study examines the impact of two major innovations: two emerging issues, namely the omnichannel retailing and the augmented reality (AR). Omnichannel retailing combines online and offline selling pointers wherein consumers get a completely integrated purchasing experience whereas AR makes product differentiation easy and allows consumers to engage with products. The concern of this research is to examine how these technologies affect consumers behavior, satisfaction, and loyalty. Therefore, the study adopted a mixed research method, where data was gathered through online questionnaires, interviews and case studies of organizations such as Walmart, Nordstrom, IKEA, and Sephora. Based on the research, there is a suggestion that the synchronization of online and offline purchase touchpoints enhances the shopping convenience and customization; meanwhile, the application of AR enhances the interaction and the confidence of the purchase. Some of other issues that were realized include data privacy and consistent branding throughout the communication channels. This research establishes that these technologies use in strategic processes improves consumer shopping experiences, but more research is required to investigate long-term outcomes and new directions for the retail industry.

Inventory Decisions Considering Returns in Omni-channel Retailing

Omni-channel retail is a new model that is achieved by integrating online stores and offline physical stores. The inventory decision problem considering returns under omni-channel retail is studied in two cases: considering same-channel returns under omni-channel retail and considering cross-channel returns under omni-channel retail. Based on the consideration of consumer returns and resale of returned products, the newsboy model is used to construct inventory decision models with the goal of maximizing retailer profits and analyze the models. Numerical analysis shows that the online store return ratio and the cross-channel return ratio have a significant impact on the inventory and profit of the retailer's offline physical stores and online stores. In particular, when the cross-selling profit is large, the cross-channel return ratio increases, and the retailer's profit increases accordingly, but the retailer's profit may decrease with the increase of the online store return ratio.