Unravelling Consumer Responses to Omni-Channel Approach

Retailers begin to create new channel systems to meet changing market environments and innovative information technologies. The growing consumer need and market demand for online sales mean that traditional retailers need to create new integration in their distribution system to serve customers through multiple channels. However, building a successful omni-channel system leads to many challenges. The challenges arise from which customer values perceived by customers. The overall understanding of consumers under the new retail environment is still missing in the literature, and this study conducts an empirical study to close the gap. The author investigates the impact of omni-channel characteristics on customer satisfaction in the context of today’s retailing. The findings of this research indicate that although some characteristics of omni-channel have direct impacts on customer satisfaction, relationships between other omni-channel characteristics and customer satisfaction are not supported. Among the constructs, integrated promotion and integrated information access are found to be significant, whereas other constructs are not. Also, the relationship between customer satisfaction and the intention to revisit omni-channel is supported positively. These results raise the need to review the existing strategy and view of omni-channel from the customer's perspective.