In recent years, fashion department stores have struggled to sustain their foothold in the competitive market due to changing consumer behavior as well as technological advancement. This study aimed to examine customers’ perspectives on the shopping channels of omnichannel fashion department stores. The analysis was based on data from 552 customers who shopped at U.S. omnichannel fashion department stores. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were utilized to analyze the hypothesized relationship. The results showed that brand attitude mediated the influence of perceived fluency of customers’ purchase intentions in the omnichannel fashion department store setting. Content consistency and process consistency also positively affected customers’ perceived fluency of the channels of those fashion department stores. Customers are more likely to purchase from a fashion department store that provides consistent content and processes across the multiple shopping channels from which they can purchase merchandise. Further, customers value consistency of the content and processes across all fashion department store channels. The results are insightful especially for industry practitioners, as it enables them to develop a sustainable omnichannel business strategy by focusing on the depth of the channels and channel consistencies (content and process) while improving customers’ purchase intention from their stores.

Drawing from the theories of protection motivation (PMT) and the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study aims to understand the role of psychological distress (i.e., feeling disconnected) in retail consumer's attitude and behavior toward online shopping during COVID‐19 pandemic. An analysis of the data set collected from an online survey (n = 839) shows that the experience of online shopping at big‐box retailers during a pandemic provides not only a novel experience for consumers (i.e., the TAM perspective) but also a coping mechanism to mitigate the risk of infection (i.e., the PMT perspective). The result indicates that the experience (i.e., utility and enjoyment) of online shopping positively influenced consumer attitudes toward it while protection motivation (i.e., severity, self and response efficacy) also has positive effects on the attitude. Furthermore, feeling disconnected (i.e., less connected/more connected/no difference) moderated the effects on consumers’ attitudes to the online service. The study finds that the experience of online shopping at big‐box retailers during a pandemic provides an implication that consumers’ hedonic and utilitarian values and their protection motivations cater to the social and psychological condition within the extended theoretical framework.

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