Channel Depth or Consistency? A Study on Establishing a Sustainable Omnichannel Strategy for Fashion Department Store Retailers

Abstract

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.

Exploring omnichannel strategies: a path to improve customer experiences

“…The availability of multiple customer service channels was the most common feature offered by luxury segment companies worldwide, which shows that these companies value the Consistency dimension to provide a fluid experience for their customers. According to Kopot and Cude (2021), consistency in product offerings and information is crucial for customers when purchasing. However, Lee 2019) claim that one of the significant difficulties for many companies is that sometimes the consistency between different channels is not fulfilled.…”

Omni-Channel Customer Experience (In)Consistency and Service Success: A Study Based on Polynomial Regression Analysis

“…The concept of channel consistency has been well acknowledged, and researchers have suggested that customers are likely to move across multiple retail channels and to expect a consistent shopping journey [23,27]. Consistent omni-channel shopping provides customers with options to purchase at any time and place, thus inducing positive outcomes such as customer loyalty [38], satisfaction [39], attitudes to retailers [40], and consumption [29].…”

“…Previous research on omni-channel consistency often focuses on two dimensions, content and process consistency [41]. The prior refers to "the consistency of information features across different channels" [29], while the latter represents "the degree of consistency of relevant and comparable process attributes across channels" [30]. Although some extant literature has implied that omni-channel retailers ought to provide consistent customer experience, there has been a limited number of studies on omni-channel customer experience consistency [28].…”

“…Second, stemmed from channel integration research, omni-channel consistency has been well-defined as the integrated interaction quality which involves two dimensions: content consistency and process consistency [29,30]. Based on these two dimensions, extant research has shed light on various types of channel consistency, such as promotion congruence [31], visual e-channel congruence [32], image congruity [33], cross-channel congruence [1], and retailer-brand incongruity [34].…”

Understanding online retail brand equity: a cross-cultural perspective

“…Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, several department stores, such as J.C. Penney, Sears, Wilson's, among others, have faced significant survival challenges in recent years because of the rise of online shopping (Ford et al , 2021; Tokosh, 2019). This has prompted managers and researchers to ask how to execute effective online strategies (Jones and Livingstone, 2018; Kopot and Cude, 2021; Zhang and Lin, 2014). Websites are an essential medium for interacting with consumers (Alonso‐Dos‐Santos et al , 2019; Chiou et al , 2011; Rosenbaum and Russell-Bennett, 2021; Stepchenkova et al , 2010).…”