O2O Adoption Benefits: A Managerial Perspective of Customer Benefits

Abstract

Online‑to‑offline (O2O) is a fast‑growing business innovation, pointing online customers to physical locations where they can more closely inspect – and purchase – their desired products, or can collect them after ordering online. However, the growth of O2O may be limited by the lack of reliable understanding of its benefits to customers. This study aims to remedy this lack of knowledge, by analyzing the transcripts of 24 semi‑structured interviews with managers. The study finds that O2O benefits customers in three main ways: (1) making more informed decisions, (2) receiving timely information on discounts and sales, leading to time and cost savings, and (3) having direct interaction opportunities with the business ‑ something which is not the case in a pure online business. Contrary to general understanding, the results show that offering discounts as a benefit to customers is an approach that is not necessarily applicable across‑the‑board, because in some industries the margins are too low to offer any discounts. Further work may be needed to examine the relevance of discount as a customer benefit proposition for adopting O2O. We also find that the time saving benefit to customers remains a contentious issue, as the availability of too much choice may lead to customers spending too much time investigating the product/service, thereby delaying their decisions and ultimately negating any benefits. The results contribute to e‑commerce literature in building the theoretical understanding of the perceived benefits of O2O for customers from a managerial perspective. The identification of O2O benefits for customers will also help in understanding the behaviors and intentions as well as perceived value of adoption and acceptance of newer forms of technological ‑oriented innovations such as O2O in general. Managers can use the results for business‑case development and strategizing benefits realization of adopting O2O. The results will help managers in creating tailored strategies to integrate features and functionalities in the software products used for O2O to ensure that identified benefits are provided to the customers, thus improving the chances of successful realization.

Supply Chain Sustainability during COVID-19: Last Mile Food Delivery in China

“…In this way, sufficient information exchange can be realized, and resources can be optimally exploited due to the development of mobile phone-based communication technology. The development of O2O e-commerce is unprecedentedly prosperous worldwide, especially in Asia, and in various industries such as dining, transportation, tourism, and sharing space [35]. More recently, the O2O food delivery industry has emerged as the third-party platform connecting individual customers and native restaurants to arrange online orders and deliveries [36].…”

A review on the criteria for adoption of cloud computing in South African Institutions and Business enterprises

“…Top management support, trial ability, competence of cloud vendors, resistance to new technology, compatibility and existence of IT infrastructure are realized as key factors influencing cloud computing adoption. Ray (2016) and Ogunlolu & Rajanen (2019) proposed unifying model of cloud adoption by organizations. Ogunlolu & Rajanen (2019) cover a systematic literature review was employed to investigate the adoption factors studied in previous empirical settings.…”

“…For example, system availability and reliability, cost effectiveness, privacy and security, top management support, and market pressure are among the factors influencing adoption. Ray (2016) categorized environmental, organizational, technological, and financial. Bakasa & Pekane (2021), further revealed that security, cloud service provider adoption framework, data sovereignty, data latency, data center location and the disaster recovery strategy are considered for selecting a preferred CC service provider.…”