Omni-channel retailing: propositions, examples and solutions

Abstract

Omni-channel retailing: propositions, examples and solutions Customers are not passive agents, but intrinsic to the value creation process. Because retailers are the customer's link to the marketplace they are uniquely placed to develop value co-creation opportunities that give themselves a strategic advantage. Omni-channel retailing is a means to create an advantage by forging deeper customer relationships and potentially developing new markets. Omnichannel retailing can appeal to the heterogeneity in customers' shopping orientations with the aim of providing a seamless cross-channel experience. However, without a clear strategic purpose, omni-channel initiatives can easily result in unbeneficial-or worse, counterproductive-investments. To address this, the purpose of this paper is to formulate guiding principles to facilitate decision making with respect to developing an omni-channel marketing strategy. Consequently, two complementary research streams are presented. The first pertains to strategic considerations regarding omni-channel retailing; the second pertains to value co-creation as seen through a service-dominant logic lens. These research streams are then linked to derive five propositions-along with examples and solutions-to assist retailing decision makers when developing an omni-channel marketing strategy. These propositions underline the importance of viewing channels as value-facilitating resources that should be aligned with the customer's decision journey.

Challenges, Opportunities, and Lessons Learned: Sustainability in Brazilian Omnichannel Retail

“…Distributed order management is the essence of any OMS, an engine that supplies an interface to capture, process, and configure orders, workflows, and intelligent order routing algorithms in all distribution centers. The processes should be capable of handling a variety of ordering scenarios, such as recurring orders, pre-orders, and digital and service items [7]. In relation to modifying existing orders and, consequently, customer service, a complex series of restrictions and dependencies determine whether orders can be cancelled or altered, in addition to the fact that electronic commerce platforms frequently offer no such authority.…”

“…Retail is becoming increasingly important in Brazil, under strong North American influence. The latter offers facilitating processes for retailing, including in-store pickup [6,7], in which a purchase is made online, with reservation and retrieval of the product already available in the store, ship from store, in which a purchase is made online, with delivery from a physical store, and ship to store [8], in which a purchase is made online and the product is retrieved in the store, with the product sent from a distribution center to the store [6]. To maintain their positions in the market and increase their scales, the largest Brazilian retail companies have adopted sophisticated information and management technologies, contributing to development of the logistics and distribution system in the country.…”

“…Based on a study conducted in Brussels, Rai, Verlinde, and Macharis [13] argue that customers live in an omnichannel environment in which they use online and offline channels to shop, the consequence of which is an increase to orders sent to customers' homes, challenging urban freight systems in terms of efficiency and sustainability. Development of the omnichannel strategy is feasible, involving use of processes and technologies that encourage client interactions with a company's physical and virtual channels during the shopping experience [6,7,13]. Lee, Chan, Chong, and Thadani [14] show that the omnichannel strategy influences client involvement positively, leading to subsequent purchases.…”

An omnichannel approach to retailing: demystifying and identifying the factors influencing an omnichannel experience

“…Since customers expect a seamless, consistent experience across all channels, having a multichannel presence and strategy is, however, not enough. The omnichannel approach integrates customer experience and focus on all customer interactions with an organisation through a customer's lens (Yrjölä, Spence and Saarijärvi 2018). The omnichannel approach also places greater emphasis on the integration between the digital and traditional channels (Beck and Rygl, 2015;Picot-Coupey, Huré and Piveteau 2016).…”

A Combined Benders Decomposition and Lagrangian Relaxation Algorithm for Optimizing a Multi-Product, Multi-Level Omni-Channel Distribution System

“…In this method, customer can search for and order product at any place and through any means (i.e. visiting physical store, the Internet, laptop, and iPhone) [22]. Then, the product will be delivered to customer's intended location such as stores and other predetermined locations for delivery of product (i.e.…”