Integration process in multichannel management: from consumer decisions to supply chain strategy

ABSTRACT

When a large retailer simultaneously manages several channels, there are important issues regarding how marketing and logistical resources are co-managed. The paper discusses the integration of marketing and logistical operations to improve service delivery to multichannel shoppers. Based on a literature review regarding multichannel management, in order to build a conceptual framework, it puts forward four propositions regarding the multichannel integration process. This paper underlines the importance of information about how consumers order in different channels. This makes the overall management of different channels difficult and threatens marketing and logistics interfaces.

KEYWORDS:

• Integration
• logistics
• marketing
• multichannel management
• retailing

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editor in chief and the three anonymous reviewers of Supply Chain Forum: An International Journal for their insightful comments on the first version of the paper, as these comments led us to a significant improvement of the work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sophie Jeanpert

Sophie Jeanpert is assistant professor of Marketing at the Aix-Marseille University (France). Member of the Centre de Recherche sur le Transport et la Logistique (CRET-LOG), she holds a PhD in Management from Lille University, and she has published numerous articles on marketing, multichannel strategy and retail organisation. Some of her articles have appeared in journals as Decisions Marketing, Journal of Business Strategy and Gestion 2000, and her work has been presented at international conferences.

Gilles Paché

Gilles Paché is professor of Retailing and Supply Chain Management at the Aix-Marseille University (France). He has more than 350 publications in the forms of journal papers, books, edited books, edited proceedings, edited special issues, book chapters, conference papers and reports. He is deputy director of the Centre de Recherche sur le Transport et la Logistique (CRET-LOG), and his major interests are network organisation, supply chain management and retail operations management.