Multichannel integration along the customer journey: a systematic review and research agenda

ABSTRACT

Enabled by the proliferation of new marketing channels, customers can utilize and compare marketing mix–related information across channels in a direct manner, which entails a more complex customer journey. Therefore, the question of how to optimally manage the marketing mix along the customer journey in multichannel environments has become a vital issue for the delivery of consistent customer experiences. To address the recent call for research on this topic, we performed a systematic literature review on multichannel studies, which led to the development of an integrative conceptual model that takes into account the linkage between the consistency of the marketing mix across channels along the customer journey (i.e. pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase) and the customer experience, along with a large range of moderating aspects (customer, firm, and industry characteristics). This research further contributes to literature in the marketing field by providing a set of future research avenues. The study offers a practical guide for managers to identify critical marketing mix elements that deserve their special attention along the customer journey in a multichannel environment. It also suggests that firms should consider the pros and cons before implementing a multichannel integration strategy.

摘要

随着新营销渠道的多元化发展，客户可以直接跨渠道进行营销组合相关信息的收集和比较。这一切使得客户旅程变得越来越复杂。因此，如何在多渠道环境中，沿着客户旅程优化管理营销组合，便成为了确保提供无缝融合客户体验的一个至关重要的命题。针对这项研究主题的突出问题，我们对多渠道的问题研究进行了系统的文献综述，同时搭建了一个综合概念模型。该模型讨论了在客户旅程（即预购，购买和购买后）渠道营销组合中，一致性和客户体验之间的关联，并考虑了多种调节因素对其关联的影响（客户，公司和行业特征）。本文研究成果可以分为两方面。一方面通过提供一系列未来的研究议程，本文有助于促进客户体验在营销领域的深层探讨。另一方面该研究为公司管理者提供了一些实用参考，该参考有助于在多渠道环境中能够准确识别关键的营销组合元素。最后本文还概述了企业在实施多渠道营销组合统一战略之前需考量的一切利弊。

KEYWORDS:

• Multichannel integration
• marketing mix
• customer experience
• Congruency fit theory

关键词:

• 多渠道整合，市场营销组合，客户体验，一致性理论

Acknowledgements

The authors are members of the research group Generés (http://generes.unizar.es/en/), and they appreciate the financial support received from the projects ECO2017-83993-P (MICINN, FEDER), SS54_17R (Gobierno de Aragón and Fondo Social Europeo), and JIUZ-2018-SOC-11 (Fundación Ibercaja). The authors contributed equally to this research, their names appear in alphabetical order.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Scopus was used as search engine to gather relevant publications related to the multichannel topic and not for the journal quality filter.

2 The latest version of JCR (covers data compiled for 2018) was released during the process of the revision, we therefore decided to update the employed metrics to assess the journal quality.

3 We thank an anonymous reviewer for this suggestion.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by SS54_17R (Gobierno de Aragon and Fondo Social Europeo); JIUZ-2018-SOC-11 (Fundación Ibercaja); ECO2017-83993-P (MICINN, FEDER).