Links and effects of channel integration in the prepurchase and purchase stages of omnichannel retailers

ABSTRACT

Sales channel integration is promising, but consumers likely respond to integrations in various stages of the consumer journey differently. Therefore, it is valuable to analyze how omnichannel firms profit from perceived channel integration effects in stages of the consumer journey and whether they need to account for the increasing online shopping experience. The authors propose a theory-based framework and apply sequential mediation modeling over time to study the channel integration effects in the pre-purchase stage and the purchase stages on repurchase intention through omnichannel retailer quality as a mediator. They rely on longitudinal data obtained in three waves over ten months. The results show only indirect effects of channel integration in both stages. Importantly, the indirect and total effects of both stages differ and are moderated. The findings have implications for managers who want to know how interacting channel integrations in consumer journey stages attracts consumers in light of their increasing level of online experience with a retailer. Theoretically, this study contributes to the application of the accessibility-diagnosticity theory and disentangles the effects of channel integration in two phases of the consumer journey.

KEYWORDS:

• Channel Integration
• Pre-purchase Stage
• Purchase Stage
• Omnichannel Retailer Quality
• Online Shopping Experience
• Longitudinal Study
• E-retail
• Omnichannel Integration
• Consumer Journey

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We performed a literature review that included 27 major journals in the fields of retailing, services, and marketing, focusing on empirical studies published since 2005 and cross-citations. The keywords used were channel integration, integration services, channel congruence, and omnichannel.

2 Four studies analyze integration quality, which we do not do: Quach, Barari, Moudrý and Quach [60] on service transparency and consistency; Hossain, Akter, Kattiyapornpong and Dwivedi [35], Lee, Chan, Chong and Thadani [43] on service configuration, assurance quality, content/process consistency; Hamouda [30] on banking and services readability, consistency, seamless channels, task fulfillment.

3 The four types of pre-purchase integrations show values significant over the neutral point H₀:.µ=4 (M_important=6.0–4.9, M_useful=6.2–5.0, p<.05; ranks in 43–76% on first to fourth places (in 31% for the fifth option, namely, gift coupons for a subsequent purchase). Similarly, values emerge for the four purchase integrations (M_important=5.9–4.6, M_useful=6.0–4.8, p<.05), ranking 65–73% in first to fourth place (in 23% for the fifth item, namely, recommendations based on previous online purchases; see Web Appendix A https://adobe.ly/3GMl7yD).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bernhard Swoboda

Bernhard Swoboda is a full professor at the Chair for Marketing and Retailing, Trier University, Germany. He received his doctorate from the Faculty of Law and Economics of Saarland University, Germany, and obtained the Venia Legendi for General Business Administration, with his dissertation titled “Dynamic Processes of Internationalization.”

Nils Fränzel

Nils Fränzel is a research associate and doctoral candidate at the Chair of Marketing and Retailing at the University of Trier, as well as the representative for subject-specific foreign language education (FFA) of the WiSo-Faculty of the Trier University.