Why are multichannel retailers still struggling to provide an integrated shopping experience across all their channels?

Technological advancements in the last few years have dramatically changed the way customers interact with retailers. Customers have numerous touchpoints available to seek information, compare offers, purchase and pay for the offerings, as well as ask for post-purchase assistance (e.g., Lemon and Verhoef, 2016; Quach et al., 2020; Verhoef et al., 2007), often combining them throughout their customer journeys (Huré et al., 2017; Shi et al., 2020; Verhoef et al., 2015). Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated changes both in consumer behavior (e.g., increasing adoption of digital touchpoints) and retailer strategies (e.g., expansion of “click-and-collect” options) (Euromonitor International, 2020), making multichannel shopping the new norm (Global, 2020). As a result, omnichannel retailing—a strategy to manage a myriad of touchpoints synergistically with the goal of improving the customer experience (e.g., Huré et al., 2017; Verhoef et al., 2015)—is considered the future of retailing (Deloitte China, 2020).

Nonetheless, managers still struggle with this strategy (Barann et al., 2020; Cui et al., 2020). The lack of benchmarks for implementing an omnichannel strategy in some industries and the lack of knowledge about customers’ attitudes toward an omnichannel strategy are examples of these struggles (Hajdas et al., 2020). Managers would, therefore, benefit from research that guides the development of omnichannel strategies. The general guideline that omnichannel research currently offers is that retailers should integrate touchpoints across channels to create a seamless customer experience (e.g., Beck and Rygl, 2015; Hossain et al., 2019; Huré et al., 2017; Lemon and Verhoef, 2016; Shen et al., 2018). This guideline follows extant research that mainly adopts a firm perspective to study omnichannel retailing. In other words, research focuses on firm activities and posits that firms should integrate touchpoints through consistent and uniform retail elements, such as assortment, design, price, promotion, communication, and data (e.g., Berman and Thelen, 2018; Cui et al., 2020; Gao et al., 2021; Kuehnl et al., 2019; Peltola et al., 2015; Shi et al., 2020). These studies often assume that customers desire a particular kind of integration without further consideration of how they experience their omnichannel journey.

However, other research findings suggest that more integration is not necessarily always better. Studies that focus on customer experience in omnichannel retailing suggest that service attributes do not need to be replicated across touchpoints (e.g., Patrício et al., 2008; Patrício et al., 2011). For example, although adopting uniform pricing across channels is often advocated (e.g., Peltola et al., 2015; Yrjölä et al., 2018), customers might find this strategy less fair than differential prices (e.g., Huang et al., 2005). Research has also shown that inconsistent touchpoints might improve the overall customer experience with a focal brand when customers mentally disassociate the brand from dissatisfying pain points in the journey (Kranzbühler et al., 2018). Furthermore, Siebert et al. (2020) demonstrate that inconsistent and unpredictable customer journeys can sometimes be very attractive to customers because they provide distinct experiences across touchpoints, as in the case of the CrossFit regimen. Thus, omnichannel research that adopts a firm’s perspective and suggests unifying practices across all firm-owned channels may lack relevant insight into how customers experience the set of touchpoints that make up their journey when moving from one point to another, including the ones outside the retailer’s control.

We highlight two problems that need to be addressed to offer more relevant guidelines for omnichannel retailers who want to improve customer experiences. First, researchers should carefully examine the assumption that consistency in retail elements across touchpoints leads to seamless and more positive experiences. Understanding how customers experience omnichannel journeys can give valuable insights into when and how customers benefit from the integration of retail elements. Second, considering that the goal of the omnichannel strategy is to improve customer experience, it is surprising that studies in omnichannel retailing often address customer experience very loosely. Some of them do not even define customer experience (e.g., Juaneda-Ayensa et al., 2016, Peltola et al., 2015); others use evaluations such as satisfaction (e.g., Zhang et al., 2018) and perceived quality (e.g., Herhausen et al., 2015) as proxies. Adopting a more nuanced view of what kind of experiences emerge throughout the omnichannel journey (cf. Becker and Jaakkola, 2020) allows us to better understand the customer’s perspective on omnichannel retailing. By approaching omnichannel journeys through a customer experience lens, this study addresses the problems identified and provides guidelines on how to improve the customer experience through omnichannel strategies that go beyond the “integration imperative”. Therefore, the goal of this study is to explore how perceived journey integration affects the customer experience in omnichannel retailing.

To achieve this goal, we conducted a qualitative study with Finnish and Brazilian customers exploring their omnichannel journeys. Our results show four distinct omnichannel journey patterns formed by the interaction of two dimensions of journey integration: perceived consistency and perceived connectivity of touchpoints. Each pattern prompts different types of customer experiences. This granular approach reveals that, contrary to assumptions in the extant literature, low consistency of retail mix, or barriers across touchpoints (i.e., low connectivity), can in some cases trigger positive experiences such as surprise and feelings of self-sufficiency. Based on our empirical findings, we present four propositions that describe how these two dimensions influence customer experience.

This study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, by problematizing the “integration imperative” in omnichannel retailing literature (e.g., Huré et al., 2017; Shi et al., 2020) through a customer-centric perspective. This perspective was essential to unveil the neglected role of perceived connectivity of touchpoints in omnichannel journeys. Second, by increasing understanding of the determinants of customer experience across and in-between touchpoints, thus answering calls for empirical studies that present a dynamic perspective on customer experience (Klaus and Kuppelwieser, 2021). These findings provide valuable managerial implications for retailers that are still struggling with their omnichannel strategies.

The remainder of this article is organized as follows. We review the literature on omnichannel retailing and customer experience in the next section followed by the method and results in the subsequent sections. We conclude with a discussion of the main findings, research propositions, and managerial implications.

Integration imperative in omnichannel retailing

Retailing literature is moving from a multichannel to an omnichannel perspective (Hänninen et al., 2020; Taichon et al., 2020). The shift can be characterized by two points: (1) the scope of the channels is broadening to encompass not only traditional retail channels (e.g., store, online website, catalog) but also all touchpoints across the channels; and (2) the borders between touchpoints within online and offline channels are blurred as customers experience them simultaneously (Barann et al.,

Research methodology

This study approaches theory development through explorative interpretation of consumers’ remembered experiences in their omnichannel journeys. The multidimensional and subjective nature of customer experience favors the use of qualitative research methods over other approaches (Strauss and Corbin, 1998; Palmer, 2010). Moreover, the use of personal consumer interviews for theory development has proven successful in prior studies exploring consumer omnichannel behaviors and experiences (e.g.,

Findings

Our findings confirm the relevance of perceived consistency of retail mix elements and perceived connectivity of touchpoints as dimensions of journey integration that affect customer experience. However, our findings do not confirm high consistency and connectivity as necessary conditions for positive customer experiences. Indeed, there are instances when low consistency can trigger positive experiences, and others where low connectivity triggers positive experiences. Our findings suggest that

Discussion

This paper has explored how journey integration influences customer experience. Our qualitative study reveals four different patterns of omnichannel journeys, each prompting different experiences. This study shows that positive experiences, such as surprise, low effort, feelings of control, and hope, emerge from journeys that have substantial differences in retail mix elements. Furthermore, a positive experience of self-sufficiency emerges from overcoming barriers in journeys with low perceived

Conclusion

Omnichannel retailing largely assumes that touchpoints across channels should be integrated (Beck and Rygl, 2015; Hossain et al., 2019). In this paper, we questioned these commonly held assumptions through exploring how perceived journey integration affects the customer experience in omnichannel retailing. Based on interviews and focus groups with Finnish and Brazilian consumers, our findings demonstrate that the two dimensions of journey integration — perceived consistency of retail mix

Funding

The first author was supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES - Brazil) under grant 88882.439334/2019-01. The third author was supported by the Foundation for Economic Education (LSR) under grant 18-10200. The last author was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) under grant 305614/2019-3.

Declaration of competing interest

None.

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